Kakashi's dreams were haunted by a man with a horrifically scarred face, demonic smile, and eyes that reflected such ferocity and hatred it made his skin crawl. Uchiha Obito was a monster. Kakashi startled awake, breathing heavily and clutching his left eye as it screamed in pain. Heart beating out of his chest, he blinked and assessed his surroundings. Still no sharingan, but his eye was blurry and aching like someone had tried to gouge it out with a kunai. Kakashi looked down at his hand as he removed it from his eye and sighed when he saw the patches of blood. Not good.

Making his way back to the bathroom mirror, Kakashi assessed the damage done to his face. He must have been clawing at his left eye in his sleep; it was incredibly inflamed with angry red marks and cuts surrounding the eyelids. This was going to be difficult to explain. As he began washing his face and removing the drying blood, his sharp hearing caught the sound of his front door being opened. Shit… should have reactivated the traps. Reaching for a kunai and yanking his hitai-ate down over his still stinging eye, Kakashi crouched into a defensive position and crept towards the chakra signature in the living room.

He dropped the kunai immediately when he was met with the concerned face of his sensei, the weapon clattering on the floor.

"Oh… sorry Kakashi," Minato began sheepishly, "I suppose I should have knocked."

Kakashi was more annoyed with himself; he should have recognised his sensei's chakra signature as a non-threat almost immediately. It had been a long time, but there wasn't a more calming and kind presence than Minato (aside from when he was on the battlefield fighting enemy shinobi).

"It's no problem, s-sensei," Kakashi croaked, his voice hoarse and grating on his throat. He coughed quickly and realised that he had not spoken a word since dying and arriving in the past. "I was, ah, sleeping. You caught me off guard."

Minato eyed him wordlessly. The silence stretched on and Kakashi held himself still, determined not to fidget under the penetrating gaze of the man. He swore that Minato could tell just by looking at him that he was actually a thirty year old man in the body of a twelve year old. He was not Hokage yet, obvious due to the lack of signature cloak, but there was an air around the blond that was no-nonsense and intimidating. He was unamused.

"Kakashi. Your mask."

Kakashi blinked. After his efforts to find the scar earlier, he must have forgotten to pull his mask back up over his face. He never forgot. I am losing my damn mind, Kakashi groaned internally as he quickly pulled his mask up over his nose, at this rate Minato will send me to Torture and Interrogation to get a psych evaluation.

"Must have been a good dream then," Kakashi joked with a strained cheerfulness that he knew Minato saw straight through.

Minato paused, "…Right. Is everything okay, Kakashi? This morning… you looked… " He struggled to find the words, and Kakashi kept his face carefully blank. "Have you been sleeping this whole time? And did something happen to your eye?"

Kakashi shrugged nonchalantly, keeping his tone casual, "I haven't been feeling well, I decided to rest for a while."

"You came straight here after I saw you?" The blond jounin continued to question, his eyes concerned but with a hint of wariness. Kakashi wondered what conclusions he was drawing; probably nothing good.

"Yes."

"You do realise that you have been sleeping for seven hours?" Seven hours- "I'm taking you to the hospital."

Kakashi blanched, the hospital was quite possibly his least favourite place ever. "What? No, sensei I'm fine, honestly," he protested wildly as Minato crossed his arms. "I just needed to sleep it off, I'm fine now. Really. You don't need to worry."

"Alright, no hospital," Minato agreed, and moved to sit on the old couch in the living room. "But then you need to tell me what's wrong, starting with that." Minato pointed at the eye covered by the titled hitai-ate. Alright, time to create a believable story; something he should have been working on during those seven hours of freedom.

"Well," Kakashi began, trying to look as casual as possible as he continued to stand, "It started a few days ago-"

"What started?" Minato interrupted, and Kakashi resisted the urge to roll his eyes. It was going to be like that, was it? I don't remember sensei ever being this pushy, Kakashi pondered, he must have been acting particularly strange for Minato to be this worried.

"This pain in my eyes- not extreme, hospital worthy pain though," Kakashi amended quickly and Minato raised an amused eyebrow. "Just a throbbing kind of pain, and in my left eye more than my right. I think I was scratching it in my sleep." There, that was pretty close to the truth, just without the fact that he had his evil ex-teammates transplanted eye for the past however many years.

Minato appeared to reluctantly believe his story, as Kakashi could see his jaw relax slightly and the tension release from his eyebrows.

"May I see it?" He asked gently, and once again Kakashi had to look away from those kind blue eyes, his heart aching.

"It's not much to look at," Kakashi began, but walked slowly towards Minato and reached up to his hitai-ate anyway; his sensei wouldn't take no for an answer in this mood. Sitting next to him and lifting up the headband, he watched as Minato inspected his eye, clearly refraining from reacting in order to not offend his young former apprentice. Kakashi had forgotten how superficial his younger self was at this age.

"It looks pretty scratched alright," Minato concluded and smiled reassuringly at his student, "But it should heal up soon. Maybe you can ask Rin to have a look at it, if you don't want to go to the hospital."

No thanks, Kakashi suppressed a shudder and pulled the hitai-ate back down over his eye. He would rather she didn't look at him at all. How could he possibly face her when his last memory of his compassionate teammate was his hand through her heart? Minato seemed to sense his dark mood by the way his eyebrows knitted together, but tapped his hand anyway.

"And what about this?" He gestured to Kakashi's bloody knuckles.

Oh, he had forgotten about that too, "I, er, punched a tree. Without using chakra."

Minato blinked, "…You punched a tree? Why?"

"I was mad."

"At who?"

"My eye," Kakashi shrugged and suppressed a smile at his sensei's bewildered expression, it reminded him so vividly of Naruto. Recognising that Minato was finally in a relatively relaxed mood and he himself no longer felt like he would spontaneously combust when the blond merely looked at him, Kakashi decided to take the opportunity to properly interact with his sensei again. "How was training without me, by the way?"

"It was strange," Minato admitted, "It's been a long time since I've trained without you there. Obito claimed that he enjoyed it as he believes you command too much of the attention," Minato laughed but Kakashi couldn't find it within himself to even pretend to smile. Something was nagging at the edge of his mind, calling for him to remember an important memory or connect the dots, but it wouldn't come to him. He looked up to see Minato watching him carefully. So much for a casual conversation, it lasted all of about ten seconds. "Say Kakashi, you must be hungry right? Why don't you come out and have a late lunch with me?" 'Why don't you come spend more time with me so I can continue to watch you like a hawk?' Kakashi grumbled internally, struggling to keep his disposition light and uncaring.

"Maa, I was planning on just relaxing here really-"

"You have been sleeping for seven hours," Minato deadpanned. "You've done plenty of relaxing."

Kakashi was not enjoying this new, pushy Minato. He knew he'd have to explore his past life at some point, but having Minato watch him do so was less than ideal. He already knew something was up, that much was clear, but not even his legend of a sensei would guess time travel. Whatever conclusions he had drawn from his student's slightly bizarre behaviour, Kakashi knew he would need to quell some of the blond jounin's worries if he was going to have any peace.

He sighed in resignation, "Fine."

Minato grinned in response.

Surprising absolutely no-one, things were not 'fine'; although they did begin that way. Just seeing a bustling and alive Konoha rather than one that was still recovering from the Pein attack was enough to brighten Kakashi's mood as he followed a step behind Minato through the main street. The silver-haired shinobi avoided the curious gazes from passers-by and instead focused on his sensei, whose cheerful disposition calmed his growing nerves. If I see Obito… I honestly don't know what I'll do, Kakashi hoped like anything that the boy was far, far away from wherever they were going.

"Sensei," Kakashi queried, and the blond glanced down at him. Man it sucks being short again. "Where are we going?"

Minato looked sheepish. "Ah, well I know it's not the healthiest option, so please forgive me, but I've been looking forward to some ramen all day. I was hoping we could go to Ichiraku's."

Kakashi shrugged in response, but couldn't help frowning. Did he not pay enough attention when he was young? He couldn't remember Minato ever being that big on ramen, in fact, he was pretty sure that was a favourite of-

Long, flowing red hair caught his eye as he spotted a familiar figure sitting on a stool under the Ichiraku Ramen sign. He gave his sensei a look and the blond blinked innocently in response. Seeing Uzumaki Kushina again would be difficult for him, but it could have been a lot worse. Accepting his fate, he followed Minato and internally steeled himself for the interaction. He could not remember if Minato and Kushina were in a relationship at this point, but he supposed it didn't matter with the way the blond jounin was looking at her.

"Ah, Kushina!" Minato called cheerfully, a light blush on his cheeks. "I didn't realise you'd be here, do you mind if Kakashi and I join you?" You are fooling no-one, sensei, Kakashi resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

Kushina smiled and nodded, patting the stool next to her, her mouth chewing the ramen furiously. The pair sat down and Kakashi was hit with a wave of nostalgia as he remembered sitting with another blond and a pink haired girl, as they not so subtly tried to sneak a glance at what was hidden behind his mask. He couldn't help letting out a small smile at the memory, knowing that his mask would likely hide the action.

"It's been a while, Kakashi," the red-head managed between mouthfuls, "How's things?"

"Alright, I suppose," Kakashi responded, ordering ramen of his own, "Although my greatest secret was recently exposed, so maybe not so good." He sighed forlornly.

Kushina paused mid-bite, she shared a confused look with Minato who merely shrugged in response, looking curiously at Kakashi. "Oh? Can I know? Or will that be spoiling the secret even more…" She winked at Kakashi.

"I suppose you can know… but you must swear to secrecy, along with Minato-sensei," the boy said seriously. Minato looked positively bewildered, but Kushina was grinning in excitement, her ramen momentarily forgotten. Kakashi leaned in, the two adults mirroring his actions, "This morning… sensei saw me without my mask."

Kushina laughed loudly and Minato visibly sagged. "Kakashi, that was this afternoon." Kakashi waved his sensei off, muttering 'details'.

"Aw man, lucky you," Kushina nudged Minato good-naturedly, who let out a smile in response. Seeing them interact was once again nagging at something in his mind and Kakashi frowned as he tried to reach it, blocking out the noise around him. Whatever it was that was demanding his attention, it related to the two sitting next to him, he was sure of that. Minato… Kushina… Naruto… Obito? He shook himself violently out of his thoughts when he remembered that he was not alone, the two adults looking at him with a mixture of expectation and concern.

"Er, sorry… Could you repeat that?" Kakashi asked breathlessly, his heart hammering in his chest.

"…I said why do you need me to keep the secret, when I wasn't the one who saw your face?" Kushina paused, hesitating before continuing, "I-I know it's not my place to ask, but are you okay, Kakashi?"

No, he was not okay, but it would be a lot easier if people would give him a little peace. He avoided his sensei's concerned eyes as he responded, "I'm just a little under the weather, and I assumed he would tell you, you know… considering your involvement."

The pair blushed heavily and Kakashi smiled innocently. He was too much of a grumpy kid previously at this age to tease his sensei; he would not miss his chance this time around.

"Was I wrong?" Kakashi continued cheerfully, looking down and realising that he had not even touched his ramen. Discreetly pulling down his mask, he scoffed down as much as he could before replacing his mask and standing. Minto and Kushina were both watching him curiously. "Anyway, I will leave you guys to it. I'll go and make up for the missed training, thank you for lunch sensei, it was nice to see you again, Kushina." He bowed respectfully to both of them, holding back every instinct to sprint away.

"W-wait, Kakashi!" Minato spluttered, rising from his stool.

Honestly. Honestly.

"Yes, sensei?" The silver-haired boy strained. He was happy to see Minato again, ecstatic really, but he had never had anyone ever constantly inquiring about him and what he was doing and what he was feeling. Not his father, not Jiraiya, and previously not Minato. It was exhausting.

Minato seemed to sense this frustration to an extent, and hesitated before answering, "Just go easy, okay? Since you haven't been well."

"Of course," Kakashi replied and gave him what he hoped was a reassuring smile, before turning and walking quickly in the direction of the training grounds. He could feel questioning gazes of the two adults on his back, but he ignored them as the sweet relief of solo training was calling him, giving him some time to decipher his previous thoughts and the piece of information that seemed so important.

Okay so I was doing a little research and it turns out there are a heap of contradictions on the ages of Kakashi, Obito and Rin and when they became jounin and chunin, as well as Kakashi's age when Minato died. I swear I read somewhere that Kakashi was 13 when he made jounin, so that will be canon in my story.
So, for my story:
- Kakashi becomes jounin at 13
- Obito and Rin are 1 year older than Kakashi
- Kakashi was 14 when Minato died (wow that is a sucky couple of years)
- Minato was 24 when he died