Chapter Text
Kakashi woke up with a start, heart pounding and sweating profusely. He felt his chest where he was just stabbed, only to find the wound missing.
Am I dead? He wondered, but immediately felt stupid for even questioning it. How could he not be dead? Even if Naruto had gained some crazy bijuu powers and had somehow managed to restore the eye that Madara had stolen from him, he still had no healing experience beyond basic training from the academy. Hell, even a medic with Tsunade’s skills wouldn’t have been able to save him from the gaping wound Kaguya had ever so graciously ripped into his chest with her clawed hands. There was no surviving a wound that took up nearly your entire chest cavity. He was most assuredly dead.
So then… Where was he now?
Last time Kakashi had “died”, his father was there to greet him. He didn’t really expect the man a second time, considering that his father had mentioned that he would finally move on to see his mother on the other side. Not to mention the complete shift in environment compared to the barren space that had only contained a campfire and a single log for them to sit on, not an entire bedroom with tchotchkes and pictures littering the space. Come to think of it, the setup seemed vaguely familiar…
“Kakashi?” Ah. So he was dead. He had to be. For there, back lit by the soft glowing light of what must be a hallway with a sleepy but concerned look on his face, was his sensei. The fourth hokage, Namikaze Minato.
Minato shuffled forward and sat on the edge of the bed. He placed a gentle hand on Kakashi’s forearm, the familiar touch bringing a wave of old memories.
“Are you alright?” Kakashi couldn’t help but snort at the question.
“As well as I can be, considering the circ*mstances.” he drawled, shrugging his shoulders.
Minato tilted his head in confusion. “Circ*mstances?”
“Well, yeah. I wasn’t really ready to die, but if it means that everyone else lives, I guess I can rest easy.” Kakashi mused, a humorless chuckle tumbling from his lips.
“Die? What-”
“I always wondered how you and Kushina-san felt in your last moments. I resented you for a while, but I think I understand now.” Kakashi mused, smiling wistfully. He wanted to say something else but the words died on his lips at the alarmed look on Minato’s face.
“Kakashi, what are you talking about?” Kakashi rolled his eyes and was about to call him out on his bluff, but paused at the genuine confusion in Minato’s eyes.
“Um… I'm dead, right?” he asked slowly, the situation suddenly lost on him as well.
“Dead?! Of course not! None of us are dead.” Minato fretted, gripping Kakashi’s arm. Kakashi felt a well of dread building in his gut. “What on earth would make you think that? Did you have a bad dream?”
He opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by another person entering the room.
“Minato? Kashi-kun? What’s going on?” Kushina asked from the hallway, rubbing her eyes tiredly. She blinked the last bit of sleep from her eyes and Kakashi must have looked horrible considering how fast she made it across the room.
She knelt down on the floor and took his face in her hands, tilting his head so she could look into his eyes. “Kakashi, tell me. What’s going on in that head of yours?”
“I…” Kakashi tried to answer, but the words caught in his throat when he felt the gentle touch of her thumbs rubbing smoothly against his cheeks.
He hadn’t felt a touch like that in years, probably since Kushina’s passing if he was honest. And to feel it now? To actually feel the gentle touch to his skin rather than a shadow of sensation he had felt when his father had visited him after Pein had killed him? It was terrifying in the most heart wrenching way. He knew he was dead, there was no refuting that fact, and there was no reversing jutsu, no magical medical miracle that could have saved him from that last attack. And yet, somehow, he was here with his loved ones who died nearly twenty years ago, and yet they didn’t look a day older than the last time Kakashi had seen them alive. Not to mention that the room they were in was far too detailed to not be real. So if he didn’t die, and Minato and Kushina weren’t dead either, then-
“Where are we?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. The couple shared a worried look, which didn’t help Kakashi’s growing anxiety. Only his years of training as an anbu member kept him from freaking out at the lack of information.
Without another word, Minato left the room without another word. Kakashi figured he was going to find a medic for him. Or a shrink, he couldn’t help but think. He honestly couldn’t blame him if he did, considering Kakashi felt like his psyche was seriously compromised at best.
“You’re in your room. You spent the night last night, remember?” Kushina said slowly, hands falling from his face onto his shoulders.
His room?
He looked around, confused. This didn’t look like any bedroom that he had ever owned in his entire life. It was only when he saw the shelf full of potted plants that he realized where he was. The room was an exact copy of the guest bedroom that had been in Minato and Kushina’s home. The one that Minato insisted he use and Kushina would drag him into every chance she could, claiming she needed help with random tasks in the house because, as she put it, ‘Minato is hopeless with anything that didn’t involve chakra or food.’. Everything was in the same place that he could remember, though it had been years so he couldn’t be sure of every detail.
“How is this room still here?” he found himself saying, unable to stop the words from slipping out. “It was destroyed years ago…”
“Kakashi, nothing in the village has been destroyed. This room hasn’t been harmed at all. At least as far as I know, we only moved here about a year ago.” Kushina said calmly, her voice steady and firm, a far cry from her usual mischievous tone.
Kakashi felt his hands start to shake. This couldn’t be real. Everything looked like it did back then. But how…?
“Kushina-san, how old am I?” Kakashi asked urgently. Kushina blinked in surprise, seemingly unsure of how to answer.
“Kashi-kun, I think you should lay down-”
“How old?” Kakashi insisted, staring her down.
Kushina grimaced but complied. “You’re twelve.”
Kakashi felt his blood run cold. “What rank am I right now?”
“Kakashi-”
“What. Rank.” He stressed. Normally he would never speak to Kushina or Minato-sensei like this, but he just had to know.
“You were promoted to Jounin about a week ago.”
Kakashi felt his stomach drop. If what she was saying was true, then in just a few short months would be the mission that changed his life forever.
Kannabi Bridge.
Where everything fell apart. Where he lost one of his best comrades, his closest friend as a child. Where Kakashi Hatake, ‘son of the defamed White Fang’ became ‘Kakashi the Copy-Ninja’.
But that was years ago, there was no possible way… But as Kakashi stared at his now significantly smaller hands, he knew this was no trick.
Panicked, he rushed past Kushina despite her shouts of protest. He bolted down the hall and slammed the bathroom door open, only to be greeted by his shocked preteen face.
Kakashi edged closer to the sink, staring in morbid fascination at his reflection. If he had any doubts about his physical age, they were gone as he stared back into two, perfectly matched dark eyes left eye, which matched perfectly to his right one, the familiar scar he had carried for decades absent. Shakily he reached his hand out, touching the mirror. He had no idea what his subconscious mind thought that would accomplish, but his brain just could not comprehend the fact that he had died and found his soul back in his preteen self.
He had been dead. Kakashi had been dead .
Was this divine punishment? Had his soul been damned to hell, forced to relive all of his sins for all eternity? Was he so irredeemable that the gods saw fit to let him watch everyone he loved die over and over again, unable to save a single one of them?
The hand that had been touching the mirror began shaking violently, and it was then that Kakashi realized he was hyperventilating. He stumbled back and sank to the floor, his back resting against the side of the tub. All of his years of training screamed at him to get a grip and analyze the situation but he just couldn’t hold the emotions back. Over two decades of being a ninja, and this was what broke him.
What was he supposed to do? What was happening? What should he do? Why was he here? What was he supposed to do ?
Kakashi gripped his hair with both hands, yanking violently on the silver tresses. He tried to slow his breathing down, but couldn't. There was too much adrenaline in his system for him to calm himself down.
He felt himself cradled in someone's arms, and it was only when she started shouting for Minato that he knew it was Kushina. He tried to say something, anything, but his voice wouldn’t come out as anything more than choked gasps.
Is this what a heart attack feels like? Kakashi wondered as his chest tried to collapse in on itself. His vision was fading, and he could hear more people talking than just Minato and Kushina but he was too far gone to place the familiar voices. He felt someone lift him off of the bathroom floor before his body finally gave out and he fell unconscious.
Kakashi winced as the pungent smell of antiseptic assaulted his nose. Ugh, it didn’t matter how old he was, he still hated the stench of hospitals. He liked the doctors even less.
Out of habit he kept himself still, straining his other senses to evaluate his situation. He could feel the scratchy material of the hospital gown and sheets against his skin, confirming that he had, in fact, landed his ass in the hospital again. He could hear several different people walking in what he could assume was the hallway outside of his room, which wasn’t unusual for a hospital, but he could also hear a distinct set of footsteps walking back and forth in front of his door. He tried to extend the tiniest bit of his chakra to confirm who it was, but his chakra didn’t respond. Actually, he could hardly feel his chakra at all. He fought the urge to grimace, because that feeling could only mean something was suppressing his chakra on purpose to keep him weak.
But why though? The last thing he remembered before the crazy dream was being in the fourth war, so why would someone take him as a hostage like this? What would be the motive? Pretty much every single major ninja village had been involved in the allied forces, and since Kakashi had been an acting commander there really was nothing to gain from losing him from the front lines. And it wouldn’t make sense for one of the smaller villages who had not participated due to lack of forces, because while sure, they could take advantage of the moment to weaken Konoha, but taking someone who was a major component in a world war was an astronomical task for anyone. Especially for an underdeveloped shinobi village. They would have to get past the soldiers on both sides (the forces on enemy lines being basically immortal withstanding), and then somehow take him and his allies by surprise to get him out. And even if they got to the point of incapacitating him, there was no way in hell any of his friends would stand by and let him be taken (Naruto and Gai in particular would raise hell to get him back). It just made no sense.
Then… Was it when he supposedly died? Did an enemy take advantage of his supposed death and steal his body away? Honestly, he highly doubted that too. He had been fighting right next to Sakura the last time he remembered, and she was no fool when it came to her medical training. She really was only second to Tsunade at this point, so there was no way a mistake like that would get by her sharp eyes. Still...
How the hell was he still alive?
He was no medic, but he was pretty sure there was no coming back from someone stabbing a hole so large into your chest that it shredded both your lungs and probably your heart. So was he actually a reanimated corpse? It would explain why his chakra had been sealed, but that hypothesis fell apart considering that there were only two people he could think of that could bring him back from something like that; Kabuto or Orochimaru, with the former already incapacitated by the time Sasuke joined the allied forces, and the later having joined the allied forces once he had been revived, and considering how much power he ended up using to revive the hokages, it seemed backwards to want to flip sides at the last minute.
Maybe he was brought back home to be healed? Though that would only happen if the war had ended in their favor, and considering his crazy little students he had no doubt they could win the fight if they worked together, but then why would they seal off his chakra? He wasn’t a threatening presence to them, so why the precaution?
His pondering was interrupted by the door to his room opening. Kakashi immediately relaxed his muscles, feigning sleep.
“How is he?” Kakashi forced his body to stay still and not react to Minato’s voice. For all he knew it could be a henge.
“We’ve taken him off of the sedative now, so he should wake up any minute.” Sedative? Why would he need a sedative if he was knocked out by his injury? “He doesn’t seem to have any physical injuries that we can treat, so it seems that the episode was most likely psychologically based.” Psychological? “However…” The doctor seemed to hesitate here.
“What is it? Is something wrong? Is he okay-”
“Shh, Minato, let her get a word out.” Wait, that’s Kushina’s voice, how- “Sorry doc, we just really love this boy, you know?”
Boy? “It’s alright, I understand. You are his guardian, right Minato-san?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Good. I would recommend that he stay with you if he isn’t already.”
“Of course. Kakashi is always welcome with us, but physically he’s okay at least?” There was a pause, which certainly didn’t ease anyone’s nerves, least of all Minato’s it seemed. “Doctor?”
“For the most part, yes. He’s physically fine, but his chakra system is another story.” Well, Kakashi supposed that would make sense, given he was running on fumes near the end there. Still didn’t explain how he escaped death again.
“Is that what the Chakra restraints are for?” Ah, so they were chakra repressors.
“Yes. To be frank with you, this is above our knowledge here. For some reason, his chakra was drained to almost nothing in an extremely short amount of time, for no apparent reason. Not only that, but his reserves were replenishing too quickly, and they seemed to have at least doubled in size. His chakra points are blown out and they were pulsing erratically all over his body before we placed the repressor cuffs on him. You said he was asleep before the episode occurred?” Episode? Wait, so that fever dream-
“As far as we know, yeah. He was asleep for a few hours at least, and then Minato went to check on him…”
“Yes. I came in and he was awake, clearly disoriented, and…”
“Yes?”
“He seemed to believe that he had just died, and implied that my wife and I were deceased as well.” Oh god, so this wasn’t a dream. Or maybe he was still stuck in the dream?
“What?! But why? We were literally just talking hours ago, what happened?”
“It’s too soon to tell at the moment. There are a few people who could help us, but with war on the horizon, I’m not sure how much of a priority the hokage will make this, but if something like this could catch a ninja like Kakashi off guard, this is serious.”
There was silence in the room.
“You… You think this was an attack of some kind?”
“Honestly? We can’t rule it out. Tsunade won’t be in for another day or so, so until then all we can do is make him as comfortable as possible.”
“Thank you doc, we really appreciate it.”
Kakashi laid in silence as the three exchanged pleasantries, his mind reeling. So he really was back in the past? Or was this something else? Was Zetsu successful with taking over the world, and his body was trapped like the others? What the hell was going on-
“Kakashi, you can stop pretending you’re asleep now.” Kakashi froze. He supposed he shouldn’t be all that surprised that his sensei had caught on. He really never got away with anything with Minato around.
“Sorry Sensei.” Kakashi muttered, finally opening his eyes. He winced at the brightness, but his eyes adjusted pretty quickly. He went to sit up but both stopped him, Kushina digging for the bed remote and adjusting the bed so he could sit up.
“I suppose you heard everything just now?” Minato asked, with a quirk of his brow.
“Yes. I even heard you pacing outside my door. I’m flattered.” Kakashi answered, trying to crack a joke but it came out flat. Minato sighed while Kushina rolled her eyes dramatically.
“Don’t cop that attitude with us Kakashi Hatake, you scared us half to death!” Kushina scolded, fussing with Kakashi’s pillow and blankets nervously.
“I… Sorry.” Kakashi murmured, because really, what else was he supposed to say in this kind of situation? Minato gave him a sympathetic smile, but his eyes were seriously concerned.
“What happened back there, Kakashi? One minute you were sleeping, and the next minute you were seizing on our bathroom floor.” Minato asked gently, resting his hand on Kakashi’s calf as he sat on the edge of the bed.
How the hell was Kakashi supposed to answer that? If he even told a fraction of the truth he would be locked up for either being an imposter or going criminally insane. Unless…
“Can we call the Yamanakas here?” The question caught the couple off guard.
“Kashi-Chan, whatever you have to say you can tell us freely, we won’t judge you.” Kushina tried, but Minato’s face remained carefully blank. Kakashi had a sneaking suspicion that he had caught on to what he was getting at.
“Have you been compromised?” Minato asked quietly, making Kushina gasp.
“Minato, there’s no way, it’s his chakra, he-”
“We have to be careful with this Kushina. This could put everyone in danger, no matter how much we love Kakashi.” Minato interrupted gently, taking her hand in his.
“Sensei is right. They need to treat me like a threat, because honestly… I…” Kakashi trailed off, trying to find the words to encompass all that he was feeling at the moment. “I don’t even know what’s real right now.”
Kushina and Minato shared a look, and Kakashi couldn’t help the feeling of foreboding for what was in store for him.
