Kakashi's first strike missed; his second, however, struck true - or would have, if the black haired man hadn't intervened.
Fingers closed around the blade of his kunai, holding it in place with a grip like steel. The sharp edges cut into the man's flesh with ease, slicing his fingers to the bone, but the man didn't seem to care. Blood stained Kakashi's fingers and momentarily surprised from the lack of reaction, his grip on the kunai loosened-
- and the man's boot planted itself into his abdomen. He flew backwards with a grunt, landing onto the hard ground. His kunai was still in the man's hands. Sensei's hand reached down to pull him up and he grasped it thankfully. Kakashi got to his feet carefully and wiped the blood on his hand on the surrounding grass. It wasn't a good idea to have his hands slippery if things got even more violent than they had already.
"Dammit," cursed his disarmer. The man peered down at his wounded hand in distaste and let go of the bloody kunai he had still been holding onto. It wasn't a pretty sight - the man's callous grabbing of the kunai by the blade had shredded his hand to ribbons, but strangely enough, he looked at his injury as if he was looking at a raw slab of meat, not his own appendage. "That stings," he complained.
...Sting wasn't exactly a word Kakashi would have used to describe the pain from a wound like that, but this only proved to reinforce his theory that the man was insane. If Obito had suffered such a grievous wound, Kakashi had no doubt that tears would have been streaming from his eyes. Trained shinobi would at least the forethought to at least stem the bleeding somehow. But this man simply stood there with his mangled hand bleeding steadily at his side, as if he expected it to heal on its own.
But it wasn't on him that the majority of Kakashi's attention was fixated on. That dubious honor belonged to the silver-haired man who stared at them with one wide eye. The resemblance between him and Kakashi's long deceased father was uncanny - the high nose bridge and cheekbones that seemed to be a trademark of the Hatake clan was obvious, not to mention the color of his hair.
Kakashi narrowed his eyes. If it wasn't his father, he decided, it was at least a very good imitator. Sakumo Hatake had killed himself years ago - Kakashi had been the one to discover his corpse. But still, there were ways...
"Sensei," he said haltingly, "that man... Is he...?" But Sensei looked just as confused as he was. Surprisingly enough, it was the subject of his inquiry who answered his question.
"I'm not Sakumo Hatake," said the silver-haired man, still looking at them with that strange gaze - almost as if he was looking at ghosts. "Really, I'm not. When is this?"
Kakashi blinked at the nonsensical question. What kind of question was that? Instead, he focused on the earlier part of the man's statement. "If you're not my fa - Sakumo Hatake," he retorted, "who are you?"
There was no way the man looking so much like the White Fang was a coincidence, and Kakashi knew he had no other family. But as he looked at the imposter, he wavered in his certainty. His father hadn't had much of a chance to tell him much about his clan before he killed himself, and his mother had simply disappeared on her mission when he was still a toddler. He wasn't exactly an expert in Hatake clan history. But still, the man could have been his father's twin.
"That... I can't tell you. Yet," the man said with an uncomfortable look on his face. He turned his attention to his partner. "Obi- You, are you alright?"
"Yeah, sure," the other man groused, "just peachy." He looked at the blood that covered his hand in distaste. The blood had stopped flowing at this point, much to Kakashi's surprise. It was a pretty large wound, taking up the man's whole hand; he had, in one of his more violent missions, seen an enemy bleed out from an injury smaller than that.
"Yet?" Asked Sensei, taking his role as mediator. He moved forward, closer to the two. His movements were slow and deliberate. A large grin appeared on his face and his eyes crinkled. In short, he looked nothing like the slaughterer of hundreds that Konoha's enemies painted him to be. "We have a few questions for you two," he explained, "and I really do suggest that you answer them - these are war times, after all. We can't be too careful, and you two are in a restricted area."
"Fine," said the silver-haired man. He didn't sound worried, as Kakashi had expected. In fact, he sounded almost... exasperated? "Though, I will only answer if you and your team promise not to attack myself and my friend unless we prove to be a threat. Also, we would like to see the Hokage. It's of the utmost importance."
Kakashi was prepared to give an angry retort - they were the ones who had breached Konoha walls, what right did they have to deserve conditions? - but Minato-sensei silenced him with a shake of his head. Sometimes, Sensei was too merciful.
"Agreed," his sensei said, "but we will decide whether or not to grant you audience after our questioning." He shared a look with Kakashi. There had been assassins gunning for the so called 'God of Shinobi', but if these two really were assassins, they had to be the least competent ones he had ever seen.
"Ask your questions then. Fire away." The man winked, which looked somewhat discomforting with only one eye. "Not literally, I hope."
"...How did you get into the Forest of Death? Civilians are not allowed in here, and there should be no shinobi in here at the time. Neither of you are wearing Konoha hitai-ate."
"Ah? The Forest of Death? I knew the place looked familiar." Kakashi twitched. The man's tone sounded joking, and he was unpleasantly reminded of certain teammates who just couldn't take things seriously. "But I'm afraid my answer to that question will be disappointing to you. You see, I'm not sure of that myself."
"How do you not know how you snuck into Konoha?" Kakashi asked, outraged. Of all the lies, this had to be the least believable.
The man looked at him calmly. "I just don't. Next question?"
Kakashi expected Minato-sensei to force an answer out of the infuriating man, but the blonde shook his head. He must have known that he couldn't get much out of the mysterious stranger.
"...Where are you from?" Minato-sensei asked again.
The man grinned widely. "An easier question! But for you two, one with a no less confusing answer." A thumbs-up. "We're from Konoha."
There was a brief silence. Chirp, went the crickets. Throb, went the vein in Kakashi's forehead.
"There's no way," Rin said hesitantly, "none of us have seen you two in the village before."
"Rin's right," Sensei agreed, "and I know for sure neither of you are in our village records, of shinobi or civilian. I want the truth."
"Ah, but that is the truth!" Said the silver-haired man cheerfully. "But we're not from this Konoha, you see."
This Konoha? Were there multiples of his village? Or maybe, the man was just spouting off nonsense as usual. "What do you mean," said Kakashi. It was more of a threat than a question. He changed his mind. There was no way this man could be his father - not unless he had severe brain damage of some sort.
"I meant that my friend and I hail from a Konoha, just not this one. We're from a future Konoha."
"What," Kakashi deadpanned.
"It's not a difficult concept to grasp, you know. There's past Konohas, there's present Konohas - for you, its yours - and there's future Konohas, one of which is the one where the two of us came," the man explained matter-of-factly.
"Yes, we understand that part," said Sensei delicately, "but the part that's difficult for us to believe is your actual claim. Time travel, like the kind you say brought you here, is impossible."
"Not impossible. Just very unlikely." The silver-haired man sighed dramatically. "What can I do to prove that I'm telling the truth? I can tell you that you-" he pointed at Kakashi, "are an orphan, after your father's suicide and your mother's death on a mission soon after your birth," he gestured at Sensei, "that you're dating a certain fiery redhead named Uzumaki Kushina and that you're planning to propose to her in a few weeks time. Or months, depending on when exactly we are."
He glanced over to his black-haired companion. "You probably know more about the other two."
The scarred man gave him a glare, but acquiesed. "Fine. You, with your goggles... your grandma gave you those to stop you from tearing up all the time. Didn't work as well as she hoped though. Rin..." He swallowed. "Uchiha Obito is your best friend, and you two became friends after you threw a rock at his face."
Normal people would respond to such a revealing analysis with shock. Kakashi, however, reacted with anger. "Who told you about that?" He demanded furiously, eyes narrowed.
"Nobody did. Or, depending on your perspective, you did."
He almost lunged, if not for Sensei's hand on his shoulder. "...The things you two have just said... are things you two shouldn't no. Rin, Obito, are what they said true?" The two nodded, both looking stunned. "Alright, well, it was true for me too." Minato-sensei had turned slightly red. "Let's say that we believe you. But... who are you two? You obviously know who we are," he asked.
The two men exchanged glances. "Come on," said the silver-haired man, "Figure it out. It isn't that hard, sensei."
Kakashi twitched. Obito choked. Rin stared. Minato-sensei's jaw hung open. "Kakashi?" He asked, staring hard at him as if he was looking for the resemblance.
The silver-haired man sighed and reached for his neck to put his mask back on. The resemblance was clear now, Kakashi thought dumbly. The man looked just like the form he saw in the mirror every morning, only a few decades older and missing an eye. He waved lazily. "Hey."
"There's no way you're me!" Kakashi exclaimed, eyes narrowed. Even the prospect that he would one day end up being a person like him was horrifying. The man was nothing like him - immature, flippant, and not a professional shinobi at all. Even if they looked the same, it proved nothing. "I'm nothing like you!"
He formed seals with his hands. It was the only possible explanation. "Kai!" Kakashi looked up. The silver-haired man gazed at him lazily, not a single hair changed.
"That wasn't necessary. This is no genjutsu. And if you haven't noticed," the man pointed out, "we look exactly alike. And besides, what would I gain from telling such an outrageous lie?"
He grit his teeth. Yes, he had noticed. But did he like it? No way in hell. But before he could return a sharp retort, Minato-sensei silenced him. "Kakashi," his sensei said quietly, "...I believe him."
Kakashi froze. His eyes turned cold. "You think I'll become someone like him?" He demanded, though without much conviction.
Sensei didn't answer, instead turning back to the two time travelers. "If you're Kakashi," he said, pointing at the silver-haired man, "then you must be..." He looked at the scarred man, hard. His eyes widened. "It can't be... Obito?"
The man nodded slowly. Obito made a strangled noise, but Kakashi wasn't really surprised. Much less than he had been about the initial revelation. Once he looked past the scars, yeah, the man did look like an older version of his idiotic teammate. Good to see he didn't end up completely useless in the future. But there was something bugging him about this -
No. No.
He could accept those two coming from the future. He could accept the silver-haired man being his future self - deep down, he knew it was true - even if the man acted like a complete moron. Hell, he could even accept that he was gay - which wasn't actually that uncommon among the shinobi ranks, considering the male - female ratio. But Obito? He was in a relationship with Uchiha fucking Obito?
"You're kidding me," he demanded, outraged, "Why him?" Next to him, Sensei's eyes widened in sudden realization.
"...You'll find out when you're older?" His older self offered. Kakashi grit his teeth.
"Kakashi - both of you, settle down," said Sensei. "there will be time to... discuss after the Hokage-sama meets with them. I'm sure there will be a lot that the Sandaime would like to know."
"I don't get it," said Obito. "What did you mean by -"
Somehow, everyone else managed to exchange a single uncomfortable glance - even the older Obito. "I'll... explain later," said Sensei, who looked to have no plans for doing so, ever. "Obito- no, not you, Obito, I meant the older one -"
The scarred man looked at him quizzically. "How's your hand? Rin's a competent medic nin, she can heal it for you."
"...No, it's alright. My hand is perfectly fine."
The man casually slid his injured hand out of view, but Kakashi's sharp eyes caught a glimpse of it before it was hidden. His eyes widened. The blood had darkened and looked to have already dried, meaning that there was no new bloodflow out. And the skin underneath... it must have been a trick of the light, Kakashi decided, because that was just not possible. For a second, it looked as if the man's (he couldn't think of him as Obito) hand was covered by the pale pink of newly grown skin.