"There was a reason for the rope, you know," Kakashi said in a purposefully smug voice as he held onto Not-Iruka's ankle. He was hanging from the branch by his other hand.

He could've shown off and held on to the tree with chakra in his feet, but Kakashi was keen to not aggravate the angry wound on his leg with the sudden force of catching a person. While he'd cleaned and wrapped it up the best that he could with the resources he had, there was no replacement for good old medical ninjutsu.

"Just pull me up!" the dangling man desperately begged. Kakashi smiled under his mask and did as he was told.

Once Not-Iruka was back on the branch, he attempted to throw a punch directed at Kakashi's face. He simply ducked out of the way, allowing the man's momentum to carry him forward until he was falling off again. This time, however, Kakashi grabbed onto the back of his shirt collar, holding him steady over the edge.

Not-Iruka's hands were flying out in a futile attempt to gain his balance. Kakashi let him stand like that before pulling him back with chuckle.

"Fuck you…" the man mumbled before sitting in the corner where the branch met the trunk to catch his breath. It was surprisingly easy to get the man riled up and he did so with joy. It's not like he was ever able to mess with his own world's Iruka like this, so he jumped at the opportunity.

Kakashi noticed that until now, however, Not-Kakashi hadn't made a sound, or moved from his spot for that matter. The ropes holding him down to the tree where still tied. Smart man, he thought to himself.

It was strange, staring at a non-shadow-clone copy of himself. Not-Kakashi was missing his trademark scar and had both of his natural eyes. That alone showed how easy his life must've been. They might have looked the same on the surface, all the way down to the mole below the corner of his mouth, but Not-Kakashi didn't have the scars, the conditioning, the trauma.

They held eye contact for a minute before Not-Kakashi spoke up in a quiet voice, "You said you had a problem. And that you needed me."

"Hmm, that's right," Kakashi nodded and responded. Leaving Not-Iruka alone, he jumped up to crouch on the higher branch. He was now face to face with his near perfect double. Not-Kakashi's eyes were slightly lidded. Possibly from being sick, but probably from hitting his head on a cabinet.

"And," he continued slowly, "What might that problem be? How do you even know I can help?"

Well, if that wasn't the big question.

Kakashi decided that he needed to come clean about his identity if he had any hope of finding help from this world's version of him. It was now or never.

"Before I tell you that," Kakashi began, "I need to tell you who I am."

He could tell that the suspense was killing them. Not-Iruka was now intently paying attention, leaning forward slightly from his sitting position on the lower branch.

"And?" Not-Iruka said.

"And what?" Kakashi said, feigning ignorance for the hell of it. He was curious as to how they'd react.

Not-Kakashi's jaw tightened and his fists closed. If not for Not-Iruka's failed attempted earlier, Kakashi would think his double was thinking of punching him. He thought about giving them a goofy smiled, but decided against it. If there was ever a time to be a little more serious, it was probably now. So he sighed and composed himself, looking right into Not-Kakashi's eyes.

"My name is Hatake Kakashi," he said, raising a hand with his visible eye closed in a show of friendliness, "Yoroshiku."

"Stop bullshitting me," was the immediate response from the other white-haired man. His fists clenched tighter and he looked moments from pouncing.

"Huh?"

"I said don't bullshit me," Not-Kakashi almost yelled, "You can't be Hatake Kakashi. I'm Hatake Kakashi."

"Eeeh heh heh heh," Kakashi said, raising a hand behind his head and closing his visible eye, "About that..."

There was no such thing as the best way to explain that you came from an alternate dimension. So Kakashi dove in head first.

Excluding any names out of fear for duplicates in this world, he explained the basics of his world, including chakra mechanics, the war, and kamui. As expected, the explanation was peppered with small exclamations of 'fuck off,' 'you're a maniac,' and 'you crazy asshole.'

All in all, it went better than expected.

"I know it may not look it, but I'm actually a War General," Kakashi said. All the more reason it was vital that he got back to the war as soon as he could.

"That's it. You're crazy," Not-Iruka said to him. Facing Not-Kakashi, he said, "This guy's totally lost his mind."

Kakashi sighed and both men whipped their heads toward him. He winced at the reaction. All in all, Kakashi really wasn't doing the best job at getting them on his side. He had to try a different route.

"Look. If I don't get back, a lot of people could die. The guy who sent me over here, he's still there killing people," Kakashi explained, his voice heavy with the gravity of his situation. In the time he'd spent in this world, he hadn't seen any sort of sign that Obito had come with him. That only left the possibilities that he was torn apart on a molecular level in the dimensional void, or that he was still kicking in their world. Kakashi was inclined to believe the latter.

"Ok," Not-Kakashi said with a heavy sigh, "If we pretend, just for a second, that you're not totally out of your mind, what could you possibly need my help with?"

Kakashi smiled. It seemed playing the humanitarian card was working. He responded, "I'm smart. And you're me."

"You're point?"

"If I'm smart and you're me," Kakashi started, going through his logic like he was talking to freshly graduated Genin, "then you should be smart, too."

Not-Kakashi opened his mouth before closing it again. He did so a few more times before thinking of how to respond, "I'll... I'll take the compliment, but I'm not sure what you're asking for."

"I urgently need to get back to my world," Kakashi explained. He watched for both men to nod their heads in understanding before he continued, "And two heads are better than one, right?"

"Wait. You... you want to brainstorm ways to get you back to your dimension..."

"Yeah, that's about right," Kakashi said, showing his smile through his visible eye. He had to admit, it wasn't the best thought out plan now that he heard it out loud and it definitely wasn't guaranteed to get results. But it was the best thing he had at the moment.

"Prove it."

Kakashi jerked his head to look at Not-Iruka. The man had been silently listening from the lower branch. Was he still caught up on the whole War General thing?

"Prove what? My title?" he asked.

"No, asshole," Not-Iruka said with a scowl, "Prove this whole chakra thing exists."

Oh, that wasn't so bad. Of all the things he needed to prove to gain their trust, the existence of chakra was among the easiest. He wouldn't do anything flashy or chakra intensive, but a simple demonstration to keep them on their toes wouldn't hurt.

"Ok," Kakashi said before rising into a relaxed standing position. He made sure Not-Iruka and Not-Kakashi had their eyes on him before he began.

And with a sense of malicious joy, he slowly leaned backwards until he fell off the branch.

Kakashi could see the two faces morph from anger to nervousness to dread as he disappeared from view. Of course, he wasn't actually going to let himself fall. That would hurt. A lot. But they didn't know that.

Using chakra in his feet, Kakashi slid around the circumference of the branch until he was standing upside down. The illusion worked, however, and he soon saw two horrified faces pop out from over the branches. Once it was clear that he wasn't going to fall to his death, the horrified faces transformed to hold looks of wonder.

He could see Not-Iruka's eyes glistening from his vantage point. His mouth wavered before he whispered, "Amazing."

Kakashi was certain that the word was not meant to be said out loud, because the moment Not-Iruka realized, he corrected, "But I'm still pissed at you."

"Do... Do you need a hand getting up?" Not-Kakashi asked in a dazed voice, as if he couldn't believe his eyes. He couldn't be blamed for the reaction however. In his experience, civilians often acted that way when faced with the unexpected.

"No, I'm good," he said before walking over to the trunk. From there, he walked up to the trunk to the lower branch, hiding his wince at the sharp pain in his leg. They both continued to stare in wonder at his gravity defying tricks, but Not-Iruka clearly noticed the bandages below his pants.

"You said in your note that you got shot," he said, clearly skeptical, "It's all wrapped up, but your leg seems fine."

He'd had to cut off the fabric at the knee, exposing the lower half of his left leg. The time it would take to search for basic medical equipment was the reason for, well, the tree. Kakashi didn't want the two of them to be able to run off while he was preoccupied. He was able to purchase medical bandages and an alcoholic beverage called Vodka to clean the wound. It did the trick, but he still needed to wait for it to heal naturally. Once again, the distinct lack of medical shinobi was one of the big drawbacks of this world. Kakashi gave it two to three hours before he'd have to change the bandages again.

"Oh, I got shot all right. But I've had worse," Kakashi reassured them. It was the truth. Being a shinobi was not the safest path and he'd been near death many, many times.

"You've had... Damn, I'm not even gonna ask."

Not-Kakashi spoke up, "So, uh, let me get this straight. You're a ninja ("Shinobi," Kakashi corrected.), and you can walk up trees using your chakra. And that's how you got us up here."

"Well, I can walk up walls, too," Kakashi said, patting the sole of his foot, "The chakra acts almost as an adhesive. I use it to push and pull, allowing me to stay on the surface. It's a little trickier when it comes to walking on water though."

"You can walk on water?" Not-Kakashi quickly asked. His eyes widened at the possibility, "What about walking on air?"

"Uhh, no," he responded sheepishly, "And the reason for that would require a scientific explanation that I don't feel like giving right now."

The conversation settled for a moment. Not-Kakashi seemed to be deep in thought. Not-Iruka, however, seemed to be attempting to stare a hole into him.

"Well, this has been very educational and all, but we have work in the morning," the man said dryly. Kakashi had nearly forgotten that it was the middle of the week. Their school would surely notice if they both went missing without a trace. He continued, "And it's pretty clear now that you're not going to kill us. So, I know it might be hard, but if you can calm the crazy down just a bit, I'm sure we can work something out."

Not-Kakashi looked back and forth between the two of them. This was, surprisingly, going much better than first expected. Kakashi hummed. He responded, "Yes, I'm sure we can."

Not-Kakashi noticeably looked toward the ground, and then back at him. He took that moment to pipe up, "So, uh, when are you gonna let us down?"

And Kakashi just smiled.