Chapter Text
He couldn’t feel his fingers. He couldn’t feel anything. There was only a strange numbness in his gut as he breathed softly. In… and out… in… and out. Nothing seemed to matter as he drifted in the darkness. In… and out…
He couldn’t discern when, but at some point, his peacefulness was disturbed. He heard the sounds of fighting, the clanking of battle. It had been so long and yet not long at all since the last time… Something dormant within him sprang to life.
Observe your surroundings. Be alert. Catalogue the number of threats and pick them apart. Formulate a strategy.
Slowly, he forced his senses to hone in on the situation around him. The sounds of the struggle were still very faint, but the chakra signatures… they were ninja. He could sense that clearly. Almost as if… almost as if it was happening – above him?
Starting to become more conscious by the second, he slowly but surely began to register the world around him.
And then Hatake Kakashi opened his eyes for the first time in over a decade.
Sakura lay on the soft blue blanket spread out on the grass and stared at the blooming cherry blossoms over her head. Soft petals twisted in the wind, falling gracefully and yet definitively to the ground; beautiful and yet so brief… the flowers she had been named after. Sakura wondered if her ninja career would go by in the same way; if she’d pay homage to her name. Her hands played with the brand new headband that Iruka-sensei had given her only yesterday.
Graduation had been easy for her, all told, but that just meant it was a trap. Nothing in life could be so easy. Sakura knew that she’d only got the top kunoichi spot because of the new education reforms, which placed a lot more weight on academics and chakra control than actual fighting skill. Peace times had softened the yondaime, everyone said so: his constant education reforms held back the truly talented and promoted mediocrity across the board. Sasuke-kun was always going on about how his older brother had been cheated off a glorious career, and beating the infamous Hatake’s record, just because of those reforms.
Ino-pig had fallen back on them too, when Sakura’s scores had beaten hers. Sakura already knew that if the scoring system had been the traditional one, she would have never made it, but Ino saying as much to her only made her doubt herself further. Iruka-sensei and the other teachers had constantly praised her for given the right answer or scoring hundred percent on a test, but Sakura really doubted that being able to solve operations with matrices or walking over a tightrope without dropping the leaf dangling off her forehead would help her much in her future career.
Everyone said that taijutsu was where the real ninja skills were at, and her scores in that subject weren’t anything to write home about. The only reason Sakura had managed to get kunoichi of the year despite how bad she was at spars was because she’d aced all the aiming portions of the taijutsu test. Sakura could hit a bullseye from any distance, with any of the weapons covered in class.
Still, being able to hit things with a kunai wasn’t going to get her much recognition in the real world. All the adults in Sakura’s life said so. She was flaky at best; a little girl in a world of men, and she’d never make it as a fighter. She had better hope for a cushy desk job and call it a day. Booksmarts was all she was good for anyways.
Sakura sighed and tugged at the headband lying on her stomach. She just hoped Sasuke-kun would take a liking to her before the inevitable became apparent to everyone on her new team… oh, right. Graduation had been yesterday — team assignments had been posted on the bulletin board outside of the new building. Her new team had greeted her in black and white printed out kanji. Sakura glanced at the sun overhead, closing her eyes as she tried to envision what missions they might go on together.
She had been paired with Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke, the two most important boys her age in the whole village, and Sakura really didn’t know how she was supposed to keep up with them: the precious son of the Hokage who had had special tutors all his life, and a chakra poll the size of a house to boot — and the second son of the Uchiha main house, the coolest, most intelligent boy in all of Academy years combined. And then there was Sakura… bookworm extraordinaire, whose pedigree was a long line of impoverished fishermen. It was just ridiculous. Iruka-sensei must have gotten into the sake cupboard, to place those two on a team with her.
Sakura sighed again, closing her eyes as she drifted off, the cherry blossoms falling around her. Well, she supposed as far as birthday presents went, her brand new headband wasn’t a bad one.
Some time later, something was poking her in the ribs. Her head was attempting to split apart and her throat was begging her for water. It was only March, and yet the sun was forbiddingly piercing today. The poking continued.
She was nudged awake by a not-so-silent whispering noise in her ear.
“Sakura-chan. Pst, Sakura-chan. Did you see the team assignments yet? Sakura-chan!”
Sakura’s eyes blinked open. Naruto was hovering over her with a huge grin on his face. “Did you see the team assignments, Sakura-chan?!”
Sakura sat up, giving Naruto a bleary nod.
“We’re going to be teammates! Did you see?!”
“Yeah, I saw, Naruto,” she mumbled, rubbing at her eyes.
“This is so cool! I’m glad my dad listened to me! I was so worried he’d put me on a team with that Ino girl or something!”
Sakura frowned, glancing at the blonde more carefully now. “You… you told your dad to put us on the same team?”
Naruto grinned at her proudly. “You bet I did! I’ve been begging for months now! Totally paid off. Well, not totally, since our other teammate is gonna be Sasuke…” Naruto made a face, but Sakura wasn’t listening anymore.
Now it all made sense. Why she’d gotten placed on his team… hell, she’d probably only been granted the spot of kunoichi of the year to justify that decision. Her head was pounding. Now she was going to get killed because she’d be sent on a mission that she wasn’t qualified for.
“Stupid Naruto,” Sakura muttered. “Why would you do that?”
Naruto frowned, looking hurt. “What do you mean?”
“Why would you ask for us to be put on the same team?” Sakura demanded, growing agitated.
“Well because I like you, Sakura-chan! I thought that was obvious!”
Sakura groaned and crawled towards a more shadowed area in her blanket, where a sakura tree might shield her from the forbidding heat a little. Why was it so hot again?
“Sakura-chan, come on. Why are you acting pissed that we’re on the same team? It’s gonna be great!”
No, it wasn’t. Sakura would’ve ordinarily been pleased to be on the same team with Sasuke-kun, but even that was overshadowed by the dread she felt.
“Go away, Naruto,” Sakura groused.
“You can’t make me,” the blonde said obstinately.
“Yes, I can. You’re invading my blanket.”
“Well your blanket is invading my dad’s park, so…”
Sakura sighed and buried her face in her backpack. She couldn’t argue with that.
“How do you keep finding me, anyway?” she mumbled.
“I checked all the village parks with sakura trees in them,” Naruto said, taking a seat on her blanket with a smug grin. “You always come to watch the Hanami during spring break! It’s all you’d ever do for break if I didn’t make you help me with my pranks!”
Sakura propped herself up. “There’s nothing wrong with eating frozen yoghurt all day and relaxing.” She resented the fact that he knew her well enough to be certain of her habits. “Plus I’ve only been doing this since I was nine or something,” she argued weakly.
“It’s okay, Sakura-chan. I like watching the sakura flowers with you! It’s like the whole village is celebrating your birthday, isn’t it?”
Well, that was one way of looking at it. Sakura sighed. Of course, Naruto, being his father’s son, had access to her file and knew that her birthday was on the twenty eighth of March, even without her ever telling him. And of course Naruto, being the nosiest kid in the village, had taken it upon himself to attend her birthday party uninvited every year since she was nine.
He usually ended up embroiling her in one of his pranks when he showed up, to make matters worse — Sakura only went along with his crazy because there was no school during the last weeks of March, and she was always bored during the break. Most clan heads were busy celebrating their traditional variations of the Hanami festival in private during Spring Break, so it wasn’t like she’d be able to hang out Ino or Shika or Choji to hang out. Sakura guessed Naruto only came to bother her during the Hanami because his parents were way too busy with organizing the village wide festivities that took place during this time to pay him any attention.
Not that the blonde made it easy on them to ignore him, with the amount of pranks he always ended up orchestrating during the Hanami. It may be a little vain to say, but Sakura fashioned herself an important ingredient in the infamy of Naruto’s Hanami-time pranks. She only ever helped during spring break and it showed.
Speaking of... She was pretty sure he’d planned an especially daring one to cap off their school career. Sakura turned to lay on her stomach and regarded the blonde out of the corner of her eyes. “So. Are you still going through with the graffiti thing?” she asked, scanning the different families at the park, all picnicking on their own blankets.
Naruto’s eyes shone with delight. “So you were paying attention when I told you about my master prank!”
“No I wasn’t. You’re just that hard to ignore.”
“Yeah, right. I’d believe you if you didn’t come up with the idea to set those ANBU’s wigs on fire last year.”
“I only suggested that so they’d stop smothering you as much,” Sakura sniffed. “See if I think of something to make your bodyguards back off next time.”
“But it only made dad worry that my guards were incompetent, Sakura-chan! Now there’s even more of them!”
“Well, that just goes to show that your pranks are always backfiring. I’ve already told you that I wasn’t going to participate in your dumb ideas anymore,” Sakura said with a scoff. “I’m turning twelve today, Naruto. I’m over all that kid stuff.”
“You only said you weren’t helping me because you wanted to study for finals!” Naruto protested. “But exams are over now!”
“We’re ninja now, Naruto. We’ll probably get sent on a D-rank to clean up your stupid graffiti from now on,” Sakura said tetchily. “And then you wonder why I’m horrified to be on your team,” she bemoaned.
Naruto grinned foxily at her. “They can’t make us clean it up if we don’t get caught.”
“Yeah right, everyone and their grandmother knows it’s always you, whether you get caught or not.”
“But we won’t be meeting sensei till Spring Break ends! C’mon, Sakura-chan! It would be one last hurrah! What about it? I’ve already got it all figured out! You just need to help me with the logistics and we’ll be set–”
“You’re a clown,” Sakura sighed.
She was probably the only person in Konoha who would call the Hokage’s esteemed son and heir a clown… but that didn’t change that he was the biggest clown ever. Still, he always kept her company during spring break, so she guessed he wasn’t that bad. It was why she went along with his stupid pranks sometimes, after all.
“Come on, Sakura-chan. It’ll be just a little graffiti… please say you’ll help me… I never get you caught and you know it!”
“Alright, fine. But this is the last time, Naruto.”
Long story short: Naruto spent the rest of Spring Break cleaning graffiti and glued-on noodles off the Hokage faces, while Sakura blew her birthday money on frozen yogurt and writing supplies. She managed to almost blow up her house, though not quite, and she got a Happy Birthday postcard from her mother. Over all, it was a fine break.
Before she knew it, her respite had ended… and the last day of Spring Break came. Or, in other words, her first day as a ninja of Konoha. The sun dawned much too soon and Naruto was at her apartment spamming the doorbell also much too soon — at five o’clock in the bloody morning. Sakura made him wait on the front steps out of spite while she got ready for the day. The blonde then proceeded to run his motormouth all the way to the Academy while Sakura tried not to worry too much about getting stabbed on her first day. Naruto was in the middle of calling the third Hokage a fart-face (Sakura had snorted, having recalled the poop graffiti etched onto the third’s forehead) when Sasuke rounded the corner.
His unimpressed look in her direction told Sakura all she needed to know about her chances with him now that they were on the same team: that is, they were clearly the same as always, or in other words, null.
Sakura tried not to take her amazing start of her career as too much of an omen. Oh well, she already knew she’d end up as a paper pusher. Before she had time to fully wake up, they had made it to the Academy building’s designated classroom… and then they had met their jonin sensei.
“Hello. Shisui’s the name, speeds my game.” Her new jonin sensei gave them a rakish grin and ran a hand through his hair.
“Shisui of the Shunshin?!” Naruto – the idiot – asked excitedly. “Yatta! We got the top dog!”
“Why, I’m glad my genin know who’s in charge around here.” Shisui grinned at the blonde. “Naruto, right? Why don’t you go ahead and introduce yourself, kid? But it has to rhyme like mine.”
Naruto bounced on his seat excitedly, but then floundered when Sensei added the rhyme specification.
“Someone else go first!” he said with a put off expression.
“Well then, Sasuke-chan. Your turn.”
Sakura shot her crush a curious look. He was glaring angrily at their wensei, a flush creeping over his cheekbones.
“Shut up, Shisui.”
“An alliteration. Not bad, but also not what I’m looking for. Well, cousin? Your teammates are waiting.”
Sasuke scowled. He thought for a moment, then said, “My name is Sasuke. I like when people use it. I also like tomatoes. Oh, and I’m going to be Hokage.”
“I thought your big bro was gonna be the next Hokage!” Naruto exclaimed, ignoring the rest of Sasuke's… introduction. Then, glancing at Shisui, the blonde added, “Everyone says it's either him or Sensei!”
Sasuke scoffed. “As if.”
“I do so love when my genin have faith in me. Naruto. Ready to introduce yourself now?”
“Yeah! Naruto’s the name, being a hero’s my game! But I’m not gonna do it just for the glory! I’ll be all… sneaky like. But cool.”
“So you want to be an ANBU?”
Naruto nodded vigorously. “And a hero! But not for the glory! I just wanna save people!”
“Okay. Nice. And our little lady?”
Sakura gulped. It was now her turn.
“Um. I… I want to…” Trailing off, she tilted her head to stare up at her Sensei. Something told her that saying she wanted to be a paper pusher was going to get her an even more unimpressed stare than Sasuke’s that morning. “I want to… er, make chunin,” she finished lamely.
Shisui’s brows rose before he grinned. “Well! And we’ve got a humble one! I think I’ll call you princess then, to compensate. The other two are already heroes and kage as it is: we need a princess member.”
“Er…” That was a horrible nickname. “Please, just Sakura is alright.”
“If you’re opposed, Sakura-chan, I’m sure you and Sasuke could trade roles– I have it on good authority that he behaves like a princess most of the time–”
“Don’t you dare–” Sasuke began, but was promptly interrupted by their Sensei.
“We’ll see if I dare. Anyways, enough chit chat, kids. I will be testing your aptitude in order to see whether you lot have what it takes to become genin.” He wiggled his eyebrows challengingly at them. “If so… meet me here at dusk and I’ll explain what you have to do.”
Their test was simple and yet extremely confusing. Sakura had expected a battle trial, a survival exercise… heck, even a pop quiz. But not – this. When they’d made it back to the rooftop as the sun set, there was an odd, green fire blazing right in the middle of it. A fire! On the Academy rooftop! Sakura would’ve almost balked if not for the man acting so blase about it. She’d immediately surmised that the fire must be a part of the test and said as much to a panicking Naruto. Just then, Shisui-sensei, who’d been standing there unseen all along, confirmed her theory… in addition to explaining their task. To say that Sakura was confused would be an understatement.
They were supposed to somehow get the fire up to the top of the hokage mountain. Apparently, there was some sort of candle up there, waiting to be lit up, signaling the end of the test. Shisui-sensei had warned them rather ominously that he would know if they cheated, and also that he might fail them regardless of their success if he ‘didn’t like what he saw, and believe me kids… I see everything’. His shit-eating grin was rather off-putting, Sakura thought with a pout. Otherwise sensei was very handsome. She only managed to snap back to attention when the man began to explain that they had only until dawn to complete his trial. With these cryptic remarks, their new (and hopefully permanent) sensei made himself scarce.
Sakura turned toward her teammates to exchange dubious glances, but she found both of them too busy stewing in their inner world to notice her. Great.
The following hour was… headache inducing. She’d obviously tried to talk to Sasuke-kun about formulating a strategy, but he had completely brushed her off and started fighting with Naruto. She’d then opened her mouth to broach the topic with Naruto but before she could blink, it had turned into a competition of who could get to the top of the mountain faster, and Sakura had been left in the dust. She’d frantically run after them, but after a while of helplessly yelling ‘Sasuke-kun’ and ‘where are you’ into the darkness, she was forced to admit defeat. Sakura had no clue on where he could be. Heck, she didn’t even have something to carry the fire with. Sasuke and Naruto had at least taken sticks to do so, but in her hurry to give chase, she hadn’t even bothered with that.
Sakura sighed, chastising herself for her idiocy. Just then, she spotted a certain blonde hanging off a trap placed on a nearby tree. Naruto, her least favorite person in class (even though he was the hokage’s son, so she tried to keep her annoyance to a minimum), was… asleep? No, not asleep, a part of her mind supplied. He’d been trapped in a genjutsu.
Carefully, Sakura approached him. Honestly, until he’d started crashing her birthdays out of the blue, she hadn’t liked the blonde troublemaker – like, at all. He tended to interrupt lectures just when they were getting interesting with his annoying pranks and practical jokes and sexy jutsus. Everyone in class found his disruptions ‘hilarious’ and ‘clever’ and ‘charming’, which only made it all the worse for someone like her. Didn’t they realize that some people didn’t have shinobi parents at home that could tutor them on the missing material? Didn’t they realize that Naruto was being praised for disturbing class? Sakura, being a civilian, had to fight tooth and nail just to get the teachers to remember her face, whilst the blonde could ruin every single lesson and teachers would still sing ‘the venerated son of the forth’s’ praises for ‘creative pranking ability’ just because of who his father was. It was totally unfair!
This is why she preferred Sasuke. Not only was he handsome and intelligent , but he also knew the concept of manners. Most of the time, anyway.
Sakura knew Sasuke had a hard time at home because his brother cast such a large shadow… pitting him against impossible expectations from his parents and clan. Though, then again, in that sense, Naruto had it just as bad. No one saw him as anything but his father’s son. They looked at him, and all they saw was the boy who had failed to live up to his father’s greatness and intellect. They looked at him and they began kissing his ass, but it was obvious that they didn’t really respect him or care about him.
Sakura could spare the energy to feel bad for the blonde… when he wasn’t disrupting my class, that is. They were on the same team now, though, so she guessed would have to work together. It wasn’t the first time that they did, at least. Not that anyone else knew about Sakura’s annual Spring Break exploits.
Sakura sighed and stepped over to the blonde, nudging him with her foot, and sending a kai into his body through the point where they touched.
And with that it was done. He blinked up at her, blushing as though he’d been having a weird dream. “Sakura-chan! Fancy meeting you here!”
“Naruto, will you be my meat shield if I free you?” Sakura asked, watching his dangling form with crossed arms.
”You got it, Sakura-chan! Though I don’t have any steak on me.”
Sakura rolled her eyes. “You’re not as funny as you think you are.”
This said, Sakura gathered her patience and told Naruto as politely as she could that he could either shut up and concentrate with her or get lost.
“Of course I’ll behave, Sakura-chan! Who do you take me for? I’m a meaty hunk of a man shield!”
Sakura sighed.
“Never mind. Let’s just go back and get more of the green fire again. Do you see any large branches?”
In the following minutes, Naruto succeeded only marginally at not pissing her off, but the darkness of the mountain was taking up most of Sakura’s emotional energy anyway.
As there were two of them, they were better equipped to drag a lit trunk up the (heavily booby-trapped) mountain and occasionally switch the trunk out if it threatened to burn to a crisp. They made a decent team: Sakura was decent at spotting sensei’s genjutsu whilst Naruto was a useful meat shield against the wind. Yes, it was a fine arrangement indeed.
Trouble came in the form of a stream to be crossed. Predictably, Naruto insisted that crossing it by walking over an old, threadbare tree trunk ‘like in the hero stories’ was a great idea, and predictably ended up falling into the river.
“You idiot!” Sakura snapped at him. “Get out of there right now!”
“There’s rocks all around and they’re too steep! But don’t worry, Sakura-chan! I’ll get out of here, believe it!”
Sakura rolled her eyes. “Stop acting as if you’re battling the colossus and get out of there already.”
Of course that was too much to ask. Naruto continued splashing about dramatically, likely enacting one of his heroism fantasiest, and of course he managed to find the one dangerous fish in the river.
”Ouch! Ouch, Sakura-chan, I just got bit by something! There’s some kind of piranha–!”
He was so not getting out of there any time soon. Sakura was torn on what to do, however. On the one hand, she was confident in her swimming skills – her father hadn’t taught her a whole lot, but he’d made sure Sakura was a damn good swimmer before he’d left – but on the other hand, she’d have to drop the torch to jump into the river, and then they’d have to start the test all over again. Would the hokage be mad if she made Naruto swim a little?
”Ack! Sakura-chan! It bit me again! It bit me in the butt!”
Sakura huffed and moved to put the bloody torch down.
It was then that a hand suddenly took ahold of the torch.
“Sa… Sasuke?” It was his hand. Sakura stared at her crush in elation. “There you are!”
Sasuke grunted. “Why are you so intent on helping him out?” he asked after a pause. “He’s a crybaby.”
“I am no such thing, teme! There’s a real man-eating piranha in here!”
Sakura sighed. She was going to be a paper pusher… why did she have to deal with this again? Oh well. It probably wouldn’t do to let Naruto get mauled by a carp.
And with these thoughts, she jumped into the river.
Sasuke eyed them askance, holding onto the torch as Sakura dragged Naruto out of the current and the mystery piranha’s reach, and back to safe ground.
”How are you not a better swimmer, dobe?” Sasuke asked with a smirk. “Didn’t the Hokage teach you anything?”
“You try swimming around with a murder fish gnawing at your balls, teme!”
Before the usual argument could start, Sakura stepped between the boys and gave Sasuke her best winning smile. “Um, Sasuke-kun. Since you’re already here… We might as well ace this test thing together with him, ne?” She gave him a hopeful look, then turned to Naruto. “After all, we’re going to be a team after this. We’ll need to figure out how to work together sooner or later.”
“Tch. I suppose you’re right.”
And so, team seven was born.
It was worse than anything. The fear. The cold. The horror that had first gripped him when he’d opened his eyes and realized that he was – he was trapped. He was trapped… inside an ice block. Somehow, he’d been trapped underwater, he couldn’t move, couldn’t escape… he had to get out…
He’d tried to move his limbs, to trash about blindly – but he was unable to. He couldn’t control it. It was a miracle he’d even managed to open his eyelids. His body wasn’t listening to him… not even a twitch. He stared hollowly at the darkness in front of him. He was underwater somewhere. He couldn’t… he… he couldn’t even control his breathing. Panic took over him – not even his chakra was responding.
Someone help, he thought blindly. He needed to escape. He needed to move. He needed to regain control of his limbs… but of course, nothing of the sort happened.
Kakashi continued on with full awareness from there. Days and nights passed and he still couldn’t move. The worst part was: he couldn’t even remember where he was or how he’d ended up there. At some point, the panic had stopped, but sometimes he’d wake up and it would start all over again. Other times, he would envision sensei appearing to rescue him… then he’d recall that he couldn’t remember anything leading up to his situation, which meant that sensei may be dead. Continuous panic attacks sneaked up on him whenever he tried to recall… whenver he hoped to escape… whenever he stopped to think about where he was in any detail. His hope that someone would approach him was cruelly crushed… civilian chakra signatures flickering at the edge of his periphery but never drawing closer, the shinobi signatures that had woken him up never again reappearing. He’d tried to flare his chakra on a few occasions when he sensed the civilians close by, but no one ever noticed. Besides for the time he’d first awoken, he hadn’t felt any ninja chakra signatures at all. He was all alone… would he die like this? A boy frozen in an ice block?
Then, one day, it happened. He woke up to a loud, squeaking sound, almost a scream. He was immediately wide awake. There was a chakra signature, a chakra signature that was coming closer and closer to him…slowly approaching his ice block. What were the chances? Someone must’ve fallen into the water right where he was. The chakra signature was weak, not even necessarily ninja – but he didn’t care. He tried to yell and trash and scream louder than ever. He still couldn’t move his body but what if –
He hadn’t tried this before. His chakra had began to respond to him more lately, even if, without movement in his hands, he couldn’t access it properly. But now, in a last ditch attempt, Kakashi tried again. Using electrical chakra underwater was akin to having a deathwish. But in a desperate effort to catch the person’s attention, Kakashi sent a current of electricity through his body. It was even more painful than when he’d first been developing the chidori but hadn’t incorporated the necessary adjustments to alleviate the pain to the user. Even so, nerves fried, the current jolting at them tortuously, Kakashi held on, hoping that the light that the electricity produced would be enough to catch the person’s attention.
He waited.
He waited, and waited, and waited, but nothing happened. He felt the chakra signature grow weaker again, its presence slowly but sure disappearing. Whoever it was had swam back up to the surface. Right when he’d given up hope, it happened. The chakra came back, and this time, it was going straight toward him. Bolstered by this, Kakashi channelled more lightning through his body like a beacon. It occurred to him that this could be an enemy coming to find him, but at this point he didn’t care. Even death was preferable to his prison.
Slowly but surely, a shape became distinguishable, diving head-first toward him. The colours were dark and muted underwater, but his chidori lighted the presence up until Kakashi could see his savior clearly.
She was young. A girl around his age, give or take a year. Like a ray of hope she glided toward him, coming closer and closer, her long hair undulating with the current behind her, her skin almost iridescent in the light of his chidori.
She came to a halt right before him, floating in place as she stared at him with what Kakashi could only imagine was shock. Her eyes were the greenest shade he’d ever seen, little specks of turquoise right in the middle, close to the pupil… though perhaps that was just the garish lightning. They were impossibly wide as she stared at him.
For a moment, they just looked at each other. Kakashi couldn’t move, but he hoped she could see the desperation etched on his eyes… eye. The sharingan was covered. He must’ve failed at conveying what he failed for the girl began to retreat. Was she leaving him? No!
Kakashi flared his chakra brighter, the light of his chidori glowing starker than ever in the depths of the water, his desperation palpable. She turned back around and waved her arms reassuringly, then pointed at her cheeks. Kakashi’s fear faded as he realized that, of course, she needed to breathe. Even so, he didn’t want her to leave…
He could only watch helplessly as she swam back up.
But she returned to him again, thank god. This time, the girl was carrying… an axe? Kakashi stared at her with complete befuddlement, but then her intentions became clear as she began trying to hack away at the ice block with it. This endeavor proved unsuccessful due to fact that it was a large axe… and they were underwater (Kakashi would’ve scoffed at her if the situation had been less dire) and so the girl, likely having realized her own folly, disappeared again. Immediately, Kakashi was afraid she’d grown tired and quit in defeat, but after a while she came back, this time carrying a much smaller sort of axe that resembled a chisel and something that looked like a large screw. Kakashi could only stare in wonderment as, with these tools, the ice slowly but surely began to get chipped away. He could only marvel at the fact that he was being freed at last, could only thank the gods above that had blessed this girl with what was apparently a great deal of arm strength.
Her lung capacity wasn’t nearly as good unfortunately, but Kakashi would never forget her perseverance. She seemed intent to help him no matter what.
After many trips to the surface and back into the water, she finally managed to chip off enough ice that he managed to unstuck his right hand. Instantly, water came flooding into the ice block. Kakashi thought he was about to die crushed by the pressure and began thrashing desperately… darkness began to prickle at his senses, he felt the ice start to crack behind him… and then he was out.
He found that he could not move and neither could he breathe. His body was completely unresponsive, his muscles wouldn’t listen… but then, firm hands gripped him. The girl began to drag him toward the surface, swimming frantically toward freedom.
They made it outside, both panting for air. Kakashi still couldn’t move even as the girl shakily braced herself on all fours and shakily managed to stand on top of the water. She began to tug him out. While unable to barely even move his limbs, Kakashi could manipulate his chakra and thus was able to stick to the surface thanks to it.
“A… are you alright? Can you hear me?”
He realized after a moment that it was the girl who had spoken and felt overcome. It had been so long since he had heard the voice of another. He more heard than felt himself start to sob uncontrollably and was too tired to feel mortified. Any other time Kakashi would’ve been horrified to be caught crying of all things – but it was like a damn had broken and he couldn’t stop. He was relieved. So, so relieved. Finally, he was free.
Unfortunately, the girl seemed to interpret his reaction as a panic attack because she yanked off his mask and tried to coach him through some breathing exercises. It was obvious that she’d never done this before because she didn’t even seem to realize that taking off his mask had only made things worse.
“Hey, it’s okay, it’s okay! Just breathe!” Her alarmed voice probably wouldn’t help to calm down anyone, Kakashi thought woozily as he worked to control his breathing.
“The mask,” he managed at last. “Back on. Please.”
She nodded frantically and tugged his mask back up. Kakashi managed to breathe more slowly now and calm his emotions. They sat there for minutes. Her arms were holding him awkwardly so that he could sit up, his legs dangling in the water. The girl’s stance upon its surface was more wobbly; clearly she was new to the business of water walking… wait.
She was a shinobi? Turning his head with some effort, Kakashi frantically scanned her, suddenly certain that she wasn’t one of his. She must be the enemy. He knew every aspiring shinobi his age from Konoha and none of them looked even remotely like her…
And so he sat there, stock still, his thoughts racing a mile a minute.
No matter what, he refused to kill this girl. She was innocent. She had saved him. He couldn’t just–
His thoughts were interrupted when she slowly began to wring out her hair and her heaband sloppily fell into the water, now free of its prison. Kakashi could only stare at it in shock. It wasn’t a headband – it was a forehead protector. And the symbol emblazoned upon it was Konoha’s.
Immediately he felt relieved as well as suspicious, but he had a hard time believing that this girl, clearly not very experienced if her grasp on water walking was anything to go by, would try to deceive him. Perhaps she really was from Konoha and he just didn’t know her?
“Who are you?” he asked her. His voice was still weak but he managed.
The girl glanced back at him. “Hmp. No thank you? You know, I’ve ruined my dress to pull you out of there! Heck, I might even catch a cold and that is literally the last thing I need right now, what with Zabu...” she cut herself off abruptly.
Kakashi blinked slowly. She sounded rather prissy for someone with such a… benign appearance. It also proved his theory that she wasn’t an enemy. A spy would’ve tried to lull him into a false sense of security.
“Sorry, I…” he sighed. “Thank you. Really. I… I owe you. I really owe you.”
She seemed to calm down at this. “Ah, it’s fine. Sorry for snapping at you. It’s just… well. I shouldn’t talk about it. I’m in a bad place right now and things are very stressful. I was supposed to be learning how to walk on water today and I wasted the entire day trying to dig you out. Not that it was wasted, of course! I just meant that–”
“I get it.” Kakashi interrupted.
There was an awkward silence as he tried to sit up and failed. Ugh. It was interesting though, he pondered, that the girl had apparently only started practicing water walking that day. Never mind that she was already very advanced if that was the case – the idea that genin would be taught to walk on water at her age was laughable. She must’ve flunked straight through every year of the Academy if she was only learning now. They were in the middle of a war, for god’s sake.
However, Kakashi did feel extremely grateful to her and he wasn’t about to be rude to the person he owed his freedom to. Never before had he felt so thankful to anyone. He and this girl were perfect strangers after all, but already he could feel his mind spinning with plans and ideas to help her, to repay the enormous favor she had done for him. He would do so, no matter what. Well, if he could get up first that is.
“I don’t think that’s gonna work,” the girl told him, watching his pitiful attempts at moving his limbs. “Muscle atrophy is a thing, you know?”
Kakashi huffed, lowering his head in defeat. He hated feeling this helpless.
The girl’s arms suddenly disappeared from his shoulders as she slung one of them across his back instead. Straining from the effort, she dragged him through the water.
“God, you’re heavy… I’m so thankful for sensei’s training right now…” she was muttering under her breath.
Kakashi didn’t react, too busy trying to get his limbs to cooperate.
“You know what?” she said after a minute of slow going dragging. “I think it’d be easier if I just swam back with you in tow.” She glanced at him appraisingly. “Is that okay?”
Kakashi nodded. And so their journey began. He didn’t know where she was taking him, but he was certain that letting her help him was his best bet. They made it back to a bridge that appeared to be in construction, and then the girl enlisted the workers’ help to drag him up its rafters, with her walking up them behind him as support. From there, Kakashi was gently laid down on the concrete and he could only stare at the sun and sky and be glad he was free. Next to him, the girl was panting like she’d just ran a marathon.. Kakashi listened to her gasping breaths and wondered once again who she was.
She’d seemed plenty determined to pull him out of the ice block and had actually managed it. Her arms were strong and, if what she had said earlier was true, then her chakra control was above average. Why then was she only starting to train now? Had she started the Academy later or something?
He had heard a case of a child who had gotten very sick and was forced to pull out of the Academy temporarily… maybe she had a similar reason?
With some work, he managed to turn his body so he could face her.
Her green eyes were a slightly different shade now, out in the daylight. He remembered the sight of them back under water and the vivid feeling of hope that came with it. Her skin was very pale, though not as much as it had looked in the glow of the chidori. There were no discernible scars on her face as far as he could see, with smooth skin and a perfect nose. He was sure she’d look very pretty when dry, though at the moment she rather resembled a drowned rat. Or a drowned puppy – he wasn’t about to compare his rescuer to a rat.
The oddest thing about her appearance was her hair color. It was pink; slightly wavy as it dried in the sun, but not off putting. Kakashi imagined that it would be a useful tool to get enemies to lower their guard… certainly better than being born with grey hair as he was.
The girl seemed to notice his stare and turned to look at him. She seemed to be debating something. “Would you… would you like to come with me? I could ask the family hosting us if it’s alright… Tazuna-san is over there…”
She seemed uncertain. Kakashi didn’t want to be more of a bother than he already had been.
“I have some money on me… well, if it’s dry still. But the coins should be fine. I’ll pay you.”
The girl flushed. “Oh. That would be… good,” she admitted. “I mean, if we were back home I would say it’s not necessary, but this country is very poor. Most people barely have enough to eat as it is.”
Kakashi sighed, nodding. “War does that.”
The girl blinked at him. “War? No, I mean… this isn’t that.” She began to explain something about a fellow named Gato who was apparently trying to control the ship trade in Wave Country, ranting about how everyone was suffering and malnourished because of the man’s selfishness.
Kakashi was, naturally, extremely puzzled by this. Being an island, Wave was naturally extremely insular and not as affected by the war, but something about the way the girl had dismissed his statement wasn’t right. He decided not to say anything for now in case she rescinded her help.
“Ah, by the way. You’re from Konoha, aren’t you?” he asked her.
She smiled proudly, flashing her headband. “Yep. And so are you.” She looked pointedly at his. “Oh, wait – let me…” Her hand reached out in order to presumably lift his headband up and righten it from where it was covering his eye.
“No, don’t do that.” Kakashi stopped her in her tracks.
She blinked at him, her hand retreating. “Al… right? Um.”
“I’m Hatake Kakashi,” he said by way of explanation. Usually, he hated introducing himself, but at least then she’d know about his sharingan.
The girl had no outward reaction at all. “Oh. I’m Haruno Sakura. Nice to meet you!”
There was no contempt in her voice, no widening of her eyes as she realized who he was… odd.
“Nice to meet you too,” Kakashi muttered. Well, more than nice. She had saved him…
“So, how’d you end up down there? How long have you been in that ice block?” Sakura asked him conversationally later on. The bridge’s building crew had had a free cart, which she’d borrowed in order to drag Kakashi to wherever she was staying at. Kakashi was of course supremely uncomfortable with being wheeled around like a princess on a palanquin, but Sakura took no mercy on him and pulled him into conversation again and again, either oblivious to or uncaring of his discomfort.
“I don’t know how long I’ve been down there,” Kakashi replied after a while. “I was… I was in Mist. No. In Kumo?” Why couldn’t he remember? Where was he? “It wasn’t supposed to be a difficult mission, no,wait, that was another one. I… I don’t… there was some mission… or something… and there were complications. It’s all blurred, but an enemy shinobi used some sort of jutsu on me – an ice type. I’ve never seen that before, so I can’t say what it was, and then–”
“An ice type?” Sakura interrupted.
Kakashi suppressed an annoyed remark. “Yes. That’s what I said.”
“But that doesn't exist! Iruka-sensei said–”
“Obviously it does,” he cut her off. “It must be some sort of obscure bloodline limit. In any case, I think they combined that with some sort of seal… I’m not certain.” Actually, that was just guess work. He couldn’t remember anything. Nothing… nothing at all.
“And you were in Mist ?” Sakura asked skeptically. “That’s a ways off from here. You must’ve drifted along with the current… I know that one of the main currents in our sea is–” She began to ramble about water currents and how it might’ve been possible for Kakashi to get dragged all the way from mist to Wave Country, though she insisted that, judging by the weight of the ice block, it was really weird that he’d drifted such a long distance.
Privately, Kakashi agreed with her. Another part of him was further confused. Judging by her in-depth knowledge of such a random topic as water currents and their geography, it was clear that Sakura had a keen mind. So why had she been held back? It didn’t make sense…
Kakashi could tell that something odd was afoot here, but he didn’t know what. He was, of course, about to find out.
They made it to the house Sakura was staying at easily enough, though Kakashi got some very strange looks up in his cart. He tried to ignore them as best as he could and then, to his embarrassment, was forced to let Sakura drag him into the bridge-builder’s home.
“Shisui-sensei!” the girl called. “Sensei, you need to see this!”
“This?” Kakashi grumbled. What? Was he an object now? Sakura ignored him and, after a moment, a man emerged from within the house. He was… in a state. Kakashi instantly catalogued his injuries and determined that whatever had happened, he must be recuperating from one hell of a fight. Luckily, the jounin – Shisui? – had a konoha headband as well and looked distinctly Uchiha, to Kakashi’s relief.
Shisui gave him an odd look.
“Ne, Sakura-chan, when I encouraged you to broaden your horizons in the boyfriend possibilities departement, I didn’t mean this.”
Sakura blushed to the roots of her hair. “Sensei, stop acting like a five-year old! This is important!”
Surprisingly, Shisui’s countenance did become serious after that. “Well? What happened? Who is he?”
Kakashi resented the fact that he was being talked about while he was right there, mainly because that meant that Shisui’s decision in regard to him would depend on her report. Thankfully, Sakura didn’t let him down. She explained succinctly what had happened. Apparently, while the two other members of team Shisui were busy learning how to tree-walk (making Kakashi’s eyebrows rise again), Sakura had pulled ahead of them and, as per Shisui’s recommendation, tried out water-walking whilst she accompanied Tazuna. She had quickly gotten the hang of it and had trod further and further away from the shore, and apparently then had gotten the brilliant idea of skating around on the water at a speed that was obviously too fast for a beginner and fallen in. That was when she had seen an odd light below the surface and decided to dive deeper to check it out. She’d found Kakashi soon after and, determining that there was somehow a living person down there, had shot toward the bridge to get some supplies in order to try and help him.
Shisui listened to her tale with increasing skepticism. Kakashi saw him activate his sharingan, probably in order to check Sakura over for signs of genjutsu.
“Alright…” he said after a beat. “The kid does have a Konoha headband, I suppose.” Finally, he turned toward Kakashi. “What’s your name?”
Finally, he got to talk. “Hatake Kakashi. Ninja ID: 3457.”
Shisui’s eyes grew wide and Kakashi sighed with relief. Finally. He had worried a little when Sakura hadn’t recognized him.
“So… Kakashi-san…” Shisui said after a drawn-out pause. “Would you mind telling your side of the story?”
Kakashi told him all he could remember. After Shisui sent Sakura out of the room and showed him his ANBU tattoo, he felt more free to reveal even classified knowledge to the man and answered all of his questions. Meanwhile, Shisui’s expression was inscrutable. Kakashi couldn’t help but feel like something was off. He said as much to the jounin – there was no use in beating around the bush.
“Well,” said Shisui after a drawn-out pause. “I think… I think you might want some tea for this one.”
“Just tell me what the matter is. Is Sensei alright? Kushina? Rin?”
“Ah – yes, they’re all okay. Um, even Obito – your old teammate – returned to the village.”
Kakashi’s breath hitched. “Obito is alive? No, that’s impossible, I saw him die, I–”
Shisui shook his head wryly. “Yeah, that’s pretty much what everyone else said. The real circumstances of his return are pretty classified though, so you’ll have to ask Yondaime-sama if you want any details but…” Slowly, Shisui reached into his weapons pouch and unsealed a scroll. “I think it’s just best if you see it for yourself.”
Within the scroll, there was a picture, which Shisui held out for Kakashi to see. Kakashi frowned at it. Three Uchiha were standing at the Konoha gates. One of them was Shisui himself. In the middle, there was a cheerfully grinning one that had his arms slung around the other two, whilst the one on the left was reserved looking and younger, with long hair that was tied in a ponytail. Kakashi stared at the picture blankly.
“The one in the middle is Obito,” Shisui said after a beat.
Kakashi’s eye widened. What? No, that was impossible. The one in the middle was a grown-up! He looked old. Well, not old, but at least Sensei’s age at the minimum! What the hell. No, it couldn’t be…
And yet, the longer Kakashi stared at it the more he saw the resemblance. Obito’s grin at first sight had been a lot more idiotic. Larger than life, so much so that Kakashi often wondered how he didn’t hurt his cheek muscles. This man’s grin was more reserved in comparison, if still exuberant… more mature. Obito’s goggles and ridiculous looking outfit where nowhere in sight either and yet – his left eye was gone. The entire left half of his body was gone, looking pasty white instead of… human. It seemed almost impossible, but… could it be?
“Wh-what’s this supposed to mean?” Kakashi heard himself stammer. He never lost his composure and yet now it had shattered.
Shisui levelled him with a gentle look. “Well, you may know this story. The story of how the hokage’s most promising student went missing during an altercation close to Kumo territory. The rest of those involved in the battle had been slaughtered by the time helped arrived, but only his body wasn’t found. Minato-san held out hope that his precious student had managed to survive somehow… he did all he could to find him. He was restless, desperate… he did everything . It was all over the village. Many tracker teams were dispatched, jounin and even ANBU sent to look for him despite the dwindling resources – heck, there was even prize money for anyone able to find him and bring him back alive. But the search was a dead-end. The Inuzuka could only determine that the boy had disappeared into the sea, but as much as anyone looked, not even a body could be found. And well. It’s a little hard to believe, but… now that you’ve showed up, I imagine that this story pertains to you. If you really are who you say you are, then… Kakashi-san, you were presumed KIA fourteen years ago.”
Kakashi stared at him with horror. “But… but how? I am – I was – how are they so much older than me?”
Shisui sighed. “I don’t know. Honestly, I’m not even sure if I believe your story – that’s how mad it is.”
“You have to believe me,” Kakashi said desperately. “Please – I – I’ll help you. It’s obvious that you’re injured from some sort of confrontation. Whoever attacked – I’m a jonin too. I will make sure nothing happens to your team while you recuperate. I also have some money on me to pay for all expenses–”
Shisui sighed. “That won’t be necessary. You know, there’s a much easier way to check whether you’re being truthful or not.”
Kakashi blinked. “Which is?”
“Your sharingan. Let me see it.”
Right. He was totally idiotic for forgetting that. Kakashi allowed Shisui to inspect his sharingan at his leisure, until finally the Uchiha pulled back and nodded.
“Yes, this is Obito’s eye.”
“You can recognize it?”
“No two sharingan are the same,” Shisui confirmed.
“So… does that mean you believe me?”
Shisui sighed. “Well, you know what? I’m starting to. I mean, no ninja worth their salt would come up with a story as far fetched as yours. So it can only be real. And besides, your muscles are completely atrophied. You couldn’t even hurt a fly in this state.”
Kakashi scowled. As much as he loathed to admit it, Shisui was right.
“You know,” Shisui said thoughtfully. “I had an injury once that got me bed ridden for a pretty long time. I read about muscle atrophy back then and I remember that, according to the book, if you’re a civilian it can take up to three months to recover in cases like you. For ninja that time can be cut down to about a month, maybe less if you really work hard on it…” he trailed off thoughtfully. “In any case, my encounter with Zabuza happened two days ago. He’s a missing nin being pade to sabotage our mission, one of the seven swordsmen of the mist. I thought I had finished him, but I realize now that I was wrong, though I did manage to injure him pretty badly. I also put him under a genjutsu he’s unlikely to wake up from in less than two to three weeks, so you have about that long to recover.”
Kakashi nodded. That was good news. If the nin had come back in a few days, then he’d have been a sitting duck, but like this, he had time to prepare.
“What are you going to do about your genin squad?” he asked. “Sakura didn’t seem very… battle ready.”
Shisui lowered his head with a sigh. “None of them are, and anyway, one of them is of my clan’s main house and the other – well. He’s your sensei’s son.”
Kakashi’s eyes widened. Son? Minato-sensei had a son ? What?!
“Eh heh heh. Yeah. That must be weird for you. Naruto’s about your age now. How old did you say you were?”
“Thirteen.”
“Well… then yeah. My kids are twelve.”
Kakashi stared at Shisui aghast. He wasn’t even sure what he was supposed to be feeling. This was all… too much.
“You know, I think you should try to eat something and then sleep on this. It might be a lot to process.”
Kakashi nodded, then shook his head. If there was anything he was good at, then that was compartmentalizing. He knew himself well enough to realize that trying to fall asleep without a clear idea of what he wanted to do moving forward would be a fool's errand.
“Your students need training,” he said after a moment. Well, actually sensei’s kid and the Uchiha probably didn’t, but Sakura…
“Sakura at least,” he amended. “She seemed very green and she’s in bad shape.”
“Yeah, I’m working on it,” Shisui confessed. “You should’ve seen her a few weeks ago.”
Kakashi gave him an incredulous look.
Shisui jumped to the defense of his student. “Don’t be so judgemental! We’re at peace now and she’s a civilian. I know it’s weird for clan kids to imagine, but Sakura-chan’s parents have never trained her like shinobi do. She doesn’t get encouraged at home to train or work out, and I imagine that her lack of experience in the area compared to some of her peers only made the idea less appealing. Honestly, if you take that into account, Sakura-chan’s a cut above the other kunoichi in her class. She only lacks combat ability because she’s not from a clan. So don’t be too harsh on her, ne?”
Kakashi nodded slowly, though he knew himself well enough to know that he’d have to really try to keep his opinions from showing in his mannerisms. He had concluded that Sakura was intelligent earlier, so that helped, at least. He didn’t know how many sleepless nights he’d spent regretting his arrogant treatment of Obito… who was now somehow alive still…
“Anyway!” Shisui interrupted. “The boys are still busy with tree-walking so I suppose it makes sense if you stay with Sakura. You’ll be doing some physical therapy exercises anyways – I’ll teach you some later – so she can do some pushups or something alongside you. I’m sure you’ll be a good coach, won’t you?”
Kakashi gulped. “Yes, of course.” He did intend to return the favor to Sakura, and if the best way to do that was by nagging her into staying alive, then he would do so.