KONOHA

Kakashi groaned as his consciousness gradually returned to him. He felt his body ache all over. His head hurt, a throbbing pain inflaming the front of his brain. His muscles and bones felt weak. Soft.

“Right on cue. You are finally awake,” a feminine voice drawled by his side. The Jonin blinked, turning slightly to regard the woman.

“...Tsunade-hime?” he mumbled, confused. “You are here?”

“How can I not be here?” the Senju princess grumbled. “I still cannot believe those old farts sicced that annoying duo on me. The audacity!”

“What—”

*BANG!*

‘KAKASHI-SENSEI!”

Kakashi winced. He glanced at the hospital door that had been violently tossed open to stare at Naruto standing glumly at the entrance, a stupid grin plastered on his face. The self-indulgent expression promptly vanished as Sakura’s clenched fist came crashing into the back of his skull. Tsunade appeared behind the boy a moment later, tugging him up into the air by the left ear.

“ARE YOU STUPID?!” the two females screeched simultaneously. Kakashi winced again at the noise. He had the ominous premonition that the duo would get along swimmingly well. A fact that didn’t bode well for his impulsive pupil no matter how one looked at it.

…

It took about three minutes for the two shrews to loudly engrave the importance of subtlety in the hospital on Naruto’s dense, walnut-like brain. Kakashi watched the entire procedure with a hint of horrid fascination, subconsciously reaffirming his decision to keep his interaction with real-life women to a solely professional level. Soon, the boisterous crew fell silent and Kakashi could finally ask the question that had been burning at the back of his mind since his awakening.

“...Where is Sasuke?”

“Oh,” Sakura replied, “I heard he went on a mission with Team Guy to the Land of Stone. He should be back in a few weeks.”

“Sasuke?” Tsunade interrupted before Kakashi could comment on the news. She turned to face him, her expression pensive. “You mean the kid who knocked you out? Kakashi, you know, getting all battered up by a chunin still wet behind the ears is pretty embarrassing. I thought you were a natural. Guess I was wrong.”

At that, everyone turned to look at the blonde woman.

“What do you mean, Tsunade-hime?” The Jonin asked, confused.

“...Wasn’t it this Sasuke boy that knocked you out with his ocular technique?”

“No!” Kakashi replied. “Why would my student attack me?”

“Sasuke would never do that!” Sakura exclaimed, quick to defend her knight in shining armour. Even Naruto snorted in disbelief, muttering a disgruntled “as if” under his breath as he dismissed the claim.

The Senju Princess looked around, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. “I think you need to speak with the Hokage,” she said.

“Now.”

…

Sarutobi massaged his forehead in an effort to keep the migraine forming in his skull away, albeit with little success.

“You mean to say, everything in Sasuke’s report of the incident was correct?” he asked.

“Yes, Hokage-sama,” replied Kakashi. The Jonin, just out of the hospital, stood before him leaning on a pair of crutches. “Sasuke was much faster than I was, so I arrived a bit late to the battle. By the time I arrived, mere seconds behind him, one of the missing-nin, whom I identified as Kisame Hoshigaki, was already dead. Itachi had also retaliated at that point as Sasuke had already lost an arm by the time I saw him again. The appendage was on the forest floor, burning in a strange black flame; I think the boy severed his arm himself the moment he realised he couldn’t put the flames out. In my haste to aid him, I attacked Itachi but missed—most probably due to a Genjutsu—before promptly falling victim to older Uchiha’s counterattack.“

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“...So, you mean to say that Sasuke sensed the interlopers before you did?” Homura asked, his eyes squinting in suspicion.

“...Yes.”

Sarutobi’s brain throbbed harder.

That explains everything, he thought, comprehension blooming in his mind. The lack of valuable information on the boy, his refusal to disclose more about the incident and even the obvious distrust he has towards the council. With sensory skills that potent there was no way he couldn’t have known we were spying on him!

Sarutobi shared stiff glances at his fellow councilmen, the tell-tale signs of realisation glinting in their eyes.

“Sasuke failed to report that the second interloper was Kisame Hoshigaki,” Sarutobi continued with a tired sigh, his head throbbing harder, “With what you have just said, you are insinuating that the chunin killed an S-rank missing-nin, one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, in a mere handful of seconds? Is that correct?”

Kakashi’s eyes widened in sudden realisation. “...Yes?” he replied hesitantly as if he too couldn’t believe what just came out of his mouth.

“Bullshit!” Shikaku growled. “Kakashi’s mind has clearly been tampered with by that brat! If he could play around with my son’s brain with such impunity, I fail to see how his sensei would be exempt from such treatment.”

“I recently just performed an extensive medical procedure on Kakashi’s psyche,” Tsunade interrupted, her eyes still fixated on her granduncle’s undead form. “I noticed no signs of psychological tampering.”

“I myself took the liberty of checking Kakashi’s mind when you reported discovering mental tampering in your son,” Inoichi added. “I assure you, there were no signs of mental tampering.”

“...What would you say the boy’s attitude towards Konoha was, Kakashi?” Tobirama asked, his gravelly voice cutting through the silence that followed Inoichi’s report.

“...Neutral, Second Hokage-sama,” Kakashi replied after a moment of thought. “He dealt with all his responsibilities with the competence expected of him.”

The Jonin visibly paused after saying that.

Epiphany glittered in his gaze.

“...He dealt with all his responsibilities with just the right amount of competence expected of him.”

“Had his brother not appeared, pushing him to act… irrationally,” Danzo continued, the Jonin’s sudden epiphany seemingly infecting him, “we would have never known what he was truly capable of! I knew it! The evil thing—”

“Oh, for Kami’s sake, SHUT UP!”

Everyone turned to look at him in shock, but Sarutobi couldn’t care less at this point.

“I had warned you,” he began, “time and again, without number, to leave this boy alone. Seven years ago, I explicitly told you that SASUKE WAS TO REMAIN UNTOUCHED! I had you removed from this very council as a warning! But, did you listen? NO! You just had to disregard my words! Now look at what you’ve done! LOOK!”

“Sarutobi, please calm—”

“NO! No, Koharu! Enough is enough! Raidō! Genma!” Sarutobi called, the two appearing before him in an instant. The Hokage sighed, deflating under the weight of his anger.

“..arrest him.”

It hurt him to give the order but it had to be done, lest his friend pushed this matter further down the path of no return.

“Hiruzen…”

Sarutobi looked up to meet the gaze of his deceased mentor.

“Calm yourself,” Tobirama said. “Now is not the time for infighting. Instead, we should be looking for a way to resolve this matter. Permanently. This boy, who now without a doubt bears a grudge against the village, effectively killed me three times.”

Sarutobi’s heart shook, his migraine rising by another level.

What?

“Although I admit that Danzo did a shoddy job with my resurrection, I still possess, at least, forty per cent of my peak strength. Combine that with my infinitely replenishing chakra reserves and immortal body, and the fact that I was killed three times in a span of fifteen minutes ought to speak leagues of this child’s potential. In fact, towards the end of the battle, I had no doubt in my mind that he possessed another ability, aside from his Mangekyo, with which he could permanently eliminate me. That was why I fled that battle; I couldn’t afford to let myself get killed with the information I possessed.”

“...Why would my student want to kill you, Second Hokage-sama?” Kakashi asked, baffled.

“He was able to match my speed during our battle,” Tobirama continued, ignoring the Jonin’s question. “Despite being down one arm, he was able to contend with me in Taijutsu. He also possessed an extreme mastery of one-handed seal weaving, fire release, Fūinjutsu, battlespace control, and tactical timing. His fighting style, if described in one word, would be surgical. Also, he has awakened another one of the Uchiha’s signature techniques. The Susanoo. I believe, without a doubt, that his iteration of the technique could permanently eliminate me in my current form.

“If I was to rate the boy on the bingo book’s threat scale, I would advise, at the bare minimum, S-rank.”

Ominous silence.

Sarutobi exhaled as he leaned back into his seat. At that moment, he appeared to have aged another decade.

The Third Hokage sighed again, feeling a sense of profound disorientation.

Somehow, without him even noticing, everything had gone terribly, terribly wrong.