Chapter Text
000
Kakashi has never missed the battlefield. When he wakes up on one – the earth hungrily drinking the still warm blood of the fallen shinobi strewn about it – he can't fight the tight coil burning like ice in the middle of his chest.
It is not too long since the Fourth Shinobi World War has ended, mere weeks, its wounds are still too raw and the sight greeting Kakashi cuts deep into them, bringing fresh pain and blood to the surface.
In spite of any distress he might be experiencing, Kakashi is a trained ninja first and foremost. After a quick inspection of his physical condition – no injuries, chakra levels alarmingly, but somehow unsurprisingly low – he pushes himself upright and regrets not doing it slower.
For a moment, the world tilts nauseatingly to the side and he only has a couple of seconds to yank down his mask before he bends over, spilling his guts out. The bile is burning the flesh of his throat and when his stomach is totally empty, he heaves dry coughs over the mess on the ground. He forces himself to calm down, wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt, then pulls his mask back up and surveys the area once again.
There are no threats, no people, other than the corpses resting on the battered ground. Almost a hundred of them scattered over the wide rocky plain; he recognizes the uniforms of various villages on the bodies closest to him.
In the sinister glow of the moon, a lone and pale specter on the infinite night sky, they are a somber and unmistakable vestige of the carnage which has come to pass.
Kakashi pointedly ignores the renewed sickness spreading out from his chest to his stomach.
What he wants is to go over and inspect the traces left by the battle, figure out what happened and how the hell he ended up here, but his limbs feel like they're made of lead.
Instead, he drags himself to the large boulder lodged into the earth a couple of yards to his left, settling himself tiredly against it, and beats his brains out trying to remember what the hell happened.
Unfortunately, the last clear memory of his is him going comfortably to sleep in the safety of his own bed. After the war. His loose sleeping pants and shirt (mask attached) are testimony to that. A frown mars his face as he surveys the field stretching before him.
There is something in the way the bodies lie on the ground; he can smell the blood, offensive and familiar to his sensitive nose, but he can see no kunai thrown and the earth looks perfectly undisturbed when any jutsu would've left at least a trace behind after its use. Still, the remnant whiff of chakra is chilling, unmistakable.
Kakashi feels his mind working in a baffling, growing confusion. Was there a battle between the villages that Konoha hadn't been aware of? It seems impossible considering the note on which the Fourth Shinobi War has ended, but he can clearly see shinobi dressed in the uniforms of Kumo and Kiri. Rogues perhaps, but he can't see their forehead protectors.
And still, the image before him is difficult to place among the way the world has been going after the war. Peace, as much as it is fragile, was clear in the distance. So what happened?
His flourishing thoughts come suddenly to an abrupt halt when Kakashi's senses spike in warning of an unknown approaching party. They might be enemies; they might be friends – it doesn't matter.
Kakashi, dressed up for sleep and not for confrontation, forces his muscles to move and dashes to the nearest body, a dozen yards from him, steals a kunai and makes a voiceless apology to the dead shinobi.
While doing so, his eyes catch for a brief moment on the nin's hitai-ate, which only helps to strengthen his confusion and the deeply unsettling sensation in his bones.
The kanji for shinobi is etched into the metal.
There is no time to dwell on it though and Kakashi crawls in the small crook between two upheaved rocks – inconspicuous among the many others on the vast and open rocky terrain, keeping his chakra tightly under control as to pass unobserved, only seconds before three individuals arrive on the battlefield.
He can't see them from his position, but the three ninjas don't make any effort in concealing their presence.
Kakashi can hear them moving in stern silence around the vast field, checking the bodies for survivors.
There aren't any.
"No survivors over here," a voice calls loudly, tinged with a grim resignation.
Kakashi freezes at the familiarity in it and his skin suddenly feels too tight for him, something twisting achingly in his chest.
It should be impossible.
This voice.
Perhaps he could have skeptically deemed the bizarreness of his current situation as something possible—highly improbable, but possible nonetheless—but this?
Kakashi is tempted to form the hand sign for releasing genjustus, but in case the situation does turn out to be real—instinctively he knows it is—he is unable to do so with the other three shinobi in his proximity.
Of course, unless he plans to be discovered.
"Yeah," another answers in the same tone and Kakashi recognizes this one as Genma's.
Some of the tension involuntarily leaves his body, but the impression of wrongness continues to persist.
What exactly is going on?
"Man, this is straight up slaughter... Raidō?"
"All dead here as well," Raidō says.
"Shit..." Genma drawls.
Kakashi can picture him grimacing around his senbon, can hear it in his words, and because of the fact that these are people he knows, his fellow Konoha ninjas, his comrades – no matter how odd the circumstances or the impossibility of that voice – Kakashi slowly steps out of his hiding spot.
His hands form the sign for dispelling illusions.
"Kai!" he says, pulling his chakra tight and then flaring it in order to disrupt his chakra flow.
Nothing happens. Not that Kakashi actually expects anything different.
The closest of the three, Genma, immediately turns around to face him. His eyes widen for a moment in surprise and recognition, and he instantly adopts a defensive stance.
In less than three seconds, the other two shinobi are by his side in similar positions.
It's true, Kakashi wasn't expecting to be jumped on with flowers and kisses in greeting, but the killing intent radiating off off the three men stuns him to a halt.
He is so stunned, in fact, that for a millisecond he doesn't even acknowledge the ninja flanked in between Genma and Raidō.
When he does finally acknowledge him, Kakashi is so stunned that all of his thoughts become mushed together in an incomprehensible mess and all he can do is stare and stare and continue to stare, the whole world forgotten.
It feels like a déjà vu.
The mess that are his brains is mirrored perfectly by an even bigger mess which are his feelings. A dangerous cocktail of puzzlement, disbelief, regret and unconsumed grief brews like a storm under his skin, its focal point being his rapidly beating heart.
It is all too much.
For a second time that night, Kakashi's world tilts – this time trying to rearrange itself according to all the absurd information he has gathered.
Obito.
Obito, alive and well, dressed in standard shinobi uniform, is practically glaring at Kakashi. His left eye is covered with the cloth from his forehead protector and the scars marring the right side of his face twist at once with his scowl.
The next moments are spent in a tense silence on the part of the three ninjas and a stupefied one on Kakashi's.
Despite everything, Kakashi is quickly recovering. The gears in his mind start working again, even if that means storing and locking away the fact that Obito is right there in front of him, even though he is dead. Supposed to be dead.
With at least half of his brain functioning again, Kakashi is vaguely aware that this can't be any world he knows.
Everything is too twisted, all the pieces of information point in that direction, but no matter what perverted parallel dimension he might be in, these are people he would trust with his life. Because no matter what perverted parallel dimension he might be in, he can't imagine a world where these people would be anything but good at heart.
Even luckless, misguided Obito, for all the evil he had done, was nothing else than a broken man with shattered dreams, who had proven in the end that deep down, he was still the hero whom Kakashi has worshipped for years, the hero who died for his friends and who unknowingly shaped the rest of Kakashi's life with his sacrifice.
Even more than that, the three of them are wearing the hitai-ate of the Allied Shinobi Forces and Kakashi trusts them, even though they evidently don't trust him. The recognition which flashed on Genma's face coupled with their instant reaction of jumping into defense steer Kakashi's thoughts in a direction he doesn't really want to be going.
So, he doesn't think—not yet—about who he might be in this world.
Cautiously, slowly, Kakashi drops his stolen kunai and raises his arms in a placating manner, praying to the sky that they will take this for the olive branch that it is and not instantly try to kill him.
With his exhaustive lack of chakra, making an escape would prove to be just a little bit difficult.
They tense, all three of them, but don't make any move, to Kakashi's relief.
"Maa," he says with deceptive nonchalance and composure as to not betray his own distress and anxiety. His eyes fix pointedly on Genma and not on the ghost of his old teammate, "I'm sure we can talk about this without the weapons, this is just a misunderstanding."
This apparently prompts the three shinobi into action.
Genma's eyes narrow dangerously, senbon at ready, and Raidō's katana – Kokutō – is posed to strike, but it is Obito who kamuis behind Kakashi and hits him forcefully over the back of his head, enough to knock him out.
The only reason Kakashi lets this happen is because these are his comrades and even if he might not be theirs in this world, Kakashi has the distinct feeling that they would rather capture him alive if given the chance.
000
There are voices aggressively whispering when he wakes up again.
He is lying face down on a tuft of grass and there's chakra wire digging painfully into his bare wrists, keeping them tightly bound behind his back.
The throbbing ache spreading out from the back of his skull almost makes him groan, but he controls himself and doesn't betray the fact that he is once again conscious. Instead, he focuses on the conversation going on around him.
"—not kill him, understood?!" Obito growls in exasperation.
There's a displeased grunt and the sound of metal clicking against teeth.
"As much as I would like to agree with you, Genma," Raidō tries civilly, "we can use him for information. I just don't... I just don't understand why he's dressed in pajamas..."
There's a prolonged silence following that statement. Kakashi can practically feel their eyes burning into his skin.
It isn't his fault that he ended up here, he doesn't even know how or why it happened in the first place, so if he is dressed for sleep, then the guys should cut him some slack.
"Speaking of which, did you guys see his eyes?" Raidō continues.
"I did," Obito says. Then tentatively, as if he doesn't trust his words, "There's something about this Kakashi, I don't know. Other than his eye, his stupid face looks the same, but... He feels different somehow."
"It might be a trick," Genma butts in. "If we kill him—"
"Oh, fuck you, Shiranui. We are not killing him!"
Kakashi feels oddly grateful for Obito's foul mouth if it keeps Genma within ten feet of his body, though he can't blame his ex-ANBU teammate for being overly cautious. If this Kakashi of theirs is anything at all like what Kakashi imagines...
"Relax, Obito. I was just saying."
"Yeah, yeah, shut up already."
An irritated sigh cuts through the air. ''Guys." Raidō intervenes pointedly. "Let's focus. You know we don't have that much time left."
"Right."
"Sure."
It seems like a good time as any for Kakashi to 'wake up', so he makes a show of groaning and tugging at his restraints.
The other three fall silent and a sudden tension seeps into the air.
Kakashi is not sure if he would like to find out what his counterpart has done in this world to elicit such a reaction – especially when he is tied up and his chakra suppressed by a seal –, but the small clues are piling up into the looming dark shape of a man Kakashi refuses to think he could ever be.
But then, the blood-soaked battlefield comes to mind along with the frozen expressions of his comrades before their faces had settled for contempt and resignation, and Kakashi thinks he should be expecting the worse.
Still, he tries to approach the situation objectively, barring the whirr of feelings threatening to overwhelm his thoughts.
His newfound resolve withers when he meets Obito's eye, who is staring back at him with what Kakashi recognizes as what he himself had felt back when the two of them were fighting on opposite sides in the war.
Seeing Obito is the most potent reminder that what is happening is real, and something like morbid fascination stirs in Kakashi's chest.
This Obito is on their side, while their Kakashi is the enemy.
He can't help but think about this twisted irony of fate.
From his horizontal position on the ground, he tries to sound as honest as he can be. "I know this might sound hard to believe, but I am not who you think I am."
Three pairs of eyes narrow dangerously at him.
"You expect us to believe you are not Kakashi Hatake?" Raidō asks incredulously.
"Don't play games with us, Kakashi," Obito warns.
Kakashi sighs and closes his eyes briefly. "How should I put it... I am Kakashi Hatake. Just not the one you know."
His words are met with silence, before Genma unhelpfully says, "...We could still kill him."
"Enough, Genma, please," Raidō sounds at the limits of his patience, which would usually be more than the one of your average man.
"No, no. I mean just as a possibility."
"No. And like I said, let's focus."
"But I do have a point though."
"I will stop hearing whatever you say starting now."
"Hey—"
"Shut up, guys, for fucks sake," Obito's voice is packed with annoyance, but his eye never once leaves Kakashi's, who absentmindedly notes, relieved, that the two still share the same dynamic Kakashi knows even in this world—in which case it can't be that perverted.
"What do you mean 'not the one you know'? Huh? What's that supposed to mean, Kakashi?"
"I'm not exactly sure." He frowns, the grass tickling at his face, and tires to make sense of a situation that shouldn't make any sense in the first place. "My theory is, as absurd as it may sound, that I somehow traveled from my dimension to this one. I don't know how and I am just as confused as you. Obito... I promise, I am not your Kakashi, whoever he is in this world."
Obito's set expression wavers. "You could be lying."
"I could, but you have to take my word for it. Bring me to a Yamanaka – if you weren't already planning to do so."
Genma shares a look with Raidō, before their gazes set on Obito, who in turn is still fixed on Kakashi. The Uchiha is nervously chewing on his bottom lip and Kakashi is surprised that he can read his old teammate well enough to know that he is about to relent.
It is a good thing, Kakashi thinks, that it is Obito he met.
Anyone else and they might not have hesitated in trying to kill Kakashi right away, just as Kakashi would not have hesitated to kill Tobi or Madara before the face under the mask was finally revealed.
This Obito... He is missing his left eye and has the same scars as the Obito Kakashi knew – even a sliver of the white Zetsu matter is visible where the sleeve of his shirt has ridden up his arm. It is obvious that the Kannabi Bridge mission culminated in the same disastrous way in this world just as in Kakashi's, but he can't imagine what could have possibly happened afterwards which led to this outcome.
Perhaps he is wrong, he thinks. Perhaps in this world things have been different since the beginning, he hopes, but doesn't really know why. If he can convince these people to trust him, he can find out. Maybe he can even help them, and they can help him get home.
Home.
Another thing Kakashi would rather block out of his thoughts, because he has no idea what cruel force ripped him from his home to dump him in this place, and oftentimes the lack of knowledge makes such actions difficult to countervail.
Kakashi finds some consolation in knowing that if it was possible to get here, then it must be possible to go back.
"Right," Obito says, finally tearing his eye from Kakashi and looking up at the sky. "Fuck," he hisses, and his movements turn hasty as he leans over and hauls Kakashi up to his feet.
Genma and Raidō are gripped in the hand of the same urgency as they go about gathering up the leftovers of their camp. Kakashi knows something is happening, and he looks up at the sky in the same way Obito did, but nothing seems to be out of the ordinary.
In the distance, the sky is just beginning to light up in shades of brilliant crimson as dawn just begins to crack.
Was Kakashi really out for that long?
It seemed no later than the middle of the night when he woke up on that battlefield. And that incandescent red on the sky, if Kakashi really considers it, doesn't exactly strike him as natural.
He forces himself to drop his eyes back on the three shinobi scrambling around him. Whatever is happening with the sky is making them nervous, and that unsettles Kakashi more than he would like to admit.
"Can I help?" He offers. "What is wrong with the sky?"
They ignore him and hurry to wrap up.
When they are done, not even two minutes later, the bloody color has already expanded over half of the sky. The air in the distance, Kakashi can feel it now, is dense and crackling with a malevolent chakra enough to curdle the blood in his veins.
Worst of all is that he can recognize it, has felt it once before in his lifetime – Jūbi's chakra. But not quite. There's something else mixed with it, something that feels eerily familiar, but as frustrating as it is, he can't tell what.
"Shiranui, Namiashi, you go first. I'll send Kakashi next so be ready to catch him, alright?"
"Obito, you sure you have enough chakra for all four of us? Jokes aside, maybe we should just leave him here," Genma suggests with a seriousness Kakashi knows is reserved only for cases of catastrophe. "And you should send him first, with one of us. I don't think it's a good idea if you get stuck alone with him."
Obito visibly clenches his jaw before expelling the tension with a sigh. His eye finds Kakashi, gaze heavy with resolve, and he answers.
"No. If my chakra runs out, I'd rather it be him who I have to leave behind. But that won't happen." A confidence he hasn't heard since the days of Team Minato resounds in Obito's voice. "Worst case scenario I'll be stuck in Kamui for a while." He glances pointedly over at Genma, then back at Kakashi, before wholly turning his body towards his comrades. "Now move it, Shiranui, we don't have all night."
The two Tokujō don't seem appeased, but they straighten up in front of Obito, whose Sharingan spins to life.
"Take care," Raidō tells him. "We'll be ready when you arrive."
A moment later they are sucked into Kamui. It visibly tires Obito, sweat beading on his forehead from the exertion, and Kakashi knows it shouldn't cost him that much chakra.
He frowns at Obito and notes as much. "Kamui consumes too much of your chakra."
"Shut up, Bakakashi," Obito snaps and the insult comes too naturally, which surprises the Uchiha more than it does Kakashi.
A somber expression flashes over Obito's face, then it is instantly covered by a scowl. Still, his breath comes out in pants and his hands are slightly shaky at his sides. He closes his eye for a moment and when he looks again at Kakashi, a renewed determination glimmers in it.
"Ready?"
The oppressive feeling of the evil chakra is nearly tangible, scorching, and the red of the sky is almost over them.
"No, Obito, wait" Kakashi stops him, speaking urgently, "take us both to Kamui's dimension. Otherwise you won't have enough chakra left to get yourself out of here."
"As if you'd know," the Uchiha snipes at him. "How do I know this is not a trap?"
"You don't," Kakashi says and can't erase the sense of urgency is his tone, spurred on by the terror-inducing feel of that red chakra. "There's no more time! Please, now, Obito!"
The Uchiha clenches his fists, but doesn't argue, because Kakashi is right.
The air suddenly feels too hot and it's hard to breathe, while the crackle of the chakra becomes deafening.
For a split second, before they are absorbed into Obito's Kamui, Kakashi is overcome by a terrible sensation, an invisible force pressing into his skin and into his lungs, and it feels as if his blood has started boiling on the inside. It feels like dying, but a thousand times worse. He should know.
They both land gasping on one of the odd cubes in Obito's dimension.
Gracelessly sprawled on the ground where he has fallen, Kakashi coughs and hacks and desperately wants to pull down his mask, because no amount of oxygen is enough to squelch the need in his burning lungs, but his hands are frustratingly bound in chakra wire cutting skin with each of his forceful tugs.
Also, what the hell was that?
Next to him, Obito is greedily drinking the cold air. He is pale and ridden with exhaustion, but as stubborn as he is, Obito only rests for a few short moments and then he is trembling all over as he struggles to get to his feet.
"Kakashi," his voice comes out choked and breathless, "we... have to go."
"You have to rest Obito, you can't—"
"Stop, Kakashi." He weakly shakes his head. "You don't... understand. We— we can't stay here. It's not— it's not safe to stay in one place," he finishes with a jittery gasp.
Kakashi would like to protest, demand how it's possible for them not to be safe when they are in Obito's own pocket dimension, but he does none of these things. He follows Obito's lead and pushes himself to stand up.
Bone-weary and still recovering from being touched by the malevolent force, they slowly make their way across the dimension.
It stretches infinitely around them, dark and cold, and that wide ocean of cubes bends with Obito's will, allowing them to step from one to the next easily, without the aid of chakra.
They walk in silence for a while, both too tired to say anything.
Even here, a feeble impression of the oppressive evil from before hangs in the air, even though it should be impossible.
After what Kakashi has deemed as a decent amount of time, he asks the question which has been resting on the tip of his tongue since he met the ninja trio.
"Tell me, Obito, who exactly am I in this world?"
Obito huffs and gives him a side glance and for a while they continue on quietly.
There are so many unanswered questions, but Kakashi can understand why Obito is so reluctant to offer any explanations.
Kakashi sighs and resigns to just keep moving. His fingers twitch where his hands are tied behind his back, an instinctual reaction to the itching need of pulling out Icha Icha and reading it while they walk.
"You know Akatsuki?" Obito later breaks the silence.
"Yes."
It is another long pause before Obito retakes the conversation. "And you aren't part of it, Kakashi?"
"Hm?" This is the only indication Kakashi needs to confirm one of his growing suspicions. "Of the Akatsuki? No..."
"Yeah, well here you're their leader. You—" Obito's almost chokes on the words and he takes a moment before speaking again. Kakashi waits patiently and steels himself for what he's about to hear. "You did this, Kakashi. That evil thing outside, it's your fault. Remember the dead ninjas where we captured you? They are dead because they got caught in it, in that damn chakra storm. And so is half the world, for fucks sake. Those who did not yield to Akatsuki's will, to your will, they all died. So do you get it? What you've done here?"
Despite being said calmly, Obito's words burn almost as hotly as the thing from earlier and they each feel like a stab to the chest for Kakashi.
He understands, in a way. He understands it technically.
Deep down, he understands nothing at all.