A/N I need to extend a HUGE thank you to aryx and Tsumeinuzka for going over this, helping me with my grammar, reassuring me that my plot points hit and helping with things I was stuck on. I'm pretty sure I would have spiraled and not posted without them and their helpful comments! I meant to do this yesterday, but I had a baby in my lap and a loud toddler running about. As I am currently writing chapter 24, I am probably going to be updating 2x a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, this week will be thrice, a special extra for Kakashi's birthday.

His eyes opened with the first rays of early dawn light. Nostrils flaring beneath his mask, his first thoughts were confused. Where was he? Sakura was near but nothing else was right.

No, not Sakura, Ayame.

Oh.

The scene from the day before of his father on the street played through his memory.

Looking around the room, he saw that they were still in the dream… or the past. Great. Beside him on their shared futon, Ayame—Karasu's wife, and wasn't that strange—was still asleep, her short pink hair fanned out around her. Dried tear tracks lined her face. In one fell swoop she'd lost everything and everyone she had ever known. So had he; but then, that sort of pain wasn't anything new for Kakashi.

It had started so young for him. The small version of himself he'd seen yesterday was testament to that. Any day now he would come home from the Academy to find Sakumo dead. What was the date, anyway?

Groaning softly, he sat up, his body stiff from all the fighting he'd done in the last two days. His hair tickled his nose, hanging down well past his eyes. Pushing it out of his face, he wondered if he should cut it. He had relied on his hitai-ate to keep it out of the way, putting off bothering with it as long as possible. That wasn't going to be an option now. Maybe Sakura could cut it for him.

Not Sakura, he reminded himself. Ayame. It would be a pain to remember, like it had apparently been difficult to remember not to call him sensei. Propping his cheek on his palm, his elbow resting on his knee, he looked down at her. Ayame. Apparently her father's real cousin. Ayame, Ume, Shobu, Sakura… Flower names must be some kind of family tradition.

Hm. It went well with his family's proclivity for agricultural names, he supposed. Not that it really mattered.

She'd given him a new name as well. Karasu. It meant crow. It might be funny, Kakashi meant Scarecrow after all, but really it was the more fitting name. Crows were portents of death. If anything, they had flocked around him his entire life despite his name.

What did that mean for her?

He pulled down his mask and scrubbed his face with his hands. He didn't want to imagine losing her too. It didn't bear thinking about. So instead, he pictured his younger self again.

He didn't remember being so small. His father had died and then, almost at once he had been an adult. That's how everyone had treated him. He'd lived on his own, made his own meals… He had been an active, working shinobi at six. It wasn't right, he'd had a vague understanding of that for years. But looking at himself now from an adult's perspective, he could see the wrongness of it more clearly than he ever had before.

If his father had lived, would it have been allowed? Should he try and save his father? Could he, even? If this was a dream, nothing they did mattered. If it was real, it would completely change the shape of his life. Would it affect him? Would he change something only to blink and find himself in yet another alternative reality? Time travel was not something he'd ever studied.

As she was along for this with him, Sakura—Ayame—should probably have a say. That meant he would have to share more about his past with her than he'd ever shared with anyone. As much as he trusted her, cared about her even, he wasn't sure he could open himself up—dredge up his most painful memories and share them with her. Maybe she would trust him enough that he wouldn't have to.

As if she could sense him thinking about her, she stirred in her sleep. A thin rivulet of drool stretched between the corner of her mouth and the pillow as she rolled over. She had always been a sight in the morning. He couldn't help an amused snort when she smacked her lips, pink tongue poking out in search of the irritant. "Hm… What…" The hand not still wedged beneath the pillow rubbed at her face as she slowly blinked awake. "Kakashi? Hn, good, you're here." She closed her eyes and flopped backwards on the futon, brushing in vain at the hair stuck to her face. "I had the—" a yawn "—weirdest dream. We were married… and you were a little boy? There was my grandmother and…" Her eyes opened and she stared up at the ceiling, thoughts so loud he fancied he could hear them. When everything clicked into place she sat up with a jolt, hair still askew and drool hanging from her face.

Were their situation not so dire he would have laughed out right.

"Oh gods, we are married!"

Nope. He couldn't help it. He did laugh. And then he laughed some more. It was so ridiculous. Everything was so ridiculous. An alien—from a whole other planet—had shown up in the middle of the war and sent them decades back in time and now they were living with her grandmother, pretending to be married refugees. Married, when he still hadn't even managed to get her to drop the 'sensei' at the end of his name. Naruto and Sasuke were fuck knew where, if they even still existed at all, and his father, whom he'd last seen trapped outside the Pure Lands in some kind of limbo, was wandering around as alive as could be. It was absolutely ridiculous.

"Um, are you alright, Kakashi?"

"That's not…" He tried to reign in the nearly hysterical laughter. "Not my name anymore… remember?" Wiping his eyes as he managed to calm himself, they caught on her. She was staring at him, mouth hanging slightly open beneath a faint blush. "Ayame?"

Her jaw clicked shut and she tried to avert her gaze, blinking rapidly and trying a little harder to smooth her hair. "Ayame… we're alone—" She shrugged, fingers tangling in pink knots, glancing furtively at him. "You can call me Sakura." It wasn't until she chuckled awkwardly, her green eyes riveted on his teeth that he realized he'd forgotten to pull his mask back up.

Oh. He tugged it up quickly. "Sorry, it's uh… a family trait."

She shook her head. "No it's so handsome—handy… Handy!" She forced out an awkward laugh as she kept her gaze anywhere but on him. "I could… identify your charred remains now." She laughed again. "So handy."

"Right…" He knew he usually had a strange effect on women. He'd been told he had a pretty face, but most people found his canine teeth deeply off putting. It was one of many reasons he preferred to keep his face covered. But this was Sakura. She didn't seem disgusted. Hopefully she wouldn't notice the blush he felt all the way to his hairline. "Well, we should probably put together some kind of a plan before we meet the rest of your family. Your actual aunt or cousin won't turn up to out us any time soon, will they?"

"No, that won't be a problem." Finally turning to face him, Sakura's eyes lingered on his masked mouth for longer than was polite before she blinked and looked seriously into his eyes. "My aunt never came home or contacted the family and I've never met my cousin. I always assumed they were war casualties." She bit her lip, some of the anxiety from the night before flickering in her eyes and tensing her shoulders. "Kakashi, what are we going to do? We don't know if this is a dream or real, but we should act as if it's real. If we stay in Konoha, or around any people honestly, we risk changing things, if that's even possible. Do we care if we do?"

Did he? "There's not much we can do about this war. It lasted too long and there were—are too many moving pieces. For now at least, we should carry on as civilians and try to keep from being noticed." One slender finger tapped idly against his knee as he thought. "Yesterday you mentioned stopping Kaguya's rebirth. We would need to defeat Madara and we have no idea where he is hiding out. But… if we could stop him getting a hold of Obito, maybe that would do it."

She was giving him a curious look like she was trying to read his thoughts. "Kakashi…" Her tone was overly cautious and it set him on edge. "Your father is going to die soon… Isn't he?"

It was his turn to studiously look away. "Yes."

"Do you want to try and save him?"

Yes.

"I don't know if I can."

When she didn't say anything, he risked a glance in her direction and found her face carefully blank. She nodded slowly. "If you want to try, I'm sure we can think of something."

An idea occurred to him. "Let's keep my family name. Most of my clan was wiped out in the second war. My father never mentioned any surviving family but that doesn't mean there isn't any. I do know we didn't all settle in Konoha. I can be a cousin from another branch of the family, from Kumogakure." He brushed the hair from his face again. "It would go with your story too. I would have been raised as a shinobi by my family but after the last war, I decided I'd had enough of that life and left. I never told you about my past because I wanted a normal, civilian life with you. But the growing skirmishes found us and now we're here. I must have heard about my cousin from some village gossip."

"Wow. Our story kind of sounds like the plot of some cheesy shinobi romance novel." Her chuckle was light and genuine. "So, when do you want to approach him?"

"Right away. He…" His chest tightened. He did not like talking about this—he did not like thinking about this—but he did want her help. If he couldn't convince his father not to kill himself, maybe she could save him. "If I already have Pakkun, it will be soon."

"Alright. Do you want to do this by yourself?"

He shook his head. "No. I wasn't enough to save him before. I doubt I will be this time."

Her brows furrowed and her lips pinched. Damn. Maybe he shouldn't have said it like that. Clearly she was feeling some kind of way for him but didn't want to show it, knowing how he would react. Probably poorly. So he stood and offered her a hand up. "Come on. Let's join your family for breakfast. We can introduce ourselves to my father this afternoon while I'm at the Academy."

Sakura tried to shake the confused thoughts about her former sensei from her head as they dressed and went downstairs. He was handsome. No, that wasn't enough. He was beautiful. And his teeth. She had seen shinobi with slightly elongated canines before. Kakashi had a mouth full of sharp wolf teeth. They were fascinating. She wanted to touch them and had come dangerously close to reaching out and sticking her hand in his mouth when he'd been laughing. Were they as sharp as they looked? Had he ever bitten anyone? Were they the reason he wore the mask? He said they were a family trait. Did that mean Sakumo had them too? Why didn't he wear a mask? She had a dozen questions but she hadn't asked about his father the evening before, she didn't need to badger the poor man about his teeth either. It really wasn't her business.

Thankfully, her grandmother was already up and moving around the kitchen when they made their way downstairs. When she heard them, she turned from the cooktop to face them, leveling Sakura with a hesitant smile. "Good morning." Her hands wrung around the edge of her apron. "I trust you slept well? Kizashi wanted to meet you right away but I told him you both looked like you needed rest more than a boisterous family reunion."

Pulling her lips up into a tight smile, Sakura nodded only a little too vigorously. "Oh, yes. I am sorry we missed dinner, it had been a long few days." Ume nodded slowly, the lines around her face tightening. Realizing they ought to thank her properly for letting them stay, she bowed respectfully, Kakashi belatedly copying her. "Thank you for letting us stay in your home, Obasan. We'll try not to be too much of a burden."

A small chuckle lightened her grandmother's face. "Don't be silly. We are happy to have you. Here, why don't you help me with this. We can talk while we work and get to know each other, hm?"

Sakura blushed, glancing up at Kakashi to find him looking away from her, mirth shining in his dark eyes. "Ah… Of course." She joined her grandmother by the cooktop. "I'm afraid I'm fairly useless in the kitchen."

Ume scoffed. "Well, it's good you're here then. I happen to be an excellent cook." Her smile was conspiratorial as her brown eyes darted around to Kakashi as she handed Sakura a pair of well worn chopsticks, directing her to the fish waiting to be grilled. "I'll teach you everything I know. You have a husband to feed, can't have you burning his dinner."

Thankfully, her grandmother turned her attention back to their breakfast so she did not see the way her face erupted. Gods, this was so weird. For his part, her husband wandered over to a wall decorated in family photos, leaning in and inspecting each one closely. The pink tops of his ears were the only indication that he was listening.

They spent several minutes in this fashion, Ume directing Sakura around the kitchen—in a much gentler way than her own mother had ever managed—while inquiring vaguely about her life. As she was watching Sakura poke at the fish, trying to determine if it was cooked through, she sighed. Sakura looked up to find her eyes tight. "Obasan?"

She sniffed and watched her hands smooth over her apron. "She's dead, isn't she? My sister?"

Oh, fuck. For some reason it hadn't occurred to Sakura that her grandmother would wonder about her sister. An idiotic mistake, really. If her mother had just died, shouldn't she be more upset? Should she cry? Her real mother's face, the last conversation they'd had came to mind. Mebuki had hugged her daughter fiercely, whispered how proud she was of her and sent her off to war. Now she may never see her again. Genuine tears gathered in her eyes and she nodded. "Yes. I'm sorry. I guess I should have told you last night—"

"No…" Ume wiped her hands across her eyes and shook her head. "It's alright, dear. I'm sure it's been very difficult for you."

Sakura only nodded again, unsure of what to say.

Apparently deciding now was not the time for mourning, Ume flipped the fish before it could burn and cleared her throat. "What happened to her?"

She worried her lip between her teeth. It felt wrong to lie about this, but she hadn't been lying to Kakashi earlier. No one had any idea of her aunt's true fate. It was a good thing she had spent so much time thinking about their story. "Our village was near the border with Grass. It was attacked by a band of Iwa nin a little over a week ago. Both of my parents were killed. They would have had me too, but…" Her eyes found Kakashi's across the room. "Karasu made it back home in time to kill them before they could hurt me."

The story might have been false, but not entirely. He had saved her, more than once. When she had been stupid enough to attempt killing Sasuke on her own, Kakashi had made it to her side just in time to save her life. If they hadn't been sent back in time, when the fight against their enemies was over, would he have had to save her from him again? She thought of his bold declarations. There was no doubt he would have immediately challenged Naruto to yet another deadly fight. Would she have been caught in the middle yet again? Would she have forgiven Sasuke for trying to kill her, again? Would she have continued trying to make him love her?

Thinking of it like that, maybe this trip was a mercy, saving her from herself and her bad decisions.

"Oh dear, how terrible. My poor baby sister. It's terribly fortunate that your husband is so capable." She gave her a curious look, her voice dropping so only Sakura could hear. "Are you positive he is who he says he is? What chance would even a strong civilian have against trained shinobi?"

Ignoring the sudden flush of panic, Sakura reached for her grandmother's hand. She really needed to sell this, even if it was embarrassing. "Karasu is a good man, Obasan." Definitely true. "Whoever he was before I met him isn't important." Mostly true. "He loves me and won't ever hurt me, or let anyone else hurt me." Well, he doesn't love me anyway.

Ume pursed her lips briefly before relenting, her face relaxing into a soft smile. "Alright. That's good enough for me." What a painfully trusting woman. She reached for a plate and scooped the fish from the pan, handing it to her. "Here, take this to the table, dear."

She did as she was asked, doing her best to avoid Kakashi's gaze as she passed him. But he stopped her, taking the dish from her with one hand, the other reaching up to tuck a loose lock of hair behind her ear. What was he doing? His fingers lingered on her neck just long enough to be intentional. Her mind supplied the memory of his absolutely absurdly handsome face and she had to fight an urge to scream from the emotional whiplash.

"Are you alright, Ayame?"

Not really.

"I'm fine."

His hand fell away and he turned around to set the fish on the table just as her grandmother came over with the miso and rice. Sakura caught the soft, knowing smile on her face as she moved around the table.

Oh, right.

They were supposed to be married. She had just declared to her grandmother how much he supposedly loved her. She felt like smacking herself for forgetting, for being even the slightest bit affected by his tender touch and smoldering gaze. It's Kakashi-sensei. What is wrong with you?

He's beautiful with weirdly fascinating teeth and just looked at me like I was the most important thing in his life.

Fuck, get it together.

"Good morning, Ma." Her father seemed to materialize from nowhere. Sakura nearly jumped out of her skin. "This must be my cousin! Ayame-san, I'm so glad to meet you! My name is Kizashi." Before she had the chance to reply, his burly arms were around her and she was lifted off the floor with the force of his hug. It was so familiar, but thankfully over before she had the chance to get emotional about it. "And you must be the husband. It's good to meet you too, Karasu-san." He offered Kakashi a polite bow before clapping one of his massive hands on his shoulder. With a satisfied grin, he pulled out Sakura's chair for her and sat down to eat. "So, tell me all about yourself!"