A/N: As of June 18, 2022 a total 10,000 words were added to chapters 1-4. These feature Shikamaru and Sakura's parents (who I completely forgot were retired shinobi). To account for these changes I also updated quite a few scenes for Sakura and Kakashi.

Kumo's kidnapping of Hinata (which in cannon happened when she was three) is postponed in this story. Here it's assumed to have happened directly after Danzo's attempt to steal Shisui's eye, making Hinata six at the time she was kidnapped. This allows both Hizashi and Hiashi to be alive, happy, and very concerned about village security. Which feeds excellently into the plot of the Root and Uchiha fiasco. :)

Thank you all for your interesting discussions on mental health and trauma awareness. It's so real in the Naruto universe when we consider the human brain doesn't fully mature until the age of 24-25 on average. For instance, Kakashi's relatively young age of 20 is compounded by the heavy trauma he suffered during his life. Which is why the fairly well adjusted six year old can tell that Kakashi and the other members of ANBU have some things they're clearly working on, like social awareness. Why something as simple as a non-judgmental conversation companion can help them work through their issues at their own pace. Now onto the story!

CHAPTER 9

Scar Tissue

Kakashi held his ANBU masked face in his hands. The gloved fingers of one hand pushed into the rim of his mask's eye, an attempt to stem the pressure throbbing within. It stabbed and burned, his chakra roiling over a complicated network of scar tissue Rin hadn't been precise enough to fix during the transplant. No medic he'd gone to since had been able to remove something so small. They said if he could find Tsunade or her Apprentice then they could fix it.

Over using it was agonizing.

It was in this state he was called to the Hokage's office. His back straight and head looking up he walked through the pain. He couldn't shunshin when it was like this, not if he didn't want to be sick on the floor of wherever he landed. The pain in his left temple was so strong he bumped into a wall and it swooped a wave of nausea over him. His hand shot out to grab the wall. The stairs to the Hokage's office were four flights above the ANBU tunnels. He only had three more to go. He stiffened, stood up straight and kept going.

By the time he made it up to Sarutobi's office his face was sweating under the mask. He knocked.

"Enter."

"Hokage-sama you wanted to see me."

The old man pressed the silence seal on his desk and with a pump of tired chakra the sound barrier erected around them. He didn't look up as he kept writing. A huge pile of paperwork towered near his bent shoulders. Kakashi's chakra sensed a wave of consternation from the Hokage. He tried to push it aside. He couldn't handle the extra stimulation of someone else's emotions right now.

"Kakashi I didn't expect you to take my suggestion so literally. Do you know how many concerned Aburames and Hyūgas I've had approach me the past two weeks? No more horror genjutsus near the Aburame compound. I'm told it disrupts their kikaichū breeding season. Don't post three clones around yourself, it's making all the jōnin Hyuuga nervous. Hiashi's been in here so often asking what I'm hiding I'm almost wishing I would have let Kumo have him and his brother. Since their heiress was taken the twins are all energetic and concerned with village security. Hizashi has taken over the childrens' training for the entire clan, branch and main."

As Sarutobi went on Kakashi tried to listen. He really did. He wasn't going to admit that he completely forgot about how paranoid the chakra seeing dōjutsu clan was. Hadn't given them, or the failed kidnapping attempt, a second thought since Sarutobi refused to give a single Konoha citizen to the foreign country. The old man, still reeling from the documentation of how his friend had been kidnapping children for root, absolutely refused to cater to Kumo's demands for a Hyuuga. The refusal was sent earlier that month and frankly caused the old man so much paperwork Kakashi had been avoiding it as much as possible. The re-write of the Kumo peace treaty prompted three extra lessons with Gai and himself on negotiations. That was as far as Kakashi thought about it. His eye shot a spike of pain through the network in his head. It blocked another huge draw of chakra as the eye tried to disable itself, but couldn't.

Sarutobi asked, "Did I tell you and Gai his branch clan members have been requesting to join the military police ever since? If I could strong arm Fugaku into accepting I'd do it in a heartbeat. The Hyūga, they're so nosy you wonder how they can be so entitled."

"Hokage-sama, is this summons just about my sleeping in public?" His head throbbed. He flexed his fingers, trying to remain present and breathe.

"Couldn't you just sleep? The chūnin patrol has been terrified to approach you since the news of the last incident spread."

Kakashi admitted, "I tried. I really did. I... Am finding this more difficult than I first anticipated. I apologize for causing you trouble Hokage-sama."

Sarutobi waved him off, "We'll figure something else out."

The old man paused to rub his head, then continued, "Pick another facet for the persona. A hobby maybe. If nothing else I'll just name you a jōnin sensei for a genin team."

Dear kami not that. The sound of nausea, the sick moan didn't quite get covered in time. Kakashi clenched his fists and convinced himself he wasn't sick, it was just the pain.

Only then did Sarutobi look up. Peripherally, Kakashi felt concern from the Hokage. He opened his one normal eye in time to see the old man's narrowed in on him. He didn't look happy. Kakashi felt a bit too ill to care. The pain in his eye spiked through his head again. The damaged tissue making his chakra fight itself.

"You're over using it again aren't you?"

"Hai Hokage-sama. It couldn't be helped at the time. We caught the space time ninjutsu user. My team is holding him at the compound, awaiting your order."

Chasing down root, watching the compound, and covering the past two shifts which Shisui simply didn't show up for... Kakashi had already been tired. Tonight's use of his sharingan allowed him to set the trap quickly, eliminating the possibility of a confrontation. A confrontation with a space time ninjutsu user always turned poorly for whoever they set themselves against. He couldn't risk his teams like that. He really didn't have a choice.

"How'd you hold them there?"

"Seal trap designed to sap the target's chakra and leave them unconscious."

Sarutobi puffed from his pipe. The smoke billowed between them, not quite hiding the gleam in the old man's eye. Under that gaze Kakashi explained the situation to the Hokage, the history of return observations, the mask exactly matching the features noted from the night of the Kyūbi attack, how Kakashi believed the man was there to assassinate the Head of the Uchiha Clan if not more of the family. When he finished the old man truly looked his age.

The pipe came out of the mouth, "Having an assassin sneaking to the Clan Head's house is the last aggravation those elders need. If they caught wind of it they'd probably think I commissioned the killer."

Kakashi, somewhat aggravated, remembered that's exactly what Danzo-sama's documents said he'd been aiming to do. Using the Uchiha prodigies, familiar faces the family trusted, as his tools of choice. He ground his teeth tight together, only to immediately stop when it increased the pain in his head.

"What do you want me to do with him Hokage-sama? I'm hesitant to bring the nin straight to T and I."

"No don't." The old man sighed, "Cloak the man in a strong genjutsu and transport him into ANBU holding. Mouse and I will deal with it for now. I don't want T and I seeing them until we have an idea of who we're dealing with. I trust our team there, but this..." He sighed again.

"It's sensitive. I understand."

"Dismissed. Rest when you're done. Hand your report in at your leisure. In a few days I'll call your team in to transport the body." Kakashi understood this as alive or dead.

Relieved he didn't have to deal with the initial interrogation personally, he turned slowly around and with a wince he shunshined to the forest 200 meters west of where he'd left his team. The pain in his head stabbed and he fell to his knees, lifted his mask, and vomited. His eyes shut tight, willing his head to stop spinning and tilting.

Shisui always said using the higher levels of the sharingan pained him as well, but Kakashi's had never healed properly. He knew this reduced his ability. Beyond the constant drain on his chakra, triggering anything more than the first level of the sharingan tore through his scarred retinal tissue. He'd never tried to use level three. In his current state he didn't want to know what it would do to him.

His left hand reached out and brushed against a tree. The rough bark dug into his fingers. He clenched it tight and pulled. Underneath him his legs were fine, it was just the orientation of his head which swam. Breathing deep, long intakes helped and walking around his vomit he returned to his team.

Yūgao saw him first. She stepped closer, "Alright there Taichou?"

He made a noise then grumbled, "I'll be fine, but take the rear. I won't be able to keep up when we move to transport him."

The youngest members of the current team Ro watched their superiors.

"I'll carry the nin," Genma volunteered.

"Tenzo's on point then. Set an area genjutsu and unlock the doors ahead of us. We're taking him quiet to ANBU holding. Yūgao change his features to something nondescript. No one should recognize even his body type. Once we're there use the chakra suppression cuffs and place the extra seals on the holding room. Only Hokage-sama and Mouse for access, deny everyone else when you set the array. I'll follow as I can."

The way they were all shifting around him he could tell they were worried, but jumped to go all the same.

"Hai Taichou," And they were moving.

His tree jumps were labored and slow. By the time he made it to Headquarters and entered his team had completed their task. He glanced his one normal eye at the wall clock. Their shift ended 23 minutes ago.

"Thank you for your help today. Get some rest. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Hai Taichou."

Before Genma could sneak away down to his barracks room and pass out Kakashi held up a hand to stop him.

"Who's feeding the girl today?"

That pink haired girl who's emotions were so genuine as she declared they were friends. The first one to call him friend since his hand went through Rin's chest. The thought of it made him more emotional than it normally would. A friend. Dear kami someone was out there calling him a friend. He didn't want to lose that one too. His head hurt so bad it made his eyes, both good and bad leak some water. He was fucking crying. The telling trail of the tears hid behind Inu's mask. They mixed with his sweat and dirt from his hustle to get the seal trap set in the forest. Kami he should just go home. Instead he was asking about the girl.

"Shisui," Genma responded with a half-hearted shrug.

Kakashi hadn't told the other boys about the third's absence. Genma didn't seem to even be aware his bunkmate hadn't shown up the past few days. Through a haze of pain Kakashi could see the boy lilting on his feet. With them so short staffed team Ro was working more than they should. He patted Genma's shoulder and let the younger boy keep walking.

"Right. Get some rest."

Straightening, Kakashi left to the nearest store selling bentos. The nausea eased somewhat when a breeze hit the back of his neck. If anyone in the hospital was any use, he'd stop there. After a lifetime of subpar treatment, jagged scars, and letting bones heal on their own he'd learned not to bother for anything but the worst injuries. Apparently it had been better a few decades ago when the last Senju still stayed in the village, but he'd never seen the woman in person let alone seen her in the village helping the hospital. He kept walking. He'd be fine. If he kept repeating this he might start believing it.

It had been three days since Panda gave Sakura the book. It was three days till she felt his big chakra coming down the hallway. She was beginning to sense not just by sight but by feel, the sort of tinglies she'd get and how her own colors would react to let her know someone was nearby. Nearly all the ANBU were strong, but some of them were magnitudes more colorful than the others. Those were the ones she could feel coming from a long way off and each of them felt different, to the point she could now distinguish the teenage boys apart as they silently passed her door at the odd hours of the night.

When he wasn't hiding his chakra, Inu's colors felt like cold snowy mountain air as they entered her lungs. Tingly in a cool and quick way as it settled across her own chakra network. So she knew immediately when he was close and getting closer. He wasn't hiding at all.

She opened the door and stuck her head to peak around the frame. Her pink hair swung out into the hallway with the motion. There he was, his spine ramrod straight and moving swiftly her way.

He stated, "You're getting better. Being stuck in barracks is good for one thing I guess."

When he kept coming Sakura swung the door open wide. She pushed it just in time and he stomped passed her. He went straight to her little side table and dropped two bentos. Chopsticks fell over their side and clattered to the table's surface. He didn't seem to notice.

There was an edge to his voice. When he folded himself on the bunk directly across from hers she saw his big long legs took up quite a bit more room. She wanted to ask him about the wartime supply chain book. Why did Senju Tobirama write it, why didn't they have it on the academy book list anymore, and why did he have a copy? However, all the questions froze in her mouth when she saw how his shoulders suddenly sagged. How he moved to lean back on the bunk and the wall had to take most of his weight.

Her lips pressed together in worry. She'd seen Sukea's face look tired. She'd seen Inu move slower and talk less fast as if he needed a nap. However, she'd never seen him look so exhausted. She pressed her lips harder remembering the way the Hokage had been convinced her knowing anything about the Uchiha boys was bad, how that led to suspicion of her parents, how the boys had been in trouble for a small security gap, how Itachi and Shisui looked like they carried the weight of the world and it threatened to crush them. Through all of that Inu had never looked so wrung out as he did now.

All that trouble from the councilman and how risky it'd been for the Uchiha boys, those things she'd been worried were still happening...She'd seen the boys come in. Seen how harried they all looked. Whatever was going on it wasn't going well.

"Inu, there's still trouble isn't there? With the boys."

Though his shoulders remained slumped, when the eyes behind the mask opened one of them was bright glowing red. Sakura reminded herself most ANBU didn't reapply the henge or genjutsu once they got through the doors. These were his eyes, despite how startling the left one was, it must be how it truly looked. He had a single red glowing eye like Itachi and Shisui. She looked deeper. Rarely was she at his eye level like this and able to so closely observe the chakra swirling and flowing in his head. The socket weighed heavily on his chakra network, taking in a huge draw of the white color to keep the eye red.

He answered her question without any details. It was simple and only enough to confirm, "There is."

His eye, unlike when Shisui's eye was injured, it didn't pull chakra right. Sort of like how her chakra didn't flow over her skin when she left it scarred. Her hand flickered green, she looked down at it, concentrating till the green flowed strong and steady.

"Can I fix the scarring on your eye?"

The eyes blinked. Their stark colors disappeared for a moment and came back all the more startling when they opened again. He hadn't said no. She stepped forwards and raised her hand. His eyes now reflected some of the green. He looked from her hand to meet her own eyes. He stared at her for a long moment. His hands, how had she not noticed how long they were, he reached up on either side of his mask.

"Do you agree to keep what you discover to yourself?"

She squished her brows, "What I discover?"

"Who I am, what you find. It's the sort of thing medics would agree to, but I think you could be so much more than a medic."

She thought of Panda, how strong she was, how she was a captain of an elite ANBU team. She thought of the book of formulas the second Hokage wrote, how quietly brilliant it was and how excited it made her to think of the possibilities. The green flowing technique from her hand, while cool, it didn't really compare to all the other fascinating things she'd discovered while living with these ANBU.

"I think I can be more as well. But if you need someone to help you, doesn't ANBU have a medic?"

She realized maybe there was a reason Genma kept coming to her to fix his little cuts and scars. Shouldn't all shinobi learn how to do basic healing on themselves like that? Surely ANBU has people who do it too.

"We do. They keep us alive and functioning." Then he snorted, "No one in this facility has precise enough control to close skin without scars like this. Only a few medics currently in Fire Country would be able to and none of them are keeping my team's secrets like you are."

Her eyes went wide. She didn't think what she did was rare. Apparently he thought different. Behind his hound mask he looked pointedly at her still steadily glowing green hand. She looked away from the glowing fingers and back to him. His eyes were so intense when he put his entire focus on something.

"If you think you can do it, I'm willing to let you try. But you'd have to agree to never tell anyone who I am or what you know of me. They're secret. You understand? They protect me."

She tried to wrap her mind around that sort of hidden thing. It must be hard to maintain. Sakura wondered if she was capable of keeping something so important to herself.

She licked her lips, "Things you can't tell anyone?"

"Yes," He said the word with a lot of weight on it.

This sort of information was critical, Sakura realized. It might be the difference from him being safe or not safe. Maybe that's why the boys had been in trouble as well. Their identities getting out might be the difference between them coming back or not.

"It means what you see while you help me, if you think you can, you're not supposed to tell anyone. Not anyone but the ANBU Commander or the Hokage."

Her eyebrows weren't squished anymore. They'd risen high enough to crinkle her forehead in surprise. Inu must be really, really high up if those were the only ones who could know.

"Um," She glanced uncertainly at her hand.

The green technique she'd been practicing for weeks to fix Genma's cuts now flowed smooth and strong. She might not be able to do everything, but she could fix cuts. She could fix scars. Sakura looked back into the glowing eyes. This was Inu, who he really was. She didn't want him or his colors to go away. Sakura would keep him safe. She took a big breath. She could do this.

Sakura looked him in the eyes and solemnly promised, "I won't tell. I won't tell my parents or anyone else."

He made a hand sign and with a wave of an arm he produced a burst of wind. It blew past her, grazing the fabric of her clothes and she turned to see the door partly close. Not a lot, just enough to hide him from immediate view of the hallway. Then his long hands rose up and removed the hound mask. He looked exactly like Sukea. His tidy silver hair tied up and the purple paint was gone. He had a long scar down the left side of his face. It's thick tissue contrasted so starkly with that of his pale skin and red eye with those swirling tomoes. If it weren't so drastic a feature he would be Sukea's exact replica.

She tried to hide her smile, but her effort seemed to only make it more obvious. Her cheeks became big with the hidden smile.

He looked back at her, tired and a bit surly. The way his chakra moved, it jolted around the scar, got frantic and confused around the eye, then how it got sucked in as if the entire flow was perpetually and forcefully consumed by the red eye. It didn't look good. The skin around this area was poofier and flushed. Sakura frowned.

Tilting her chin at it she asked, "Does it hurt when it draws chakra like that?"

He met her eyes, his own tired and still grumpy. He gave a single sharp nod. It wiped the frown off her face. No wonder he was irritable. She couldn't imagine what having her colors tugged and forced like that would feel like. It made her uncomfortable imagining it.

She held her glowing green hand over his eye. Under her hand his colors responded to hers. It's the colors she'd focused on, trying to smooth them out and break down the scars in the way. She could feel them when her green chakra entered, there were so many tough little scars. It felt so different from his other eye or from Shisui's eye. He was staring at her and she tried not to be embarrassed. His colors moved erratically at first, almost fighting her, then they moved in line. They stopped flowing so heavily to the red eye.

She saw his chest move. From it a great big breath released and he leaned back heavier against the wall. His colors flowed easier and easier as she broke apart the thousands of little scars she could feel. She wanted to make it more like Shisui's eye, what little effort she could do to achieve some of that. Sakura glanced at his face, seeing he'd stopped staring at her and had leaned his head back against the wall. His one normal eye gazed openly at the bunk above him. She perched next to him and went back to staring at his colors fix themselves.

At least as far as they could with someone who didn't know exactly what she was doing. Just make it like Shisui's eye, she kept repeating to herself. Just smooth the flow. Just break down all the little scars and heal them. But there were so many. Thousands of them and all so tiny behind his eye. She'd been building it up so she could now hold the green flow for almost ten minutes. Nearing the end of those ten minutes she saw the green of her hand begin to sputter. She took it away. Her fingers numb and shaking slightly.

His other eye closed. The boy's chest moved again, taking a huge long breath and letting it out slow. With both eyes closed and leaned back against the wall his next words came out so quiet his mouth hardly moved.

"Thank you."

She didn't want to reply yet. Sakura looked intently at the left side of his face. The big outer scar was still there, if less obvious and less thick. The skin around the socket wasn't as poofy or red as it had been. She pressed her lips together in an uncertain moue.

She reached out with the fingers from her other hand to touch his eyebrow. His colors were flowing smoother, not fighting against the socket as much. He was so bright like this she found it hard to look so closely, but the details seemed to matter so she squinted and leaned in to inspect them.

Only then Sakura admitted, her voice timid with the knowledge he might be mad the big scar remained, "I don't know how much I did. I can try again later if you'd like."

His one good eye opened to look at her. The corner of his mouth tilted up into a lazy grin. When he looked like this she thought all those boys and girls chasing the Uchiha boys were crazy. Clearly he had a reason to wear the mask. He'd have a fan club a kilometer long if he went around smiling at people like that. She shook her head and shoved his shoulder.

"Did you bring me vegetables?"

He chuckled, that deep throaty sound he made when she thought he was being all the parts of himself at once. As if Sukea, Inu, the clones, and this boy were all in one place at the same time.

"I got your damn vegetables. Did you read the book?"

Her face lifted in excitement. The book! She jumped up and dove to the other bunk, tossing the blanket aside so she could find it. Sakura had marked all the pages she had questions from with little torn pieces of pages from Paradise. A better use they'd never had, except maybe the Chibi Inu. They'd been created to be torn out and make the Chibi Inu, she thought. She turned around book in hand and beamed at him. His lazy, happy smile returned.