June 22, 15 AK

Kakashi rolled his shoulders in his new robes of office, trying to get the long white garment to settle more comfortably. He still hadn't gotten used to wearing the cloak and hat of the Hokage, but fortunately he only really had to wear them for formal functions.

He wasn't sure that this really counted; it had been a somewhat fancy invitation admittedly, but then again, this was Hiroki, and that kid wouldn't understand formality if he spent a week wearing its skin around like a coat. Although, speaking of clothes, his sole surviving student had been getting weirder in that department lately, nicely evidenced by his latest ensemble which bore a striking resemblance to priest's robes. At least he wasn't wearing a mask anymore, that had always been a little extra creepy. Though the purple eye was still kind of weird. Although it looked more balanced tonight, with three rings of three tomoe slowly orbiting the pupil, whatever that meant.

Kakashi ran a hand under his hat and through his hair, sighing gently as he scratched at the back of his neck. He rolled his head back and stared up at the gleaming night sky, stars already starting to emerge from the waning twilight as the faint pinks turned to purples in the wake of the setting sun.

Where had he gone wrong with that boy?

No, check that, where hadn't he gone wrong with that boy? Hiroki used to be such a sweet little Genin, so eager to please, always smiling (that creepy smile), but then… well, shit happens. Maybe if he had just paid them all a little bit more attention…

"Sensei! You made it! I was wondering if you'd show; you're always so busy with work."

The gangly Uchiha wrapped him in a massive hug, almost squeezing the breath from his lungs, a gesture Kakashi could only return with a gentle pat on the back. He still wasn't very comfortable with more physical displays of affection, certainly not in a rather public space like this one.

They pulled apart and the Rokudaime Hokage gave his former student a slightly awkward smile beneath his mask, and expression Hiroki returned much more genuinely, face practically glowing beneath the little horns (and when had that happened?) on his forehead. The boy (not such a boy any more) grabbed his hand and pulled him along to the wide blanket set up on the expansive lawn of the Uchiha main house backyard, where several people were already seated, talking quietly and sipping various liquors.

He waved absently to Tsunade and she raised her saucer to him in silent toast, eyebrows quirked in smug self-satisfaction, before he was gently shoved between a blond and someone he didn't recognize who had Uchiha dark hair and heavily scarred features.

"Hi Kakashi-nii! You're here for the moon viewing too?"

The white haired Hokage smiled at Naruto, nodding agreeably before accepting a saucer of sake from Hiroki's elegantly dressed Hyuuga brother-husband. Kakashi hadn't quite gotten over the twinge of guilt he felt whenever he had to interact with his Sensei's son, but the kid didn't seem to mind and had turned out entirely all right besides.

The last Uzumaki (though that might change soon given the little glances the Hyuuga heiress sitting nearby was giving him) never seemed to mind Kakashi's awkwardness though, simply smiling big enough to split his face in two while pulling Sasuke, who was sitting on his far side, into a brief hug.

"Cool! Hiroki-nii said it was going to be really special tonight. Ne, have you met Obito-nii?"

Kakashi blinked at the unexpected name, sip of alcohol frozen on his lips. Had Hiroki produced another kid? It wouldn't be too much of a surprise, (how many did that make, four?) but why that particular name?

"Maa, Kakashi and I go way back. Though I was kind of an idiot back then."

The last Hatake felt a tremor run through him at the voice, so different but so familiar, the tone one he had heard a hundred times, now stretched and warped by age. He turned slowly to face the dark haired man he had been set next to, an insane hope building in his heart as he scanned the scarred face for familiar traits.

His dead teammate grinned back at him with the same guilty smile that had always infuriated him when they were on a team together, now warped by thick lines of scar tissue but no less recognizable.

"Hi Kakashi."

He had to focus on breathing for a long minute, simply counting the breaths as they stretched his mask over his nose. Just breath, focus on the breathing. The air swept over his lips, slightly chapped, across his tongue, a little dry from the alcohol, down his throat, a tingle of roughness from disuse, filled his lungs, and then back ou-

"You died. I saw you die. You were crushed under a rock, and you died. You gave me your eye."

He might be freaking out just a very little bit, a fine quivering building in his fingers so that he set down the saucer of drink and wanted to bury his head between his knees and just not think for a little while but- Obito was here, alive, older, with scars from the rocks and-

"I saw you die; how are you here."

Kakashi could detect the tremor of panic in his tone but he didn't care about appearances right now because if this was a joke or a prank then someone was going to die and he would break all over again and this time he might not be able to put himself back together; the plate would have been shattered too many times and if anyone tried to fix it then it would be more glue than porcelain-

"I'm sorry."

If there had been a list of words he never expected to hear out of Obito's mouth, 'sorry' would have been near the top right under 'marry me Kakashi' and just above 'I don't want to be Hokage' and hearing it here and now nearly made him choke. They had been such stupid children, so full of pride, but Obito's stubbornness had never killed someone, so why should he have to say he was sorry when it was Kakashi that had ruined everything, Kakashi that let Rin die because he wasn't good enough, Kakashi that couldn't save Sensei or Wasabi or Nikkei or Hiroki or anyone who mattered-

"I'm sorry Kakashi. I… I wasn't- I wasn't in my right mind, for a, a long time. I thought I was dead too, but- Uchiha Madara found me, he patched me up with some crazy goop," -Obito waved his abnormally pale greenish-grey arm demonstratively- "he filled my head with all sorts of crazy shit, and then I- I saw… you and Rin… and… I went away, inside."

Kakashi didn't know what to say. Obito had always been a perfect picture inside his head, a mistake forever preserved in the glacial flow of amber memory, a little boy so filled with hope and dreams and care for his team, and Kakashi had failed him, failed all of Team Minato with his stupid love of rules, but now, what was he supposed to say to an Obito who knew about all of it, who wasn't merely a victim of his weakness but a witness to every one. Now Obito looked real, and sad, and composed in a way that would never have fit on the little boy, and it was that, more than anything that made him think this was real and not just a dream or a hallucination.

"It's okay, Kakashi. I forgive you."

His heart stopped.

"I always wanted to think I could have done better, but I just let all my feelings fester like an idiot and didn't try to move on. I never got better, I wasn't as strong as you. It wasn't until Hiroki found me that I realized what an idiot I was being."

He wanted to tell Obito no, that he forgave him, that he didn't need to look down and smile sadly, because if this was real life, if this was reality, then it didn't matter what he'd done in the past because here, now, he was alive, and that was all that mattered.

Unfortunately the constriction in Kakashi's throat was so tight that all that came out was a very quiet 'ok'.

It was enough though, because Obito (alive, Obito was alive) gave him a smile, crooked and stretched, and so different from his memories of that little boy, and… everything was going to be okay.

Kakashi… needed a little air. And a moment to process. After a tentative hug, which Obito returned with much good natured grumbling but significantly more force, he wandered off to… get a drink. A much bigger drink than the small saucer of sake he had dropped on the ground in his shock at seeing Obito (alive, he was alive).

He eventually found a quiet spot to sit down again with an entire bottle of plum wine for himself on an only slightly damp spot of grass far away from the more active center of the party, where it appeared the younger generation was attempting to start up a bit of a rave, Sasuke and Naruto spinning around alternately with Hinata, Sakura and each other.

He still couldn't quite parse Obito's return; it was too foreign, too unexpected. He believed it, sort of, in that way one believed the events of a dream, through a haze, but it hadn't integrated yet, hadn't settle into his brain as a fact. The Hokage was not very surprised when his student, apparently instrumental in the recovery of the lost Uchiha, sat down next to him with a careful motion to keep the thick folds of robe straight.

For several minutes they simply sat next to each other in silence, watching as the edge of the golden moon peeked over the Hokage monument. Kakashi needed more time to think, and the younger ninja was perceptive enough to realize that. It was several minutes and half the bottle of wine before the silence was broken.

"I couldn't think of a better way to break the news to you. I am sorry about that."

The Hatake took a long sip of his wine, enjoying the burn on his tongue and simply nodding to show he had heard and accepted his companion's words. Honestly, he didn't know how to go about something like that either. If he found Wasabi, bright, earnest Wasabi, wandering in the market one day, how in the hell would he tell Hiroki about it?

"Sensei, I'm planning something… big."

He turned his head, meeting the serious gaze of the (not so young anymore) Uchiha. He didn't say anything for a moment, simply inspecting his subordinate, from the small crease of worried concern between his eyebrows, to the edge of a lip pulled under teeth in a nervous chewing motion.

"When you were my Genin, you said you would never hurt your teammates because to do so would be against the Will of Fire. I always knew your logic was a little bit… screwy, when it came to orders, but you've always held to that promise. You are one of the most fiercely loyal and protective ninja under my command, and what you said then hasn't changed that I can see. I trust you."

Hiroki blinked back at him, apparently at a loss for words, and Kakashi had to chuckle at the comical look of surprise on his student's face.

The young Jounin pouted (still as cute as ever (nope, that thought is going into the vault)) and picked at the grass sullenly, looking away towards the center of the party.

"Seriously? Just 'I trust you'? I had this whole speech prepared to convince you and everything…"

His junior looked back at him with a slightly guilty expression of worry, searching for approval.

Kakashi rolled his eyes and had to bite his cheek to keep from laughing at the intensely precious face, before giving permission with a magnanimous wave of his hand.

"Well, if you had a whole speech prepared…"

The last surviving member of squad 19 smiled, still a little tentative, like he expected Kakashi to disapprove but was going to take the chance anyway.

"Right, well… So! Um, kind of a lot of things really, uh, not sure where to start… So, you know I've been engaging in some… extracurricular activities? Visiting 'new places' and meeting 'new people'?"

The Rokudaime nodded, eyebrows raised in polite expectation, waiting for something he didn't already know. He had approved Hiroki's request to take a leave of absence himself while working as Tsunade-sama's undersecretary shortly after Team 7 had swept the Chunin exams.

"Right, so, the thing is, most of the places have kind of been the other villages, and most of those people have been, um, jinchuriki."

That brought a very small wrinkle of concern to the military head of one of those villages but, seeing as he hadn't heard any new rumblings from any of the other Kage about missing jinchuuriki, it seemed like whatever Hiroki had done had passed unnoticed.

"And, I kind of, borrowed half of each of the bijuu…"

"Half? You know what, never mind. Continue."

For a second he had wanted to be surprised, but, on reflection, that was exactly the sort of insane thing a ninja who had invented an invisible fire jutsu would do. Kakashi resolved to simply take everything the raven haired man said as it came; he had the odd notion that if he stopped his old student at every statement which seemed nonsensical that this conversation would take several years longer.

"Okay… so… Ugh! Okay, so Naruto died during the Chunin exams, and I sort of got the next level of Sharingan from that because I had implanted my mother's eye, and so it turned into a Mangekyou, and then into an Eternal Mangekyou, which is like a special thing that happens when two related people with Mangekyou swap eyes, and I had sort of harvested Naruto and Sasuke for tissue samples to try and get a little bit of their transmigrant chakra natures since they're the reincarnation of the two sons of the Sage of Six Paths, so then the Eternal Mangekyou turned into a Rinnegan, which probably got helped along by the fact that I've got the cells of the Shodaime too, and I was already the host to Kokuo, which, um, you knew about, so then I brought Naruto back to life but I went a little crazy, so he punched some sense into me and I realized that the problem with the shinobi world isn't really the hate but the fact that people keep dying!"

Kakashi blinked his single open eye very slowly at Hiroki, processing that verbal diarrhea.

Naruto had died, but the blond was alive now, so he could ignore that.

Hiroki had harvested bits from Sas- Nope, irrelevant. Sasuke and Naruto were the reincarnation of the Sage's sons. Interesting, but not immediately pertinent.

Hiroki had the Rinnegan, that explained the purple eye. Neat?

The problem was that people kept dying. Well, no argument there.

"Hiroki, you didn't say what your plan was. You're going to stop people from dying?"

The sort of half shrug he got back for the question seemed to indicate 'yes', as did the continued nervous shredding of grass blades. Kakashi hummed thoughtfully and took another sip of his alcohol.

"So, how are you going to do that, exactly?"

"Well, since I've got a piece of each of the Bijuu in me now (I snagged half of the Kyuubi from inside the Shinigami's stomach), I can use a technique called Infinite Tsukuyomi."

Catching the look of recognition in Kakashi's eye, Hiroki nodded, smiling gingerly.

"Yeah, it's like a genjutsu, but it's a genjutsu so powerful that it isn't distinguishable from reality, bounced off the moon so it hits everyone at once. It will be exactly like the real world, except that, you know, nobody will be able to die unless they really want to, and even then they'd have to really want it, not just... because they're depressed from something recent like… your dad."

The pain was an old pain, and the last Hatake simply nodded to signal his comprehension before voicing a comment.

"You would have to manage the illusion perfectly for each person in it, wouldn't you? How would you keep track of all of that?"

His student hummed in pleased surprise at the lack of open hostility. Kakashi could see problems with the idea, sure, but the fundamental concept was sound. Philosophy had never been an interest of his, but he knew enough to have no objection to living in a perfect illusion.

"Actually, I made a Seal for that. It's- well, it's sort of like a synthetic… not a person exactly, because it doesn't really think? Per se? But a synthetic mind, like, like a super smart dog, whose only goal in life was to serve as best it could."

He cocked his head thoughtfully, sending the hanging folds of cloth on his hat swinging gently.

"Is that safe?"

"I tested it. It works, it's stable. It reinforces itself; it wants to want the thing it wants. And it will all be powered by the Jubi, an infinite well of negentropy. I tested that too; no matter how much chakra I spend the Bijuu regenerate, and that energy doesn't come from anywhere. Not that I can find, anyway. I supposed it might be leeching power from another universe or… something like that, but if that is where chakra comes from then we'd probably all just drop dead someday when it ran out anyway so… I think they might recharge themselves from Natural Energy, which is just a byproduct of life in general. So long as there are living things, the energy will keep regenerating, and the energy can be used to keep things alive. It's circular. It doesn't have to run out, and if it does it will be… trillions of years in the future, maybe more. Like I said, I can't see where the Bijuu draw energy from, and I have very good eyes."

Kakashi hummed thoughtfully, looking up at the moon which had risen high enough in the sky to bleed to a pale and lustrous white. An everlasting world, where no one died and there was a god around who actually cared and interfered…

It sounded too good to be true. But that wasn't an actual thing. Nothing was 'too good' or 'too bad'; there might be pitfalls to the plan that he wasn't seeing, that Hiroki wouldn't see, but there didn't have to be. There was no rule of the universe that said 'you can't have nice things' even if it sometimes felt that way.

Obito was alive. Things could get better, they could be better than you ever expected, than you ever anticipated or dared to hope for in your wildest dreams.

"Hiroki, I trust you."

And Kakashi did. He really did. His student might be cracked, he might be peculiar and prone to odd whimsy, but for all of that Hiroki was effective and loyal to a fault; if he thought this would work, then… Kakashi trusted him.

"Oh geez, does that mean I ensured my own existence via acausal loops for nothing then? I even sealed away the Moon Goddess so she wouldn't interfere!"

Nope, not gonna think about that one either.

"Hiroki, do the thing."

Hiroki smiled, radiating pleasure at the approval, then turned and looked up at the splendid moon with a shining purple eye.

"Tsukuyomi."

There was a faint ripple, an instant of disorientation, like missing a step while seeing the world through a heat haze, and then… everything looked pretty much the same. He glanced at his student, who was himself looking around with a critical eye (all three of them) and poking at the ground like he half expected it to dissolve.

Kakashi raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

"Did it work?"

"Actually, it did Hokage-sama."

He shifted to look towards his other side, and noted what looked somewhat like a copy of Hiroki, save for that is was faintly glowing a pearlescent white, and that it had a sort of presence that the old ninja could feel all the way down to his soul.

The luminous figure smiled with good natured cheer and gave a little wave, long white robes rustling gently.

"My name is HirokAI, and I'm here to satisfy your values through friendship, and ninja."

. . .

And they all lived Satisfied ever after.

. . .

END KALEIDOSCOPE

. . .

A/N: The best-case worst-case scenario. Welcome to your digital afterlife.

All over bar the crying.

Thematic Music: I'd love to change the world by Jetta - Matstubs remix