Chapter Text
When Kakashi wakes up, it’s not to blood and death and pain and despair like he expected to, but surprisingly to sunshine and birdsong and peace.
He stills, pulsing his chakra, but his surroundings don’t waver- no genjutsu.
Frowning, Kakashi sits up.
He’s in a clearing, surrounded by old trees and filled with flowers and growing green grass. The sky above is a clear blue, not a cloud in sight, and the sunrays warm Kakashi’s clammy skin.
How… did he get here?
Images flash before his eyes, blood and destruction and death, torn up corpses and dusty rubble and a red moon.
Kakashi takes a shuddering breath, closing his eyes as the memories wash over him. Right, how could he ever forget?
Sighing, he stands up, ignoring his aching limbs and the taste of blood behind his teeth. Time to get to work.
The seal was supposed to be a last resort.
The shinobi alliance had suffered major setbacks through Madara and then Kaguya, but they were still standing strong. It would only be a matter of time until they gathered themselves and could come up with a plan to get rid of Kaguya once and for all.
Or so they thought.
Five years later, Kaguya showed no signs of stopping and what had once been millions of people living in the elemental nations had been reduced to barely a dozen shinobi huddled together on an island in wave country.
There was no morale, no will to fight, because what was there to fight for? Humanity was dead and all their homes nothing more than empty planes and dust.
The seal was pretty finicky, and dangerous- the plan had been to send Naruto back, but, well. They never really got the chance to activate it before-
Well, there had been other options. Should have been, at least. There was B, a jinchuuriki, with enough chakra to get back on his own, or Tsunade or Sakura with the strength of a hundred, or even Sasuke with the rinnegan.
In the end, only Kakashi had been left.
It takes Kakashi a while to realize that he’s not in the past, as the seal intended to send him.
Well, he was, almost fifteen years to be precise, but that wasn’t all.
In this universe, Hatake Kakashi didn’t exist.
Kakashi only realized this after two weeks.
Time travel was a before unheard concept, so before activating the seal Kakashi hadn’t know if he would wake up in his old body or if there would be another, younger version of him running around- although that question became unnecessary soon.
Kakashi woke up in the past in his anbu uniform, with Obito’s sharingan in his head that had been ripped out by Madara not too long ago.
Kakashi doesn’t remember a solo mission where he was out of the village for that long- he woke up in the woods somewhere near the capital- but he barely remembers his anbu days in absolute clarity anyways.
Once he gets to Konoha, things will be clearer.
Minato and Kushina (and father and Rin) are already dead, judging by the age of his body. But maybe Kakashi will be able to save everyone that is left. Obito, Kakashi thinks around the pang in his heart. Maybe this time his friend could be reached in time.
It’s laughably easy to vault over konoha’s walls, and with his tattoo and mask on full display no one glances at Kakashi twice as he rushes over the rooftops.
The moonlight dances over the giant stone faces depicting the past Hokage- four, not five. Kakashi’s heart beats faster as he crouches down, eyes gliding over the scar-less face of the Sandaime. He really did it.
Kakashi only allows himself a second to stare at it before he keeps going.
It’s when he reaches his old apartment, the one before the pein attack, where he gets the first inkling that something is wrong.
There’s someone inside, a man with a forgettable face, dressed in shinobi blues with tea and a book at the kitchen table.
Shelves with worn books and trinkets line the walls, the paint an ugly yellow Kakashi doesn’t remember putting there. Pictures of people hang on the fridge that Kakashi doesn’t recognize.
Slowly, Kakashi moves away from the window. Did he catch the wrong apartment…?
No, Kakashi was sure this was it. Crammed on the fourth floor above a weapons shop and with a scorch mark on the outer wall, courtesy of an over-eager genin.
Everything was how it was supposed to be, except for Kakashi’s apartment.
Puzzled, Kakashi retreats to the rooftops. Was the seal a time travel seal or could it have been something else?
Kakashi moves away from his(?) apartment, cautiously setting course for the center of the village. His feet find the Hokage tower next. Despite the late hour at night, the light still shines through the window. Kakashi doesn’t remember the sandaime ever staying up this late.
Kakashi’s feet hit the surrounding roof soundlessly, and he slides up seamlessly next to the guards already present.
Two painted masks turn in his direction, seizing him up. Kakashi vaguely remembers them- Deer and… Coyote? Or was it jackal? Kakashi is pretty sure he died before Kakashi got out of anbu.
The anbu exchanges glances, before Deer flickers rapid-fast signs at him. New recruit?
Kakashi stills for a second. They don’t recognize him- don’t recognize his mask. Don’t recognize Hound.
By the time he was eighteen, Kakashi had built up quite the reputation in anbu- why did they not know him?
Play along, whispers his instinct while his mind is still frozen, and his body reacts.
Affirmative, he signs, making his fingers just a bit clumsier and slower than usual.
Jackal/Coyote and Deer exchange glances again, and Kakashi has spent long enough around emotionless masks to read their postures as amused. Coyote(?) waves him over with a nod, and Kakashi moves next to him hesitantly, making sure to ‘slip’ on a loose rooftile.
Deer’s head jerks slightly to the side and Kakashi ducks his head in played shame. Still, the anbu are professional enough to focus on their task after the initial curiosity, and Kakashi copies them, keeping his head trained in the direction of the office.
He blinks a few times to adjust to the change of light, expecting to see the sandaime sitting in his usual chair, smoking from his usual pipe-
Instead, a face from his dreams greets him.
He looks older than Kakashi remembers- the hair is still the same shade of blonde, eyes still sky blue, but there are new lines in the corner of his eyes and mouth.
Minato-sensei?, Kakashi thinks, every cell in his body frozen.
That’s… not possible. Minato-sensei is dead, died on the day of the kyuubi attack all those years ago. This has to be a dream, a hallucination. Maybe there was no seal and Kakashi is dead and this is the afterlife.
As if sensing his emotional distress, the man that can’t possibly be Minato raises his head and looks out the window, right into Kakashi’s eyes.
Fast enough that not even Deer and Coyote notice, Kakashi disappears.
He ends up in the forest of death with his head between his hands, breath just shy of hyperventilating.
Why is Minato-sensei alive? Alive, years after his supposed death? Why is Kakashi’s apartment occupied by someone that is not himself? Why does no one recognize him? Why is everything so different?
Something cracks in the bushes beneath him, probably some overgrown tiger or slug or whatever else crawls around here, and Kakashi snaps out of his daze.
Analyze the situation, he thinks to himself, slipping into the familiar mission-calm. Gather information. Adapt. Complete the mission.
Kakashi stands up, dusts dirt and slug-slime off his uniform and leaves the forest just as fast as he came.
The oddities just keep piling on each other. No matter how long Kakashi searches, he can’t find Obito’s name on the memorial stone. Rin’s grave is occupied by someone else.
The more he thinks about it, it’s almost like- like-
Kakashi stops as realization hits him, on the achingly familiar red roof tiles of Konoha’s houses, in a city that doesn’t remember him.
It’s almost as if Kakashi didn’t exist.
Kakashi doesn’t really remember how he slipped into the archives below the Hokage mountain, but security was always pretty lax around the parts that weren’t classified and anbu liked to send the new recruits to stand guard who weren’t used to staying awake more than twenty-four hours yet and threatened to fall asleep.
Kakashi walks along the bookshelves, fingers thumbing along the clan files starting with H.
Hanada, Hamayuki, Hashie… There. Hatake.
Kakashi slips the file out of the shelf, breezing through the pages. All the clan heads from the founding of the village through the first, second and third wars up until the clan didn’t count more than a handful of members.
Hatake Unaru, Hatake Utsushiyo… Hatake Sakumo. And then, nothing.
No line branches off from the family tree, not even Kakashi’s mother’s name is listed. There’s just… nothing.
Kakashi stares at the empty spot for who knows how long before he snaps the file shut, shoving it into its place in the shelf forceful enough to make a dust cloud rise in the air. It’s as he suspected.
In this timeline, Hatake Kakashi doesn’t exist.
After the initial panic, Kakashi calms down, folds his fingers in front of his face and thinks.
It’s better this way, really. He has the possibility to prevent everything that he needs to prevent, to kill everyone that he needs to kill without his village or his family to hold him back.
Obviously, his presence never amounted to anything good anyways- his team is still alive, and happy without him. It’s better if they don’t even know he exists. Of course, getting any support from Konoha will be near impossible, but that’s alright- Kakashi works best alone, without anyone to be injured because of his carelessness. Kakashi can do this. He has to. And even if he fails, even if he dies- he isn’t needed, in this universe. No one will miss him. No one will even know he existed.
Kakashi is free now. He can do what he wants. No one can stop him.
And the first thing he does is put a Chidori through Shimura Danzo’s chest.
He makes sure the last thing he sees is his face, his sharingan. Makes sure he knows who killed him, and why. He watches until his face turns pale and what remains of his heart around Kakashi’s fist stops beating.
For Itachi, Kakashi thinks. For Sasuke.
He doesn’t know if the Uchiha massacre can be stopped at this point, even with him dead, but he can only hope. Worst comes to worst Kakashi will do what he can to prevent it.
But Danzo is dead now, his blood spreading over the floor in his office, and Kakashi doesn’t regret a thing.
Kakashi leaves Konoha without looking back. He resists the urge to visit Kushina and Obito and Rin, and if only to see them alive and healthy. He doesn’t even know if Naruto was born in this timeline.
It’s best for them if they stay far away from Kakashi. Maybe he really is bad luck. Maybe it really was all his fault.
(If… If his old team is still alive… then maybe-
No. He shouldn’t entertain pointless fantasies. He didn’t check that one forgotten corner of the cemetery, he didn’t check the old Hatake compound, but- but if he’s really alive-
Kakashi would never be able to forgive himself.)
Instead, Kakashi runs and runs and runs, past Konoha’s walls deep into the forest. He has targets- lots of them, and the most important one is already dead. Danzo’s agents will discover his body in the morning, and Kakashi will be gone without a trace by then. Kakashi knows exactly what he needs to do.
Stop Zetsu. Stop Madara. Destroy the Gedo Mazo.
Disband Akatsuki before it has a chance to form.
Make sure not a single Jinchuuriki falls into their hands.
Kakashi can do this. He has to. Someone has to.
Much to his displeasure, Obito is woken up at the crack of dawn by a hawk tugging at his hair insistently.
“Gah!”, he says undignified, waving his hands at the stupid bird and stumbling out of bed.
The hawk screams once, shows off the red band tied around his ankle and flies off again.
“Shitty bird…”, Obito mutters, rubbing at his head. But he supposes it is his fault for leaving the window open again.
Obito yawns, pressing it shut, and collects his uniform off the floor. Whatever Minato-sensei wanted him for, it better be important to wake him up at this hour.
Obito slips through the open window into the Hokage’s office, sticking to the ceiling like all the other anbu as the last Jonin start to trickle in.
Late, Cougar signs at him immediately, and Obito sticks his tongue out at him. Not that he can see it through his mask.
Not that late, Obito signs back. He broke that habit years back, alright? He’s only a little bit late now.
What’s going on?, he signs instead. Cougar shrugs, making a so-so motion. Classified?, he suggests.
Bear’s mask pops up behind his back. Someone died, she signs, and Obito stills. Who?
Councilor, she signs back.
Obito’s hand stays suspended in the air for a second. Could it be…?
D-a-n-z-o?, he signs the individual letters. Bear doesn’t answer, turning her head towards the Hokage. Frustrated, Obito lets his hands fall to his side. But, he supposes she also doesn’t know much more than him.
It seems like everyone’s here now, because Minato-sensei moves and comes to stand before the gathered shinobi, hands folded behind his back. The sandaime stands next to him, smoking his pipe and looking older than he already is.
The mutters and whispers die down as Minato’s eyes sweep over them, and he clears his throat only once.
“This morning”, he starts, “councilman Shimura Danzo was found dead in his office.”
The sandaime closes his eyes next to him as the room breaks out in hushed whispers.
Danzo, dead? Obito’s heart rate picks up. Fugaku’s going to be thrilled, he thinks slightly hysterically.
He searches Crow’s mask in the crowd, catching the eye of the slim, childish figure amidst the grown anbu. Was it you?, he tries to convey without signs. Crow tilts his head, hands tightening and untightening on the ceiling beams. No, Obito chooses to interpret it. You?
Obito shakes his head just barely. If it wasn’t him, and it wasn’t crow… who was it? Another Uchiha? Or someone else entirely?
Natural death?, Crow signs with a shrug. Obito narrows his eyes and cocks his head. This was a shinobi village and Danzo was an old war hero with way too many enemies. If he died naturally Obito will eat his left sandal.
Yeah, fair, Crow signs back.
“Councilman Shimura was killed by a powerful lightning jutsu through the chest”, Minato-sensei continues. “It doesn’t match any in our record.”
So it probably was no one inside Konoha. It was difficult enough to invent a new jutsu, and if someone did there was no way they could’ve kept it secret from the entire populace of Konoha. Was it kumo, maybe? But then again, since his ‘retirement’ Danzo never really did something the other elemental nations could have been angry at him specifically for. No, if someone would have killed Danzo it must have been someone from the inside, who saw how fast his corruption spread. But who?
“Unfortunately, since his death we have received quite a bit of… information.” Minato’s eyes flicker over to the Sandaime, who’s fingers clench around his pipe. “Information that reveals Danzo to be a traitor to the village.”
Theres a beat of silence. Then, even the Anbu break out in mutterings and shocked exclamations. Through it all Obito remains quiet, eyes locked with crow.
“Are you sure it wasn’t an Uchiha?”, Obito presses, shoving his mask to the side in the cover of the forest.
“Yes, Obito”, Shisui grinds his teeth in frustration. “We can count the Uchiha with lightning affinity on two hands, and none of them are on the level to kill Danzo. He wasn’t exactly a weak old man!” Shisui’s leg jumps up and down as he chews on a fingernail.
“Maybe… it was someone on the inside. Someone close to him.”
Shisui stills, eyes flickering over to him. “You think…?”
Obito nods. “It’s possible.”
Even if it was supposed to be some kind of a secret, every anbu and most Jonin were aware of the blank-masked agents slithering in and out of Konoha, practically mindless and akin to soulless machines. They answered only to one, and he was now dead.
Everything about root was shrouded in mystery, but things tended to trickle through. Clan children going missing, kids suddenly taken from the orphanage in the middle of the night. Obito doesn’t know what exactly Danzo did to them, but was it really that surprising that one of them might turn on him?
He sighs, dropping into a crouch on the tree branch. “This just opens an entirely new can of worms”, he says.
Shisui’s lips twitch faintly upwards as he lets himself fall next to him. “At least the situation with the Uchiha will lighten a bit.”
“Will it?”, Obito sighs. “The elders will just find another reason to push the coup forward. And there’s only so much Minato-sensei can do.”
“On the bright side, now there’s nothing in the way of disbanding root, right?”, Shisui asks.
“Who knows”, Obito grumbles. “That old bastard probably installed a fail save in his little servants or something.” Obito stands up, pushing his mask over his face again. “I’m going to talk to cat.”
Kakashi‘s footsteps are silent on the damp stone, and his sharingan glows eerily through the darkness as he advances. He’s been walking for quite a while, but it’s only now that he reaches what he was searching for.
Mountain’s graveyard- Kakashi has never been there, but Obito told him about it, those long nights keeping watch together during the war.
Between earth and lightning country, a strip of inhabited wasteland, and beneath, a cave. And in it, a statue and a dying legend.
Now, it seems to be just a cave.
No sign of Madara, no sign of Zetsu. The only thing of interest is the enormous statue, almost one with the cave wall, with nine closed eyes and a mouthful of decaying teeth. Kakashi stares up at it, remembering the disaster it wrought upon the world. Now, it’s still just a corpse. How does one kill such a thing?
Kakashi hesitates, one hand over his headband. Is Kamui a safe bet? Then again, except Obito no one has access to it, and he shouldn’t even have the mangekyo right now.
Kakashi pushes up his headband, and sends the gedo Mazo to the Kamui dimension in pieces.
Minato rubs at his temples, wary eyes gliding over the sea of documents strown over his desk. He knew Danzo had his claws deep inside Konoha’s affairs, but this…
“This is… worse than we anticipated.”, Minato sighs, dropping another file onto the growing pile of paperwork.
“I hate to say this, but I’m glad he’s dead”, Shikaku grunts from the corner of the room, eyes still reading scroll after scroll.
Minato smiles faintly. “At least now we can start unraveling all of… this.”
So many children stolen away from their homes, so many clan children, so many falsified missions and gruesome reports. Minato kind of wishes Danzo was still alive so he could kill him personally.
Everything remotely bad that happened since the second war, Danzo seemed to have his play in it. And not solely in Konoha, too- Minato has read reports from Ame, Kiri, iwa- Danzo and his root organization just seemed to have his fingers in every pot.
“Do we have any leads on who did it yet?”, Minato asks.
“No, but I’d give them a medal if we did”, Shikaku sighs. “We’re only just now starting to question the agents, but from what it looks like all of them are far too loyal to start anything.”
“So someone from the outside?”, Minato hums. Shikaku meets his eyes, an unreadable expression in his face. “Could be.”
Minato narrows his eyes. “But it’s not what you think.”
Shikaku shrugs. “There are other, more plausible explanations, is all.”
“Such as?”
Shikaku puts his scroll down slowly. “We both know that Danzo was especially targeting the Uchiha”, he says. “And with the sharingan, copying a jutsu on a foreign mission would be child’s play.”
Minato hesitates. “We have the situation with the Uchiha under control”, Minato says slowly, eyebrows pulling together. “Obito and Shisui would have told me if something changed.”
“Maybe whoever it was didn’t work together with them”, Shikaku says simply. “There are a lot of Uchiha. For all we know, any one of them could be the killer, waiting, biding their time.”
“Why resort to an unknown jutsu then?”
Shikaku’s eyes glint. “Because they would know no one would trace it back to them. After all, why go through all the trouble if you could just slice his throat open?”
Minato sighs, rubbing at his temples. “But it could still have been a foreign spy, or even one of Danzo’s agents- it could have been anyone. There weren’t any traces at the scene of crime, no hair, no fingerprints, nothing. If we didn’t know bette, I’d assume the perpetrator materialized in the room just like that.”
Shikaku’s eyes flicker over the latest report before tossing it aside with a sigh. “I’ll send an Inuzuka tomorrow. For now, we did everything we could.”
Obito walks quietly through the empty hallways of T&I, a step behind Anko as she leads him through the maze of corridors and doors. Obito tries not to feel out of place amidst the cold grey walls that seem to become tighter the longer they walk, and he keeps his hands in his pockets to avoid fidgeting. Technically, they aren’t doing anything wrong- it’s just that if someone would see them, there would be… questions, and Anko is doing Obito enough of a favor as it is.
“Here”, Anko says, stopping suddenly enough that Obito almost walks into her. She presses her hand over the seal at the door until it swings open and practically pushes him inside. “I was never here, got it?”, she hisses. “You better find a way out by yourself.”
Obito grins. “Thanks, Anko. I really owe you one.”
“You better”, she grumbles, and then the door swings shut and he’s alone.
Well- not entirely alone.
“Senpai?”
Obito turns around, reaching the figure seated at the desk in the middle of the room in a few quick strides.
“Hey, Tenzo”, he says, dropping a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “How’re you doing?”
Tenzo shrugs, eyes darting around the empty room, and Obito sighs. “It’s going to be alright- they’re just going to ask you a few questions and then you’re free to go.”
“They think one of us did it”, Tenzo frowns, looking down at the ground.
“They do?”, Obito asks.
“Yeah. But it wasn’t a root member”, Tenzo says, looking up at Obito. “They don’t get it. No one would do anything to harm Danzo-sama.”
Obito’s eyes flicker between Tenzo’s brown ones, teeth chewing at the inside of his cheek.
“Are you sure? Not even the new recruits?”
Tenzo hesitates, just for a second. “They’re just children. None of them are over the age of ten. And their quarters are secured very strictly- it’s unlikely that one managed to sneak out and back in again without anyone noticing.”
Obito sighs, taking a step back from Tenzo’s chair and leaning against the table. Tenzo’s eyes follow him, his hands fidgeting slightly. “Could it have been… an Uchi-?”, he asks tentatively, before Obito interrupts him.
“No!”, he bites out, before he winces and clears his throat. “I mean… No. At least I don’t think so. I don’t know.”, he frowns, eyes cast to the floor.
Everybody knew Danzo hated the Uchiha specifically… but Obito just couldn’t imagine one of his clan members planning to kill him, much less one with the skill to do it so flawlessly.
“Sensei is still investigating”, Obito says defensively. “It could have been anyone.” But even as he says it, Obito’s defense sounds weak to his ears.
Tenzo keeps quiet, watching him.
“But it’s a good thing”, Obito says, nodding to himself. “That he died. I mean, he was a thorn in all of our eyes, right?”
Tenzo shrugs, looking to the floor. “I don’t know… it still feels surreal.” He frowns, looking to Obito again. “Senpai… what will happen with root now?”
Obito shrugs with another sigh, crossing his arms. “I’m not sure. But I’m sure Minato-sensei won’t let you rot in some cell”, he tries to smile reassuringly. “I’m sure things will clear up after the initial investigation.”
Tenzo still looks a little unsure, and it probably doesn’t help that he’s stuck in an interrogation cell right now, but Obito tries to be positive. The whole situation with the things Danzo has done coming to light might take a while to resolve, but he can’t imagine Minato doing something as drastic as imprisoning every single root member- Tenzo is almost still a kid, after all.
Kakashi is… alone.
In a way, he’s always been alone- after his father died, after his team died, after more and more of his village’s people died.
But after father there was Minato, after Minato and Kushina there was Gai, and his anbu team. Kakashi may have felt alone, but he never truly was.
Now though- now he’s well and truly alone.
It’s weird, knowing that he could do whatever he wanted and no one would raise an eyebrow, he could die tomorrow and nobody would even know.
It’s… sad.
Kakashi sighs, chin in his hand as he watches the people in the village below him come and go.
It’s a bustling town not far from the capital, quite wealthy, specializing in trade of silk and fabrics. But that’s not what Kakashi is interested in. What he really is after, is a small house in the outskirts of town, old but well maintained with the persistent smell of blood seeping into the painted wood.
Kakashi stares at the door, the body of some no-name missing nin from Kiri slung over his shoulder.
There’s a cat in the doorway, eyes closed as it basks in the sun, but its ears twitch in Kakashi’s direction.
Slowly, Kakashi bends down with a polite smile. “Good morning”, he says. “I would like to speak to the madame.”
The cat lazily opens its eyes, scanning him up and down, before it yawns, scampering off. Not long after, the door opens and Kakashi steps inside.
The lady behind the counter eyes him suspiciously as he moves inside, dumping the body on the surface.
“Chizu of kiri”, Kakashi says with an eye-smile. The madame eyes him doubtfully one last time before she hails the body off the counter and disappears in the back. Not long after, she comes back with a rather meager stack of ryo, throwing it down on the blood-soaked counter. “Thank you”, Kakashi says, still smiling. The madame grunts and shoos him away.
“One last thing”, Kakashi says. She looks up at him warily, and Kakashi opens his sharingan eye.
“Tell me everything you know about Kakuzu of Taki.”
“Hm”, Inuzuka Tsume hums as her eyes glide over the blood-covered floor. Beside her, Kuromaru sneezes, covering his nose with his paws. “Yeah, same”, she mutters. “Whoever did this was pretty… thorough.”
Beside her, Minato’s eyes glide over the red staining every corner of the room, clumps of entrails spreading over the table and under the chair, and the blood drops that sprayed against the wall and even the ceiling.
“This is… messy.”, Ibiki says beside him. Minato hums in agreement. “Do you think it looks like a personal grudge?”
The men meet eyes, Ibiki raising an eyebrow. “No one would go through all this effort if it wasn’t personal.” His gaze turns to the bloody room again. “This looks like anger. This looks like revenge.”
Minato keeps quiet, hands gripping his arms tightly.
“Tsume, anything?”, he asks.
The woman turns around, shrugging. “The blood is pretty dominant. It’s hard to smell anything else.”
Minato sighs, his posture slumping further. Another dead end.
“But there is another scent”, Tsume says, and Ibiki and Minato perk up.
“I don’t recognize it- but it smells like… lightning. Static. And… wolf.” Tsume frowns at the last part, meeting eyes with her ninken.
“Wolf?”, Ibiki asks. “Are you sure that’s not yourself you’re smelling?”
Tsume grins at him, baring her fangs, and Kuromaru growls. Ibiki huffs, rolling his eyes, and backs off.
“Alright, that’s something at least”, Minato says, rubbing his hands together. “Not familiar, so probably no one from the village, right?”
“No. I would have recognized it”, Tsunade says firmly. “And in any case, I can recognize it now.”, she says with a grin.
“Wolf”, Shikaku mutters next to him. “Who the hell smells like wolf?”
“There’s a wolf summoning contract, isn’t there?”, Ibiki asks, scratching his head.
The remaining adults pause, exchanging glances.
“It doesn’t smell like a Hatake” Tsume says with a frown. “And I know their wolf summons well. No, this smells… foreign. Wilder.”
Shikaku hums in thought, stroking his beard. “Lightning and wolf. If I didn’t know better…”
“Sakumo-san is the only Hatake left”, Minato interjects. “And in any case, did you really think he would do something like this?”
Tsume huffs a laugh, and Kuromaru grins a wolfish grin. “If Hatake wanted Danzo dead he would've hunted him down in front of the entirety of Konoha and ripped out his guts with his teeth.”, she says, showing her fangs. “This”, she points to the entrails clumping on the floor, “is just cowardly.”
Shikaku narrows his eyes, but doesn't try to contradict her. Still, Minato thinks she’s right. Sakumo doesn’t seem the type to do anything like this. “I’ll talk to him sometime”, Minato suggests. “Maybe he knows something that can bring some sense into this whole mess.”
“Did you hear? Someone is going around claiming s-rank bounties.”
Obito looks up, chin in one hand and a cheap beer he’s been nursing for the last hour in the other.
Tonight was supposed to be his escape from everything, an opportunity to let lose, and yet his stomach seems to turn in circles inside his body.
Asuma, already rather drunk, perks up. “Really?”
“Yeah”, Genma grins across him, his ever-present senbon between his teeth. “Kakuzu of Taki and Hidan, the cultist that killed off Yu’s shinobi population.”
Asuma whistles lowly. “Damn. Those are some heavy names.”
“Who was it?”, Kurenai asks, sloshing the contents of her cup around in a circle.
“That’s the thing”, Genma grins. “Nobody knows.”
The woman raises a skeptical eyebrow. “Surely there’s some kind of information?”
Genma shrugs. “Some guy, silver hair, face mask and eyepatch. Not much else- no village affiliation, no name. No one has ever heard of him before.”
Obito leans forward, intrigued. Who managed to take out two S-ranked missing nin and remain under the radar of the elemental nations?
“Anyway, it’s the talk of the shinobi villages.”, Genma continues. “Nobody claims him as missing nin, nobody recognizes him as one of their own. It’s as if he appeared out of the blue from one day to the next.“
“…Huh”, Obito says. New missing nin pop up every day, but usually with a village from which they are missing from. And rouge nin, not raised in a shinobi village are usually pretty weak.
“No name? Are you sure?”, he asks. Genma shakes his head. “Although people have started calling him Hound.”
Hound… didn’t ring any bells. Maybe there used to be an anbu named hound? Or was it Wolf…? Obito didn’t remember.
“Why act now?”, Kurenai muses with one hand in front of her mouth. “He must have kept a low profile until now- why drag attention to himself by killing those missing nin?” Genma shrugs, but a sly smile plays around his lips.
“Come on, Genma”, Asuma grins, clasping a hand around his shoulder with a grin. “You know something, don’t you?”
Genma grins, the tip of his senbon whipping up and down. He leans forward, and Obito imitates him despite being skeptic about the whole situation, damning his growing curiosity.
“Kakuzu and Hidan were part of the same organization”, Genma says lowly, his fingers tapping on the wood of the table. “The Akatsuki. Ever heard of it?”
Kurenai frowns at the name, and even Obito shakes his head slowly.
“Not very surprising”, Genma says. “They’re keeping a relatively low profile considering they’re almost completely made up out of S-rank missing nin and criminals.”
Obito’s eyebrows shoot up and Asuma and Kurenai imitate him. An organization full of S-rank nin? How has no one noticed them?”
“Anyway”, Genma continues. “Point is, I think hound has a grudge against them- who knows why- and he wants to wipe them out.”
“Hm”, Kurenai hums, suspicion written across her face. “What if he just had one target? As far as I heard Hidan and Kakuzu were partners- they worked together. Maybe one of them was collateral?”
“I don’t think anyone could have taken them on simultaneously and lived”, Genma throws in, shaking his head. “They were partners for a reason- it’s rumored that Kakuzu was over a hundred years old, having challenged the shodaime himself, and Hidan’s head kept screaming even after it was cut off and delivered to the bounty station- they were both immortal, seemingly impossible to kill.”
“And yet someone did”, Obito mutters. “Do you think he’s trying to get them all?”
Genma shrugs, downing the rest of his cup. “It’s a possibility.”
Obito frowns, tracing the rim of his glass slowly as a thought occurs to him. “Hey”, he says, “You don’t think he has something to do with… Danzo?”
The table goes quiet as Genma’s eyes narrow, and even Kurenai tilts her head at him. “Why would a random rouge nin target one of Konoha’s elders specifically?”
“Why would a random nin target an nuke-nin organization?”, Obito shoots back. “Think about it. All this happened after Danzo died. What if it’s related? A random nin out of nowhere, no village claims him and no one has seen him before.” He raises his eyebrows meaningfully.
“You’re saying it’s a former root agent”, Genma summarizes. “But the root members under interrogation haven’t said anything, and there is no one missing.”
“But would they tell us if there was?”, Kurenai throws in.
“Tenzo hasn’t said anything, and he knows most members. If there’s someone missing, he would know- but then again, who knows how many agents Danzo had hidden away somewhere.”
“And we’re back at square one”, Genma mutters.
“I still don’t think it’s related”, Kurenai says, and Obito shrugs.
“It’s probably a coincidence”, she insists. “After all, there are still no news regarding Danzo’s killer.”
“Who knows”, Obito says. “I have to go- early shift tomorrow.” He stands up, downs his beer and leaves with a half-hearted wave. Still, despite Kurenai words the feeling won’t leave him alone that there’s something more to the situation then they all realize.
“Dragon-sama.”
Deer bows low, on one knee in the anbu headquarters- specifically the anbu commander’s office.
Dragon grunts, barely looking up from the documents he’s sorting into the big shelf behind the desk, but deer is used to his… unorthodox personality by now and understands the sign for what it is.
She rises fluently, crossing her hands behind her back, and behind her jackal and Owl follow.
“Report”, Dragon orders, and Deer obeys.
“Mission success. Target eliminated at the Yu-kiri border near Chifuma. No casualties, only minor injuries.”
Deer unclasps a small black body scroll from her belt and hands it to Dragon, who waves a hand in direction of his already cluttered desk. Deer places it on top of the tower of scrolls, and returns to her position.
Usually, Dragon would dismiss them by now, but he snaps his book shut and turns toward the team. The snarl full of teeth painted on his mask seems to almost shine under the electrical lights.
“Jackal, Deer”, he says, and Deer straightens. “You two were on guard duty around the Hokage tower the night of Danzo’s assassination. Anything unusual to report?”
Deer cocks her head to the side, thinking. The shift had passed just as usual, hadn’t it? No one had entered or left the office in the six hours she was stationed there, not even the Hokage.
She turns to Jackal, who shakes his head as well. “Except that recruit that showed up about three hours in.” Ah, right. That had been weird- but nothing unusual for new recruits. One of the other anbu probably sent him so Deer and jackal could babysit, but Deer has to admit that she didn’t notice him leave until she turned around at the end of the shift and he wasn’t there.
Jackal scratches his neck, voice changing into a drawl. “Anbu lets just anyone in nowadays, huh?”, he says. “That guy wasn’t even any good- slipping on roof tiles like a fresh genin.”
Deer suppresses a snort, but she has to admit that jackal was right. New recruits are usually better than that, but he was probably just nervous.
Only when Dragon goes deadly still she notices that there’s something wrong.
“I don’t remember sending any new recruits that night”, Dragon says, and Deer is immediately on full alert. Jackal and deer exchange alarmed glances.
“He was about twenty”, Jackal starts immediately. “Silver hair, slim build, pale skin, some kind of dog mask? A canine, definitely.”, he says, and Deer nods.
Dragon shifts just slightly, nodding to the last member of the team. “Owl, you were in charge of picking the new recruits. Does this description sound familiar?”
Owl remains motionless, only their smooth voice cutting through the silence. “Out of the new masks, there was no one resembling a dog. And no one with silver hair either.”
Deer tenses, turning to Dragon. The man runs a hand through his hair, turning towards his cluttered desk.
“Shit.”
Barely an hour later, the anbu headquarters are in complete disarray. The confused new recruits are herded into a free room and questioned, to be sure it wasn’t one of them in a henge or something similar, while jackal and deer are sent straight to T&I to get their memories examined by a Yamanaka.
But even after the tenth time the interrogator rewinds the memory, they don’t really get any wiser.
“It can’t have been a coincidence”, the Hokage mutters, pacing back and forth inside the room. “It must have been him.”
“But why stop at the Hokage tower?”, Shikaku asks, fingertips pressed against each other. “Why not go straight to Danzo? It’s not as if Deer and jackal noticed him, he could have moved past without problems!”
“There’s something we’re missing”, Minato says with a sigh.
“Let’s start from the beginning. What do we know?”, Shikaku asks. “An unknown person infiltrates Konoha, manages to get past the guards and walls. He has a full Konoha anbu uniform and mask, although one that doesn’t belong to an active member and hasn’t been produced at all.”
“He knew the Konoha standard”, Deer interjects, a little dazed from the mid walk still. The Yamanaka interrogator stands behind her, sketching the anbu mask in a notebook.
“It could have been a henge”, Minato throws in.
“Yes”, Shikaku says, “And he underwent the risk that jackal and deer already knew the anbu he would henge to and blow his cover, so he used an unknown mask and pretended to be a recruit.”
“Which probably means he has extensive knowledge of which masks are taken and which not.”
“He could have gotten lucky?”, Deer interjects.
“Unlikely. He knew Konoha standard, so he probably was either a spy or someone from the inside.“
“But why did he stop at the tower?”, Minato asks again. “A ploy to assassinate Danzo I understand, but why did he stop on the way? What did he have to gain?”
The room falls silent, the only sound the yamanaka’s pen on the paper.
“Maybe we should wait until the root agents have been interrogated?”, Minato suggests.
“That can take months”, Shikaku sighs. “And the assassin probably wasn’t one of them. Why go through all the trouble of finding an anbu uniform when he already had a direct way to him?”
“Someone within the village then?”, Deer asks.
Shikaku runs a hand through his hair, fiddling with the ends of his ponytail. “Depends. There’s something we’re missing.” He sighs, leaning back against the wall. “I have to think about this more thoroughly. Let’s talk again tomorrow?”
Minato nods, rubbing at his eyes. “I think the most important thing right now is dealing with root and the information that came to light about Danzo. The how and why of his death can wait.”
Obito stifles a yawn behind his hand, blinking the bleariness out of his eyes as he tries to focus on the black characters on the scroll before him that seem to swim before his eyes.
“Hey Obito”, he hears one of his cousins approach.
“Inabi”, Obito grunts in greeting, and the man pats him on the shoulder. “Long night?”
“You could say that”, Obito grumbles. Fugaku knows damn well that Obito is in anbu, and still put him on paperwork duty in the police headquarters first thing in the morning. As if he isn’t busy enough as it is.
“I’d offer you coffee, but the machine broke”, Inabi offers.
“I know”, Obito grumbles. “If I find out who it was…”
He scowls, and Inabi laughs before retreating in the direction of his own desk. Obito sighs, moving to another report.
He gave up trying to work half an hour ago, and is pretending to work while his mind works around the Danzo problem.
The first suspects are obviously going to be the Uchiha. Obito’s clan has a long-standing grudge against the councilman, and with the sharingan it was easy to copy a foreign jutsu that couldn’t be traced back to anyone. And the thing is, Obito isn’t entirely convinced that it wasn’t a member of his clan- some elder or council member who got tired of waiting around for Fugaku to do something and took matters in their own hand, or an over-eager shinobi that though they could do the right thing.
But no matter how Obito turns it around in his head, he can’t think of anyone that could have pulled it off that effortlessly. No one had known where Danzo’s hideout was, and there wasn’t even the faintest footprint present- Obito himself couldn’t have done it better.
He runs a hand through his hair, sighing again.
He would think he was reading too much into this if the whole thing wasn’t so damn weird.
“Uh, Obito?”
It’s Inabi again, waking up to him with his lower lip trapped between his teeth. Obito raises an eyebrow, but welcomes the distraction from his work. “Can you do me a favor, please?”, the man asks with a low voice, glancing towards the entrance nervously. “Apparently we have a new intern- I haven’t checked my reports in a while and he’s here for a first impression. Could you show him around?”
Obito sighs, getting up from his chair. “You really should check the reports Fugaku sends your way once in a while“, he chastizes as if there isn’t a steady pile of unread scrolls at his desk. “I know, I know”, Inabi groans. “Thank you, really, you’re saving my ass here, I’m supposed to be in a meeting in five minutes-“
“Just go”, Obito says, waving him away. “It’s just an intern, right? Can’t be that hard.”
Said intern is waiting for him at the door, hands in his pockets and peering inside curiously. He seems to be about Obito’s age, with soft brown hair and purple clan markings under his eyes that actually kind of remind Obito of Rin. Maybe they were related?
Obito smiles, raising a hand in greeting. “Hey, you’re the intern, right? I’m Obito.”
The man’s eyes flicker towards him, and he bows slightly at the waist. “Yes, that’s me. I apologize for the inconvenience.”
“It’s fine”, Obito says easily. “If anything, it’s our fault for making you wait. Come inside, I’ll show you around.”
The intern follows obediently, and Obito starts by showing him the central’s layout and functions, everything from the cluttered desks with overworked shinobi behind to the holding cells and Fugaku’s office.
“I really wouldn’t go in there though if it isn’t urgent- Fugaku-san can be a real asshole when he’s in a bad mood, and that’s basically always. He made Ryoka-san over there cry once.” He gestures towards a very huge, very burly-looking man. He looks up with his usual grim expression and Obito just waves with a tight-lipped smile. “Don’t let his appearance fool you- he’s a big softie at heart. But don’t tell him I told you that, though”, he whispers in the intern’s direction.
“So, that’s about it. There’s still the archives, if you want to see them, but they’re boring. I almost fell asleep once while rearranging the shelves.”
There’s no answer, and when Obito turns he finds the intern staring at him intently. He blinks, tilting his head, and the man looks away, smiling faintly. “Sometimes boring is nice”, he says. Obito likes his voice- it’s smooth, and soothing to the ears after hearing his coworkers scream at each other the entire morning. A lack of coffee could do that to people. “I don’t mind rearranging shelves. And I don’t think it would make me fall asleep either.”
“Aw, c’mon, don’t bully me when we just met”, Obito pouts, and the intern turns towards him, blinking innocently. But Obito sees the way the corners of his mouth twitch upwards faintly- he can’t fool him.
“Why do you want to work for the police force anyways?”, Obito asks as they walk down the hallways. “Not that I’m against it, or anything. It’s just that most people still think we don’t accept people from outside the clan.”
Obito had worked long and hard to convince Fugaku to even consider hiring someone not an Uchiha- and he would’ve never even listened if Obito admitted that it had actually been Minato’s idea. But if they wanted to do something against the persistent rumors and the worsening social stand of the Uchiha, opening the force to outsiders was a perfect first step.
The intern hums at Obito’s side. “I was just curious, I guess. It doesn’t hurt taking a look, right?”
Something about the ton of his voice is just slightly off, but Obito ignores it. “Right!”, he smiles. “Fresh blood might just be what we need to keep the police force from cowering at Fugaku-sama’s feet every day.”, he jokes.
“Anyway, these are the archives”, he says, once they reached a rusty old door. It swings open with a loud protest, and Obito makes a mental note to oil the rusty hinges. The electrical light flickers as he turns it on- man, this place really needed a fix.
“Just old books and dust, as I said.”, Obito comments, carefully shutting the door. The intern hums, walking through the rows of shelves. “Seems like the police force is really meticulous”, he says, brushing a finger along the backs of the books.
Obito shrugs, leaning against the shut door as he watches the intern. His steps are graceful, in fact every single movement seems carefully chosen and controlled. Like a panther. There isn’t even dust whirling up at his steps.
“The Uchiha are just paranoid”, he says. “Or at least, old man Hikaku was.”. The previous clan head had written down every single little thing since the founding of the village. He died a few years ago- Obito kinda misses him, even if he was always grumpy in his old age.
The intern turns towards him, and Obito catches a strange glint in his brown eyes. He can’t really explain it, but Obito feels strangely transfixed by his gaze- he finds it hard to look away.
“What do you even do here, Obito-san?”, he asks, and Obito’s name practically rolls off his lips, as if he said it hundreds of times before.
“Oh, you know, this and that”, Obito says with a shrug, ignoring the weird feeling in his chest. The work in the force is really just a cover for his anbu status- not that he can tell the intern that. “I mostly do paperwork or patrols- I’ve done a few interrogations too in the past”, he says, scratching at his jaw. The intern hums, turning his back to him again as he walks down the next aisle. “That sounds interesting. Are you a Jonin then, Obito-san?”
“Yeah”, Obito says, not without pride. He fought hard for his promotion. “What about you?”
“Chuunin”, the intern says curtly.
“Huh”, Obito says. “I could’ve sworn you were a Jonin. Well, I’m sure you’ll have a promotion on your hands soon.”
The intern turns, a half-smile pulling at his lips. “That’s nice of you to say. But I think I’m content staying chunin for now. Less work. And it seems I’ll be confined to paperwork anyways regardless of my rank.”
Obito chuckles quietly at his quip. “Ah, don’t take me too seriously. It’s really not that bad, don’t worry. I’m sure Fugaku-sama won’t torture you too much- we really do need more members, and it wouldn’t do him any good if he scared you off.”
“Hm”, makes the intern, rounding the corner. “I think I’ve seen enough.”, he says, dusting his hands off. “It really is a nice archive”, he comments. “Amazingly organized. Really not that boring, though.”
Obito rolls his eyes with a smile. “Alright, I get it. Keep that up and I’m sending you down here instead once you’re hired.”
Obito turns around, opening the door. He doesn’t hear the scuffle of feet at his back, but he senses the intern following him regardless. Obito wonders if he’s really a chunin- Obito’s only used to hearing this kind of noiselessness from his fellow anbu.
“We’re done here, then”, Obito says once they’re outside, standing under the porch.
“Thank you”, the intern says, looking at Obito with that weird look again. Obito just smiles, trying to ban his suspicion to the back of his mind. “You’re welcome. Will I be seeing you around again, then?”
“Hmm”, the intern smiles mysteriously. “Maybe. I haven’t made up my mind yet.”
Obito huffs a laugh. “Well, whatever. At least I tried.”
“You did do a pretty good job of showing me around.“, the intern says, still smiling. Obito feels himself blush under his persistent gaze. “It’s nothing”, he mutters.
“I just realized- I didn’t catch your name, sorry”, Obito says, looking away in embarrassment. He really needs to pay better attention.
“Sukea”, the intern says, smiling in amusement. No last name- probably an orphan then. “Right”, Obito says, ears still red in embarrassment. “See you around then, right?”
But when he looks back, the space Sukea stood is empty, only occupied by a single leaf drifting in the wind.
It was a mistake coming back to Konoha, Kakashi thinks as he sits on an abandoned bench at the edge of some park, hands fisted in his pants and trying to get his breathing under control.
He can’t stop shaking.
It was morbid curiosity that pulled him into the village again, that kept him here even if Kakashi knew it wouldn’t do him any good. He had only intended to catch a glimpse or two, reassure himself that everyone was alive and healthy, and then he was going to leave, continue his mission without distractions. Instead…
God, he was so stupid. But he’d seen Obito through the window of the police station, with two eyes and black hair and a healthy color on his face and just… acted without thinking.
This Obito acted so carefree, so happy, his eyes didn’t carry the weight of a lifetime of war and death in them. He looked at Kakashi without recognition, and smiled without hesitation.
This was Obito if Kakashi never existed to fuck things up.
It hurt.
Kakashi didn’t even notice the tears until they’re falling on his hands. He blinks, gaze glued to the ground. God, he’s so fucking pathetic, isn’t he? Obito was finally happy for once, without Kakashi, and he just had to fuck it all up and stick his nose where it doesn’t belong. He should leave, stick to his mission and never come back again. He wasn’t meant to be here. He shouldn’t have even stepped foot into Konoha again.
“Are you alright, ‘ttebayo?”
Kakashi startles up, jerking his head to the side and blinking the tears out of his vision.
Huge blue eyes blink up at him, sitting over two sets achingly familiar whisker marks.
Naruto.
He looks… good. Healthy. There’s a calm in his eyes that Kakashi has never seen in them at this age. They used to be angry, sad, bitter. Now, he looks… content.
Naruto blinks, unperturbed by his lacking answer. “You’re crying”, he says, pointing to Kakashi’s eyes.
Slowly, he lifts a hand, wiping over his eyelids. The brown contacts ache over his pupils, and he has to fight to keep his left eye open, too accustomed to having it closed all the time.
“What’s a child like you doing out here alone all by yourself?”, Kakashi asks hoarsely, swallowing the lump in his throat.
Naruto shrugs, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “Just takin’ a walk. Dad’s busy and mom’s tired.”
Kakashi smiles, despite himself. He never thought he’d hear Naruto referring to his parents so casually.
“Well? Why’re you crying, dattebayo? You’re all sad and mopey.”, Naruto says, scratching at his whisker marks. Kakashi chuckles, leaning back on the bench.
“It’s a long story”, he says, peering up into the canopy. “And?”, Naruto shrugs. “I have time. Mom said I only have to be home by eight.”
Kakashi side-eyes the boy as he climbs up the bench and sits down next to him. “You know, when people say ‘its a long story’ it almost always meany they don't want to talk about it.”
Naruto scrunches his nose, a movement so familiar that it makes Kakashi’s heart ache. He doesn't understand. How can he miss a person that’s sitting right in front of him?
“Well, why didn't you say so then? I don't get it. It’s not like I’m forcin’ you to tell me anything.”, he says, swinging his legs idly.
Kakashi laughs, wiping away the wetness on his cheeks. He’s grateful it's dark already, or Naruto would've surely picked up on the paint on his cheeks washing away.
The boy watches him with furrowed eyebrows, tilting his head. “You’re weird”, he decides.
“Maybe”, Kakashi says with a lingering smile.
A gust of wind whirls through the park, and Kakashi feels a strange calmness settle over him. He understands. Obito is alive and happier than he would have ever been with Kakashi there. Minato and Kushina are alive, and Naruto never grew up an orphan and ostracized from the village. Kakashi accepts it. In the perfect universe, Hatake Kakashi doesn’t exist. It’s better if it stays that way.
“Are you happy?”, he asks quietly, raising his gaze to the first stars that are starting to shine in the evening sky.
Naruto turns towards him with a frown, scrunching his nose. “Yeah? What kind of a question is that, dattebayo?”
But by the time Naruto’s eyes focus through the darkness to the space next to him, there’s no trace of the strange man that sat there moments before.
Obito stumbles, fumbling for the door handle as he half-crashes through the entrance.
He’s just come back from a mission, and he feels exhaustion dragging him down like a stone. He isn’t injured, but his muscles hurt from over-extortion and his head pounds from using his sharingan too much. He rips off his mask, dragging himself through torch-lit stone hallways, not hesitating as he swings another door open and lets himself fall into a chair.
“Obito”, says a smooth voice as golden eyes turn towards him with mild annoyance. “Don’t you know how to knock?”, Orochimaru says, turning toward his current fixiation again.
“Ugh”, Obito says, letting his head thump into the table in front of him. “Leave me alone, old man.”
Orochimaru just huffs, carefully dragging his brush along paper. “Difficult mission?”
Obito just grunts. Less difficult and more fucking annoying- pushing himself for days on end without sleep will do that, but the mission was urgent.
“Might I remind you that you have a perfectly fine apartment?”, the snake sannins voice drifts to his ears again. Obito hums, already half asleep. “The lab’s closer.”
That’s true, but not the reason Obito came here. He wouldn’t have been able to sleep alone in his cold apartment, feeling as if something’s still out to get him even after returning from his mission, like it was most days. But here? Anything that could get past one of the sannin could kill Obito in a heart beat anyways.
Minato-sensei and Kushina were busy with Naruto, so he didn’t want to bother even if he knew they wouldn’t mind much, Anko always woke him at odd hours in the early morning doing one thing or the other and Rin fretted unnecessarily whenever he crashed at her place, so Obito’s only option was Orochimaru’s lab. He knew the man didn’t mind, even if he huffed and complained about it endlessly.
Obito drifts off in a light sleep, the scratching sound of Orochimaru’s brush in paper in his ears, and only wakes when the man stands up to leave the room.
He yawns, sitting upright. The blanket that was thrown over him glides off his shoulders, and Obito blinks the sleep out of his eyes as Orochimaru returns with two tea mugs in hand.
Obito grunts his thanks as he takes one, squinting his eyes against the morning sun. He must have been sleeping longer than he thought.
He rubs at his eyes, already feeling the incoming headache.
“Is the sharingan giving you trouble?”, Orochimaru asks, eyes still glued to his research.
“Eh”, says Obito. “Not really- I just overused it yesterday. But it always goes back to normal.”
Orochimaru throws him a glance, his eyes searching his face. Obito grimaces. “If you ask me how many fingers you’re holding up I’m leaving”, he threatens.
The sannin hums. “We’ll have to do another test soon”, he says, looking away from Obito.
The man scoffs, leaning back in his chair. Orochimaru and his tests.
Don’t get him wrong, Obito owes Orochimaru a lot. He’s his sensei too, even if he tries to deny it- he was only Anko’s mentor, initially, but Obito and Rin won him over with their charms and brilliant personality- or so he likes to think. The sannin probably took pity on them and Minato who had no idea what to do with a bunch of twelve-year-olds.
And after the accident in the war, it was Orochimaru who sat day and night in his lab, trying to figure out a way to restore Obito’s crushed right body half.
“How is… Tenzo?”, Orochimaru asks tentatively, and Obito blinks. “As good as the circumstances allow”, he says after a moment. “He’s scared, I think. I don’t think anyone in root would have anticipated something like this.”
Orochimaru always had an above average interest in Tenzo- rightfully so. Obito doesn’t know the details, but he knows that the boy was the only one to survive the mokuton experiments, and was whisked away by Danzo to join his fucked-up organization. Orochimaru tried, but the sandaime didn’t allow him to take him back. Obito knows that the sannin never forgot that betrayal from his teacher.
Well, now Danzo is dead and root is in disarray- Minato-sensei has been trying since he became Hokage to disband it, and now he didn’t even have to try.
“What do you think will happen to root?”, Obito asks, sipping at his mug.
Orochimaru hesitates, writing another line before he answers. “It depends”, he says slowly. “Minato will probably try to integrate them as good as possible, with varying results.”
Obito grimaces, turning his cup in his hands. The children could probably be saved, those not yet indoctrinated and wiped blank of all emotion, but the older ones… Tenzo was an outlier, not the norm, sadly.
“We’re still working to crack the seal”, Orochimaru says. “The rest can come after.”
Curiously, Obito stretches his neck, trying to catch a glimpse of the scrolls laid out on the sannin’s desk. “Is that what you’re working on? I thought Minato-sensei had it handled.”
Orochimaru hums, spinning the brush in his fingers as he leans back to inspect his work. “Yes, but he’s also just a human. I might not understand sealing as good as Minato or Jiraiya, but even small progress is still progress. And it might be helpful having another perspective on things.”
Obito hums in agreement, eyes flickering over the sealing matrixes. He’s never really been that into fuuinjutsu, to be honest, no matter how much Minato tried to teach him. The only one out of his teammates that could keep up with him somewhat was Rin, and even she struggled to make sense of his rambling sometimes.
Silence spreads again, only the sound of the waking birds and Obito slurping his tea to be heard.
“What do you think about the whole Danzo disaster?”, Obito asks into the silence.
Orochimaru’s brush freezes, and he straightens minimally from his slouch. He blinks slowly, his eyes unreadable to Obito even after all these years of knowing the man.
“Danzo was… cunning. Meticulous. And yet, refused to believe of himself as anything but on top of everyone else.” Orochimaru stares out the windows with a faraway look on his face. “That must have been what caused his demise, in the end.”
Obito scrunches his nose. “I didn’t ask for an entire character analysis, jeez.”
Orochimaru look at him, bemused, turning in his chair to face him head-on. “No, I don’t know who did it, Obito. And I don’t suspect the Uchiha, even if that’s what everyone thinks.”
Obito bites his lip, staring into his tea. These whole accusations aren’t exactly making it easier for him and Shisui to try and manage the entire coup situation. The only one who knows beside them and the rest of the Uchiha clan is the Hokage and his closest advisors- Obito hasn’t even told Rin and Anko, but they can sense that something is amiss at the moment. And Orochimaru probably suspected something too.
“The entire thing is one fucked up mystery”, Obito mutters. Orochimaru’s lips twitch in amusement at his words. “That’s certainly one way to say it.”
Obito yawns, letting his chin drop down to his chest. Exhaustion tugs at his mind, and not only the physical kind. Between handling the Uchiha elders, his anbu and police work and now this, his mind has been whirring with new information and worry. Obito just hopes all of this will be resolved soon.
Minato flares his chakra slightly, stepping up to the worn door of the old house in front of him. The wolf sprawled out at the entrance just opens an eye to scan him, before huffing and laying his head on his paws. Minato smiles at him, knocking at the wooden door.
He hears steps nearing him after a short pause, and the door is swung open without hesitation.
“Hokage-sama”, Hatake Sakumo greets with a smile. “Welcome. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
Minato smiles back, stepping into the house. “Please, Minato is fine, Sakumo-san. But I’m afraid this won’t be one of our usual chats.”
Sakumo just hums, stepping into the kitchen to rummage around the cupboards. “Tea?”, he asks, and Minato nods, sitting down at the table. Two huge wolves are sprawling out on the couches, eyes closed, but their ears twitch in their direction with every movement.
Minato watches the man turn on the oven and put on a kettle, eyes tracking the empty sleeve where he’s missing an arm.
He knows that the man lost it right before the third war started, on a mission that went sideways. Half the team died, and Sakumo dragged the remaining half back himself. Minato doesn’t know the details, but if the mission would have failed, the third war probably would have started a lot sooner.
“You must have heard the rumors by now, right?”, Minato says a while later, turning the teacup in his hands. Sakumo hums, blowing on his tea.
“I don’t really go out much anymore, but yes, I’ve heard. Hard not to, to be honest.”
Minato is silent for a moment, staring out the window. Two wolf pups are playing in the garden, chasing a butterfly under the older one’s watchful gazes.
“What do you think of… everything?”, he asks.
Sakumo sighs, leaning back. “It’s… a clusterfuck, to be honest.”, he says, and MInato smiles at his bluntness. He’s always liked this about the man, his honesty in every situation without sugar-coating anything, much like the Inuzuka. He wonders if it’s a trait unique to him, or if every Hatake had been like that, once upon a time.
“I’ve worked towards the disbandment of root for a long time, but we were still unprepared when it all came crashing down”, Minato admits. “No one says it out loud, especially not in the presence of the Sandaime, but everyone’s glad he's dead. Especially after everything that came to light.”
Sakumo hums. “But that’s not what you came here to talk about, is it?”
Minato hesitates. “...No. We had Tsume inspect the crime scene yesterday.”
Sakumo raises an eyebrow. “And?”
Minato shifts on his chair, avoiding the other’s eyes. “The cause of death was some kind of raiton jutsu to the chest. And Tsume said the was a strange smell in the air- it smelled like wolf.”
Sakumo stills, and the wolves on the couch raise their heads.
“Hm”, Sakumo says slowly. “I see.”
Minato’s fingers drum against his cup nervously as the man in front of him remains quiet, immersed in his thoughts.
“Well”, he says after a while. “I didn’t do it. I was here the entire night.”
“That’s not what I was insinuating”, Minato hurries to explain. “Tsume would have recognized your scent. I’m just asking if… I don’t know.”, the sentence fades out, and Minato shuts his mouth, embarrassed.
Sakumo looks at him, an amused twinkle in his eyes. “You’re asking that there’s a possibility of another Hatake running around, or someone with a wolf summoning contract.”
Minato presses his lips together, but that’s answer enough.
“Well, I’m the only one left”, Sakumo says with a sigh. It sounds bitter. “The contract is traditionally passed down in the clan, and even if there was someone somewhere that managed to impress them enough to form a contract, the wolves would have told me, probably.” One of the wolves licks his teeth, grinning, and Sakumo frowns. “Well… Wolves are pack animals. They’re loyal above everything else.” Minato’s brows furrow at the strange answer.
“In any case”, Sakumo says, snapping out of his daze. “I think I would have noticed a foreign nin with the wolf contract popping up in the elemental nations. Or someone would have.”
Minato sighs. It seemed that their investigation wasn't going anywhere. Then again, he didn’t really expect Sakumo to know anything useful.
“It… probably was someone inside the village”, he admits after a pause, and Sakumo turns to him, both eyebrows raised. After Minato spills everything with the weird not-anbu and his senseless route through the village, Sakumo goes quiet.
“Have you considered that Danzo’s killer might not be the foreign anbu at all?”, he says with a hand on his chin.
Minato frowns, arms crossed. “You think it was two separate incidents?”
Sakumo shrugs. “Might be. If it doesn’t make any sense, maybe it’s not connected at all.”
Minato mills it over for a second, before sighing and running a hand through his hair. “It has to be connected”, he stresses. “It fits the presumed time of death and all. It’s just so confusing.”
Sakumo leans back in his chair, fiddling with his mug. “Let’s rewind all the facts. Your guards notice an unknown anbu, with uniform and tattoo. He has a foreign mask, which is why they assume he was a new recruit.”
Minato nods, and Sakumo scratches at his neck in thought. “Did they assume, or did he tell them?”
Minato hesitates, eyes narrowing. “They assumed…”, he says slowly, before he straightens with a start. “They assumed, and after that, he started actually acting the part.”, he says, folding his hands in front of his face. Deer and jackal recounted the entire thing so many times he could recite it in his sleep. “They practically gave him an excuse.”
“Maybe he just painted a blank anbu mask and hoped for the best”, Sakumo said, and Minato nods slowly. “That… makes sense. Still, what was his goal?”
“Information?”, Sakumo suggests. "Getting a feel of the situation before he makes a move. Making sure you- the Hokage- are exactly where you’re supposed to be. We don’t know if he only stopped at the tower, after all, and with his uniform no one would bat an eye at him appearing in suspicious places. Civilians or non-anbu won’t recognize his mask as new either.”
“Yes”, Minato breathes, heart beating in his chest in excitement. “And then, he makes his move, killing Danzo.”
The two men make eye contact, and Minato feels exhilarated. This wasn’t close to a solution, but he felt like he finally managed to put a bit of order in this mystery.
“He could be someone from the village, or a very thorough spy”, Sakumo adds. "Especially since Tsume didn’t recognize his scent.”
“Maybe he had an informant”, Minato says.
“Maybe”, Sakumo agrees. “But that doesn’t really bring us anywhere. What could even have been the motive? You said maybe it was a root member?”
Minato bites his lip. “It’s… unlikely. They are all extremely loyal, they were programmed to be. Out of every root member, excluding the children, Tenzo is the only one with a remotely different mindset.”
Sakumo scratches his cheek, looking to the side. “And Danzo probably didn’t exactly make himself likable through the other nations. So we’re stuck here.”
“I wouldn’t say that”, Minato says. “Just think about how he was murdered. The attacker could have used a simple blade, but they didn’t.”
Sakumo hums. “That’s why you said it felt personal.”
Minato only nods, and the other men frowns. “Seems where still going in circles.”
“I wouldn’t say that”, Minato throws in. “You’ve still helped me a lot, thank you.”
He stands up, draining the last of his tea. “I should get going- it’s almost dinner time and Kushina will bite my head off if I’m late again.”, he says with a sheepish smile.
“I understand”, Sakumo says with a smile, standing up to see Minato out.
Later, after MInato left, Sakumo turns to his wolves again. “I wonder”, he says. “If there really was another wolf summoner, would you tell me?”
The big silver wolf on the couch opens his eyes lazily, watching Sakumo through sly eyes. “We’re loyal above everything else”, he says, repeating Sakumo’s earlier words. “But only towards our summoner. If they wouldn’t want anyone else to know, we wouldn’t tell. But…” the wolf pauses. “Us wolves have always belonged to the Hatake more than anyone else.”
Sakumo frowns at the vague answer, placing his chin in his hands. It seems there were a lot of things he didn’t know. A shiver passes him, and he throws a look at the sky.
It feels like a storm is coming.