I'm no longer only screwing with the Naruto timeline, but my own.

The ancestors of Fire Country believed that when someone was talking about you, you sneezed. The ancestors of neighbouring countries held similar beliefs; Water Country for instance, believed that if you were being spoken about your ears would burn.

Kakashi considered himself a well travelled and open minded person, if not necessarily a superstitious one. Being one of the youngest shinobi in Konoha's history and therefore one of the longest serving; the only non Uchiha in possession of the Sharingan; the only child of the disgraced Konoha White Fang; the last remaining student of the Fourth Hokage and the teacher of the Uchiha Heir, the Kyuubi vessel; not to mention his carefully cultivated reputation as an eccentric pain in the arse, Kakashi was so used to people gossiping about his life that he very rarely noticed. To the Copy Nin, a sneeze did not instil any fear of slander in him, rather encouraged him to get out of wet clothing and dose up on hot lemon to fend of Death-By-Man-Cold. Likewise, a burning ear would make him find a cool, quiet place and take off his Hitae-Ate for a while, until the accompanying face-ache subsided.

Unfortunately, being on crazy solo missions to hunt and dispose of several crazy solo mercenaries made finding time to cool your throbbing, covered eye somewhat difficult. Especially when the tables had turned quite dramatically and the crazy bastards were no longer solo and had decided to start hunting you.

Kakashi was tired, hungry, out-numbered, and really, really fed up. He raced through the trees silently, weaving in and out of Fire Country borders, occasionally creating clones to cross paths and confuse his trail, hoping that maybe his assailants - targets, you idiot! - were stupid or tired enough to believe that a Dark Troop of the Hidden Leaf would make such rookie mistakes. That rested on them being unaware of who he was, or overconfident of their own abilities. He needed to combat them, to ascertain their abilities and come up with a way to actually take them down, but knew he was too tired to combat them all at once. His eye hurt. Risking wasting chakra on the Sharingan would not be fun, and Kage Bunshin to separate and isolate targets would probably be just as wasteful if his opponents had made an attack strategy. Considering how much energy he was wasting weaving through a forest he knew like the back of his own fucking hand, Kakashi guessed that they'd had time to chat.

There had been six names on his list of targets. In the last five days he'd located and killed two S-class criminals and incapacitated one elite A-Class missing nin, as ordered - albeit awkwardly, almost losing his eye in the process. The three criminals left should be low A-class affiliates to the now all but defeated Hidden Sound - two with extensive combat experience, originally from the Hidden Sand and Hidden Waterfall - and a third unknown shinobi with rookie brilliance. Kakashi had located them easily - the youngest with tawny hair similar to the birds he was petting - but was quickly discovered by hawk-like eyes... It had not been mentioned that the brilliant Rookie was an expert at tracking.

There were now four shinobi chasing him, and the Rookie's pet hawks - Summons, has to be - maintained their close circling, ensuring no escape, despite any superior speed and skill. Kakashi needed flying dogs, but, not seeing that happen any time soon, tracked down the Rookie before launching six shuriken skywards - intending to distract the birds - and quickly went through the hand seals of his Sensei's signature jutsu. The body flicker skill transported him with pinpoint accuracy in front of the Rookie, and before the tawny haired boy had fully registered the snarling, feral threat he was falling to the ground with a kunai lodged securely in his throat.

Stopping briefly to gather chakra and catch his breath, Kakashi clenched bloody, shaking hands. If Jiraiya ever found out he knew Yondaime's body flicker technique, he'd be for it. Kakashi was fond of the old man, but in the Saanin's own supportive way he underestimated the Copy Nin. His current status as an Elite Jounin, combined with his past familiarity with two of the Hokages, meant that Kakashi had often been privy to information above his station. Returning the favour by occasionally doing the odd ANBU class mission was fine by Kakashi. But he knew that if Jiji-Saanin discovered that the 'Master of a Thousand Jutsus' knew a couple more than that, Kakashi could kiss goodbye to his weekends, such as they were. Full time ANBU work would kill him. He knew he couldn't go back to that, not without something to keep him human - like Yondaime-sensei had after Obito's death. Like Rin had after Yondaime's.

But - fuck - his eye just hurt.

Five days earlier several of the elite Chuunin and Jounin had been chatting as they hung around the mission room.

Iruka and Raidou were about to start a long, boring shift, and Genma - practically attaching himself to Raidou's side - along with Anko and her cousin - an ANBU operative with similar purple hair - had decided to tag along and tease their friends. Asuma-sensei and Kurenai-sensei, having just finished training with their own teams, had met in the mission room intending to write their reports up quickly and so avoid any paperwork that would inevitably find its way to their lockers.

For a while, all were content about their own business, Asuma and Kurenai were bickering quietly (Iruka called it flirting) at an unused desk; Raidou had quickly grown so frustrated with Genma's teasing squirms he had bodily pulled the younger Jounin onto his lap, much to the amusement of Iruka and the two violet haired kunoichi. For a while that is, until one Hatake Kakashi stormed purposefully through the mission room and into the Hokage's office (according to a ruffled Maito Gai, who joined them several minutes later, Kakashi hadn't even knocked, and had not been reprimanded for his rudeness.).

Reports, work shifts and teasing immediately forgotten, the eight shinobi - including Gai's pouting intrusion - did what Konoha's shinobi were infamous for. They Gossiped.

"What do you think about the rumours?" Raidou asked tentatively.

"Total Bullshit" Asuma's statement was absolute. A comforting certainty that someone believed in their village's institutions.

"Agreed, if he'd lost his touch, he'd be dead by now" chirped Kurenai. "Kakashi's always been reckless with his own life�on the field..."

"Not to mention the amount of 'classified' missions he's been handed recently." Iruka continued "Might as well not bother coming to the mission room at all, we always have to send him to the Hokage lately."

"But the rumours have to come from somewhere, even if they are exaggerated." Genma considered from his perch on Raidou's lap. "You have to ask why they'd assign a failing ninja classified gigs? Unless they're trying to protect his reputation by concealing lame missions!"

The collective laughed warily. It was Sharingan Kakashi they were discussing.

"I just can't see Kakashi ever becoming so weak, I mean, he's the Copy Nin!" Anko's cousin, not known for her strong opinions, earned a shared sigh from the kunoichi. The gathered males responded with a familiar groan.

"I thought you'd all grown out of your Kakashi-Fan-Club?" Asuma smirked, before stage whispering to Genma's confused look: "Crazy fangirl stalker types."

"We are not fangirls." Kurenai practically squealed.

"We just have an aesthetic appreciation for badass, mysterious, unattainable, tragic yet smoulderingly hot shinobi�" Anko finished her defence somewhat breathlessly.

"Fangirl." Asuma mouthed to Kurenai, receiving a hard slap to the cheek.

"How do you know though?" Genma chewed thoughtfully on his senbon. "I mean, if it's common knowledge that Kakashi's hot, we'd have reference, right?" the collective shinobi gave their various assent, although Raidou slightly tightened his hold on his captured Jounin. "But he never takes the mask off. So how do you know?"

"My Eternal Rival would never be so Vain as to Hide His Hideousness from the World! It is Unmanly!" Maito Gai was ignored without exception.

"He's pouty." Iruka's simple statement caught everyone's attention. "You can kind of make out his expression, sometimes - when - when the light's right - and he pouts, a lot. I think we just all subconsciously recognise that as� Hot."

Shutting up instantly as the shinobi in question appeared cheerfully before the gathered ninja, they watched awkwardly as Kakashi asked Iruka if there was anything for him. Iruka, taking a moment to calm his mortified blush, fished out a thin looking envelope from the pile on his desk.

"Classified, Kakashi-sensei." Iruka's mouth felt slightly dry as he handed the Copy Nin the folder. "Please report to Godaime-Sama for further details."

Kakashi's lips visibly formed an exaggerated pout as he thanked the academy sensei. Eight shinobi took careful note of it.

Sensing a presence spark within the forest behind him, Kakashi masked his chakra completely, removing his right glove and tapping into a form of energy he hadn't used since forever. 'Nostalgia is so overrated.' White chakra danced quickly over his fingertips as he reached to his leg holster for a throwing star, flexing his hand a little, hoping his senses were accurate enough for the trick to work� 'Come on, Come out�' When there was no movement from behind him, Kakashi guessed it was one of the A-Class. Probably from Waterfall - those he had come across generally excelled at hiding and masking their presence.

Not to be outdone, Kakashi's left hand reached up silently to pull his mask away from his nose. Breathing the necessary words to activate another well used jutsu, he diverted sense and chakra to his nose before taking three deep breaths. Quickly dispelling the jutsu and covering his nose to avoid nausea, Kakashi worked through the onslaught of scents to locate the cowardly bastard hiding in the trees. After a quick breath to steady himself, the Jounin pitched sidewards and down, using threads of chakra charged wire to control the shuriken he had thrown during his descent from the high trees to the hard ground. The Waterfall Nin, having been wildly missed, allowed himself a triumphant laugh, coming out of the shadows he had melded to in favour of watching his higher ranking opponent hit the unyielding earth, merely to... bamph out of existence?

Kakashi had created a clone mid fall, utilising his briefly heightened sense of smell to find a good place to hide and wait, hoping his opponent would give himself away. Using substitution technique with his clone upon hitting the ground, Kakashi appeared behind his opponent in time to push the spinning wired shuriken into the Waterfall Nin's back and legs. Kakashi's target turned in shock only to have his throat cut by the last of the metal stars. Kakashi let him drop to his team mate before sliding down to lean on the tree trunk at his back, breathing hard as a wave of fatigue hit him. 'Two out of four. Okay, now what?'

A kunai missing his ear by a hair's breadth was the only real answer he needed.

Four days earlier, a group of young shinobi - still occasionally referred to as the Rookie Nine and Team Gai - were chatting as they hung around the training fields.

Shino and Neji were cooped up somewhere, unable to avoid shinobi duty to better bask in the stifling heat of Konoha's summer and Chouji, they had guessed, had been waylaid by the opening of a new Korean Barbeque Buffet-Restaurant, replacing the old one that had burned down several months before. Kiba was training Inuzuka dogs a few fields over, accompanied by Hyuuga Hinata, and the remaining collective could hear the shouts and barked commands as the powerful clan trained.

For a while, all were content to go about their own business, Ino and Shikamaru were bickering loudly (Naruto, half-heartedly sparring with Sasuke, called it flirting) under the shade of a large tree; Tenten had grown so frustrated with Rock Lee's hopeful squirming towards Sakura she had begun to beat him over the head with a large stick, much to the amusement of Naruto, and the two rival kunoichi. For a while, that is, until the heat grew too much for the Uchiha heir, who - pausing the fight - purposefully emptied a bottle of icy water over his head, before marching off to buy some more.

Teasing, sparring and beating immediately forgotten, the six young shinobi - including Naruto in his brushed off fury - did what Konoha's youth were infamous for. They Gossiped.

"Speaking purely from an aesthetic point of reference," Sakura began, voice slightly strained, "I'd like to point out the wetness of Sasuke-kun just now."

"Totally with you on that one�" Ino commented. Tenten sighed.

The gathered males groaned.

"Che, women are so difficultt. I thought you were over that insane crush?" Shikamaru smirked as Naruto predictably began to mock in a brash falsetto.

"Over Sasuke-kun?" The blonde imitated Sakura perfectly, "Never! Our girls are fangirls, Shikamaru, they'll never change."

"We are not fangirls." Ino practically squealed.

"We just have an aesthetic appreciation for cool, mysterious, unattainable, angsty yet ridiculously pretty shinobi�" Tenten finished her defence somewhat breathlessly.

"Fangirl." Shikamaru mouthed to Ino, receiving a hard slap to the cheek. He sunk to the floor with a sighed "troublesome," drifting in and out of his friends' comforting conversation and playful bickering.

The conversation eventually turned to Team 7's tardy instructor, as it inevitably always did, although after spending some time with the Copy Nin, Shikamaru was having a difficult time equating what he had discovered of the shinobi with Naruto's perception of the man. It just seemed to the shadow-user that Hatake-sama (and he'd earned the titled in Shikamaru's eyes) could see through too much, was aware of too much, for his affected manner to be anything but controlled. And despite Team 7's ranting, seeing Sasuke's soft, fond smirk as his team-mates berated the only shinobi to really defend the Uchiha on his return to the Leaf convinced Shikamaru that they were aware of their teacher's facade.

"He didn't show up at all today!" Sakura was saying. "No note, no dog, no lesson plan, no anything. Just left us on our own in the training grounds!"

Naruto added furiously; "Probably forgot about us, knowing that lazy bastard!"

Shikamaru amended himself: 'Okay, Perhaps not totally aware.'

"What do you mean he left you?" Tenten asked, "Didn't your teacher tell you about his mission?"

"Gai-sensei said that Kakashi-sensei would be away for several nights, doing his brave duty to Konoha," Seeing the still confused look on his friends' faces, Lee carried on. "And Neji-san is convinced his death is imminent and unavoidable!" Rock Lee struck an out of place Nice Guy pose, and Tenten cringed.

Sasuke's scoff was comforting to Shikamaru. If the morbidly paranoid Uchiha wasn't worried about his sensei, then there was no need for the young Chuunin to be.

"Bastard-sensei could have told us!" Naruto protested, ignoring Lee totally. "We should visit the Old Lady, see if Kakashi-sensei left anything for us like last time. Maybe we can work out the loop holes before he gets back, and not have to do anything!"

"Not a bad idea, it's agreed then?" Sakura cheerfully accepted Sasuke's violent hiss at Naruto as an affirmation. "We'll visit her later. And Lee, you shouldn't be so doubtful. Godaime-sama wouldn't send Kakashi-sensei on a mission he couldn't complete!"

"I wouldn't be so sure!" Ino's eyes sparkled maliciously, a look Shikamaru found infinitely attractive when it was directed away from himself. Ino, working in a florists' in the Hidden Leaf Village, had found many opportunities to practise her Information Gathering skills on the unsuspecting citizens from every walk of village life. Her awareness of every rumour, scandal and love triangle in Konoha was an endless source of ammunition for all the Rookie Nine.

"Haven't you heard the rumours?"

Hearing those most treasured words, seven students of the Elite Jounin gathered close to hear the blonde kunoichi. Sakura, with two questions left to ask her teacher, took careful note of every word.

After killing the Waterfall Nin, Kakashi had been openly confronted by the Sand Nin, quickly ending the battle by breaking the target's neck from behind in an act of pure blind luck. Adhering to his orders - ANBU click terms that explicitly requested he collect any information on the targets' person and ensure no signs of Konoha association were present at the assassination sites - Kakashi emptied the Sand Nin's pockets and prepared the clearing.

So after artfully arranging the dead shinobi to look as if they'd killed one another, Kakashi prepared for one final quick sweep to ensure that any Sand Allies wouldn't be aware of Konoha targeting one of their most wanted men. If the Nin was found dead, Sand would celebrate. Found dead at Kakashi's hand, and they'd assume Konoha doubted their abilities. Politics often got in the way of life, and Sasori's granny was frightening enough - and despised Kakashi enough - to make the Jounin extra careful. He used several medical techniques to heal the bruising on the Missing Sand Nin's neck, and wrapped the Rookie's razor wire around the healed throat carefully, tugging on them slightly to create new bruising. He remembered Rin showing him that particular technique, and felt vaguely uncomfortable using it for such morbid purposes. She'd kill me if she could see. She'd throw rocks, or something.

Propping himself against the trunk of a tree about ten paces from the scene, Kakashi surveyed his callous handiwork. He hadn't done anything so harsh in years. He'd forgotten how frighteningly efficient he was trained to be; how easily he could push his emotional responses to one side - an Archetypal Shinobi Robot. Better shinobi had lost their minds doing this particular part of the job. His first ANBU team had been torn apart by insanity, prompting Kakashi's later insistence on solo ANBU missions. It was the strange, ugly depth of contradiction that drove good fighters mad. To expect your troops to be ready to sacrifice those they loved, while asking them to destroy people like themselves, totally without reason; and then to ask them to maintain any sort of emotional stability in their every day lives... it was too much.

It was this conflict currently making Kakashi's head throb savagely - besides the heat, sleep deprivation and depleted chakra, of course, ran the look of surprise in that kid's eyes before the kunai had struck home. That same kid whose wires I've just wrapped around the neck of the man whose hands I've just wrapped around the knife jutting out of neck of the kid that I've just killed without giving a shit. That kid, who couldn't be more than seventeen, ten years younger than Kakashi, the same age as his students, the same hurt fire in his eyes as all of them...

If it wasn't for the empty, slightly dead feeling in his stomach, Kakashi might have wretched.

To kill these threats to his precious village, Kakashi had used the techniques of three people whose entire lives were devoted to compassion. The Hatake wires and Chakra of his father, the healing Jutsu of his dead medic team mate, the ninjutsu of his teacher... and he knew, without a doubt, that to continue to honour their memories, he would continue to kill.

Hatake Kakashi did not miss the irony.

Five days earlier, Princess Tsunade, as she was known, slouched regally in her office half listening to Maito Gai's emphatic pleading to allow his most beloved student to take the Jounin exam. Trying to explain the system of Jounin recommendations to Konoha's Beautiful Green Beast - a system he not only knew, but advocated - was useless. While Lee was not a Jounin, Gai would beg Tsunade to make him one. And, through sheer annoyance, she was very close to caving.

"He's late." She moaned to Jiraiya, sat writing in the corner of the room.

"Get used to it." Came the smirking response as the Saanin looked up quickly from his work. The Godaime didn't bother to ask what he was scribbling in those ragged little notebooks, the crimson stain still gracing Shizune's cheeks and neck was enough of an answer. 'Pervert.' She grinned. 'It'll teach her to be nosy!'

Hatake Kakashi - 'finally' - strolled through the office door, and Shizune immediately led Gai from the room, mid-rant. Tsunade smirked as she heard his scream of injustice at his rival's rude interruption, before straightening in her seat to face the Copy Nin. Jiraiya, too, moved his chair towards the Hokage's desk.

"He's right, you know." A casual lift of a golden eyebrow. "Learn to knock. It's impolite to just barge in like that!"

"Sorry I'm late, Hokage-Sama. I had difficulty coaxing our students from a pylon."

The amused expression on the masked shinobi's face convinced Tsunade that she did not want to know! The accompanying, understanding chuckle from Jiraiya caused a brief moment of cold dread, before she realised that no matter how crazy, Kakashi would not let his students die during a training exercise.

"The Godaime has a favour to ask of you, Kakashi-kun" Jiraiya's 'serious' voice cut immediately through the relaxed atmosphere of the room.

It was Yondaime's "business voice," she realised with a jolt, and she could see the Fourth's influence in the attentive stances of the two powerful men before her. She longed suddenly for Kakashi to be anywhere else, so she could avoid making this particular request. Before she could stop him, her perverted team-mate carried on.

"As you have no doubt suspected, Konoha is far from safe at this present time. Though we are assured of their current wish to avoid open war, several criminal shinobi have been recruited by rogue organisations spurned on by the particular boldness of the Akatsuki and Sound. These small organisations have also expressed a combative interest in our allies and our village. Several recent ANBU missions have been ambushed or sabotaged, and several lesser missions have been targeted as well."

As Jiraiya had assumed, Kakashi did not seem at all surprised by the announcement.

"Kakashi�What I must ask of you is not easy to say�" Tsunade could vaguely remember Kakashi as a child; she had met him only twice, and unlike Jiraiya, who had shared with his student a fondness for the boy, she had never been able to understand him, his motives. Staring at the cold shinobi now, Tsunade searched him for some sign of life, of ambition, to make her next question easier. She found none.

"There are active shinobi who must not be given the opportunity to form against the Leaf. The results of their teaming up with enemy squads would, at best, be� unfortunate. We must also assure our alliances with the more powerful ninja villages." The Hokage paused. "You were once an assassin for the ANBU squad, under Yondaime and Sandaime's rule�"

"And you wish for me to take up that role again." There was no longer any hint of amusement on Kakashi's face. He looked pale, vaguely ill, though Jiraiya's hand resting lightly on her back made Tsunade swallow the sick, almost-maternal feelings that made the room suddenly too small. 'You're the Hokage, damn it, pull yourself together. Stop Caring.'

"Despite the rumours, brat, we know you're capable." Jiraiya's confidence restored Tsunade's own, and she reached into the drawer beside her to pass Kakashi a long disused ANBU mask. Kakashi held the mask gingerly, staring silently at the familiar dog-pattern adorning it, before pocketing it and slouching comfortably once more.

"I will do all I can, Godaime-Sama. What are my orders?" Kakashi did not bow, but nor did he look so pale. A weight lifted and Tsunade could breathe again.

"Umino Iruka has a list of your targets in the mission room. Be safe Shinobi, according to your track record, we expect you back within four days. Don't be messy, and bring back a souvenir."

Kakashi disappeared long before Jiraiya finally gave over to the disbelief fighting favour in his expression.

"Four days?"

"According to his record," Began the Medical Expert, "Hatake Kakashi is always two days late back from this type of mission. I expect him to complete this one within seven days, including travel. If he sticks to his pattern, we may have found a way to get him home early." She smirked. "And wouldn't that be something to tell the kids?"

"Hn. That brat'll never change. He's been through too much for that. He's worse than we are." Jiraiya was fond, Tsunade realised. Interesting.

"One of these days he'll actually show us what he's capable of." Tsunade received a knowing smirk before the white haired Saanin replied.

"I doubt that."

Kakashi stripped himself of the stifling porcelain facemask, wrapped a small strip of bandage around his lightly bleeding arm - the Sand Nin's second volley of Kunai held better accuracy than the first and had forced Kakashi to take the fight to ground level. The Copy Nin tied the ANBU dog mask to his belt, and pushed the Konoha bandana square on his forehead, fully exposing himself for the first time in five days of secret combat.

"Thank you for your kind patience, shinobi-san," Kakashi intoned to the forest around him, reaching up for the sword on his back; "I am ready for you now."

A sharp click to his right and suddenly Kakashi was barraged by shuriken from all sides. The sting of wire on his face and exposed upper arms told him it was a mistake to wait so long to address the fourth opponent who had so obviously led the other three. Obviously the enemy shinobi had taken the opportunity of the Konoha Nin's corpse arrangement to weave a wire-web about the site, closing the Copy Nin in. Bolting to the left - away from the sound - Kakashi grinned gleefully as he held his armoured lower arms around his head, avoiding the worst of the multi layered metal volley. 'Now this isn't a fair fight!'

Kakashi methodically dismantled the net, attacking the trigger points with the aid of the Sharingan in the hopes of deflecting most of the painful, biting weapons. When the volley had stopped, Kakashi crouched beside three dead bodies in the centre of the small clearing, and the fourth enemy finally stepped out.

"Hatake Kakashi."

Sharingan spinning furiously, Kakashi concentrated on looking unaffected before this new enemy. Normal people simply didn't find being pelted with shuriken amusing. Normal shinobi, after a four day long mission, simply didn't see a potentially fatal fight as another prank. Normal Shinobi died very quickly, however, and Kakashi recognised his new opponent immediately.

"That was a neat trick you pulled off, Kengeki-San."

"I learned it for the Copy Nin, to kill him with." The brother of Momochi Zabuza bitterly spat.

Kakashi wasn't surprised at the venom of the man's voice. Only a few years difference had separated Zabuza from his younger brother, who was apparently heart broken when the famous swordsman joined six other rebel Mist Nins in their equally famous Coup d'Etat.

"Shaa� didn't work." Find a button, push it. "You look so much like your brother, Kengeki-Kun"

"A brother you killed, you fuck!" The physical flinch was impossible to hide, especially from the smiling Sharingan. In his fury, Kangeki had not thought of Zabuza's concealing bandages, not realised in his hatred the age difference between himself and the Copy Nin. Kakashi doubted that he'd been expecting a shinobi his brother's age, and may seeing Kakashi so much younger than many shinobi of his standard, underestimate the Konoha Nin�

The Leaf Jounin debated telling the real story of what had taken place three years ago, leading to Zabuza's death - Kakashi had respected Zabuza as a shinobi, but not enough to correct this brat if he thought his vengeance would be assuaged here. He made a quick internal calculation of chakra and stamina. Tired as he was, with the Sharingan so exposed, this battle could not last long. Kakashi needed Momochi Kengeki to lose control.

"I see how it is." Kakashi whispered mournfully, standing slowly. The only answer from his opponent was a confused creasing of the brow. "You wish to die by my hand also."

The look of shock on the man's face was telling. Kengeki obviously had never thought he would get this close, had never really tallied up the reputations of Zabuza of the Seven Swords and Sharingan Kakashi. Kengeki was obviously realising for the first time that Zabuza had been an excellent ninja, so what must the opponent before him be capable of?

Kakashi allowed Kengeki to stew silently for a few heartbeats, before rushing forwards, slamming the flat of his sword against Kengeki's backside.

Sidestepping the furiously shocked lunge, Kakashi moved his sword quickly, again using the flat width to deliver a sound thwack to the back of Momochi's head. Kengeki drew his own large sword and began to fight back. A too-close edge barely swiped Kakashi's midriff, and the Copy Nin tightened his movements, beginning to fully analyse his opponent's technique with the Sharingan, pushing Momochi back amongst the trees.

He was good, he was better than good. Having obviously inherited his brother's swordsmanship, Kengeki matched Kakashi blow for blow - the occasional swipe too close for comfort, scoring thick red gashes into one another's flesh. While Kengeki's speed and accuracy with the long sword were perhaps superior to Zabuza's - Kakashi's chosen weapon as a child had been the short sword, and with the aid of the Sharingan, his lithe movements kept him in the game for a lot longer than Kengeki expected.

Momochi Kengeki's initial anger had eventually dissipated with the realisation of Kakashi's skill, and with it disappeared the Copy Nin's trump card. The furious blows took on a strategic edge, and Kakashi felt himself walking into a trap. Turning suddenly, gouging a line in Kengeki's right thigh, Kakashi put himself on Momochi's other side, hoping to escape what his instincts were telling him. That feeling grew, however, when Momochi threw a violent swing towards his opponents head, kicking out with his bloody leg when Kakashi crouched to avoid the sword's blow.

Reeling back from the impact to his still bruised skull, Kakashi fought back nausea as he tried to right himself, vaguely wondering why he hadn't seen that kick in time to block it and realising with a jolt that he had. Forcing his body to respond more quickly to the Sharingan, Momochi's heavy sword came crashing back to meet only a green log - with Kakashi nowhere to be found.

A crunch to his left had Kengeki pitching towards his assailant, only to feel the sharp agony of a kunai drag him by the right shoulder to come eye to eye with the blood red Sharingan. Standing nose to nose with his gasping opponent, Kakashi spoke in hushed, unhurried clarity, somehow fiercer than his usual, lazy drawl.

"Unfortunately, I must cut our time here short. It would seem I'm far more affected from the past few days than I realised, and this game is pointless and wasteful." Kakashi used the Sharingan to show the man his brother's death. Haku's death. Weaving images from his own memory and placing them in the strange void that could come from the Second Level of Sharingan.

"I did not kill Momochi Zabuza. He died honourably, and redeemed some part of himself." Kakashi poured those last moments into the void, not showing his students' faces, not risking the lives of any ninja but himself. "You may try to kill me if you wish, but it will be meaningless, and your village will suffer at the hands of mine." Kakashi showed Kengeki his brother's last request.

"Have we not already too much war?"

A few miles away, safe inside the village walls, Umino Iruka had been having an awful day. His more troublesome brats would just not quieten down, and to make matters worse, Kurenai-sensei had sent Naruto to his class to "help out" for a while, as Kakashi-sensei was currently still on a confidential mission somewhere.

"�and Kakashi-lazy-bastard-sensei said that he would be back today at the latest, but he was expected back Thursday, according to The Old Lady, and as today's Friday and he's not back yet, the lazy-bastard is not only late for the Hokage but for us as well. He's later than late, the tardy-baka-sensei, and we've done all the training he set us, setting us up like some dirty perverts! And how can someone be so late for everything - "

"Big Brother, does your sensei really let you call him all those names?" "Is Kakashi better than you Iruka-sensei?" "I heard about him! He's famous!" "What kind of famous ninja would take that idiot as a student?" "Don't you talk about Naruto-kun like that!" "YEAH YOU LITTLE BASTARD!" "Iruka-sensei! He's calling me names!"

Eventually, amongst the jumbled medley of youthful voices, the twitching in Iruka's jaw had ceased completely. His balled fists had slammed onto the desk, shaking the legs of it, and an eerie, tense sort of calm descended before his garbled scream of frustration had shaken every child in the room into perfect silence. And every child in the building. And every teacher, villager and wandering shinobi in a five mile radius. Not to mention the building itself.

When the class had re-settled, Iruka led them all outside, told Naruto that if he didn't shut the hell up immediately he'd personally make sure Konoha's most surprising ninja never said a word again, and proceeded to share out miraculously produced cookies and tea with his students, past and present, while he taught them about shinobi history.

Specifically, the tragedies of war.

It was nice, Kakashi thought, walking away from a mission with one's consciousness, limbs, and general dignity intact. Alright, so it was more of tired limp, shallow wounds littering his neck, chest, and well, everywhere really. A gash on his temple from one of the battles was going to itch like death under the hitae-ate, but there was little he could do about it. His chakra was almost totally depleted after that final exhausting Sharingan technique, but it was worth it, in a way, that out of seven opponents he had avoided killing the one in pain. He'd defeated Kengeki with compassion, of all things, with a love of life. Obito would've liked that, maybe.

Finding a cool, shaded, quiet spot by a small stream, Hatake Kakashi finally bathed his burning ear and throbbing, weeping left eye until the accompanying face-ache subsided.

Sometimes that eye cried a little, and Kakashi, cursing Obito's worry, felt slightly less alone.

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