His eyes didn't waver from his hand. The hand that had somehow, after many years held the blade that had been gifted to him by his father. Kakashi couldn't understand how, or why the blade had suddenly emerged. He'd seen with his own eyes that the sword had been destroyed in the third great shinobi war, it had been shattered while he was protecting Obito.

It had been the injury to his own eye that had awakened Obito's Sharingan. For years he had thought that Obito had died in that war, his parting gift to Kakashi being his Sharingan to replace Kakashi's damaged eye so that he could keep having both eyes. After Rin's death, which he had blamed himself for, his Mangekyo Sharingan activated.

He had since learned over one thousand jutsu and earned the nickname Kakashi of the Sharingan, also 'The Copy Ninja'. He was an accomplished Shinobi, and would forever hold the title of 'Sixth Hokage', he had devoted his entire life to defending the hidden leaf, leaving no time for romance or family. He was a simple one track mind type of guy and yet it would seem there were things about him that even he didn't know.

With both of his parents having died when he was young, he had no one to turn to. But if he thought back, he realized that after his father's death strange things began to happen. He'd go to sleep with nothing in the pantry, planning to acquire food from whomever would feed him the next day until he learned to fish. But he woke up the following morning and his pantry held enough staples to keep him fed for the next week, and the fridge held meats, fish, vegetables. There was fruit sitting out on the counter like bananas, apples and oranges. He had milk to drink as well, and someone had packed some of this food in a bento box and placed it in a bag for him to take to school. He'd eaten a banana at home and grabbed an apple as he left for the academy, taking the packed lunch with him.

That evening he'd returned home from the academy and was greeted by the scent of miso soup with grilled eggplant, one of his favourites. Someone had been cooking while he was at school and had left before he returned but only just before he returned it would seem.

He'd heard a loud popping sound before he'd opened the front door more than once, but had thought nothing of it. He had gotten very ill after his father's death as well, retching, vomiting, spiking a high fever and was unable to move far without losing consciousness. Through that fever he had experienced what he he'd thought to be a fever dream of a woman with white hair and a young girl with jet black hair tending to him. The young girl mostly stayed by his side while the white haired woman busied herself in the kitchen and cleaned his house.

The girl had kept dabbing at his face and neck with a cold damp cloth. She had held a ladle of water up to his lips so he could drink, only for his body to reject the fluid minutes later and there she was with a bucket so he didn't soil his bed sheets.

He'd had that fever dream for three days until his fever broke in the early hours of the fourth day. He had once thought that they were just ghosts, maybe some kind of ancestors that hadn't passed over, or kindly neighbours who had heard him getting sick or crying and that they hadn't actually been with him consistently.

However with what he had recently witnessed of Sakiya, he was almost certain that the ones he had once only known as the 'Konoha immortals' had been the ones to nurse him through that illness. But why? Weren't they suppose refrain from intervening? There were other orphans who succumbed to illness, or also struggled with money and hunger. The shop keeps, business owners and others took pity on them and gave what they could spare to help those kids until they began going on missions to earn their own way.

The more he considered this part of his past the more he realized that the scent Sakiya gave when she was nearby, a scent similar to a bouquet of various flowers, was always present whenever he got home and it had lingered. He'd also caught this scent a few times while checking in on Naruto, and found much of the same. He'd also found that scent as well as a warmth like sunlight in the room where his father had taken his own life. But why would that be?

His fists clenched at his sides as he considered the possibility that maybe they had something to do with his father's death. He then dismissed the idea as she, herself had said that attacking humans is in violation of their highest laws and would result in their existence being obliterated. He briefly wondered how a soul could be obliterated but then his head began to hurt trying to figure it out on his own.

He sat down heavily on the side of his bed, his mind still reeling as it had been now for the last week. At once he became aware of a scent in the room of mixed flowers. His eyes widened as he glanced around the room but didn't see her. He then stood up and made his way into the main room of his house where he saw Sakiya standing in the main room of his home. She was currently dressed in black leggings, matching sandals, a white button down purple flower print shirt over a light pink shirt.

He approached her as he greeted, "hello Sakiya."

"Kakashi," she returned in greeting with a slight nod. He stood before her, his hands in his pockets and maintained his gaze upon the intruder in his home. After a few minutes he approached her and stated, "I'd like to ask you something, and I'd prefer an honest answer."

"Alright," came her simple reply.

He thought for a moment on how to phrase the question before recounting a bit of what he'd long considered a fever dream to her before he posed the inquiry, "were you the girl that I remember from that time?"

She nodded affirmatively to this question. He blinked at the casual response and then asked another, "why? I mean—you're not supposed to interfere with humans."

"That's true. Iwabee was an exception I decided to make and if there are consequences I'll face them," Sakiya replied.

"That isn't what I was asking," Kakashi stated.

Sakiya looked directly in his eyes while she answered, "but he's the only full-blooded human I've ever intervened to protect whom I was not on a mission with."

At this Kakashi's eyes narrowed, confusion once again swirling in his mind. Noticing the look and recognizing what it meant she gave a heavy sigh as she began advising him that her mother hadn't been born alone, she was born with a twin brother. At some point they got separated from each other, and she didn't know the full circumstances surrounding that event. Sakiya relayed to him that her Uncle had married a human and had a daughter with her. Sakiya's Aunt had died in childbirth, and the baby thrived, her name had been Minako and aged as any other human would. Sakiya herself had aged as a normal human would have for the first eight years of her life. Minako had been more than just her cousin however, she was also her best friend. Minako had met a man and had a daughter with him, Minako had succumbed to complications from the birth and Sakiya had promised to keep watch over her daughter and any of her descendents as long as she lived. Minako's daughter, Haruhi eventually had a daughter of her own, Nozomi.

Upon hearing the name of Minako's granddaughter Kakashi's eyes widened and his mouth instantly dried. He swallowed some saliva before suggesting, "She married Sakumo Hatake, and had a son."

Sakiya nodded, her gaze still on Kakashi as she confirmed, "you. So yes, when you were orphaned my mother and I did what we could to see that your needs were met to the best of our abilities while adhering to as many mission guidelines as possible. Minako's father was disgusted at how human his daughter was and that she had chosen a human over any of his friends. I don't know why my Uncle thought she'd go for them, they were all old enough to be her father and she viewed them as Uncles."

The raven haired girl also added, "When you fell sick, I was observing you in my spirit form and sent word to my mother. I did what I could until she arrived with our gigai so we could care for your and interact with you through the worst of your fever. We left with enough herbal remedies and stored soups for you to completely heal and continued to check in on you in our spirit forms until you were fully recovered then we reverted to making sure you had enough food to sustain you and paying some of the bills when your mission earnings were low. It wasn't nearly as involved as I would've preferred to have been but being that you are mostly human it was the best we could do."

"So that sword my father gave me-" Kakashi began to ask but then stopped, realizing he didn't know enough to ask what he was wondering.

"It's a special kind of sword called a Zanpakuto. It's forged by a Shinigami's soul imprinting on a unique type of blade called an Asauchi. The blade that broke was an Asauchi that was about to become a Zanpakuto. It's been hidden within your soul until the moment you needed it. As soon as the need was there it rematerialized. Zanpakutos can break, they generally take about three days to reforge to their former state."

"Why did mine take longer?"

"It didn't, but until that moment when we were in Hidden Sand village against those defectors, you'd had no need for that blade. You had other means of defending yourself but in that moment—you needed that blade," Sakiya explained.

She then gave the real reason for her unexpected visit as she offered, "I can train you."