Warning! Don't be fooled by these first few chapters. This story isn't some action-y adventure dimension-travel about Kakashi saving this dimension. They are just setting the stage for how and why he ended up in this dimension and for the real meat of the story:

What comes after Kakashi saves the world.

He lands in front of them with a gasp. For a moment, Obito feels as if he's been captured in the Nara's Shadow Bind Technique. Then, the thing, no, boy who landed in front of him and his team lifts himself from the dirt and grass. Obito is shocked all over again when he sees the kid's face.

They are Kakashi.

He looks almost as he did during their last mission together. Except… His eye, is that a Sharingan? How…?

The kid, Kakashi, pulls himself to his feet with noticeable effort and Obito sees then his clothes are hanging loosely on him. They are too big for him. To Obito, they look like the clothes of a man. The boy's eyes find his students and something like grief and wonder settles on his unmasked face. Obito feels unease start in the pit of his stomach and when the Kakashi-double steps in the direction of Naruto, he acts.

Obito gets between his students and the child and then grabs him in a full-body hold. He shoves a kunai knife against the kid's throat, and hisses, "Who the Hell are you?"

The boy raises his face to look up at him, apparently not perturbed in the least by the sharp knife pressed to his throat. His eyes begin to shine and tears leak from the Sharingan. "Mah, Obito," he warbles, "don't you recognize your favorite teammate?"

He can't help but snort. "Favorite?"

Kakashi's eyes curve with a smile and, before Obito can so much as blink, the boy has escaped his hold. Sakura shrieks and Naruto shouts in surprise while Sasuke moves into a battle-ready stance. Kakashi doesn't go far from them, however, he is just out of immediate range and is clearly swaying from the manoeuver he just pulled off on Obito.

The boy blinks exhausted eyes at them but keeps up his unconcerned facade as he looks from where he's left Obito to the kids. He smiles again. "This is good," murmurs the boy, confusing Obito. "I can make this one perfect," he says just loud enough for Obito's strained ears to pick up.

Then the Kakashi-double collapses.

Obito runs to his side without thinking and gathers him in his arms. Once he has the kid there, he brushes a hand through his bangs and is awed. He really looks like his dead teammate. He swallows back the lump in his throat and stands up, cradling the child close to him. Obito needs to get him to the hospital, to Rin. She'll fix whatever is going on with this ghost. She'll also be able to run tests and find out if this is really Kakashi or some imposter with his face.

"Obito-Sensei?" calls Sakura. He looks over at the girl. Her brows are knit and her hands curled into fists she has pressed against her chest.

He gives her a reassuring smile. "It's okay," he tells her. "He's going to be okay."

"Obito…" whispers Naruto and his eyes snap to the kid. The blond almost never speaks in a true whisper. Staring at him, Obito can see that the boy is wide-eyed and pale behind his perpetual tan. "Is that…?"

He shrugs stiffly, doing his best to not jostle the boy in his arms. "I'm not sure yet," he answers. "He looks like Kakashi, but…" He hefts the boy into a position better for travel and says, "I'm taking him to Rin." He sighs then and tells his team, "The rest of training is canceled for the day."

Obito then turns his gaze to Sasuke. "I don't think this will be resolved by the time Nika is done with her classes at the academy," he informs him. "Could you pick her up and take her to your mom to watch until I or Rin can come for her?"

"Hn," agrees the boy with a nod.

Obito smiles at him. "Thanks," he replies. With that, he leaves his students, the Kakashi-double in his arms not so much as twitching as they sail through the village in the direction of the hospital.

-O-

Rin hands down the results from the tests to Obito where he sits in the uncomfortable hospital chair. Her expression is one of unsettled disbelief as she says, "It's him." She bites her lip as Obito scans the paper she gave him. "Somehow," she mumbles.

"…That's insane," he whispers after he finishes reading the results for himself. Rin is not fooling him, the kid, he's their Kakashi.

"What's insane is that eye," she declares. Bending her head forward so that her loose hair cascades into the space between them, she explains, "We tested it." She points at a bit he'd passed over in the results she'd given him to read. "It's yours."

"How!" he exclaims, both of his very intact and functioning eyes wide with shock. "I have both of mine."

Rin looks over to the bed where Kakashi is unconscious. He didn't have much in the way of injuries. Just a slight cut on his neck from when Obito held him at kunai-point and the eye. Well, that isn't exactly right. His (Obito's?) eye isn't injured, it's just newly transplanted and Rin felt compelled to give Kakashi some medicine for it. The last thing anyone wants is for it to be rejected by Kakashi's body during this time of exhaustion and chakra depletion.

She steps away from him to stand at the side of Kakashi's bed. Rin's hand finds Kakashi's forehead and she murmurs, "We'll have to ask when he wakes up."

Obito shifts uncomfortably in his seat, thinking of their daughter waiting for one of them at Mikoto's. "When do you think that will be?"

Rin sighs. "Who knows," she replies. "It could be a few hours from now, or it could be a couple of days." She frowns and begins to comb her fingers through Kakashi's hair over and over. "The levels he's exhausted himself and his chakra to…" She looks back at Obito with a facsimile of a smile. "I'm surprised he was conscious at all when he fell into your training field with the kids."

He nods and shifts in his seat. Putting his elbows on his knees, he clasps his hands together and rests his chin on his knuckles. "I asked Sasuke to pick up Nika from the Academy and take her to his mom's, by the way," he tells Rin.

"Thank you," she says. Rin's fingers move down from Kakashi's hair to trace his face. At some point after bringing him in, she put a medical mask on him. Obito is a little amused at her choice, but he is sure Kakashi will appreciate it when he wakes up. Their old teammate hadn't liked to expose his face to many. "I don't think I'll be leaving the hospital until he wakes up," she says.

Obito exhales and leans back in his chair. "I figured," he admits. Rin and Kakashi had gotten on better than the two of them. He is also kind of sure she had a bit of a crush on him those last couple of months before he died. "I'd like to stay too?" he asks. Obito isn't going to voice it, but he is irrationally afraid if he leaves, Kakashi will vanish as he does sometimes when he sees him in his dreams. "Do you think you can bend the rules this once for me?"

"In circumstances like these?" says Rin. She bobs her head and chuckles without humor. "I don't think anyone will fuss." Sitting down on the edge of Kakashi's bed, she picks up one of his far too small hands and runs her fingers, which are hardly any longer than Kakashi's own, over the back of his knuckles. "It's not every day your genin teammate comes back to life looking not a minute older than the day he died."

He forces a grin. "Don't let him ever hear you say that, Rin," jokes Obito. "He hated how he was paired with a couple of genin as a chunin."

She glances at him and then smiles. "He did," she murmurs with a true laugh. "He was such a little jerk."

"That Kakashi was," agrees Obito feeling both warmth and pain course through him. "Somedays I can't believe he died like that, fighting for us," he utters. "He always was so annoyed with us."

Rin falls silent at his words, the grief he feels is mirrored on her face. She continues to stroke Kakashi's hand for a time. After a while, she asks, "Hey, Obito? Do you know why he was dressed in adult-sized clothing?" She takes her hand away from Kakashi's and reaches for the handle of the drawer to the end table next to Kakashi's bed. She opens it and pulls out an addition from Jiraiya's Icha-Icha Paradise series. "We also found this book on him."

"I don't know," he answers with a frown. It had been strange, but everything about his old teammate's appearance had been odd. "And you did?" he says, reaching for the book. He inspects it and feels even more confused as he does. It is not just some kind of proto-book or draft. This is an official copy from the series. A later addition too. "How weird," he says. "I don't think there were even any books in that series when we were kids."

Rin groans and takes the book back to put away. "Another mystery we'll have to ask him about…" She bites her lip and looks nervously at Kakashi. "Do you think he'll answer our questions? He was never really the most forthcoming even when we were kids."

"I don't know," admits Obito. Kakashi is kind of an enigma that way. He could be really helpful sometimes and other times he acted like an obstacle. "I hope so."

Rin gives another small sigh. "Yeah," she agrees.

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