Kakashi was summoned to the Hokage's tower. He expected to meet with his sensei for a new mission, but instead, Nara Shikaku was waiting for him.

"I have a new mission for you and a made-up squad that you'll be leading. I proposed to send you because I think you are the best man to take care of it, because of the knowledge we have from the future."

Kakashi frowned. His mind went to the Akatsuki. But it couldn't be it. They were years before anything regarding the Akatsuki even happened. He felt very puzzled. What knowledge did he have that would serve him?

"I'll give you some hints. Forest of Death, Rice Paddies. Of our list of things to repair, we totally forgot about him."

Kakashi gulped. Orochimaru. How could he forget the man who had killed the Third Hokage? Kakashi felt so stupid. But at the same time, he didn't recall the Sannin to be a threat in their previous life before that Chunin exam his students participated in. What was it? A mission to spy on him? Did the Sound Village even exist yet?

"What do I need to know? What's my mission about? A report on Orochimaru's experiments of some sort?"

"Lord Fourth is giving the order to kill him."

Kakashi stopped breathing for a moment. Kakashi doubted someone in his previous life had let the Sannin do as he wished, never facing justice for his crimes. Orochimaru was a mad scientist. He experimented with bodies, no matter if it was ethical or not. For power, mostly. Minato sensei seemed to think differently, but what else had changed?

"Who are you sending with me? You talked about a made-up squad, do I have my usual team?"

"Itachi and Tenzo. We're sending Hyuga Hitomi and her usual squad as well. She shouldn't pose a problem about you leading the mission."

While Kakashi trusted he and Itachi could do the job, he was worried at the same time, but kept his doubts for himself. He also had never led a team this big, because Hitomi's team was bigger than his. Considering how Orochimaru had been after Sasuke's body, it was very likely he would try to steal either Kakashi or Itachi's eyes. They couldn't have the man realize they had a Sharingan. Hopefully, the Sannin didn't know about his Chidori jutsu, because that was his best chance at killing him. Kakashi thought of the other part of the squad he'd get to lead. He had worked once with Hitomi. She was a natural leader, yet could often follow orders well. Shikaku was right, she shouldn't have issues with Kakashi leading. Her Anbu team was talented and had a good reputation of succeeding in their missions they are given. But Kakashi didn't know them well. He understood why Shikaku wanted him in charge. As a time-traveler, they trusted each other more than anyone, but Hitomi should have been the leader. Though Kakashi didn't have the option to object.

Now that his team was solved, Kakashi wanted to know more about the difficulty of his mission.

"Do we know if Orochimaru is alone or has company?"

"I looked into our data, we haven't heard of Mitarashi Anko in years. If she's there and alive, my bet is she'll help him in the fight."

Kakashi pouted. He didn't want to have to fight nor kill Anko. He wasn't close with her, but he had seen Kurenai interact enough with her in his previous life to know they had become good friends, and Kakashi didn't want to kill his friends' friends. He started to wonder if she was even alive. She had been his first success at the curse mark Orochimaru had used on Sasuke. But what if in this timeline she hadn't made it? He felt bad for not thinking of her. Why, after one year of traveling back in time, didn't he think to warn anyone that letting Anko leave with Orochimaru as a sensei was a bad idea? And why did Shikaku not think of it either? After all, he was one of the people pairing jonin-senseis with their genin team. He must have seen Orochimaru appear somewhere and showing interest in traveling with Anko, no?

Shikaku brought him the mission scroll and Kakashi went straight into reading it. There was a map. He felt he had been in that area before. The hideout most likely was in the same place, then.

"I guess it's time I meet with my team and we leave," Kakashi said.

"Fugaku might have already told Itachi some things. He's the one who investigated those Root documents involving Orochimaru. I already told Hitomi about you leading her next mission, and she'll meet with you shortly at your usual meeting spot."

Oh. That felt weird to Kakashi. Fugaku's promotion was recent, and it was the first time Kakashi had a mission coming from Fugaku. If Itachi knew about his father being involved, he might want to prove himself. And Kakashi didn't need that for this mission. For any mission, but this one could be quite deadly if they weren't careful. Kakashi had a flashback of that fight from Orochimaru during the Chunin Exam finals, on top of the roof. He had killed the Third Hokage. The Sannin was not someone to mess with.

It wasn't long that Itachi joined Kakashi in their secret meeting place. Soon enough, Hitomi got there, accompanied by five other Anbu members. Kakashi only recognized one of them, so they all presented themselves with their code name. They inspected the map, eyes immediately straying to an area circled on the map. The group would have to travel for at least a day without stopping to reach their chosen location – or rather, Orochimaru's chosen location for his operations. There was not a very precise spot on that map Danzo had left, but Kakashi was confident he'd find it without being spotted by the Sannin. It might just take a few hours once they breach the area. Suddenly, Kakashi was thankful one of his new teammates was a Hyuuga. It made the mission a bit easier to have a Byakugan user on board.

They left Konoha behind, jumping from tree to tree, branch to branch. Kakashi only had one thing on his mind: finding that hideout, and then killing Orochimaru. He was disgusted by all the experiments Orochimaru had done, though Kakashi wasn't so sure which one was from what timeline. The report that Fugaku compiled didn't explain it to them. It only contained the necessary information, which were where to go (vaguely), who to kill, who to spare if they had the chance (innocent children), and some of Orochimaru's abilities, to make it easier to fight him.

Kakashi was hoping not to find too many children. He found it disgusting that a man would abuse the trust of innocent people. Using them without any morals, to get stronger. Orochimaru didn't seem to care how many of his subjects died, as long as he finally got to his goal. Immortality, and a vast repertoire of all types of jutsu. Oh, Kakashi will show him a vast repertoire of all types of jutsu. He wasn't the master of over a thousand jutsu for nothing.

Kakashi looked at Tenzo jumping to his right. He had survived the mad scientist's experiment. But Orochimaru didn't even know he did. Was it putting Tenzo in danger, to send him out like that? Tenzo and Kakashi had gone through a few missions together in this timeline, but Kakashi had lived through a dozen more with him. He also had to be careful not to call him Yamato either. Because Yamato didn't exist yet. It was not Tenzo's code name.

Kakashi bit his lips, two days later, when they approached the area the hideout was supposedly in. They had to make a plan. So he called the team to a stop. Hitomi scanned the region. "I think I spotted the hideout a few kilometers east. But there's also someone west, walking towards us. From what I can get, it's a woman, a bit… younger than Hound?" There was some hesitation in the description. Kakashi didn't care much about the age of that woman. Was she a threat?

"Civilian or ninja?"

"She definitely has a kunai pouch, but she isn't dressed in our standard uniform. She doesn't seem to have a headband either."

Kakashi grumbled. Most likely an enemy. He prepared himself to fight, but preferred to take another route. They were Anbu, they couldn't let themselves be spotted by that woman, whoever it was.