Chapter One

Aliens and Ghosts

Kakashi and Sakura watched helplessly from the sidelines as Naruto and Sasuke attacked the alien goddess, Kaguya. The entire situation was obscenely ridiculous.

Aliens.

Goddesses.

Not to mention the unbreakable genjutsu that Madara had unleashed upon the world, the infinite Tsukuyomi. The ten tails had just been one scene of absurdly massive power after another. Oh, and his long-believed dead former teammate had reappeared. He'd been an enemy, an ally, then dead once again—for real this time. More shinobi than Kakashi cared to count had been resurrected to fight on one side or the other before succumbing again. All in all, Kakashi was fairly sure there wasn't anything that could happen that would surprise him after being witness to such madness.

He should have known better than to assume.

Sakura shouted something incoherent just before crashing into him, sending them both hurtling backwards. He braced for impact with the rocky terrain… but it never came.

Instead of sharp rock, soft, green grass cushioned their fall.

Oh. They were back to the dimension skipping.

Fantastic.

Another insane adventure they'd experienced that day. Once they stopped rolling—Sakura landing beneath him, her thighs bracketing his hips in a way that on any normal day would have made for an awkward situation, but just then it was the least outstanding thing that had happened so far—Kakashi pushed up on his forearms with a groan and looked around. Seeing no immediate threat, he glanced down at Sakura.

"Are you hurt anywhere?"

She shook her head as she strained to see past the grass blocking most of her view. "I'm fine. Where do you think we are this time?"

"Hm. Actually, it looks familiar." How similar were trees from one dimension to the next? He took a deep inhale through his nose. It smelled the same too. "A familiar alternate dimension?"

Sakura shifted beneath him, gripping the side of his vest with one hand. "Kakashi-sensei… look." He looked in the direction she indicated. "Is that…?"

Absently and reflexively, he reminded her, "Don't call me sensei…" Huh. Not an alternate dimension then. "It looks like it, yeah."

"She sent us home? How on earth did she manage that? Why? It'll take us days to get back to the front."

Kakashi winced, wishing she wouldn't shout so close to his ears. "Maybe that's why. We don't have supplies for such a long journey. I guess it's a good thing we're so close to the village."

"Yeah, I guess." She tapped his side, a faint blush tinting her cheeks. "You uh… planning to get off of me any time soon, Kakashi?"

Now she remembers. "Sorry." He pushed himself back and off of her, taking her hand to pull her to her feet after him. "Let's go. Who knows how long Sasuke and Naruto will last without us."

She scoffed, the sound bitter, her words acidic. "It's not like we were much help."

"They'll need you at least. I can't imagine they'll get out of that fight unscathed."

Tearing off her remaining sleeve, she stalked angrily towards the village. "Tch. If that's the case, by the time we get back they'll be dead. Freaking alien bitch."

Kakashi huffed derisively as he followed along behind her. Freaking alien bitch, indeed.

As they trekked closer to the village, leaving the training grounds behind, the still evening air was not as silent as it ought to have been. They glanced at one another.

"How are people awake? They should be in the jutsu, shouldn't they?"

Kakashi stopped walking, his head dropping to the side as he eyed what they could see of the village. Something was… off. "Yeah, they should be. Assuming it worked correctly, it was being bounced off the—" As he turned to point at the moon, he realized his mistake. The moon was not reflecting Madara's Rinnegan. It wasn't even in the same phase.

"What the hell!? Where are we, Kakashi?"

A sinking, nauseous feeling tightened his gut. Several different possibilities occurred to Kakashi at once, the most likely also the most troubling. "The dream jutsu?"

With a sharp gasp, she looked around them again as if she'd never been there before. "But… we're here together, and we're aware of it. I didn't think that was how it was supposed to work."

"I'm not sure…" He shook his head slowly and began walking towards the village again. "Let's keep going. Maybe the village will offer some clues."

In fact, the more they walked through the village, the more confused they became. Not only were there people, they were in the old village—the pre-Pain village. That would have given more credence to the dream jutsu theory if it weren't for the looks the people were giving them, ranging from politely interested all the way to thinly-veiled hostility. Clearly, they were strangers to these people. Even more peculiar, Kakashi thought he recognized a few of the unfriendly faces, but either they were much younger than he remembered them being or they sparked something from older memories.

"Kakashi…" Sakura leaned in close, her voice low. "Did she send us back in time? Is that even possible?"

Panic began to bubble up somewhere behind his sternum. Kakashi tried for a casual shrug but it felt stiff and jerky, his hand gesticulating in the air between them as he felt his already tenuous grasp on the situation slipping. "We fought an alien goddess in alternate dimensions today, Sakura. I no longer have a firm understanding of what is and isn't possible."

Sakura's breathy sigh sounded anxious as she took a step closer so that they walked nearly hip to hip. "Okay, that's fair. Let's say that's what happened. How far back are we?"

He had no idea. They couldn't see the Hokage Mountain from where they were. That would at least give them some idea. He started to tell her this when another head of silver white hair just ahead caught his attention, forcing the words back down his throat. Heart racing, entire body feeling as if he'd just been plunged in an ice bath, Kakashi snatched gracelessly for Sakura's hand, jerking her to an abrupt halt.

"Kakashi, what…"

He stared at his father.

Thankfully his mask hid his gaping mouth.

Hatake Sakumo was walking down the street in their direction, shoulders slumped and a general air of defeat hanging around him. People made way for him, most casting hostile glares in his direction. Not a hundred meters ahead of them, he stopped and entered a shop. They were close enough to hear the vitriol the shopkeeper spewed at him as he shooed him from his premises.

"Get out! I won't serve cowards here. There'll be war again, and it's your fault, Hatake." If his words weren't bad enough, the angry old man spat at his father's feet. "I can't believe the Hokage lets you wander around, free as you please. Should be locked up for treason."

Having successfully evicted him, the old man went back inside, leaving the broken man Kakashi remembered standing in the street. He hung his head, white hair hanging limp around his face. His jaw ticked, his teeth clenched as tight as his fists.

Kakashi felt sick. The words the shopkeeper hurled at his father had felt like a slap to the face. It wasn't right. His father had saved the lives of his comrades. At the very least, the Hokage should have done something to stop the inflated and downright false accusations from infesting the village. He should have looked out for one of his best shinobi.

Instead…

Seeing his father like this, the shame and humiliation he had tried so hard to keep from him on full display, hurt a part of Kakashi he hadn't realized still existed.

Sakura squeezed his hand. She might have said something but he couldn't hear.

People streamed past them on the street, jostling them and grumbling unkindly for the inconvenience they caused.

All Kakashi could do was stand there and stare.

Of all the places they could have ended up, of all the times.

"Dad!"

Air burned down his throat as he sucked in a harsh breath, startled by a vaguely familiar voice and a more familiar scent. Sakumo squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, visibly repressing everything he felt before looking up and just past them with a tight smile. "Kakashi."

A small boy with white hair and a long scarf trailing behind him dashed past, a tiny Pakkun at his heels. That kid—Kakashi, that was him—was so small. Had he really ever been that small? He watched with a detached sort of amazement as a five year-old version of himself stopped in front of his father and was picked up and hugged fiercely. After several seconds of this, Sakumo set him down. "Let's go home, Pup."

Taking one of his little hands in his, they started off in the opposite direction, the strange little boy that was Kakashi mumbling something about dinner.

He watched them go until they could no longer be seen, rooted to the spot despite the continued irritated glares and not so gentle shoves from passers by. Twenty-five years. They were somehow twenty-five years in the past. Was that what this was? His past? Or were they in some strange version of the dream jutsu?

Did it matter?

Sakura was suddenly in front of him, wide green eyes filled with concern. She gently patted his arm, the slight touch bringing him back to his senses. "Kakashi, are you alright?"

Releasing a shuddering sigh, he blinked down at her, dashing away tears he hadn't realized he'd shed. "Sorry. I'm okay."

She nodded slowly, her expression dubious as her gaze shifted between him and the street down which his father had gone. When she looked back at him, he could tell she had questions. But after a thoughtful search of his face, she sighed and rocked back slightly on her heels. "So… there's a lot to unpack there, but…" The faint blush was back and she smiled suddenly. "Holy shit, Sensei! You were such an adorable little boy! And was that a puppy Pakkun?" Kakashi felt himself relax just the slightest with her levity. He was thankful she hadn't started interrogating him about his father. "How old are you, like five, and already wearing the mask? I can't decide if I'm disappointed or amused."

"Well…"

Her smile was fond before it faded with a shake of her head. "So, dream or not, we're around twenty-five years in the past. What should we do?"

Kakashi, knowing their next moves were important, did as he always did—shoved down the emotional turmoil and forced a calm and bored expression on his face. "I would say talk to the Hokage, but I'm honestly not sure if that's a good idea. We need to get off the street for a start. We clearly don't belong here, and figuring out what to do next will be a lot more difficult if we're in separate T cells."

She nodded. "Well… My parents aren't married yet, but my dad lives around here with my grandmother. I could say I'm my cousin? If we pose as civilians for now, we can say we're refugees fleeing violence on the border. It would give us a believable cover story and somewhere to be that wouldn't draw ANBU attention."

"Hn… that might work, but Konoha is about to be dragged into another war. If you haven't noticed, everyone's a little wary of strangers. Just being civilians won't necessarily keep us from being noticed." His eyes scanned all the places he'd hide if he were on village patrol. "If they haven't noticed us already."

She clicked her tongue, clearly starting to get irritated. He didn't blame her. It had been an irritating day. "Have you got a better idea?"

No. At least her family were civilians. They would be less problematic than anyone he knew, and having a believable story and place to be would be safer than hiding out in an alley or rooftop. "Fine. Lead the way."

She smiled, but the expression didn't quite reach her eyes. "Great. Let's ditch the ruined uniforms and pay a visit to my gran. I haven't seen her since I was six."

Turning into his side, she casually looped her arm around his and started walking. When they passed the shop his father had just been thrown from, the old man saw them and came bustling out to greet them. Now he seemed eager to serve.

"Ah, just home from a mission, eh? I've just the thing for weary shinobi. My savory dango is the most popular. Just made a fresh batch."

Before Kakashi could say anything, he caught sight of Sakura's face out of the corner of his eye. She was glowering down at the old man with a filthy snarl that would have made him pause. Warning bells screamed in Kakashi's head. They could not afford the scene she would no doubt cause by throwing the man through his shop, as touched as he was that she was so upset on his father's behalf.

"Sakura—"

"No, thank you. We don't patronize shops that treat our fellow shinobi so poorly." Her voice, absolutely dripping with scorn, sent the now stammering shopkeeper back inside as effectively as a punch would have. "Prick. Honestly."

Kakashi snorted. "I thought we were going to pose as civilians?"

She sniffed, turning her nose up. "Look at how we're dressed. Besides, it won't be difficult to avoid his shop. Let's go, Kakashi. I think I can see a poorly attended clothing stall up the street."

He frowned, reaching for one of the storage scrolls he still had tucked into his vest. "We don't have to steal clothes, Sakura. I should have enough ryō for that."

Her incredulous gape almost made him laugh. "Excuse me? You never have your wallet when we go for ramen, but in the middle of a war you're suddenly carrying enough ryō for a whole new wardrobe?"

Chuckling nervously, he shrugged. "Hm… maybe not quite that much, but I'll buy you a nice new dress, hn?" When she just kept staring at him like he was the first alien she'd seen that day, he coughed awkwardly. "Always be prepared when you go into battle, Sakura. Surely I taught you that much at least."

As it turned out, Kakashi had enough ryō to buy her two dresses, and a bag to carry everything. Ever the cheapskate, he opted for two plain gray shirts to wear over his masked undershirt and a single pair of black pants for himself, arguing that he could still wear his uniform pants as a civilian. Later, she would lament the number of times laundry needed to be done each week.

Now wearing her new, blue calf-length qipao, with both their hitai-ate, their tattered uniforms, and everything else they'd had on them tucked in the bag beneath their new clothes, Sakura breathed deeply through her nose and raised her hand to knock. On the way here, she had thought through what she knew of her family tree and put together a more solid cover story. She did not remember her grandmother well. Hopefully she would not be a naturally suspicious woman.

"Hm. Nice place. What does your family do?"

She knocked and stepped back to his side. "Carpenters. Furniture, traditional architecture, a little of everything. Moderately successful, but not so wealthy that they'll assume us long lost mooches. Hopefully."

Before Kakashi could question her, the door opened to reveal an older woman with graying pink hair and tired eyes. "Can I help you?"

Sakura pasted on a smile. "Hopefully? Are you Haruno Ume?"

Her grandmother smiled cautiously back, eyeing Sakura's hair. "I am. Should I know you, dear?"

"Unfortunately, no. My mother, Shobu, left Konoha before I was born. My name is Ayame. With things outside Konoha getting more dangerous these days, my husband Karasu and I—" Oh gods, that was weird. Why couldn't they have come up with something else? If only they looked more alike, they could have been siblings. "—have sought refuge in the village. We hate to impose, especially as we've only just met, but when we arrived we were asked if we had any family as the refugee housing is so limited at the moment..." Try to look sympathetic, Sakura. She bit her lip and waved her hands in a helpless sort of gesture. "We were given your address and told to come here."

For a moment, her grandmother looked taken aback. "Ayame? Well…oh my." She chuckled. "I never thought I'd get to meet you. My sister wrote to me when you were born but that was the last I heard from her and it's been nearly twenty years." She eyed Kakashi warily. "Husband, hm? He's a civilian?"

Sakura nodded enthusiastically. "Yes!" She patted his biceps, her forced laugh just shy of hysterical. This was so awkward. "He's a day laborer. Not terribly exciting, but so good for the body."

Her grandmother nodded as if that was the most obvious thing she'd ever heard. "As long as he keeps you well fed, Dear. Well, you better come in. I was just starting dinner." She backed up waving them inside. "My son, your cousin Kizashi, will be along shortly. For now, let's get you two settled upstairs. You look like you haven't slept properly in days."

Thank gods for trusting, old women.

Once they were safely tucked away in a guest room, Sakura threw herself down on the futon.

"Karasu? Really?"

Grumbling into her pillow, she turned her head just enough to see Kakashi. "I'm sorry. It's the first thing that came to mind."

He rubbed the back of his neck, his shaggy hair hanging in front of his eyes more than normal without his hitai-ate. "Hm. What kind of labor do I do?" He patted his biceps. "Lots of heavy lifting I'd imagine, considering my fit body."

Blushing furiously, she glared at him. "I was panicking. Acting is not exactly my strong suit, and she was looking at you like a threat. Even in civilian clothes you look dangerous."

As the embarrassment of their assumed back story and conversation with her grandmother faded, the panic she had been assiduously disallowing began to flutter in her chest. Not yet, Sakura. We can't freak out yet. This still might just be a short little dream. Taking a deep, steadying breath, she sat up and crossed her legs. "Has anything in the last hour made you lean towards one theory or the other?"

Kakashi crossed his arms, leaning casually against the lacquered closet. "Well, if it was the Infinite Tsukuyomi, shouldn't there only be one of me? And like you said, we're here together and aware of the displacement."

Sakura felt herself nod along, the panic fighting to be let loose. No, not that option. Time travel is definitely the worst of the two options. "So, this is real then? But what reason could she have had for sending us back in time?" Her voice started to shake with hysteria. Calm down, Sakura! "Surely she wouldn't expect us to just sit around and not stop her rebirth from ever happening."

He shrugged. "Which is why the Infinite Tsukuyomi would make more sense. Maybe something just went wrong. We weren't connected to the God tree and Sasuke's Susano was protecting us… Maybe it works differently if she's the one to do it."

Hm. That made sense too. See, even Kakashi-sensei thinks it's a dream. "She was being attacked. Maybe her goal was just to get rid of us. But why here? Why now?"

Kakashi shook his head, dragging a hand through his loose hair again. "She's an alien goddess in the middle of a battle with her reincarnated sons. Who could possibly guess her motives... Either way, we are here and neither of us will be able to do anything to fix that. If It's the Infinite Tsukuyomi, we can only hope Sasuke and Naruto are successful in defeating her."

Something in Sakura's stomach clenched, her grip on the impending meltdown wavering. "And if this is actually the past?"

"We'll just have to live the years, Sakura."

Fuck. She wasn't even born yet. Naruto wasn't born yet. Neither was Sasuke. A faint pang for the old crush and the life she used to dream about with him twisted her heart. If this really was the past, that was never happening—not that she was sure she still even wanted that anyways.

Nothing she had wanted was going to happen for her. Everything was going to be different. She'd been in the middle of a war for all of humanity. Losing everything was always a possibility. But the reality hurt a whole lot more than she had allowed herself to contemplate.

She didn't realize she was crying until Kakashi was crouching in front of her, one of his hands gripping her shoulder and tethering her sanity like a lifeline. "Sakura…"

"It….it's Ayame now Kaka-sensei…. We might as well—" Oh gods "Get… used to… to… using it."

His dark eyes swam in her vision, calm and steady as ever. How was he so calm? Why wasn't he freaking out too? Get a hold of yourself, Sakura! She choked on a sob as she tried to stop crying.

"Well, Karasu was never Ayame's sensei."

A watery, hysterical laugh escaped past clenched teeth. "No. Karasu and Ayame are married. They met when he d-did some work for her f-father. They came to Konoha when… when their village was attacked by Earth-shinobi and her parents were k-killed. Karasu didn't let them hurt Ayame. Maybe there's more to him than a simple day laborer. Maybe he hasn't told her everything about himself. But she doesn't care. And now they're staying with the only family she has left… except for… for him. Oh, gods." She wiped the back of her hand across her face. "At least she isn't alone."

His head tilted to the side, just the slightest bit of humor in his eyes. "You've really thought about our backstory."

She waved at herself. "How do you think I kept from freaking out until now? Besides… if we're stuck here we need it to be good."

"Hm. You've made me sound terribly interesting. I wonder who I really might be."

She snorted. "I'm sure you'll think of something. Kakashi I—" Her parents' faces floated through her mind and she sighed. Dammit. "How are you so calm? We've just lost everyone. Forever…if this isn't a dream."

The faint light of amusement faded. A solemn, distant stare replaced it, reminding her of his reaction to seeing his father. Maybe he wasn't as okay as he looked. "I've had plenty of practice losing everyone I love, Sakura. At least this time… I won't have to mourn them alone."

Face crumbling, she nodded. He was right. They weren't alone. They could lean upon one another and survive this, however long this lasted. Until Naruto and Sasuke could prevail, or…

The rest of their lives.

How would they live? What would they do with their knowledge of the future?

He must have been thinking along the same lines.

"Come on, Ayame. Let's sleep for now. We can figure out what to do next in the morning."