Chapter Text
It’s a lovely morning in wave country, the sky is clear, the birds sing and business is booming in one specific small establishment in wave’s capital.
People wander in and out of the dingy bar, exchanging information, money, favors, and the bartender serves, and watches, and listens.
There are a lot of shady people going in and out, casting wary glances around and sitting in the darkest corner of the room, waiting for someone or sometimes simply observing. The bartender keeps an eye on everything, even though to the outside he seems like just another man doing his job.
It’s not unusual for one of these strangers to approach him, a knowing twinkle in their eyes that tells him they don’t fall for the mask he’s been crafting for years, a request or a favor on their lips.
This time, it’s a man that leans against the counter, with blonde hair and pale blue eyes, a naive look on his face that doesn’t match the way he holds himself or the way his footsteps don’t leave a single sound.
“What can I do for you?”, the bartender asks, perfectly polite- he’s played this game before.
The man blinks in his direction, tilting his head. “What would you recommend?”, asks a smooth, youthful voice.
The bartender shrugs, throwing his towel over one shoulder. “I’ve got some pretty good sake from the villages up north, close to fire country- but it has its costs.”
The man smiles, leaning closer. “That’s fine. I have money.”
Interesting. This man really must want something from him, if he’s willing to spend good money for it. The bartender doesn’t let anything show on his face, preparing the drink, and slides it the man’s way without much fanfare. The man inspects the cup, lifts it to his lips, and throws a few bills on the counter- just enough to cover the costs, even though the bartender hasn’t said anything yet.
The bartender pockets the money, but doesn’t move, waiting for the man to make his move.
The man sloshes the contents of his cup around, taking his time, and the bartender doesn’t flinch as his pale eyes hone in on him in sharp focus.
“I’m looking for someone”, the man says lowly. “I heard you might be able to help me out?”
The bartender shrugs, crossing his arms. “Depends.”
The man smiles, taking a familiar small book out of the folds of his clothes. He flips through it for a second, before placing it on the counter and turning it towards the bartender.
“Hoshigaki Kisame”, the man says as the bartender takes in the picture of a man with blue skin, dead eyes and gills, staring up at him beneath a crossed-out kiri hitai ate.
The bartender hums, drumming his fingers in the counter. “I’ve heard of him”, he says. It’s an understatement. “Fortunately for you, he’s not exactly an elusive man. You should try looking north from here, near the land of hot waters. I heard he’s frequently cashing in bounties there.”
“I see”, the man says with a twinkle in his eyes. “Thank you.”
The bartender grunts, turning to leave, before the man shifts, waving him over again. Suddenly, one of his eyes isn’t blue but red, spinning and spinning and spinning-
The bartender blinks.
On the counter sits an untouched cup of sake.
Hm. Some customer must have left it there.
The bartender takes it away, all memories of the strange, blonde man washed out of his head.
He doesn’t even notice a man standing up from the back of the bar and heading towards the exit, a small boy following in his footsteps.
The day after Jiraiya came back to Konoha, Minato calls for a clan head meeting.
Obito slides through the window of the Hokage’s office like usual, feeling like death warmed over.
He spent the last day going through every single file in the police archives, checking every scroll and inspecting every speck of dust, and- nothing. Nothing seems to be missing, everything is in its right place, and Obito has been driving himself insane trying to find something, anything that would warrant hound wanting to take a look at the archives.
There has to be something, he told himself over and over again, leaving through the pages of every single meticulously filed away report. There must have been a reason he was here.
But he finds nothing. No one in the police force has noticed anything out of the ordinary, not even the most paranoid war veterans, and Obito starts to think that maybe he’s imagining things, but Sukea, Hound, whatever, was here, in Konoha, in the police headquarters and it doesn’t make any sense.
What was his goal? Did he come here knowing he’d be discovered eventually?
After searching the entire night, Obito gave up. He only hopes Minato will forgive him for showing up empty-handed- he’ll be at the meeting anyway as the only one who actually talked to Hound and saw him while he was infiltrating Konoha, but he would’ve liked at least knowing why he was there.
This whole thing is driving him up the walls, Obito realizes with a sigh.
“And?”, Minato asks as Obito’s feet touch the floor, not even looking up from his paperwork. Obito pities him, kind of- being the Hokage was already a lot of work, without a rouge nin crashing into their lives and leaving a dozen messes for them to untangle.
“Nothing”, Obito says bitterly, throwing himself on an empty chair. Minato hums, tapping his brush against the edge of the table in a restless manner. “That’s not surprising- Hound seems to know how to cover his traces.
“I… I really don’t think he took anything from the archives”, Obito says with a frown. “I checked everything, Minato-sensei. Hound didn’t touch anything.”
Minato looks up, eyes narrowed. Then he sighs, dropping his head. “Well, this isn’t the first mystery hound left us, and I don’t think it will be the last. Regardless, there are more pressing issues.”
Obito nods, shifting on his chair. “Who will be at the meeting today?”, he asks. “Beside the clan heads, obviously.”
“Well- Jiriaya and Orochimaru said they’d be there”, Minato says. “Along with Dragon and Ibiki-san. I… also invited Tenzo.”
Obito straightens. “Tenzo?”
Minato nods. “If Hound really was part of root, he’d know. I know what you’re thinking, but he’s an unreplaceable source of information, especially now that the seal was broken. You can’t shelter him forever.”
“Wasn’t going to”, Obito grumbles, but Minato’s right. Now that Danzo’s dead, Obito would have loved to lock Tenzo away forever and keep him far away from the prying gazes of the Konoha elders and clan heads, but Tenzo was important, even though he was practically still a child.
“What about Sakumo-san?”, Obito asks, even though he can already predict what Minato was going to answer.
“I… don’t think he’ll come”, Minato says. “He hasn’t answered any of my last summons to clan head meetings, and I doubt he will now, especially when it’s about something so… personal.”
Obito hums, looking down at his hands. He would’ve liked to say that he thought Sakumo was going to come, but from what he knows from the man, something like this was just going to push him more into seclusion, not pull him out. “I guess you’re right.”
Obito sighs, slumping in his chair. “What a mess”, he says, leaning his head back.
Minato huffs a laugh, the steady sound of his brush on paper filling the silence. “Just wait”, he says. “It’s only going to get worse.”
“The land of hot water?”, Karin repeats, scrunching her nose. “You really think fish-man is going to be there?”
Kakashi snorts, flipping through the bingo book. “Apparently, yes. But I don’t know why the Akatsuki would station him there either.”
Kakashi doesn’t know a whole lot about Kisame- he joined the Akatsuki after deserting kiri, in a similar way Itachi did. He followed orders his whole life, until it made him kill his comrades. He killed his superior and former wielded of samehada, and fled kiri. At some point, he was Itachi’s partner, and he died in the fourth shinobi war. Obito told Kakashi that Kisame wasn’t like most Akatsuki members- he was bloodthirsty, yes, but still followed his own code of honor. But Kakashi didn’t really care about any of that, to be honest- the only important thing to him was weather or not Kisame was going to stay in his way when it came to eradicating the Akatsuki or not.
“And you really won’t fight him?”, Karin asks quietly, squinting up at Kakashi. He huffs a laugh, bringing a hand down atop her head to ruffle her hair. “Not if I can help it, I promise. Anyway, it’s a long way to the land of hot water, so you won’t have to worry for quite some time.”
Karin scoffs, crossing her arms. “I’ll probably always have to worry with you.”
Kakashi makes a sound of dismay, shoving the girl lightly until she stumbles.
“Hey!”, she says, aiming a kick towards his ankle.
“Oh no”, Kakashi deadpans, falling over dramatically. “I’ve been struck. Help. I think I’m dying.”
“Get up, you oaf”, Karin says, kicking his side as he lies spread out like a starfish. “You’re lying in the middle of the road!”
“Nope”, Kakashi says. “I think I’m going to lie here until death inevitably takes me.”
“Kakashi!”, Karin hisses, annoyed, and kicks him harder. Kakashi ignores her. “Goodbye, world.”
“I hate you so much”, Karin says through gritted teeth.
Kakashi does get up after a while, only because Karin will break his ribs with her kicks, and that’s just going to be another nuisance Kakashi has to deal with. In retaliation for her preventing his peaceful death, Kakashi lifts her by the midsection and carries her the rest of the way until they have to settle down for the night, ignoring her kicking and screaming. It kind of fades into background noise at some point, so much that Kakashi misses the moment she gives up and goes limp in his grip.
“Alright”, he says, placing her on the ground. “Yu doesn’t have many caves, so we’re going to have to camp it out in the trees. Have you ever slept in a hammock before? It’s surprisingly comfortable.”
But Karin doesn’t answer, head cranked back as she stares towards something between the trees. Kakashi hesitates, frowning, before he relaxes the right grip on his chakra.
Without Karin, he wouldn’t have noticed, but… someone’s there. Kakashi inhales through his nose, and smells a distinct human scent beside the pine needles and dirt.
Karin and Kakashi exchange glances, and Kakashi straightens, slipping a kunai into his hand silently. “You can come out now”, he calls out. “There’s no point in hiding anymore.”
A minute passes without anything changing. Then, there’s a rustle, and a small figure appears on a tree branch above them.
Kakashi can’t make out much in the darkness, but he spies moonlight reflecting off a pair of glasses and silver hair framing a pale face. Kakashi barely manages to stop his body from reacting as his hand clenches around the kunai, and he sucks in a sharp breath.
Kabuto.
The boy on the branch is a far cry from the snake-faced creature he became in Kakashi’s old world, intent on taking his master’s place and destroying the world, but Kakashi still remembers the death and misery he caused. It’s hard to blink away the image of a scaled face to see the boy beneath, standing in front of Kakashi.
“You’re the one who killed Danzo”, Kabuto’s voice breaks the silence. Kakashi just blinks, mind. still caught up in his memories.
Right, Kabuto used to work for Danzo before he stuck to Orochimaru- he was a member of root and a spy, without proper identity, like a puppet in his masters’ hand until they died and he was left alone.
“You did”, the boy says with narrowed eyes, taking Kakashi’s silence as confirmation. He looks young, Kakashi thinks. He always did, even during the chunin exams, when he was already almost as old as Kakashi’s body is now. But there’s a darkness clinging to him that breaks the childish facade, a lack of emotion in his eyes and tension in his shoulders. Where before every movement and twitch of his face was carefully crafted to fit the mask he was wearing, now Kakashi can read him like a book. It’s jarring.
“Who are you?”, Karin asks as Kakashi remains frozen, getting to her feet as her hand slips into her kunai pouch. Kabutos eyes just flicker briefly to her, his eyes narrowing, before he refocuses on Kakashi, and he shifts, angling his body to hide Karin.
The boy blinks, before his expression changes. “I’m Katsuo. Danzo kept me as his secretary, before-“
“No you’re not”, Kakashi interrupts him. “Your name is Kabuto, isn’t it? You’re root.”
Kabuto’s hastily slapped on facade breaks into a million pieces as he gapes at Kakashi, face falling slack. “How did you-“, he starts, before stopping. “Ah, I see”, he says, pushing his glasses up his face. “So I wasn’t the only one Danzo hid away. I should’ve known.”
Kakashi narrows his eyes, but doesn’t say anything. If he wants to make assumptions so badly, then let him. It’s not like anybody can guess the truth.
“What do you want?”, he asks, because even if Kabuto is young right now, barely older than his genin were when Kakashi became sensei, it’s still Kabuto. Kakashi doesn’t trust him as far as he can throw him.
Kabuto stills for a second, scrutinizing him, and Kakashi stares right back.
The boy straightens, before jumping down from his branch to land in front of Kakashi. Karin startles back, hiding behind him, and Kakashi stares down at the boy coldly, unmoving.
“Now that you killed Danzo, are you the new leader of root?”
Kakashi blinks, frowning. “No. Root is disbanded- there is no new leader.”
Kabuto blinks, frowning. “That’s unreasonable. Root will collapse without a leader.”
Kakashi shrugs, not taking his eyes off Kabuto for an instant. “I don’t care. I was only after Danzo.” He shifts, narrowing his eye again. “I’m only going to ask this once more, kid: what do you want?”
Kabuto is silent for a moment, face wiped into a clean slate again. Then, the first hint of true emotion seems to shine though.
“Danzo didn’t give me any long-term orders”, he says. “I was supposed to be sent as a spy to another village after staying in iwa for two years.”
Right, Kakashi remembers vaguely- before being picked up by Orochimaru, Kabuto was a spy in practically every village. “That’s not my problem”, he says. “Go back to Konoha, I’m sure they’ll know what to do with you there.”
“No!”, Kabuto says, almost panicked, before he slams his mouth shut. “No- they- they’ll know what I’ve done. They’ll kill me.”
Kakashi hesitates, because- that’s real panic on Kabuto’s face, real and genuine fear. And- Kakashi can’t say that it isn’t warranted. Orders or not, Kabuto probably did a whole lot of atrocities in Danzo’s name- and he’s been out of Konoha for so long that they won’t be able to verify that he isn’t a spy. Kabuto’s future in Konoha doesn’t look bright if he turns himself in, Kakashi has to admit that.
Kakashi sighs, turning his head away as he thinks.
God, he really doesn’t want to deal with Kabuto of all people. He knows exactly what he became in his old world, knows exactly what he’s capable of. He should just kill him right here and now and save himself a bunch of problems in the future. He half-turns in his direction, mind already made up-
But- It’s not Kabuto’s snake-face that stares up at him, or his mask as innocent Konoha-nin. It’s a kid, scared, driven into a corner, with no way out.
“Please”, he says quietly, as if sensing what Kakashi’s thinking. “I- I don’t know what to do.”
Kakashi clenched his jaw, narrowing his eye.
He could be lying. He could be a spy, sent by Orochimaru to kill him in his sleep-
“Kakashi”, Karin says, tugging at his sleeve. “He’s not lying.”
Kakashi looks down, at the way she’s glancing at the boy with pity and hesitance. “He’s really really scared right now”, Karin whispers. “I don’t think he’s trying to trick us.”
Kakashi takes a deep breath, exhaling through his nose.
Fine. Fine. Why not get another child clinging to him like a leech. It’s not like he’s busy enough as it is.
But, Kakashi thinks as he glances Kabuto’s way again, he has to admit that keeping Kabuto close to him would be the best way of ensuring he never becomes what he did in Kakashi’s world ever again.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, echoes in Kakashi’s head, and he sighs.
“Fine, kid”, he says, lowering his kunai. “If you don’t know where to go, just stick with me. From now on, you do as I say, got it?”
Kabuto nods eagerly, straightening at his words, and Kakashi’s eye curves into a deadly smile. “And if you try to betray me, I’ll deliver you to Konoha’s doorsteps myself, understand?”
Kakashi would lie if he said that the way Kabuto pales doesn’t fill him with at least a little bit cruel satisfaction.
It’s tense in the conference room.
The clan heads sit grim-faced around the table. The chairs where the sandaime and his advisors used to reside in are empty. Dragon stands behind the Hokage, in full Anbu gear and snarling mask, Jiraiya and Orochimaru sit to Minato’s left and right. Ibiki sits in the back of the room, arms crossed, while Tenzo stands as straight as a rod next to him, face a blank slate.
Even Kushina is uncharacteristically silent, sitting next to Tsume.
“Alright”, Minato sighs. “Now that we’re all here, let’s begin.” He waves in Jiraiya’s direction, and the man stands up, moving to stand next to his former student.
He clears his throat once, throwing a glance towards Minato, who nods.
Jiraiya sighs, crossing his hands behind his back. “We found Danzo’s killer.”
That one single sentence sends ripples through the room like a stone thrown into a still lake. The clan heads straighten, dedicating their entire attention to Jiraiya.
“The man who killed Danzo… is a recently surfaced rouge nin known as hound.”, he says. And then, after a pause- “But his real name is Hatake Kakashi.”
It’s still for a single second before the room descends into chaos.
Orochimaru snaps his head towards his teammate, eyes wide. Shikaku sits with a deep frown pulling at his scars, staring at Minato and Jiraiya deep in thought. Tsume yells something as usual, accompanied by Kushina, who looks seconds away from shaking Jiraiya by his shoulders. Shibi descends into muttering, and most of the other clan heads don’t seem to trust their ears. Even Dragon shifts against the wall, tilting his head.
“Jiraiya-sama, are you absolutely sure?”, Shikaku asks, and the startled voices descend into a quiet mutter at his words.
“A hundred percent”, Jiraiya says, before recounting the entire story he already told Minato, Sakumo and Obito. Inoichi frowns more and more the more of the story is revealed, exchanging glances with Shikaku and Choza. Orochimaru’s gaze fades into the distance, a hand on his chin. Hiashi and Fugaku look deeply troubled, their usual blank faces pulled into frowns.
Jiraiya unseals the piece of Sasori’s puppets with the Raiton mark, and both immediately activate their dojutsu, but Obito already knows they won’t find anything besides a faint chakra residue at most. Tsume inhales deeply, nostrils flaring, but she doesn’t seem to be able to come to any conclusion.
“That’s the same technique that was used on Danzo, no doubt.”, Shikaku says, brushing his fingers along the charred wood, and Inoichi nods in confirmation next to him.
Jiraiya nods, resealing the piece of wood, and throws a piece of paper on the table. “This is him”, he says, as Kushina reaches for it and unfolds a face drawn in ink, an exact copy of the one Jiraiya gave Sakumo.
If anyone still doubted that hound was a Hatake, the sight of his face- albeit covered- was enough to suffocate any lingering doubt.
Even Obito had to admit that it looked quite a lot like him, from his usual place in the ceiling beam.
So this is Sukea really, he thinks as he passes his gaze over sharp grey eyes and a mop of silver hair.
As Jiraiya said, a scar cleanly bisects his left eye, passing over his closed eyelid and disappearing into his mask. Obito realizes that he’s maybe the only one that really saw hounds face- even if it was partially obscured by his fake clan markings.
“Does Sakumo know?”, Shikaku asks once the drawing is handed to him, staring down at it with his brows pulled together.
“Yes”, Jiraiya answers, already anticipating what everyone is thinking.
Inoichi looks up, eyebrows raised. “And? Is he-?”
“Probably”, Jiraiya says grimly, and the clan heads exchange glances. Tsume barks a bitter laugh, the sound of it bitter in the silent room. “Didn’t know he had it in him”, she mutters, looking sadly at the picture.
“How is he taking all of… this?”, Kushina asks, her lower lip trapped between her teeth. Minato and Jiraiya exchange glances, and the latter sighs. “As well as anyone would, in this situation.”
Silence spreads through the room again, until Hiashi clears his throat. “Well? Is that everything?”
Minato sighs, exchanging glances with Obito. “Unfortunately, no.”
Obito appears behind his sensei, in Jonin uniform this time, his anbu tattoo firmly covered. Most of the eyes turned in his direction don’t even blink at his appearance. He clears his throat, trying not to feel nervous as the attention of the most powerful shinobi in the village focuses on him, including his own clan head.
“I encountered Hound a few days ago in the police headquarters”, he starts, ignoring Fugaku’s confused frown at the news. “He was in disguise, and gave me a false name, which is why I only realized after I met him that he’d infiltrated Konoha. He convinced my coworker that he was an intern that wanted to take a look around, and he didn’t check for any paperwork before handing him off to me.” Fucking Inabi, Obito thinks again, vowing to make his life as difficult as possible in the future. “It only came up later that he didn’t show up in the hospital’s register, and I ended up connecting the dots after I heard Jiraiya’s news.”
“Are you sure it was hound?”, Shikaku asks, and Jiraiya nods next to him. “Yes. He used make-up to cover his scar, and generally matches hounds build and complexion. If he can infiltrate Konoha as anbu, he can infiltrate Konoha as a regular shinobi as well.”
Shikaku hums at that, glancing in Minato’s direction. “Well? Do we have any leads to where he came from?”
Minato and Jiraiya exchange glances, and Jiraiya twists his mouth as Minato turns back around. “Well… we have a theory- it’s a little far-fetched, but the only thing that would make sense, at this point.”
Shikaku leans back in his chair with a knowing him as Inoichi raises his eyebrows. “Well? What is it?”
“Root.”, Fugaku speaks up before Minato can answer, causing a few heads to turn in his direction. “You think its root, don’t you?”, he repeats, face stuck in his usual frown. Tenzo shifts uncomfortably in the back, a look of unease in his face.
“…Yes”, Minato says. “If hound was born in the village and indoctrinated into root just like the other ones, no one would have noticed his existence until he killed Danzo. It explains how he was able to bypass our wards and why he had access to an anbu uniform and knew the Konoha hand signs, as well as his general familiarity with the village. It’s not hard to think that one of Danzo’s agents might have snapped at some point and killed him, before fleeing.”
“But there are arguments against it?”, Shikaku asks to clarify, already one step ahead of everyone else in the room.
Jiraiya crosses his arms. “He doesn’t behave like a brainwashed root agent does- he’s not a blank slate like the rest of them, there’s no trace of Danzo’s conditioning, like cat- no offense, kid.” Tenzo hums, dismissing his apology with a dip of his head.
“Beside that, I just didn’t get the feeling that I was talking to someone with the kind of background we’re imagining. I can’t help but think that he would’ve answered differently to my questions. And beside that, there’s still the question of what his deal is with the Akatsuki.”
“About that”, Minato says, taking out a stack of files from underneath his desk. “I researched Danzo’s documents- there is a connection to the Akatsuki.”
Everyone collectively leans forward as Minato spreads out the files, trying to catch a glimpse, and Obito too inspects them curiously.
“About ten years ago, during the third war, Danzo was working very closely with Hanzo the salamander”, Minato says. Jiraiya and Orochimaru grimace collectively at the name, and Obito recalls that the sannin faced him, allegedly- and lost.
“While he was there, there was a group of rag-tag ninja that didn’t belong to Hanzo, that started calling themselves the Akatsuki. However, it seems like their goals and members were completely different from what we know of them now- the only thing connecting them is the name.”
“The Akatsuki are based in Ame”, Jiraiya mutters, and Minato nods. “As it seems, they were a thorn in Danzo’s eye, because he deliberately manipulated the two groups into killing each other.”
Minato frowns, taking hold of a mission report. “They are documented as terminated in Danzo’s files, and the only other thing about them is a report of a member of root being sent to spy on Sasori.”
“Could that have been him?”, Inoichi asks, leaning forward curiously, but Minato shakes his head. “No. The root member listed here is too young. I already found his file- his documented name is Kabuto.”
Minato’s eyes flicker to the back of the room, where Tenzo stands. “Cat”, he calls, and Tenzo straightens. “Do you recognize him?”
Tenzo moves through the room with stiff movements, stopping to peer at a file over Minato’s shoulder.
“…No”, he answers, frowning. “I’m sorry, Hokage-sama.”
Obito’s brows twist together at his words- he’d thought that Tenzo must know all root members, since he’s been part of it practically since birth. But if there are members he’s never seen before, that could very well mean that there is a possibility of hound being a former root member, despite what Jiraiya says.
“There’s something we’re missing in regards to the Akatsuki”, Shikaku speaks up. “Maybe there’s something that happened with them and hound during the war that triggered him hunting them down now.”
“That’s what I thought as well, yes”, Minato says with a shrug, and Shikaku rubs at his eyes. “Troublesome…”
“Hokage-sama”, a new voice speaks up. Obito looks up into the face of Sarutobi Kazuma, the Sarutobi clan’s brand new clan head. Her dark eyes are focused on Minato, who meets her dead on. “Now that we’ve debriefed this information, what is our course of action regarding Hatake Kakashi, or hound? If he really is root, should we offer him a place back in the village, or label him a missing nin?”
Uneasy glances are exchanged between the gathered shinobi, as everyone contemplates about the question everyone was thinking but too cowardly to say. But it’s a justified question- if hound was root, he was a Konoha nin, and therefore their responsibility.
“I think… that it’s definitely a sensitive matter”, Minato says carefully, hands folded neatly on the table as he maintains eye contact with Kazuma. “As Hound is right now, I think formally reaching out to him might not be a good idea- from what Jiraiya reported, he isn’t keen on talking to anyone, and I’d imagine he wouldn’t be particularly friendly toward Konoha nin either. And as long as his connection to Konoha doesn’t become obvious, I don’t see a reason to label him missing nin or to put a bounty on his head.” Minato tilts his head in thought, fingers grazing his chin. “I’ll think about how to approach him at a later date. For now, our biggest concern are still the leftover root agents.”
Agreeing mutters spread through the room at his words, even though some don’t look convinced yet. Especially Shikaku stares at the Hokage like he’s close to figuring something out, but that’s not unusual of him. Slowly, the conversation topic shifts back to root, every clan reporting how the attempt at reintegrating the members into their clans went. Hound fades to the background, his picture forgotten on the table, and no one even notices when Obito picks it up and frowns down at it.
Was Sukea- Hound- Kakashi- really a root agent? What did he want in the police headquarters, and why was his goal hunting down the Akatsuki?
Who are you?, Obito asks the painted face silently, but it remains stubborn, glaring up at Obito with cold eyes. In the end, Obito sighs, folding it and stuffing it away in his flak jacket. He still sees Hound’s eyes before him, staring over his mask, through the empty eyeholes of an anbu mask, through brown contact lenses and half-closed eyelids.
Obito wants to hunt him down, to take his shoulders and shake, to force him to spill all his mysteries. But for now, he stays a silent picture in Obito’s vest and mind.
Still, Obito can’t help but ask over and over again, even knowing he won’t get an answer:
Who are you?
“So… your name’s Kakashi, isn’t it? But everyone has been calling you hound.”
Kakashi’s eye twitches, but he keeps staring straight ahead stubbornly.
“How did you kill Danzo? You must be strong if you managed to survive- and I thought all root agents were basically brainwashed puppets at this point.”
Ignore it and it will go away, Kakashi chants in his head, walking faster. To his dismay, the sound of hasty footsteps behind him prove that his new pest isn’t letting him go that easily.
“Why are you after the Akatsuki anyway? They didn’t work together with Danzo, if that’s what you’re thinking, I’d know since-“
“Please”, Kakashi hisses, stopping in his tracks, “stop talking.”
Kabuto a mouth snaps shut as he looks to the ground, and Karin grins evilly next to him. Kakashi sighs, rubbing his temples.
“Alright”, he says, letting his hand fall. “If this is going to work, we’re going to have to lay some ground rules.”
Kabuto looks up hesitantly, blinking up at him behind his ridiculously big glasses, and Kakashi tries to ignore the thing in the back of his mind whispering pup.
No, he hisses back. Snake. Edo Tensei. Orochimaru. Don’t forget.
The voice grumbles, receding into a far corner of his brain, and Kakashi locks the metaphorical door and throws away the key.
“First of all”, he starts, “no questions about Danzo, Konoha, root, the Akatsuki, any of it. It doesn’t concern you and it’s better if you stay out of it. Both of you”, he says with a glance to Karin, who shoes in outrage. “But-!”
“No buts”, Kakashi says sternly. “You’re children. Karin, you don’t even have proper training. You could die, for fu- for god’s sake.”
Karin opens her mouth in protest again, but Kakashi cuts her off. “Secondly”, he says, directed towards Kabuto again. “Whatever you’re thinking about me and root, stop it. The only thing you need to know is that I’m hunting down the Akatsuki. That’s my only goal. I’m not affiliated to Konoha or anyone, and that’s not going to change. And third”, he says, with a sigh, “From now on, you are too. Forget about root, forget about Konoha. As long as you follow me, you’re free. The only one you have to listen to is me. And Karin”, he adds on as an afterthought, and the girl grins self-satisfied. Kabuto frowns down at her, scrutinizing her smaller body and height that’s a whole head shorter than him, but knows wiser than to protest, so he only nods.
“Alright”, Kakashi says with a tired sigh. “For now, the only thing you need to know is that we’re going to the land of hot water to look for Hoshigaki Kisame. Clear?”
Kabuto looks up with wide eyes, straightening. “Oh. I know where he is. Do you want me to report, Sir?”
Kakashi stares down at him. “How…?”
“Before he died, Danzo assigned me to spy on Sasori of the red sand”, Kabuto says. “And, well- I can’t do that anymore since you killed him as well. Since he was a member of the Akatsuki, I know quite a lot about it.”
Kabuto smirks, the look of someone who knows exactly what cards to play and when on his face. I’m useful, don’t you see?, his eyes seem to say.
Kakashi sighs. This is, to borrow the Nara’s favorite word, troublesome.
“I guess you can stay after all”, Kakashi grumbles, and Kabuto beams. “Spill”, he orders, and Kabuto happily opens his mouth, skipping along Kakashi and Karin.
“So, there’s this village at the border, with one of the biggest bounty stations in the elemental nations…”
Obito paces up and down in the police headquarter’s archives. By now, he knows the damn files lining the shelves by memory, every scroll and loose piece of paper, every report and every name ever listed, but he doesn’t get any wiser by checking everything for the twentieth time that night.
Nothing is out of place, not even a speck of dust is missing, and yet Obito knows that he’s missing something.
Hound must have wanted something, for donning a disguise and infiltrating Konoha. Obito didn’t think he did it just to take a look around, especially not if Shikaku and Minato and everyone are right and he really is root. The only thing of note in the headquarters are the archives, bursting with sensitive information, and yet it seems that Hound didn’t touch any of it.
Obito sighs, leaning against the opposite bookshelf. He closes his eyes, trying to remember every possible detail of his short meeting with Hound-as-Sukea, anything he said that might have held more meaning than Obito realized.
“Sometimes boring is nice”, he said, with a smile, when Obito brought up the archives. His hair curled slightly on his forehead, and Obito remembers his gaze, slightly wistful, looking to the side as if he couldn’t bear making eye contact with Obito directly.
“I don’t mind rearranging shelves”, he said, followed by a quip at Obito’s expense, he remembers that- remembers thinking that Sukea was more than a quiet facade, that he even had a sense of humor.
“I was just curious, I guess”, he said when Obito asked him why he wanted to work with the police. “It doesn’t hurt to take a look, right?”
Looking back, Obito doesn’t think he was talking about the police force at all.
He seemed sad, Obito realizes. His posture, his voice, his eyes- like there was a heavy weight dragging him down. Even when he joked or smiled at him- it was like invisible binds clung to his limbs, restricting his movements.
Obito frowns, opening his eyes. Maybe he’s thinking too much into this.
His thought process is interrupted by the squeaking of the rusty hinges as the door to the archives swings open. Inabi walks through, carrying a stack of books that he places down on an empty shelf with a grunt, sending a cloud of dust into the air.
“Oh, hey Obito”, he says once he spots him leaned against the shelves. “Here again?”
Obito shrugs with a pressed smile, averting his eyes.
“Well, I’m just about to finish up and go home here”, Inabi says, dusting off his hands. “Just remember to lock the door before you leave.”
Obito hums in agreement, even though he’ll probably end up sleeping here just like the day before- he couldn’t bring himself to leave before he found what he was looking for.
“While you’re at it- do you mind checking the new order of bingo books that came in a few weeks ago?”, Inabi asks. “It’s the Konoha version- there should be at least fifty, Fugaku wanted us to check them over before distributing them over to everyone.”
Obito could say a lot of things in response- like why Inabi didn’t check them himself and why he waited entire weeks, but he just sighs and nods. What’s one more thing to do? Maybe it will even take his mind off the Hound case for a while.
Inabi leaves, and Obito hears him rummaging around outside the archives as he gets ready to leave, and Obito steps back from the shelves and makes his way towards the back, where a stack of brand new bingo books rests, waiting to be unpacked.
It’s the newest version, but that doesn’t mean much- the bingo books are renewed at least once a month, since there are constantly new missing nin popping up and disappearing again, but since they’re not at war anymore it’s rare for any shinobi from the elemental nations to gain enough attention to be listed.
Curiously, Obito takes one book out of the cardboard box and flicks it open. It wouldn’t have any information on Konoha nin, since it’s the version of Konoha, and Obito’s a little disappointed because he’s made it a game of looking which village has the most accurate information of him- kumo’s book a few months ago had a pretty cool picture of him, shot during battle- he knows Minato-sensei tore it out and kept it pinned to his picture wall.
Still, Obito finds a few familiar faces while he leads through the pages. There’s the four other kage, obviously, with a red flee on sight order marked where the bounty would be, followed by the strongest nin of every nation that managed to make a name of themselves during the war. It’s only when it comes to the missing nin section, that it gets interesting.
Sasori’s face stares back at him towards the middle of the book, and Obito frowns at the thought that he’s already dead. Killed by hound. He flips the page, hesitating.
Hoshigaki Kisame- wasn’t he a member of the Akatsuki as well? Was that going to be Hound’s next victim?
Huh. Who knows.
Obito continues reading the book, but no other Akatsuki members appear, even though there must be more. He wonders if Hound knows more about them than he does.
And then, towards the back of the book- Hound himself.
His drawn picture doesn’t look as detailed as the one Jiraiya passed around, but the rough features are present- mask, weird, gravity-defying hair and fair skin- his scar is partially obscured by an eyepatch over his left eye. Huh. Jiraiya didn’t say anything about an eyepatch.
Curiously, Obito’s eyes glide over the listed information.
Name: unknown
Alias: Hound
Affiliation: none
Rank: estimated A-S rank
Age: estimated around 20
Gender: estimated male
Description: average height, slim build, pale skin. Wears a mask and eyepatch (left), vertical scar over left eye, eye color: grey, hair color: silver
Abilities: largely unknown, estimated high-level kenjutsu and taijutsu
Obito raises an eyebrow at the listed bounty- quite a lot for an unaffiliated nin. He wonders who Hound pissed off that badly.
Sighing, Obito snaps the book shut. This is already an outdated version anyway- Obito could fill in most of the blanks himself by now.
He stuffs the book back into the box, continuing his inspection. How many did Inabi say there were? Fifty?
Obito counts the books, hesitating as he comes to an end. He must have miscounted. Again, he checks the books, tapping each with his finger.
…forty-seven, forty-eight, forty-nine. Still the same result.
Frowning, Obito lifts the boxes, even searching the floor for the missing book. But- no matter where he looks, it doesn’t show up. Did Inabi misunderstand? No, unlikely. If it said fifty on the box, there should be fifty books inside.
Obito sighs, staring down at the books. If Inabi lost one by accident somehow, he’ll-
Wait.
No. There’s no way.
Obito turns slowly, walking to the door before turning on his heel.
It’s possible, he realizes. From here, he would’ve been unable to see if Sukea passed the shelf with the boxes. And they’ve been there a few weeks already- so he really could’ve swiped one without anyone noticing. Obito barks an incredulous laugh, raising a hand to his temples.
Out of all the things in the archive, out of all the files and scrolls and documents, he takes a goddamn bingo book?
Obito is going to strangle Hound if he ever sees him again.
“Huh. Wolves?”, Kabuto asks as Kakashi summons his pack, in the cover of the forest after they had to leave the safety of the road.
Kakashi just hums, scratching Gumi behind the ears. Shio and Kosho sniff Kabuto curiously, and Kakashi quirks a smile at the way the boy pales as their teeth come a little too close to his face.
“I thought the only ones with wolf summons were-“, Kabuto starts, before he snaps his mouth shut, and stares up at Kakashi with a calculating gaze. Kakashi rolls his eye, turning away from the boy. It doesn’t matter- sooner or later everyone will know anyways.
“Stay here- I’m checking the perimeter”, Kakashi instructs Karin and Kabuto, walking away with Ginji at his heel until he’s out of earshot.
“Shut up”, he says once he sees the wolf’s smug grin.
“I’m not saying anything”, the wolf says.
“But you’re thinking it”, Kakashi counters. “Stop it. He’s not my- my pup, or something. He’s the enemy. I’m just keeping an eye on him.”
“Uh-huh”, Ginji says, unconvinced. “Like you’re keeping an eye on Karin?”
“That’s different”, Kakashi says, but the argument sounds weak to his ears even before he says it. “She’s innocent. Kabuto… is not.”
Really?, the damned voice whispers in Kakashi’s head again. He’s just a kid.
I was his age when I became Jonin, Kakashi reminds himself. He stopped being a kid the moment Danzo snatched him away.
It’s not his fault. Can you blame him if he hasn’t done any of the things you accuse him of?
Shut up, me, Kakashi tells himself, sighing. He’s really reaching a new low if he’s starting to argue with himself.
Ginji just watches him with a knowing gaze, and Kakashi glowers down at him.
“Okami-sama will be proud.”
“Shut up, Gin.”
He instructs his wolves to keep an eye on Kabuto- just in case he tries anything, even if he already seems pretty impressed by the wolves in general.
Rawa pointedly positions herself between him and Karin when it’s time to settle down for the night, and Kabuto swallows at the growl she sends his way. He ends up settled against a tree a good few paces away from Kakashi, Karin and the wolves, curling up alone amidst the roots.
Good, Kakashi thinks, ignoring the pang of pity he has at the sight. It’s summer, anyways- he won’t freeze to death, or something. This is not like Karin- Kakashi needs to keep his distance.
Even though he knows his wolves are watching, Kakashi doesn’t sleep the entire night, hand clenched around a kunai, startling at every small noise. Ginji throws him a look in the morning, when he looks like death warmed over, and Kakashi ignores him.
Kabuto eats his own rations in the morning- good, because Kakashi isn’t going to share with him- and keeps up as Kakashi takes to the trees without needing to be carried by his wolves like Karin.
They travel the entire day, and Kabuto doesn’t protest once at Kakashi’s brutal pace or lack of breaks- he must be used to this, if he was in root.
Kakashi does stop for the night earlier than he usually would, but only because he can feel the poison residue taking its toll again on his body.
He coughs as Karin gets a fire started, leaning against a tree tiredly. It could be worse, he tries to remind himself as his vision swims. I could be dead.
“Kakashi-sama”, he hears a voice, and he squints up as a grey blob comes closer. “Are you hurt?”
Ah right, his new headache. “Go away”, he grumbles, waving a hand. The blob doesn’t go away, instead hovering in his field of vision hesitantly.
“What’s wrong?”, says another voice, and a red blob joins the grey one as they peer down at Kakashi.
“I’m… not sure”, voice number one says. “But he’s showing signs of illness. Unfocused eyes, clammy skin, elevated temperature-“
“Let me check.”
The red blob comes closer, and Kakashi feels a small hand press against his forehead. He makes a sound of dismay, slapping it away half-heartedly.
“Hm. It really does seem like he has a bit of a fever. It’s probably just the leftover effects of the poison.”
Karin, you idiot, Kakashi thinks as grey blob perks up. “Poison? He was poisoned?”
“…yeah. A few days ago. I think he still hasn’t fully recovered, even if he doesn’t tell me anything.”
Grey blob wavers, shifting in and out of focus from Kakashi’s gaze.
“Kakashi-sama, I’m going to come closer, okay? I’m a trained med nin, I can help you.”
Kakashi growls, catching a hand in his grip as someone tries to touch him. He hears a breath hitch and smells fear as the person in his grasp stills.
“Kakashi.”, he hears Karin say, and a familiar weight settles into his side. Wolf fur brushes against his back, and Kakashi relaxes hesitantly, loosening his grip.
A small, cold hand settles against his forehead, thrumming with healing chakra, and Kakashi sighs in relief as the headache he didn’t know he was having recedes immediately.
“Told you”, says a voice smugly, and Kakashi grunts in protest. “This doesn’t mean I trust you, or anything”, he slurs, squinting. Kabuto’s face sharpens into focus momentarily, but it’s different, scaly, with yellow slotted eyes. “Still a snake”, Kakashi mutters.
“…Yeah, He’s delirious”, Karin says with a sigh.
“Ugh”, Kakashi says as he wakes up, squinting his eye against the morning light. Fuck. “How long was I out?”, he asks as he sits up, feeling a familiar weight leave his chest.
“It’s midday, pup”, Ginji says cheerfully as he sniffs his face. “That’s what you get for pushing yourself too hard.”
“Where’s Karin?”, Kakashi asks as he looks around and finds the surroundings empty besides his wolves. “And Kabuto?”
“They went to a nearby river to gather water”, Ginji says, rolling his eyes as Kakashi sits up in alarm. “Alone?”
“Of course not. Rawa and Gumi are with them. Relax.”
Kakashi sits back down from where he was already half-ready to sprint to the river, closing his eyes as the world begins to spin slightly. “Ugh.”
“Take it easy, pup.”, he hears Ginji say. “The land of hot water isn’t going anywhere.”
Kakashi sighs, rubbing a hand over his eyes. He should’ve known that he wasn’t going to be able to just jump back up again and run around as usual after Sasori’s poison. Still, Kabuto just had to show up when he was at his lowest.
Kakashi dozes off again more or less and actually feels like a person again once familiar voices reach his ears.
“Kakashiii!”, Karin calls out, running up to him once she sees him awake. “Feeling better? Kabuto did that weird hand-glowy-thing and said it would make you feel better, and then you fell asleep! Do you want water?”
Kakashi accepts with a grateful nod, eyeing Kabuto as he comes closer slowly behind her.
The boy offers a thin smile, shifting uneasily under his gaze.
Kakashi clears his throat, lowering the water skin. “Thank you. For healing me”, he says. “You didn’t have to.”
Kabuto shrugs, averting his eyes. “It wasn’t a big deal. I’m glad I could help though.”
Kakashi sighs, leaning his head back against the tree. Fuck. Now he has to keep him.
“We’re staying here for the day”, Kakashi announces once his head doesn’t feel like a swamp anymore. “I think I’m going pass out if I stand up.”
“That would be… bad”, Kabuto says intelligently. Kakashi rolls his eyes and immediately regrets it.
“If I may ask… is it Sasori’s poison that is making you ill?”, Kabuto asks, and Kakashi sighs. Might as well tell him at this point.
“Yes. Although it didn’t kill me, it will probably take a while for it to leave my system.”
Kabuto hums, scrutinizing him from behind his glasses, and Kakashi stares back. “What?”
“Nothing”, the boy says quickly, looking away. “Just… I spent a lot of time examining Sasori’s poison- I think… with the right ingredients, I could even make an antidote.”
Kakashi opens his eye fully, staring at Kabuto. “…Huh.”
He should’ve known- Kabuto wasn’t known as a prodigy for nothing.
“And what do you want in return?”, Kakashi asks, because there’s always a prize, always-
“Nothing!”, Kabuto says hurriedly, shaking his head. “Just… just being here, that’s enough.”
Kakashi narrows his eye at him in suspicion. “Kid. Why do you want to follow me so badly? You’re free now that Danzo’s dead. You could go anywhere.”
Kakashi would’ve thought he was a spy, sent by Orochimaru or even Konoha, if Karin wasn’t so adamant that he was genuine.
Kabuto bites his lip, looking down. “Danzo… controlled my whole life”, Kabuto says, frowning bitterly. “Even if I wanted to go back to how things were… I can’t, thanks to him.” He looks up, meeting eyes with Kakashi. Fury burns in them, an old kind of resentment, carefully cultivated over the years. “You killed Danzo, so if anyone deserves my loyalty, it’s you. Not Konoha, who left me to rot with him, not any of the other villages who would’ve killed me in a heartbeat if they knew who I really was. I don’t have a purpose in life anymore. But maybe… I can find a new one if I stay with you.”
Kakashi stares at him, searching for any kind of sign that he’s lying, that he’s deceiving him- and finds none.
He sighs, closing his eyes as he leans back. “Fine”, he says. “Fine, you brat.”
Even with his eyes closed, he knows Kabuto’s smiling at him.
After their conversation, Kabuto fervently threw himself into crafting an antidote to Sasori’s poison, dragging Karin everywhere to help him gather ingredients. He said they were lucky that he already amassed quite a lot of things he needed from suna, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to make it. Kakashi just lets his excited rambling and medical jargon wash over him with an occasional hum, playing his role as sick patient and leaving Karin to handle him.
By the time the sun sets, Kakashi feels almost back to normal, and the sickly feeling of the poison has receded back into his body, hiding it’s time until it can break out again like an ever-occurring illness or particularly nasty acne.
The kids are already sleeping as Kakashi does one last perimeter check, and then Karin startles awake with a start.
“I can sense someone”, she whispers. “Two. They’re strong, and they’re coming our way.”
Kakashi straightens immediately, waking his wolves with a quiet whistle. Kabuto opens his eyes at the noise, kunai already in hand, and Karin places a hand on his arm and shushes him.
Silently, Karin points in the right direction, and Kakashi takes off, chakra suppressed into a sliver and Ginji hot on his heels.
Kakashi only senses them until he’s right above them- and freezes.
Below him, on the road, illuminated by the moonlight, stand two figures Kakashi last remembers burying on a cliff in wave country.
He doesn’t have time to do more than gape before the talker of the two raises his head in his direction, eyes glinting dangerously over his bandages.
“Evening”, Momochi Zabuza says with a savage grin. “You’re looking for Hoshigaki Kisame, right? Mind if we tag along?”
It feels strange, packing for a mission again after such a long time.
Sakumo practically retired after the war- after losing his arm in that one faithful mission, really- the war after that is a single long blur in his memory, but what he knows for certain is that he vowed to never leave Konoha again, to never pick up a sword and fight in his village’s name again.
Strange, how things change.
His wolves watch him with knowing gazes as he stuffs ration bars and soldier pills into his backpack, as he digs out the old kunai and shuriken and fills up his unused kunai pouch and holster. Sakumo does everything with the usual methodical movements, even if it’s a little difficult without an arm. But he’s had almost thirteen years to adapt, and adapt he did.
Only when he grasps for his old tanto, he hesitates.
There was a time- after his failed mission, after everything went to shit- that he looked at the sword, wielded by generations and generations of Hatake before him, and wondered. Wondered if anyone would even really notice, if he just quietly disappeared one day, if anyone would care, or if he would become just another stone in the graveyard, overgrown with moss and eroded by time.
He found himself staring at the blade often, asking himself how much it would hurt to slide that sword through his guts, feel his life slowly seep from him.
He’s left wondering, in the end. Maybe he’s too cowardly. Maybe it’s the handful of names in the memorial stone, gone forever along with his arm, that pull him back from the edge. Maybe it were his friends, few as they are, that coaxed him back to life bit by bit, until the weight on his shoulders didn’t feel like it would suffocate him anymore.
He’s grateful, he really is, that fate decided that his time to die hadn’t come yet. Because now, he has things he needs to do that he wouldn’t have been able to do if he’d died.
He closes a hand around his tanto, holding it in front of him for a second. His grey eyes reflect back at him, and for a second it’s not his eyes but Kakashi’s, same but different. Sakumo takes a deep breath, and sheaths the sword on his back, where it belongs, and where it has always belonged.
“Getting ready to leave?”
Sakumo turns his head, blinking as Jiraiya steps through the door. He sees the way his eyes linger on the Konoha headband strapped to his arm, his uniform, his sword, but he can see that Jiraiya isn’t surprised- he probably guessed it would come to this the moment he told him about his son.
Sakumo quietly closes his bagpack, hanging it over one shoulder as he stands up. He’s back in his uniform, just about to set out on a mission- Sakumo thinks he probably won’t recognize himself when he looks in the mirror.
“Yes”, he answers, standing straight.
Jiraiya hums, eyes catching on his empty sleeve that hangs down at his side. Sakumo makes a mental note to cut it off as soon as possible, like he did with all his other long-sleeved shirts.
“Well”, Jiraiya says with a sigh. “Don’t let me keep you.”
Sakumo smiles, stepping past his old friend. His wolves slowly begin to stand up, following him, like they always do. “As if you could.”
Jiraiya huffs a laugh, turning in the doorway. Sakumo takes a deep breath as his feet touch the green grass before his front door, turning around.
This time, Jiraiya is the one seeing him off in the house, and Sakumo is the one who’s leaving.
“Good luck”, Jiraiya says with a grin, and Sakumo grins back.
“Thanks”, he says, turning his back towards the door to his compound that he hasn’t left in years. “I don’t need it.”