Notes: As will become obvious, this was heavily inspired by both mirrorless and blackkat's (from ao3) interpretations of characters and canon events. So much so that I can hardly tell canon from fanon smh
The title is from a poem: "The Camp-Fire" by Ruby Archer
He breathes his last while his once trusted comrade explains mournfully that this betrayal was necessary and that Konoha would be better off now that Izanagi was in safer hands. He dies in disbelief and despair, wracked with pain from both the knife in his back and where his eye was stolen from him - but even more agonizing is the knowledge that no one will know what Danzo has just done, possibly ever. Hopeless and heartbroken, his consciousness fades until even the self-righteous spiel of his murderer is inaudible and the pain floats away from him, frantic signals dying alongside the body they are trying so hard to save.
He slams into consciousness with no warning, immediately overwhelmed and overwrought with sensory input. The sudden bombardment of sensation after total isolation is entirely too much for him to handle. He's drowning in an ocean of sight and sound, and not even his shinobi instincts can keep him from gasping desperately for air, not when he had just experienced the creeping horror of his own life draining out of him.
"-right here, and you're okay. You're in the middle of Konoha, and you aren't being attacked. You're safe."
Breaking through the cacophony is a voice he could recognize anywhere, and relief courses through him instantly, combating the fear trembling through him like an aftershock. "...Hiruzen?"
"Yeah, it's me, buddy. Now that you can hear me, I'm gonna ask again. How can I help you? What do you want me to do?" Hiruzen responds calmly, steady as ever beneath his usual boisterousness.
Kagami can feel himself coming down from the panic, but knowing logically that he must be safe (because there is no way Hiruzen would allow him not to be) does nothing to abate the gripping terror of escaping such a death. "Talk to me," he grits out, raspy.
"Koharu finally passed a team," Hiruzen tells him, "and it's terrifying. She says the girl reminds her of herself! Sure, Koharu could do with the distraction after what happened with the Uzumaki, but does the village really need another scary kunoichi who knows entirely too much about poison and is way too liberal with using it on people who piss her off? No! Koharu wants to introduce them to us, and I couldn't figure out how to turn her down. That's why I came to get you, by the way. I'm not sorry. If you're really my best friend, you'll suffer with me."
Kagami laughs, and it rattles out of him, strained- but real. The image of a mini Koharu making the literal actual Hokage shake in his sandals is both hilarious and easier to focus on than that last glimpse of Danzo towering over him, full of self pity and self-satisfaction for the act that he had convinced himself was anything other than a power play.
"I'm about to square off against a twelve-year-old, and you're laughing," Hiruzen complains. "This is why Homura swears on his life that you're the scariest out of all of us. You act all friendly and easy-going, but you'd abandon me to Koharu's senbon in a heartbeat."
"Not her senbon," Kagami manages, unfurling from the slumped position he'd unknowingly fallen into against a nearby wall. "But her mini-me? Definitely." Lifting his head, he opens his eyes reflexively and is surprised to find that- well, he still has eyes to open. Additionally, he notes that he doesn't feel any pain. He's just weak and shaky from the worst panic attack he's ever suffered.
"There you are," Hiruzen says, relieved. But he must register the obvious shock on Kagami's face because he asks, "What is it? What's wrong?"
Kagami shakes his head, bewildered now that he's able to think beyond the panic. He's no longer injured. He's not dead. Which must mean he was somehow rescued and brought back to Konoha in time, but there are, uh, two big problems with that. Firstly, he was on a mission nowhere near Konoha. It would have been a three day trip, at the least. Secondly, his injuries were severe enough that he'd surely still be in the hospital - not in the alley of some side street in the village, where he'd apparently been walking with Hiruzen.
Actually, perhaps the biggest problem is that Hiruzen hasn't mentioned Danzo at all. Does he know about his betrayal? Or did he just assume that Kagami was injured in battle? More to the point, how could Danzo have let him return when Kagami is well aware of what he'd done? Obviously, the first thing Kagami would do is report to the Hokage.
Without thinking about it, Kagami turns to look at the Hokage Monument. He stills, scarcely breathing. He flares his Sharingan (which he shouldn't have ), but it doesn't break the illusion - merely makes the details that much clearer. So. Either this a genjutsu so powerful that not even the Sharingan can see through it, or-
Or he's just traveled to another dimension, parallel to his own.
"Hiruzen," Kagami calls, casually, "what year is it?"
He answers without hesitation. Clearly, his friend has cottoned on to the fact that not all is right with him. Better to answer and see what Kagami makes of it rather than waste time on pointless questions. Hiruzen is cleverer than many had given him credit for in their youth. They know better now - his titles attest to that - but Kagami at least has always known.
Over half a century. If the calendar does not deviate greatly from the one he's familiar with, then - in this world - it has been over fifty years since that dreadful mission.
Kagami deactivates his Sharingan and closes his eyes. He brings a hand to his face, reeling internally from this discovery and struggling to come to terms with the fact that he'd essentially just lost everyone he'd ever known by the sheer virtue of not dying.
At least they might have reunited in the Pure Land. But now… It is entirely possible that he will not see his precious people even in death. Not while in another dimension. Not when Hiruzen beside him and his stories of Koharu and Homura prove that there are different versions of his loved ones who surely have their own spaces carved into that promised afterlife, here.
That thought sparks another. He looks to the Monument again. No longer do First Hokage Hashirama and Second Hokage Tobirama watch over the village through their stone likenesses. In their place are two faces he does not recognize. Beside those , there are two more Hokage who have taken up the mantle in the half a century since what likely would have been Kagami's generation.
And the fourth stone face, he does recognize. He imagines little Tsunade makes for as great a Hokage as her (alternate) family before her. He hopes that she inherited her reign peacefully, by her predecessor finding and training her as a worthy successor rather than through sacrifice, as Hiruzen did. He thinks that he would like to meet her and see the no doubt incredible woman she has become, see her immense potential realized.
Of course, Tsunade sends his thoughts spiralling toward the man to whom she had been an adorable nuisance but beloved all the same - and the reason he had known her. Tobirama was a man who rarely voiced his affection, but it was obvious if one only paid attention. He adored children and would cave to almost any demand from them, as any child that interacted with him would figure out for themselves very quickly. Tsunade being of Hashirama's blood all but guaranteed that she would have Tobirama twisted around her little fingers.
Kagami smiles, reminded of many an afternoon when Tsunade had interrupted a meeting or training session in order to demand "uppies" from her granduncle. Tobirama would sigh and scold her, but he would still give in and hold her, every time. Kagami had laughed at him every time, too, but he had understood. Tsunade was the living legacy of his brother, this last remnant of the family he had lost. She was precious in a way even the other Senju weren't.
Tsunade had been inconsolable when Team Tobirama had come back from their last mission without its namesake. Kagami, too, had been bereft and bereaved. He had mourned, and he had moved on. They were still at war, and they had just lost their Hokage. He had no choice but to go on.
…Tobirama might be alive, here. He might be younger than him if Kagami's theory holds true, and isn't that wild? He thought he'd never see him again, not alive. Had laid to rest his regrets, the things he should have done or said and didn't, for whatever reason. But now-
Well, it won't be his Tobirama, obviously, the one who taught him and led him on missions and sacrificed his life so that the next generation would prosper. But it will be a Tobirama. And just like Hiruzen next to him, like Tsunade, like Torifu and Koharu and Homura, Kagami will take what he can get. The life of a shinobi leaves little room for dithering or wasting opportunities. Kagami knows the grief of losing loved ones all too well - is grieving now, for an entire world gone. He won't deny himself the luxury of connecting with his precious people. After all, as far as he's concerned, they're just as precious in any world, held just as dear.
"I think," Kagami says, turning to smile at Hiruzen, who is watching him with concern but not suspicion, not without due cause, "that you're entirely too old to allow a genin to intimidate you."
Hiruzen snorts, accepting the subject change, at least for now. "You don't know what Koharu was like at that age. You weren't on a team with her. She had even less scruples than she does now, and Jiraiya-sensei let her get away with everything. I can't imagine what she'd have done if Sensei had encouraged her. I'm telling you, dude. This kid's gonna be trouble!"
Jiraiya? Wasn't that the kid who had a crush on Tsunade? He distinctly remembers fielding furious complaints about a boy with that name alongside begrudging acceptance of the only other boy in their class that wasn't, in Tsunade's eyes, a complete moron - Orochimaru, was it? If the three of them didn't end up on a team together, Kagami will eat his sandals. Was it the same in this dimension?
"If you say so," Kagami agrees blithely. Brushing past Hiruzen's indignation, he adds, "Unfortunately, I won't be there to watch that little girl kick your ass. I just remembered I had other plans."
Finally treating him with some amount of caution, Hiruzen meets his eyes squarely and asks dubiously, "What plans?"
"Clan meeting," Kagami answers, with the usual not-quite-frustration he always feels in regards to his family. He has a complicated relationship with his Clan, and he doubts the differences he's observed so far would do much to change that. Even if he's wrong, Clan matters are personal, and it wouldn't be strange if Kagami were suddenly summoned or if he couldn't elaborate as to why.
He's proven right, however, when Hiruzen winces sympathetically. "The Elders still giving you hell about sticking up for Orochimaru-sama?"
A convenient excuse, if not one he would have expected. Maybe he should have. The Elders had disapproved of his association with Tobirama in his own world. If things are truly inverse - simply flipped around, with fundamental matters remaining unchanged - then Kagami can safely assume that Orochimaru is akin to Tobirama: his sensei who, for completely asinine reasons he's sure, fails to meet his Clan's impossible standards. Thus, they demand that he distance himself.
Kagami scowls automatically at the notion, at their gall, and luckily, Hiruzen takes it as confirmation.
"I don't know why they think you'd be willing to abandon your own Sensei just because there are rumors about him. They're baseless, anyway. No one has any proof. He's just different and smarter than they'll ever be , and to them, that's reason enough to fear him," Hiruzen says fiercely, with the same fire and passionate loyalty with which he had always defended Danzo.
Ah, that was unkind. Kagami had been just as blind to Danzo's faults as Hiruzen, just as quick to defend him from any accusation or criticism. He had believed in his teammate, his friend who had saved Kagami's life countless times, aided him through his grief over and over, been a constant support after Kagami's family had subtly shunned him for his otherness, his refusal to bow to their authority. He could never have imagined that one of his most trusted comrades would plot to take his life - not even for anything Kagami had done but because of what Danzo had assumed he would do in the future. Because Danzo feared the Uchiha, and despite everything they had been through together, Kagami was no exception, apparently.
The rumors about Tobirama had been unfounded. He had held no grudge against the Uchiha. He was far too practical for that. He had understood that they were trapped in the same cycle of hatred as the Senju, the same endless fighting, and that revenge would not solve anything. It never had. He had sacrificed himself to protect Konoha, and the Uchiha were an integral part of the village, whether they themselves believed that or not. His Clan had refused to look past their own biases, however, and so even after his death, they did not offer Tobirama the respect and honor he deserved.
It's almost funny that they had guarded so carefully against his Sensei when it had, in fact, been his own teammate who had had designs against the Clan. In a painful, morbid kind of way that makes his chest ache.
Whether or not Orochimaru is the equivalent of Tobirama or Danzo is something he will have to add to the growing list of intel he's planning to procure the moment he escapes Hiruzen's scrutiny.
"It's not like any of their stupid rules ever make sense," Kagami says, rolling his eyes, an urge ingrained in him from a young age whenever the Elders said or did something ridiculous. "Don't smile, don't laugh, don't make friends outside the Clan! We can't let people know we feel things, or they might start relating to us as fellow humans!"
Hiruzen laughs, punching his shoulder playfully. "Wouldn't have pegged you as human, myself. Not the way you scarf down gyoza."
"Oh, I'm not," Kagami says, smirking. "I'm just a gyoza eating machine. Everything else is secondary to my primary function: eating as much gyoza as you can afford."
"Me?" Hiruzen squawks, offended. "No way, man, I've learned my lesson. I'm never offering to treat you again. You've got an Akimichi teammate. Mooch off of him!"
"Alas, Torifu is immune to my charms," Kagami laments, sincerely. He saw right through Kagami from the beginning and has never once fallen for any of his tricks.
(Torifu knew him better than anyone, truly, and Danzo's betrayal has only highlighted that fact. Torifu would have known Kagami was loyal to the village over his Clan, that he would never be a threat, that he would only ever use Izanagi in defense of his home. Danzo was the one who let his desire for power change him.)
"He told me to find another sucker, and so I found you!" Kagami smiles, cheeky, and dodges Hiruzen's swipe with an unrepentant laugh.
"Both of you are assholes," Hiruzen complains, pouting. "I thought it was just Danzo, but now it all makes sense. They put all the jerks on the same team to protect the rest of us."
"Maybe," Kagami concedes, carefully not thinking about Danzo in any real capacity right now. He was only just murdered. It has been no time at all since he was betrayed by a man whom he had considered to be closer than a brother to him. If he really allows himself to contemplate the idea that there is another Danzo here, possibly nearby, one who has not killed him (but just might), then he thinks he might scream. Or cry. Or both. And he can't afford to be anything but perfectly normal until he can ascertain the state of this world and his own place in it. "But you have to admit, we're all smokin' hot." That said, he winks, leaning further into Hiruzen's space and grinning knowingly.
Flushing and flustered, Hiruzen sputters a denial. "I don't- I mean- You're not not- But! Ugh-!" He groans, giving up on articulating anything and burying his face in his hands in mortification. Hiruzen has a weakness for pretty faces, and like the shinobi he is, Kagami uses this information to his advantage whenever he can. Hiruzen knows he knows, and it does nothing diminish the effect it has on him.
Laughing deviously, Kagami pats him on the shoulder as he moves past him and leaps onto the closest roof. "See ya later! I'd say good luck with the scary twelve-year-old, but honestly, I'm rooting for her!"
He hears Hiruzen cursing behind him as he shunshins away, but it only makes him laugh harder.
The Clan Compound is where he expects it to be, thankfully. It takes him a little longer to locate his house, but fortunately, he convinces a kind auntie (one Uchiha Hisako) to show him home by asking for help with a recipe. As expected, she laments his lost weight and scolds him for not eating enough, but she readily drags him to his own kitchen in order to teach him after stopping at hers to grab ingredients, just in case.
Once there, she gently chides him for his barren cupboards and fridge even as she sets out everything she had brought, clearly having expected this. Kagami smiles wryly and doesn't even try to protest. Sure, this isn't technically his fault, but his home back in his original dimension is hardly better.
He hadn't lied when he'd told Hiruzen that Torifu refused to foot the bill on their outings anymore, but that didn't mean he didn't feed him. He could always count on Torifu making "too much" and sharing it with him as genin. Then, as they grew older, he would often find food in his fridge that he definitely hadn't put there himself, and dining together on Akimichi land after a mission was a tradition that had lasted up until Kagami's death.
The point is, Kagami is more familiar with take-out and freebies than actually cooking his own meals, and the lack of much of anything in the way of ingredients or seasoning is evidence that his counterpart had shared this trait. It's a bit of a novelty, having someone use his kitchen as intended. A little bittersweet, too, because the last time someone had cooked for him in his own home, it had been his mother. She's been dead for over a decade now, killed in some battle with the Senju before they had called a truce, but even still, sometimes, out of nowhere, he gets hit with a surge of grief for her so strong that it clogs his throat and makes his eyes burn.
"Make sure you eat all of it," Hisako advises, once the last dish is sat upon his small table. "Remember to wrap up and store any leftovers, too, so you'll have something to eat in the morning. I know you young things like to skip breakfast, but it's the most important meal of the day."
"I will. Thank you, Oba-san," Kagami says, more grateful than she will ever know. He had needed this kindness. Needed to be reminded of the good in his Clan, in his family. Kagami has his gripes with some of their shared viewpoints and decisions, and his anger and frustration are valid.
But Danzo has written them all off as power-mad and battle-crazed, as if the actions of a few could possibly speak to the desires of the many, to the Clan as a whole. As if the only way to deal with them is to kill them off and steal their power for himself. This tiny, painfully kind auntie who Kagami is certain doesn't even know him personally (only tangentially, in the way all Clan members know one another) and who had gone out of her way to help him anyway without hesitation proves definitively that Danzo couldn't be more wrong.
"Are you sure you don't want to take any with you?" He asks, feeling guilty for his small deception. He had hoped she would aid him in finding his home, but he hadn't expected that she would take the time to cook him such a big meal - and at her own expense. He would offer to pay her, but he had already tried that when they'd picked them up. She had gently rebuffed him then, and Kagami had dropped it. He knows a losing battle when he sees one.
Hisako smiles, absently switching the now empty basket to her other arm. "No, child, thank you. My son will have already made lunch, and I'd be a poor mother if I wasted his effort. Now, you sit down and eat, or you'll have wasted mine," she orders, firmly, and not having been raised a fool, Kagami immediately sits back down at the table.
"Yes ma'am," he salutes her, faux-serious, and succeeds in making her laugh. He grins, triumphant, and she shakes her head, fond.
"Rascal," she calls him, amused. She opens the door and steps through, turning one last time to say, "If you need a refresher, or help with something else, I'm sure the 'Strongest Uchiha' will be able to find a little old lady." Hisako raises a brow, expectant.
Kagami smiles sheepishly, caught off guard by both the offer and by a title he had not personally earned. "You would be right," he admits.
She nods, unsurprised. "See that you do." With that, she leaves, closing the door behind her.
Kagami stares at the closed door for a long moment, throat tight with an emotion he finds himself unable to name. He tears his gaze away and instead takes in the restaurant-worthy spread before him. He hadn't noticed until now, but he's starving. Dying and dimension-hopping will do that to you, he supposes. Without further adieu, he digs in.
The first bite of a home-cooked meal always tastes that much sweeter after a long time without. (One small act of kindness can save someone from drowning.) It knocks something loose within him, something hard and heavy, and before he knows it, Kagami is crying silently as he eats, an ink pot spilling over, overfull and overdo.