Chapter Text
It was instinctive at this point. Dodge a kunai here, avoid a flurry of shuriken there, snap an enemy's neck here. Rinse (in blood) and repeat.
Baptism by blood, Sasuke had once sardonically put it.
At the time, Kakashi had considered it to be akin to gallows humor. It wasn't the first time he had heard of such phrases, and it definitely wouldn't end up being the last. But this was the one he found to be the most accurate, even after all this time.
Kakashi had lasted longer than he had expected to.
First went Shibi. He had died, spending the last of his Chakra reserves to cover two Konoha-nin. Afterwards, people started dropping quickly. Anko, Kurenai, Tsume, Gemma - they all went.
Then Sasuke died for Naruto, and Naruto died for Sakura. Sakura died for Ino, and Ino died for Miori, a Kiri-nin.
Finally, they were worn out. It had been several years of fighting - by the third year of living in a constant battlefield and scavenging in a wasteland, they had lost hope.
In the end, there were very few of them left. Out of over 7 thousand Shinobi, from all the countries, a measly 300 were left. And Kaguya and Konan's forces were still going strong.
Kakashi wondered what they would do with a wasteland once they had it. After all, there was nobody to inhabit it, was there?
At last, Kakashi died. Minami, a Suna-nin (not that alliances really mattered at this point) had his back turned when a corpse puppet raced towards him, hands crackling with heat and falsely generated Chakra.
There was no way he could react in time, and Kakashi would be damned if he let another ally, friend, die in front of him.
He took the hit.
The last thing he could say, through sheer willpower, was "Not your fault." He died staring up at Minami's horrified, tear-filled eyes.
It was dark, and it was quiet.
And then his senses were dulled in a way that showed lack of age, and air was stinging on soft skin. Kakashi opened his eyes, and looked down.
He knelt in front of his father, hands pressed to his stomach. Kakashi stared blankly down, then closed his eyes, ignoring the familiar feeling of blood soaking into his hands.
"Kai," he said.
Nothing happened. Kakashi didn't know whether he should laugh or cry.
In the end, he settled for doing neither of those things.
He stood up emotionlessly from Sakumo's body. "May you find peace in the Pure Lands," he whispered before getting to work.
Initially, he had rushed to go and get Minato right away. Now, he didn't do that. He cleaned up the body and floor by himself and washed his hands. After he did that, he curled up on the floor.
First thing - what did he know?
He was in the past. This was not a genjutsu of any sort. He was alive.
Kakashi formed a strange half-grimace. "New mission parameters: infiltration and survival," he decided.
Kakashi would not go to Minato-sensei this time. Instead, he would go to the Hospital's morgue and ask for assistance there. From previous experience, he knew they would be discreet. That would buy him a little bit of time before the general populace, and therefore Minato, found out.
Once he had done that, he would have to get a summoning contract with the canines again. It wasn't until he was 7 that he had found the summoning contract. Now he would just have to move the timeline up again.
Because of some laws within the Canid Spirit Realm, he would be unable to summon Pakkun and the rest of the pack again. This was mainly for 2 reasons. The original 5 year old Kakashi's soul had been replaced by his, and by right, Pakkun and the pack would always belong to him. It was confusing, tricky business, but he no longer held claim to them.
The second reason was due to pure selfishness and fear. The pack had all eventually been killed off, throughout the war. Kakashi didn't know how he would react to them again, and until he managed to get over at least a bit of that trauma, he would be worse than useless around them. And because the pack hadn't come back in time, they wouldn't understand. And it wouldn't be fair to them.
After he got the summoning contract (to what canid, he didn't know), he would review his memories. This body did not hold the Sharingan. However, the Sharingan's influences were still there.
Kakashi would still be able to easily recall everything that had ever happened to him from when he got the Sharingan to when he died. This included all the Uzumaki Fuuinjutsu notes. Sometime during the war, Naruto had taken them to seek refuge in Uzushio for a short while, before it became overrun.
During the brief repose, Kakashi had managed to get into the underground caches holding thousands of notes and books on sealing. And during that time, he had memorized every single one of them with the Sharingan. The headache had been well worth it.
He would have to create a seal, Kakashi decided. One that caused innocent heart attacks. And conveniently place it on Danzō.
Danzō didn't yet have access to the Uchiha eyes, so killing him would be easy. Kakashi knew all the entrances and routes to ROOT. The only real struggle would be catching him unawares and placing the seal on him. Once he had a heart attack and died, Kakashi intended on placing him in his house, surrounded by dozens of incriminating files.
That would take a day or two, and by then, the fact Sakumo had died would be out. Hopefully that would be enough to clear his father's name, even if it was post mortem.
Minato would be searching for him by then. According to his memories, Minato had forced him to take 2 or 3 days off to relax. Even now, the war was picking up, and Minato would be away for at least a day.
Kakashi nodded to himself. Okay. He had a plan. Standing up on slightly shaky legs (being in his 6 year old body was a bit strange - like he was in shoes a size too small), he went to the bathroom. Time to put on a performance.
Getting the body transported to the morgue was easy, and getting their silence was even easier. Sakumo was put into a storage seal, and with the help of a slightly trembling lip and red eyes, the coroner and medical examiner promised not to say anything.
After that was done (and he had politely rejected the suggestion to book an appointment with a Yamanaka), Kakashi went to his room to meditate. He needed to sort his memories through.
Right now, he has two sets of alternating memories. While they weren't causing him many problems right now, they definitely would in the future.
This took about 2 hours, until Kakashi's mind was clear and he was calm once more. Then he spent another 4 hours creating the seal.
It needed to be inconspicuous, but easy enough to attach. It was made of four parts, one part for each hour he spent on the seal. He could have used 5 parts, but Kakashi hoped that omen would come true. The main part of it was an electrocution component - enough to send a spark into Danzō’s heart. It was overwritten with the kanji for continuous. Kakashi wasn't sure if Danzō had the Sharingan implanted in his arm, but if he did, it would keep electrocuting him until he died.
There was a component for instability, written as inconstancy and temporary - ichiji-teki. That would be enough for it to dissolve once it had done its job. There was a component meant to detect when he had actually died, and the final piece was an agent to tie it all together.
Satisfied with his work and bleary-eyed, Kakashi contemplated whether or not he should sleep. No, he decided. He wouldn’t be able to fully rest until Danzō was dead.
One pleasant surprise he found was that his adult chakra levels had come back with him. Unfortunately, his control hadn’t. Kakashi knew there would be a lot of tree-walking in his future. Creating a kage bunshin and barely batting an eye at the chakra drain (he was no Naruto, but he was able to manage a decent amount of kage bunshin without passing out), he henged the clone and sent it on its way.
Waiting around was nerve wracking, but Kakashi couldn’t be distracted. If something went wrong, he needed to know if he had to escape or not.
An hour later, the bunshin popped, and Kakashi blinked dazedly. A slow smile spread over his face, hidden by his mask. The clone had followed his instructions perfectly.
It had easily managed to access ROOT headquarters. Getting into Danzō’s office was child’s play, and the clone had waited until Danzō was sufficiently distracted by a pile of paperwork before attaching the seal. Danzō had noticed when he had been touched, but he had been too slow and too confident in his perceived security to react appropriately. The man had died of a heart attack.
Once he had stopped seizing, the bunshin picked up his corpse and deposited him in his house, alongside several incriminating files. The most incriminating of which was Sakumo’s botched mission. The clone had also taken the time to copy that file, along with some others, in case Sarutobi tried to cover up for Danzō again. If that happened, the files would be going straight to Nara Shikaru and every other clan head in Konoha.
Kakashi would like to see Danzo get out of that one.
But for now, his rudimentary plan was completed, and Kakashi was exhausted. It had been so long since he properly rested, so long since he had done anything but fight. He didn’t deserve a lot of things, but even someone like him was allowed to sleep.
It took less than a day for Danzō’s body to be discovered, and alongside it, those damning files. Clans went into uproar, and ROOT was soon discovered. Everybody chuunin level and above was called in to clean out ROOT. And so Kakashi went.
He kept his face blank and still, hyper aware of the glances and half-guilty stares sent his way. Cowards, he angrily spat in the depths of his mind. It was too much to ask for common decency when Sakumo was still alive, apparently. With a vicious sort of satisfaction, he wondered how they would act when they found he was dead by their actions - and him innocent the entire time.
It took them another 6 hours to find out Sakumo was dead. Kakashi was called to meet with the Hokage, via a messenger bird.
“Hokage-sama,” Kakashi greeted him, and hoped his tone didn’t convey the loathing he felt.
“Kakashi-kun,” Sarutobi greeted him back. His tone had no right being this tired - he was the one who had brought this mess upon them, with his weakness and inability to see reason. “I believe I requested your father as well?”
Malicious satisfaction and hatred ran like a frisson through him. “Father is dead.” His tone was final, and staring straight at Sarutobi, Kakashi could see the way he turned sickly white. The ANBU in the shadows jerked harshly, and the atmosphere plummeted.
“Pardon me?” Sarutobi said slowly. His hands were tightly clenched on the seat of his chair.
“Hatake Sakumo died yesterday at 1400 hours. Cause of death is seppuku.” Kakashi was proud of himself when his voice didn’t even waver.
He didn’t have to imply anymore. Everybody in the room knew the reason Sakumo was dead - thanks to misplaced blame and hatred, thanks to Danzō, thanks to Sarutobi himself. The Hokage had just killed one of his best shinobi, and he had none other than himself to blame for it.
Sarutobi regained composure with what seemed to be a massive amount of willpower. Even then, his hands were now slack instead of clenched tightly, and were trembling slightly. “I… see.”
Kakashi simply stared at him. He didn’t know what was written on his face, through the cracks of the blank mask he placed on himself, but it was enough for Sarutobi to avoid his eyes. “I will make an announcement,” Sarutobi was subdued. “And the truth will come clean.”
Kakashi inclined his head in a mockery of graciousness. “I thank my Hokage for his… kindness.”
The atmosphere plummeted further, and Sarutobi made no move to defend himself. He too could sense the upset brewing amongst the ANBU. They were terrible gossips. The truth would be out in a matter of hours. Sarutobi had better make his announcement soon.
“Is that all, Hokage-sama?” Kakashi inquired politely.
“Yes. You may be dismissed.”
With that, Kakashi leaped out the window. He had a summoning contract to get.