Chapter Text
Kakashi died how he’d always wanted to: protecting his village. Just as he was born to do. The thought settled peacefully in his mind; he’d protected Konoha, his precious students, his friends, and all of those in between one last time before he’d died.
He knew his students were probably grieving over him now, but that was honestly the least of his concerns.
Because Kakashi had died. So why in the world was he alive again?
The notion hit him like a truck. He hadn’t thought much of it before, aside from fleeting thoughts that this place wasn’t Konoha, thoughts that perhaps his body was too small, too weak. It was like the memories of his life had always been caged in the back of his mind, but now they were being thrust at him, shoved into his mind until they overwhelmed his senses.
He gripped at his hair and groaned, doubling over, mind flooding with memories he’d only vaguely remembered beforehand. He could hear people rushing around him, hands grabbing his arms, voices asking if he was okay.
“Chiba-kun? Chiba-kun?”
The name registered in Kakashi’s mind as his own; he knew he should answer, but the overwhelming presence of the memories in his mind kept him from doing so.
“Someone call an ambulance!”
“Is this his quirk? Did Chiba-kun get his quirk?”
“All of you, please go sit down. Chiba-kun, can you hear me?”
He groaned as he nodded, but the motion sent his mind reeling again.
He’s five years old and he’s found his father dead on the floor. He’s nine years old and his teammate is pinned under a massive rock. He’s dying. He gives Kakashi his eye and asks for a promise that Kakashi can’t keep. He’s ten years old and he’s killing his other friend with a lightning bolt through the chest. He’s twelve years old and his Sensei and the man’s wife are dead. He’s twenty-one and one of the most notable clans in the village—his friend’s clan—have all been massacred by one of their own. The one who did it is also one of his friends. He’s a killer. He’s a killer. He’s a killer. He’s assigned a team of children that he can’t protect. A team of genin that bring back memories he’d rather run from. He’s twenty-nine and he’s dying. He’s twenty-nine and dead and speaking with his father for the first time in twenty-four years. He’s twenty-nine and he’s revived from death by the whim of the very man who’d killed him. He’s thirty and he’s finding out that his teammate had never died, that he’d been alive, that he’d been the reason for all of the losses Kakashi had suffered since. He’s thirty-one and promoted to leading the village he loves, but does not feel fit to lead. He’s forty-three when he finally hands the hat over to one of his students. He’s fifty when he dies.
He’s fifty when he dies.
He was fifty when he died.
He’d died.
The memories burned in his retinas. His left eye felt like it was being sliced open and dissected. His skin felt as though weapons were cutting him open, splitting his skin, each wound aimed to kill. A scream ripped from his lips and he clutched at his eye, his hands finding purchase in something wet and sticky.
“Chiba-kun, I need you to talk to me. What’s wrong?”
“My eye—“ he managed out. “My eye. My eye, my eye, my eye.”
Hands pulled his own away from his eye, and he heard a gasp. “Chiba-kun, you’re going to be okay. An ambulance is on its way. You’re going to be okay.”
Kakashi didn’t feel okay.
He opened his good eye and found his hands coated in blood. Fear spiked up in him. Rin’s blood? No, no, no—it’s his. His blood. From his eye. It’s bleeding.
“Chiba-kun?” A voice broke into his thoughts. “The paramedics are here, they’re going to take you to the hospital and make you feel better, okay?”
Kakashi nodded and firm arms gripped his torso and hauled him towards where Kakashi could hear sirens wailing.
An EMT prodded at his eye the second he was set down, and Kakashi screamed as more memories flooded him along with the blinding pain. His vision blacked out.
Kakashi woke up in the hospital, the sun setting outside the window nearest to his bed. He blinked sun spots out of his vision and sat up, trying to assess the situation.
His left eye was covered in an eyepatch-like bandage, the cloth covering most of the left side of his face. He reached up to prod at it, only for the skin underneath to feel sore. He decided to leave it alone.
His right arm was attached to an IV. Kakashi was tempted to pull it out and go to the bathroom to look in the mirror, but then he found himself remembering what Sakura had threatened last time he’d done that, and decided that perhaps it wasn’t worth it.
Instead, he found the “Call for Help” button on his hospital bed and pressed it.
Not a minute later, a nurse and doctor rushed into the room. They weren’t Konoha medic nin, Kakashi realized immediately.
Right. This isn’t Konoha. He’d died. He’d been living in this world for four years now. This world didn’t have ninja, it had quirks and heroes.
The acknowledgement felt heavy in his chest. He was having trouble distinguishing one reality from the other. He hadn’t had that problem before, had he? No, he hadn’t truly remembered the other one before.
Now he did.
His head throbbed for a moment, before the sensation faded again.
“Chiba-kun?” the nurse said to him gently. “It’s good to see that you’re awake. How are you feeling?”
“My eye hurts,” Kakashi responded. “Other than that, I’m okay. I’d like to know what happened.”
The nurse blinked and turned back to the doctor, both of them looking surprised by his question. Kakashi wasn’t sure what would be surprising about his—oh right. He’s in the body of a four-year-old. Speaking so clearly and calmly after a traumatic experience probably wasn’t normal.
“Well, Chiba-kun, we’ve established that you’ve gotten your quirk,” the doctor said. “Unfortunately, it seems that the process was rather violent, and we’re also not entirely sure what your quirk is. We can remove the bandages and get you a mirror, though, if you’d like to see it.”
Kakashi nodded. “I’d like that.”
The doctor smiled gently at him and then nodded to the nurse, who disappeared off to go find a mirror. The doctor approached Kakashi and reached for the bandages, gently beginning to remove them. The tape peeled painfully off of his skin and he winced.
“Sorry, I’m trying to be gentle,” the doctor responded, and his fingers slowed as he pulled off the bandages. “There we go.”
The nurse returned with the mirror, and the doctor held it up for Kakashi.
His breath hitched in his throat at the sight of his reflection. The scar that he’d gotten on the Kannabi Bridge mission bisected his eye once again, but that was hardly the most alarming part of his appearance. The sclera in that eye had turned black, and the sharingan shone brightly against the darkness, the red painfully familiar. Around his eye, his skin was cracked.
He reached up and touched his face gently, finding that the skin around his eye and along the cracks felt cold. Like death.
He recognized the black sclera. The cracks. This was Edo Tensei.
His past life mixing with his present life. He gulped and lowered his head. “Thank you,” he told the doctor, and handed the mirror back to him.
“I understand this must be difficult for you—“
“I’m okay,” Kakashi said, and then it hit him that there are people that this would definitely be difficult for. “Where are my parents?”
“They both had to leave for work, however, they’ll be back soon.” The doctor replied. That tracked. His family—Chiba Takeo’s family, that is—was poor. Both of his parents had to work as often as they could to make ends meet, and therefore waiting around in the hospital for Kakashi to wake up wasn’t a good idea.
“That’s okay,” he replied. “Could someone call and tell them I’m fine? They don’t need to worry about me.”
The doctor pursed his lips, “I’ll have the receptionist send the word. Are you sure you’re okay, Chiba-kun? This was a very intense experience.”
Kakashi nodded. He was okay. His mind was settling down, no longer tearing itself at the seams with all the memories he’d gained. His quirk, whatever it was exactly, seemed to be bringing back his old life. It seemed to have reincarnated Hatake Kakashi into the body of Chiba Takeo.
“Do you mind if I cover your eye back up?” The doctor asked, and Kakashi shook his head to signal that he didn’t mind.
As bandages covered his eye from sight once more, he wondered if the memories of his past life were all his quirk could do, or if there was more to his newfound power.
He was released from the hospital the next morning and told to take it easy. His parents brought him back home, fussing the entire way over his face. Kakashi had been given bandages to continue to cover the left side of his face with, but due to a healing quirk having been used on his eye, the wound was already as healed as it was going to get. At this point, the bandages were just to hide his face from view.
Not that he was complaining.
“Are you sure you feel okay?” His dad asked. “You’re acting funny.”
Kakashi was honestly having trouble remembering how he’d acted before his quirk had manifested. He knew what had happened in his life—he was born the second child of the Chiba family, with an older sister and a younger sibling on the way. He was four and a half years old at the moment, his best friend’s name was Ken, and they were in the same kindergarten class. Ken had been nearest to him when his quirk had manifested, but Kakashi hadn’t seen him since.
The facts were there. The memories were there. But he didn’t remember how he’d acted before he’d come to remember his previous life. He didn’t remember who Chiba Takeo was at his core. All he knew was Hatake Kakashi.
“I’m sure, Dad," he replied. “Just a bit scared of my quirk, is all.”
His quirk was confusing him. It must’ve been a mutation because it wasn’t like anything else in his family. His mother’s quirk was called Calling, which let her state the name of an object and it would instantly come to her, as though she were summoning it. The quirk didn’t apply to objects larger than herself. His older sister had manifested the same quirk two years ago and had since taken to calling out “book” anytime Takeo was near her, just so the book would hit him in the head when it came flying towards its summoner.
She was annoying like that.
His father’s quirk was much less useful; he could wave his hand and a bunch of leaves would appear and swirl around at his command. An essentially useless quirk. It was great for instant leaf piles, though.
So, taking all of that into consideration, Kakashi assumed his quirk was a wildcard. Fantastic.
They pulled into their driveway, and his mother immediately rushed to help him out. Look. Just because his vision was a little weird because he couldn’t see out of his left eye didn’t mean he didn’t know how to get out of a car. He scowled at her, which automatically took her aback.
Shit. Was Takeo a smiley kid? Was that the issue? Had Takeo been a happy go-lucky personality and now Kakashi’s reserved personality was making them think he wasn’t feeling okay?
He flashed his mom a big smile, and she immediately relaxed. Damn… so he had been that sort of kid. That act would be exhausting to keep up.
“I’m gonna go take a nap, if that’s okay?” He told her as he made his way to the front door.
She smiled at him. “Sure, sweetheart. Get lots of rest. When you wake up, I’ll have some food ready for you, yeah?”
He gave her another nod and a grin and then put his tiny hands on the door handle to open it.
Behind him, his dad said goodbye to his mom and got back into the car to go to work. Kakashi pushed open the door and made his way up to his room.
He climbed into bed and closed his eyes, but he didn’t fall asleep. He knew his mom would come check on him.
Not ten minutes later did she slowly open the door and step inside, her movements quiet. He felt her hand brush the hair out of his face, thumb tracing over the bandages on his face.
“Oh Takeo…” she murmured. “Sleep well baby.”
She stepped back outside his room and Kakashi waited a little bit longer before getting up and heading to the bathroom down the hall. Once he got inside, he locked the door behind him. Privacy, at last.
He climbed onto the step-stool in there and looked at his reflection in the mirror. Silver hair hung around his face, and the one eye he could see was a dark grey. He looked the same as he had the first time around. He reached up and pulled at the bandages, revealing his cracked skin and black sclera.
His fingers twitched as he looked at the sharingan.
He bit his lip and leaned forward towards the mirror, fingers prodding the skin under his eye.
“Why did you manifest with my quirk?” He asked the sharingan quietly, voice barely more than a whisper. “Why are you here with me, Obito? Didn’t you leave such a long time ago?”
The sharingan’s tomoe swirled.
A vortex appeared.
And suddenly Kakashi wasn’t alone in the room anymore.
He jumped back in surprise, falling off the stool, back slamming into the wall with a heavy thud. The person who’d joined him in the room yelped in surprise too, quickly brandishing a knife at Kakashi.
They both stopped. They stared at each other.
“Kakashi?” The man asked him, voice incredulous.
Kakashi’s eyes scanned the man’s figure, his face which was half-marred, his hair short, one of his eyes black with a red sharingan and the other purple.
“Obito?” He asked, just as skeptical.
“Uhm… yes? Where—where are we? And why are you so…” Obito leaned down. “Short?”
Kakashi blinked. “We’re in my bathroom.”
“Takeo?” His mom’s voice yelled, and he heard footsteps racing up the stairs. “Takeo, are you okay?”
“I’m fine, mom!” He yelled back, panicking. “I just startled myself with my reflection, is all!”
She stopped outside the bathroom, breathing heavily. He heard her try the door. “Takeo, unlock the door.”
“I’m okay, mom, really.” He tried to sound happy, but in the face of Obito Uchiha, he wasn’t sure he was pulling it off. Obito was looking back and forth between the door and Kakashi, trying to figure out what was happening. Kakashi quickly raised a finger to his mouth to signal to Obito to keep quiet.
“Are you sure, baby?”
“Yes, I’m sure. I’ll be out in a minute. Could you make me lunch? I’m really hungry.”
A long pause. “Of course, baby. I’ll make your favorite.”
Kakashi wasn’t sure what his favorite was, but at least she was agreeing. He relaxed. “Thanks mom,” he replied.
He heard his mom sigh on the other side of the door and soon heard her footsteps go down the stairs once again. Only then did Obito speak up.
“Okay, what the fuck is happening?”
“I don’t know,” Kakashi hissed. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Obito raised his hands in exasperation, “That’s what I’m asking you!”
“Shhh!” Kakashi shushed him. “Do you want her to come back?”
“No,” Obito whisper-yelled at him. “But I’m not even sure who she is. You called her your mom but I know your mom died when you were young. And she called you Takeo. I’m confused as fuck right now and you’re not helping, Bakashi. Wait, are you even Kakashi?”
Kakashi sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. “Look. Obito,” he huffed, “from what I can tell, I’ve been reincarnated.”
Obito stared at him.
“I only started remembering things a day or so ago when my quirk manifested,” he gestured up at his eye and the surrounding cracks. “It looks like Edo Tensei, doesn’t it?”
Obito leaned down and inspected it. “It does. But what the hell is a quirk?”
Kakashi sighed, “This world isn’t like the one we’re used to. It’s got people with superpowers unique to them, and stuff. No chakra.”
“No chakra?” Obito echoed and then pointed at Kakashi’s face. “Then how’d you end up with this?”
Kakashi shrugged. “I don’t know. I have no clue what’s happening, much less why you’re here.”
Obito huffed. “Well, you’re helpful, Bakashi.”
Kakashi scowled at the nickname. “Thanks. I try my best.”
Obito rolled his eyes, “Alright, so like, what? You summoned me here or something?”
Huh. Summoning. “I… maybe I did.”
His mother's and sister’s quirks allowed them to summon anything to themselves if they called its name. He had stated Obito’s name right before calling him…
Was his quirk the ability to summon the people from his world?
“Wait, that was a joke,” Obito said quickly. “Don’t tell me I’m actually summonable.”
“I don’t know,” Kakashi replied. “Look at your reflection.”
Obito frowned and turned to look at himself in the mirror, a small yelp coming from his lips. “I’ve been dead guy-ified!”
“Shut up,” Kakashi hissed. “And yes, you look like you’ve been edo tensei’ed. I think my quirk summoned you from the afterlife.”
“Well, that’s just plain rude, Bakashi.” Obito crossed his arms, turning back towards Kakashi. “Me and Rin were having fun, ya know.”
“Sorry,” Kakashi deadpanned. “Next time I accidentally summon someone, I’ll make sure to send a letter in advance to let them know.”
“That would be nice,” Obito returned, sarcasm lacing his tone. “But seriously, can you, like, un-summon me? Not that I don’t like seeing you again, especially when you’re so tiny and cute—“ Obito bent down and ruffled Kakashi’s hair— “but seriously, I don’t like having to be stuck in this tiny bathroom with you when I was in the middle of something.”
“Yeah yeah, whatever,” Kakashi pushed his hand away from his hair. “I’ll un-summon you… as soon as I figure out how.”
And that was the issue. Kakashi didn’t know how to un-summon Obito. His mother and sister couldn’t un-summon the objects they’d called to them. Was that going to be the case here? Was Kakashi just, stuck with Obito for the rest of eternity?
No. Absolutely not.
He glared at Obito, and thought about what he’d done to summon him. He’d asked why Obito was here. Time to do the opposite.
“Go away, Obito Uchiha.”
And just like that, Obito’s figure swirled out of existence.
Exhaustion flooded over Kakashi and he swayed on his feet, hand reaching out to steady himself against the wall.
It took him a minute to recover, blinking black spots out of his vision until it cleared completely.
Note to self: apparently summoning people comes with consequences.
He unlocked the door to the bathroom and stumbled downstairs until he got to the kitchen, where his mom had prepared a grilled cheese for him.
Seriously? This was his favorite? Ugh.
“Takeo? Are you feeling okay?”
No.
“I’m fine, just tired all of the sudden,” he said. That was an understatement. He felt like he might pass out at any second.
He pulled himself into a chair and then looked at his food. Maybe eating would help. He reached for the sandwich, arms heavy and eyelids heavier. His mom bit her lip in front of him, watching him closely. Concerned. He needed to keep up the act of being fine, so he bit into his sandwich.
As he ate the grilled cheese, he started to feel a little bit better. Not fantastic by any means, but like perhaps he wasn’t about to pass out. He’d eat and then go back to his room, and actually sleep this time. Hopefully, that would get rid of the effects of using his quirk.
That’s exactly what he did.
Kakashi walked down the stairs the next morning, feeling much better once he’d slept. He’d done the math when he’d woken up and figured out that he’d slept for eighteen hours straight, which felt about right given how exhausted he’d been.
It was six in the morning now, and his parents were both awake, along with his sister, Ichika.
“Oh Takeo, you’re awake!” His mother exclaimed, hurrying over to him. “How do you feel?”
“Better,” he replied. “I was really tired.”
“I can tell, you completely missed dinner. Here, we don’t have anymore food, but you can have my bagel if you’d like—“
“Mom, you’re pregnant,” he pointed out to her, gesturing to her swollen belly. “The last person in this household that should be skipping meals is you.”
She bit her lip, looking unhappy, but his dad quickly came to back him up. “Takeo’s right, you need to take care of yourself first, honey. I’m sure he’s fine. Ichika, give him some of your toast, please.”
Ichika grumbled but handed over one of her slices of toast with a muttered, “why are you guys freaking out, it’s not like he was dying or anything.”
“Your brother was in the hospital,” his mom scolded. “Show some concern, will you?”
Ichika mumbled out a “sorry.”
Honestly, Kakashi preferred Ichika’s reaction to his parents’.
“Speaking of your mother being pregnant,” Dad spoke up. “We have some news for you guys.”
“Is this really the time, love?”
“Good as a time as any.” Dad replied, and then kissed his wife’s head. “So, turns out we’re having twins.”
Kakashi tried not to visibly scowl at that.
“And that means you two are going to have to share a room.”
“What?” The both asked in unison.
“Yeah,” Dad rubbed the back of his neck. “The thing is, we don’t have the money to buy a new house, and Takeo, your room is the closest to ours, so the twins are going to have to share that room while you move in with Ichika.”
Kakashi and Ichika looked at each other, and for the first time since remembering his past life, he knew exactly how Takeo would react.
“Absolutely not,” both him and Ichika said.
“You don’t really have a choice—“ Mom started, but was cut off by the doorbell ringing. They all stopped and looked at the door.
“I’ll get it,” Dad said, and left to go greet whoever was at their house at six in the morning.
Ichika kicked Kakashi in the shin. He glared at her.
Overall, his thoughts on siblings were that they sucked. He preferred being an only child. Heavy emphasis on the only because he also wasn’t a fan of this whole having parents again thing. They fussed too much. Ugh.
“Come in, come in,” His dad said from the doorway and Kakashi turned back around to find two adults in suits following his dad into the kitchen.
He looked at his mom and saw panic written all over her face. At first, he wondered if it was because these were clearly federal agents, but then he realized that it was because the house was a disaster and they had impromptu guests.
“Honey, kids, these are Agents Suzuki and Takahashi, from the Hero Public Safety Commission,” Dad said as he showed the two agents inside. “Apparently, the HPSC heard of Takeo’s quirk manifestation incident and were concerned enough to decide to come check in on him.”
Kakashi raised an eyebrow at them. He hadn’t put the bandages back over his face since he’d taken them off, so his cracked skin, scar, and red eye were on full display. He also hadn’t managed to acquire a mask anytime recently, so his face was also on full display. With his family, he hadn’t minded as much, but suddenly he felt vulnerable.
“Good morning.” They both bowed. “Sorry to barge in so early,” Takahashi said.
“It’s fine, so what’s this about?”
“Oh, well, the HPSC keeps tabs on quirk manifestations that lead to hospitalizations, especially because quirks that manifest violently are often violent in nature. We just wanted to check in on Takeo-kun here to see if he’s okay and if anything weird has happened with his quirk. Or if he knows what his quirk does at all.”
“Isn’t it just the weird eye thing?” Ichika asked.
“The hospital said that you guys had noticed a personality shift,” Suzuki pointed out. “Quirks often have a direct influence on personality, so we figured this might have something to do with it.”
All eyes turned to him.
Kakashi didn’t say anything. Instead, he weighed his options. He didn’t know anything about the HPSC, so he had no clue if telling them what his quirk could do would land him in a science lab or if they’d simply write down what he said and go with it.
“If you tell us what your quirk is, we can file it for you guys. Save a trip to the station,” Takahashi tacked on.
“I don’t think Takeo knows what exactly his quirk is yet, he’s been asleep ever since he got home—“ his mother started.
“What if I said my quirk was potentially very dangerous?” Kakashi spoke up. “What would you do?”
The two agents’ eyes widened. His parents’ breath hitched behind him.
“Well, that would depend on how dangerous,” Suzuki said carefully. “For some quirks, we suggest young users visit an advanced quirk therapist and take quirk suppressants. For example, we had a young lady a year or so ago develop a quirk that caused her to emit radiation, and she’s been taking quirk suppressants ever since to keep her from poisoning the people around her. However, in most cases, users with dangerous quirks are simply catalogued so that we can easily identify the quirk should it be used to cause harm.”
Kakashi nodded slowly.
“Takeo…” his mother started. “Did you activate your quirk yesterday in the bathroom?”
Kakashi nodded. “I did.”
The agents looked even more interested. “What did it do?”
“It summoned a person,” Kakashi simplified.
“Your quirk… summoned a person?” Ichika asked. “Like how I summon things?”
“Yes, basically,” Kakashi said, still eyeing the agents.
“We see,” Suzuki said. “Well, we’ll catalogue your quirk for now, and if we have anymore questions, we’ll make sure to stop by. Uhm…” she trailed off as she reached into the briefcase she’d been holding to pull out some papers. “Here, we’ll log your quirk real fast. What would you like to call it?”
Kakashi considered his answer for a long moment, the tense silence filling the room, before he responded.
“Edo Tensei.”