Author's note/Disclaimer.
Maybe some of you have noticed this coming but I'm going to go right out and say it. This is racist. Kakashi is actively being racist, if one were to be politically correct. I understand if many of you do not want to continue, I do want to note that I am open to discussion and criticism and questions and concerns because I love this story – I don't endorse racism: fictional Uchiha or otherwise – but I love writing this story and exploring more of the canon world it was based off of. Hopefully this doesn't come off as OOC of Kakashi… and more his logical ninja side taking a turn for the worse. More hopefully y'all keep reading. Thank you,
-hanareader
The chakra run is a marathon, a rhythm of feet across trees that aren't familiar. These trees are thinner at the branches, tall and lean in rows. They are darker than Konoha's forest, with deep green leaves as dark as the bark it grows off, as pointy and as sharp. When Kakashi quick-steps on a branch it breaks, it shreds with the force of his run and he doesn't look back.
He's looking for Obito.
This is what he tells to himself in a mantra, a desperate yelling that no one else can hear, not even himself. This is his self-assigned mission that the Hokage's warned him off of but the Hokage doesn't know what's at stake. The Sandaime doesn't know the future. He doesn't know that Obito is where it stemmed, further back is where it started, Itachi is where it grows, and Sasuke is where it ends. It's a pattern here, he thinks.
But that's for another time. Now he does this, he runs away from just what he is doing. Obito helps, makes this escape more than what it really is but not good enough, not enough of a reason to justify just what he is doing.
Because really, he's leaving Sasuke there to die. Plain and simple. Time is everything to this kid, only a couple of weeks until the exams. Time that is to train. But Kakashi is stealing this time, wasting this time, burning the days; he is a time traveler. He's choosing to walk away.
Another branch snaps-!
To say otherwise is a lie and a plea for innocence but neither Kakashi nor Sasuke is innocent. They are the last few Sharingan left in this world and that's incriminating grounds enough. He should know. He's done most of the same things Sasuke will do (or Sasuke will do the things he has done, Kakashi can't tell if there's a difference between teacher and student) but he knows he's no better.
At least the kid sticks by his actions and believes, lucky him that he doesn't feel – he makes for a strong ninja. At least he looks you in the eye when he punches you through the chest. Kakashi didn't teach him that, that's a brand all on his own because his teacher runs rather than to face the truth. His teacher couldn't make the right choice and end things swiftly, to complete his mission and save his student (which-student?) His teacher's a coward.
Or a traitor.
Kakashi may not be an Uchiha but he might as well. His Sharingan's ill-got and he regrets since (but it still counts.) Gods, he hates himself.
He keeps looking.
The next time he sees Sasuke is on the battlefield, and they are losing. Naruto and the rest Konoha 9 don't know it nor do they realize it, they are so young and this is their first war. But Kakashi remembers. His father, who came back shamed and ridiculed, who set the switch, who took the plunge. This war has started and in two days has already begun to end. They, are losing.
Tobi – now Obito, who knew, he should've known – has tricked them into bringing Naruto in the fray. Only now does Kakashi realize why. When Sasuke steps out from behind the other man, it only makes sense.
Who better to catch the last jinchuuriki than the last Uchiha?
Because a fight between the two has happened before: back in the Valley of the End, where he found Naruto weak and unconscious and having lost his only best friend. That time he'd come late, tardy as always (he regrets so much himself.) It was back where the Uchiha fought the Senju. This fight has been prophesized, a ticking clock down of opposing sides or dare he think to say, fate. Obito, the poetic bastard. Naruto growls, he's losing it already at the sight of Sakura's killer so Kakashi tries to intercede.
(He thinks in his heart of hearts that he shouldn't be surprised Sasuke defected to begin with... that he killed Sakura. The red of his Sharingan or his cursed-Uchiha destiny - this was bound to happen.)
Chakra flames up in a burst heat, orange and white fire, Naruto's going to do what he's done to Pain.
No.
"I'm right here," Kakashi hurries. He points to those behind him – Sai, Hinata, the rest of the students of Konoha, and he speaks for them.
Sasuke is also here and Naruto must not lose himself. Sakura is gone and he has to save his last. The whole of Konoha is watching this fight because this is not something they can interfere, only enough interruption to bring back Naruto to Earth. If Kakashi were then this wouldn't have happened, interruption wouldn't be needed. If Sasuke was-
Well; two out of two and a half.
Naruto blinks and Kakashi prays. The flash of yellow-orange-red dissipates from his eyes, leaving a blueish purple in its wake. He breathes, he calms, Kakashi's surprised at the speed with which he does and then frowns deeply. Because Naruto shouldn't need to do that and he shouldn't look like him. Kakashi turns his attention to his other 'student'.
Sasuke, he looks different, or maybe all the same. He wears the robes that Naruto's hunters wear, black and red clouds and Kakashi could be angry at the sight if he could feel. But numbing his hand and eyes is a darkness, a sinking premonition that this is beyond all his fault. That he couldn't have done anything to change this. The coats of death and pain, the bane of major villages it only fits too well: custom-tailored, waiting. Sasuke always looks like another Itachi.
And Kakashi's despondent at the sight of the last Uchiha because him standing there is proof he's failed his mission. Them standing there are the perfect picture of Kakashi's mistakes together, lost and found.
Kakashi can't watch anymore. When he looks to his right Madara is occupied by Gai if only just barely. Kakashi sees the seventh gate from his vantage and he has to manually keep himself stationed, from moving to help him. They told him to stay here, that he is the only chance winning against three Sharingan. He is the hope to divert the part-Juubi. Naruto folds him in orange, the warmth of his chakra scratching surface deep and no deeper. Kakashi is the switchhand.
So however long Gai can hold Madara... he just needs the chance to change this and he can't abandon his post here for his village. Naruto needs to calm down before he fully loses himself, his chakra that is saving them all without their team medic, and his fox prisoner that must-not be captured.
When Obito says something to Sasuke's ear, the distance is too far to read his lips. The youngest Uchiha nods and doesn't respond before he slips away. Kakashi stares, blank and despondent to not give in to the fear he feels and make things worse.
Where is he going?
He thinks the thought on everyone's mind, etched deep in Naruto's face but they can't search for him, Uchiha Obito is here. And when the Ten-Tails rumbles in its restraints, their attention is caught horridly. Kakashi braces himself, ready to Kamui out the way the hit that he knows is coming, and Naruto's chakra flares. The Juubi roars across the battlefield having free of Kitsuchi, the sound reverberates through his bones and his sandals. Hatake's a ninja but a primordial human being too - he's itching to flee.
The Ten-Tails makes its attack. Kakashi widens his eye too late until he finds his world has disappeared.
When he comes to, the other dimension is dark. He knows this but the sight still shocks him slightly, gives him pause even with his ninja senses on high alert. Kakashi can scope the shapes, white blocks against white and blue-gray, there are no colors here. It's a dimension that is blank and cold, lifeless other than himself. And aside from Obito, he's learned. "I don't need Naruto," the man's voice echoes.
Kakashi pauses. In the motion of slipping a kunai into his hand, Lightening Cutter, he's decided, these four words give him pause. He's already in doubt of what he has to do, in what he must finish for the second time… Listening to his former teammate isn't helping. "The Ten-Tails is unstable, Obito."
"And I know Rin wasn't your fault."
Again. Damn. As a ninja he prides himself having learned to appear unaffected, but meeting his old teammates again is screwing him over. Kakashi purses his mouth underneath his mask, flinching internally at the words. He studies the dimension he's in, stares at the white blocks and waits for the attack.
"Why?" Why all of this? Why do this?
"If you think my reasons are because of you and Rin, don't flatter yourself," Obito says. He dodges a kunai to his right and he steadies his hand.
"This world is corrupt, long before you and me. It needs change."
Of course. His mind has not swayed (like before.) He's part the same as himself as a kid and the thought brings a skip to Kakashi's stomach. "And Naruto?" he has to ask.
"Naruto…" Obito says. "He's bound to Sasuke and Sasuke to him."
Kakashi blinks in thought.
"Sasuke will kill Naruto." He says this as a statement.
A breath of a pause, quiet and heavy, something's wrong and it's then that Obito laughs. Insane and high in sound, tittering and nothing like the boy he knew, Kakashi frowns. There's a joke all on him and yet he doesn't get it, it's not funny. When his former teammate stops laughing, it scares him, he doesn't want to hear the real reason why-
"Only that? They will kill each other." Kakashi gasps despite himself. Too late, his teammate has heard. "That hurts, doesn't it? It's worse than you could ever dream. Naruto could become like Sasuke… and Sasuke has become you."
He swears, "Kai!" and Obito laughs again.
"Kakashi-sensei."
Their kunai clash. Finally, the man comes out of hiding. A flash of fingers. He meets him Katon for Katon, the heat brings color to this blank world, light and fire shine on his face. The heat tear-burns his eye. Obito's scar is starkly visible through his Mangekyou, grotesque and red, bright flamed red.
"You taught them well."
"Obito!"
His flame puffs out, and then darkness. Quickly; his foot meets fist and meets a familiar guard, he flips away. Then when the man appears from under him he diverts the upper-cutting kick, sends his former teammate flying. Kakashi lands and faces him, he takes the two-finger stance of the academy like Minato has taught them.
"You're wrong. Naruto will-"
"Save him? Are you sure?" Obito picks himself up with difficulty, his legs dragging on the floor. For some reason… Kakashi doesn't take the advantage. Frozen in his thought process, he can only listen with trepidation when his friend speaks the truth. "He killed our Rin."
"He's not like us, Naruto's not like any of us," Kakashi speaks quietly. He's thinking and deftly remembering – the guilty pained look on Minato's legacy – he's doubting and he tries to forcefully remind himself, his voice rising louder. "He's stronger… better, Obito, if you'd believe in him."
Kakashi tells himself this.
"Oh, I do." The ninja looks wary with confusion and a little surprise. Having risen, Obito shrugs. "He's something different. Special. Sasuke knows this."
"Then-"
"If Sasuke doesn't win, Naruto will - at least one of them will not leave that fight alive. You should hope that it's not Sasuke."
Kakashi dodges the sudden hit, he blinks in this information and he retreats to ready his hand. The electricity… it comes slow and with half-focused effort, blue sparks crackling in intermittent spurts. It surges and it settles like it's something alive, yet slowly dying. He knows he shouldn't ask.
Obito... "Why?"
Obito chuckles long and low, and the sound will forever haunt. "You know the old tale. Because Sasuke will make sure Naruto kills him if he can't win. It's his revenge, isn't it?"
Kakashi swallows, he shakes his head emphatically, he glowers his teammate. "Don't-"
"And if Naruto's as loyal as you say… he'll kill his best friend and then himself." Kakashi's mind clicks horribly loud. He blinks in quick succession, his chakra outbursts blue in a scare flare and his heart cinches in his throat. His breath can't come up, all he can do is watch with one eye this, no, no…
"You don't believe he'd commit suicide? Like your dad?"
Lightening cuts. A high scream of negative charge, Obito bats away the move; Kakashi let him. His thunder spikes into the ground, wasted and sucking the blue energy from his hand.
"This was going to happen all over again for you. Everyone. Shitty, isn't it? Now you know why."
His clone pops-!
Of course, he doesn't find him. Obito has always been a slippery one, past Obito, current, future (and Kakashi knows he wouldn't have found him anyway.) Two weeks of searching, or of time-wasting, each step fully aware the distance he is from the village and from Sasuke. Kakashi walks with a heavy weight made heavier each day. He turns back as late as he could, this is his mission and he must-not run.
…will he sit and watch? No. He'll be in the stands where the Sandaime is, sentry behind the Kazekage, waiting. He'll be too busy to look at him.
Kakashi tells himself this.
As far as his internal clock tells him it's six in the morning (he came back too soon.) Kakashi walks himself to the Uchiha grounds on rote and he doesn't bother to stop his legs from where they go. It's the guilt, he's actually feeling, it's self-mutilation, and it's exactly what he deserves.
He doesn't expect the kid to awake however, most genin rest their days up to the exam in preparation… then again, Sasuke is not most genin. When he finds himself sensing Sasuke's chakra on the lake, he's only a little surprised. Kakashi follows to where he is, and Shiro is not there. He watches on perplexed from his distance a little ways away and Sasuke continues to perform katas he's never even seen with his Sharingan. The Hatake's hidden his chakra well deep in himself so as to not startle the other and he watches. He thinks, maybe these are hidden clan techniques that he's not supposed to encounter anyway - it's the only possible explanation. He doesn't move from his place watching.
Quick movements that seem something along the lines how Naruto would fight, random and scattered, and ordered and formless. Opposite Sasuke's graceful style and the little the kid's picked up on from himself. The kicks and punches are meant to be followed with his whole body, the water he splashes are his imaginary opponents. Sasuke, he thinks, is oddly chasing his own tail. It's a dance that's unfamiliar and the reason behind unclear… and that poisons leaden fear through Kakashi's veins. What is he doing? Why?
Kakashi suddenly makes his presence known and his chakra intent comes alive. When he walks down to the bank, cautious and watching Sasuke carefully, Sasuke glances him for a moment before returning to whatever he's doing. The elder ninja blinks.
"You're back." The surprise in his voice is evident, the tension rearing its head in the way Sasuke slashes the moving water with vehemence. Kakashi isn't threatened by a twelve-year-old but he's not stupid, he can pick up on the message.
"You're self-training."
Another punch, this time facing his direction. Sasuke smoothly flows back into his katas after that (he must've done this awhile.) Kakashi guesses he kind of deserves this. "Where's Shiro?"
"Home," he spits curtly.
"And what are you doing?"
It's then that Sasuke looks him in the eyes. Kakashi at his distance aways from the lake couldn't notice this, too minute a detail to really see. Now, however. His eye widens, his body flashes cold, and Sasuke smirks slowly. No…
"Only one eye," he tells him, the sentence is deafening in his mind. Sasuke shrugs, both disappointed in the tense mouth his teacher gives and stiffly proud, his chest jutted. The Uchiha studies him then, purposefully showing off that his Sharingan is spinning and like he says, in one three tomoe. A challenge. A wait for his approval. He doesn't seem to realize that his sensei's frozen to his sandals, horrified to the core by his "success".
Kakashi tries truly, to get a grip on himself and the utter fear that he feels itching up his spine, leading his hand. His heart sounds deafening, the thumps race and ring loud in his ears and he can feel his blood whir. His fist clenches until nails bite through his issued gloves. He manually stomps the part of him that is ninja - quick, reactive, decisive in mission and taking no-chances. Sasuke continues, unaware.
"I'm training to get the second one," he says, the confident Uchiha in him boasting proud that he's shocked his teacher this much. Smug, smirking and in a small way, happy. He is being uncharacteristically forthcoming... innocently honest. Kakashi swallows because this just isn't fair. He knows the kid expects some kind of praise for his hard work but he can't turn himself away from the red and black and red. Kakashi can't let this go. His mind is spinning, making connections, saying things he doesn't want to believe.
Sasuke's almost thirteen, the same age Itachi was. He's not young.
He's not compromised.
"Where." Kakashi demands darkly and Sasuke flinches at the danger in his tone, he's viscerally appalled. But the upstart child/ninja doesn't follow his order, the Uchiha scowls his upset and disobeys… scoffing to his face. He huffs, a pseudo-laugh that is empty and directed at him. Sasuke doesn't care for his authority.
"Sasuke. I'm serious. Where are you learning this." From who?
"What's it matter to you anyway?" he growls bitter underneath his breath, his chin facing down into the water. Something in his tone confounds Kakashi, but Sasuke promptly furrows his brow and kicks at the lake. His eyes spin faster and blink with speed, his tomoe wheel into what seems a uniform circle… the eyes are all Kakashi can look at – power and intent danger all in one. The ninja stills, afraid.
(Of this and those eyes. Of himself and what he may have to do-)
"It matters." Unfortunately. "This is dangerous," he finishes lamely. Kakashi says this and he breathes deeply with forced calm. He attempts to push down the panic churning in his abdomen where he can feel his heart hammer faster downward, decisive, and the clock is rapidly ticking.
He thought he'd taken away time from Sasuke only to find Sasuke has stolen time from him.
Or from himself.
Too proud and too pissed… at his teacher Kakashi thinks as he watches, he begins assesses the kid as an enemy. He doesn't make his intentions known (he doesn't pull out his own same Sharingan.) However his body fully faces the kid, his hands tingle in their gloves, Kakashi's ready on guard. Sasuke glowers him with those red eyes and it only cements the suspicions manifesting. Because having those eyes - that eye - only one more step away means he needs to be stopped. Now. His kid is growing… too damn fast. Kakashi believes this. Right?
But he's just a kid… something says, that inner voice is loud among his memories. Almost thirteen is twelve, is tiny and only reaching his vest pockets by the tufts of soft, black hair. Little cousin of Obito and still a student, the child stills on the water as he respectfully waits for him to finish speaking, stuffing his fists into his shorts pockets. Sasuke's angry but he hasn't yelled at him yet: Uchiha clan and revenge and the pain of loneliness. Sasuke's training but he hasn't done-anything yet and something is wrong the way where Kakashi thinks… because he's still just a kid. This works funny with his logic center, it's coming from somewhere stupid and it sounds a lot like Naruto.
It's only one eye.
And then the other one if the training Sasuke's doing has anything to offer, 'the number one rookie', if he goes by the way the Uchiha breathes harshly with sweat beaded off his brow, still glaring at him. And then the Mangekyou… Kakashi thinks: not yet, not now, not here, but his other students, it will come to be.
The ninja forces his hand into his pockets, he slouches with exaggeration and fakes a big, lying yawn. "Well, I can't make you tell me, that's your choice."
Sasuke frowns, confused.
"You're old enough to know what you're getting into," he says with a practiced shrug.
"Why do you say it like that?"
"Hm?"
"Nevermind." Sasuke grunts.
Kakashi shrugs his shoulders cracking the kink in his neck on purpose, the sound cuts half the atmosphere. Sasuke relaxes in his presence by promptly resuming his katas, deftly ignoring him. Without his teacher interrogating the tension that itched is gone. But that doesn't mean he's done. Because Kakashi's made a temporary miscalculation, he realizes as he watches, he doesn't need to particularly ask.
"Carry on," he waves flippantly.
Kakashi follows him.