AN: Well, getting this chapter out took me over a year; which is way longer than I thought it would be. So to my wonderful readers: I am sorry for the long wait and want to reassure you that I do not post a story without having an ending plotted out. It may take a while, but I am dedicated to (eventually) completing this story.

I also wanted to thank everyone who has left a review. Your encouragement of and excitement about this story really mean a lot to me and I appreciate each and every review I've gotten.

Content Warnings: DOS-canon levels of mental speculation and political plotting by shinobi, Profanity

A list of possibly triggering situations in this chapter that pertain to the plot or that may contain spoilers are at the very bottom of the page if you wish to scroll down and check before reading this chapter.

The Security Applications of Temporal Compression Seals

Part iii of ?

oOo

Shikako was hyper aware of both her surroundings and her shrunken sensei as they slipped through the trees to Konoha. Underneath her mission focus was an increasing buzz of new potential problems. Her thoughts careened from how are we going to reverse the seal on sensei? is it permanent? are there any side effects? to what is the hokage going to do now that one of her top jounin is under ten? what will happen if any of the other villages find out?

Shikako mentally forced herself to stop the surge of questions and start formulating plans for the ones she could tackle. Her medical check was cursory at best, but they were headed to the best medic in the Elemental Nations, so if there were any medical complications, they were headed towards the best person to handle them. Tsunade-sama was not slouch when it came to seals; hopefully with the notes she had taken on the seal that had caused all of this there would be a solution for unraveling the seal. Something in Shikako's gut clenched at the tiny negative voice that this change was permanent and she would never get here late, lazy teacher who was so so proud of her and her team back.

As for Tsunade-sama's reaction, well, she supposed should would find out about that in person soon enough. It would likely contain at least a few curse words, demands for sake, dirty looks in her direction and probably some thinly veiled punishment assignment since the Hokage was probably not over her upending logistics recently either.

The thought of what would happen if information about Kakashi-sensei's condition spread internationally send an almost completely disguised shiver down her spine. As one of the famous jounin of Konoha, Kakashi-sensei had no shortage of enemies both personal and political who would be quick to exact revenge on his younger self. Aside from those seeking vengeance, Shikako's teacher had a sizable bounty on his head, enough to draw plenty of hunters now that it would not be an instant death sentence to go after the internationally famous assassin. In addition, as the last member of the Hatake clan, a younger Kakashi would be the best chance for a kekkei genkai thief to get their hands on his family's bloodline limit.

Another string of potential fears wove through her mind as Shikako tried to anticipate what reception they would face when they reached Konoha. Right now, Kakashi was young, malleable, devoted to the rules and his bright potential undoubtedly confirmed with his twenty year service career; in short, a great catch for any group that could get their hands on him. Forget bounty hunters or any of the other hidden villages, Root was deeply interwoven into the foundations of their village and without a doubt would be interested in folding an impressionable Kakashi into their ranks and have ample opportunity to do it if she was not careful. The cold sweat that broke out on Shikako's back was not a product of her leaping through the trees but of the memory of being waylaid at the gates after the Gelel mission.

As they arrived within familiar territory and were almost within sight of the village gates, Shikako called for a stop with a hand signal. Kakashi complied silently, but the line of tension in his shoulders revealed his unease with the unanticipated stop right before they reached the village.

"When we get to the village gates, we are going to sign in and go straight to the Hokage. No stopping for anyone, no matter who they are or what they say. Do you understand?" Shikako's gaze was sharp and her voice hard, the tone leaving no room for arguments.

Kakashi was silent for a moment, taking in the Nara's sudden command presence as opposed to the softer touch she had displayed previously, before nodding in agreement.

With Kakashi's assent, Shikako squared her shoulders and determinedly marched on the ground the rest of the way to the gate guard station.

oOo

"So how did...your mission go…" Kotetsu trailed off as he caught sight of a prepubescent Hatake Kakashi trailing behind a mission serious Nara Shikako as she strode purposefully up to his guard station. The kunoichi was already pulling their passes from her flack jacket and presented them to him without her usual friendly greetings.

Kotetsu accepted the offered passes automatically and started filling out the mission return paperwork distractedly, his attention drifting over to the small form of one of Konoha's legendary ninja. Two narrowed dark eyes met his when Kotetsu glanced over in disbelief at the jounin's appearance. An experienced shinobi's alarm in the back of his mind began blaring at Kakashi's continued unfriendly lack of recognition and his pen stopped scribbling characters on the paperwork beneath his hand. Hatake's chakra was unmistakable and his form and features, while the wrong age, matched Kotetsu's childhood memories. Surely no one would try to sneak into a Hidden Village disguised as a child version of one of their most recognizable shinobi? And, he examined Nara as well, escorted by one of the village's rapidly rising kunoichi promoted for her sensory abilities?

"There were...complications. We need to go see the Hokage immediately." A subtle pulse of intent accompanied Shikako's sharp command, an unspoken prompt to finish signing the two shinobi in.

A weighty pause hovered between the two, before Kotetsu finished signing the two adolescent shinobi in and handed Nara the passes back. With a sharp nod and a slight of hand tucking the paperwork away, Nara Shikako aimed herself at the Hokage Tower and marched briskly away from the gate, a silent Hatake Kakashi shadowing her. As soon as they were swallowed up by the evening crowds, Kotetsu activated the silent Anbu alarm for possible infiltrators under his desk.

oOo

Senju Tsunade sat at her desk and had spent the day waiting for something to go wrong. While she had given up many of her well-known vices, the current Hokage still preferred to start her day with a spiked cup of tea and a lotto ticket whenever possible. This morning's winning scratch-off sat propped up against a stack of financial audits and proceeded to mock the Legendary Sucker all day long. Tsunade felt the stress knot between her shoulders grow as the hours passed and she waited for the other trap to spring.

Shortly after dinner, a welcome interruption from the mountains of paperwork came in the form of the chunin secretary knocking on her office door to announce the return of Hatake and Nara from their scroll retrieval mission. However, a combination of the chunin's gob smacked expression and the request from Nara for an in-person debriefing sent her instincts screaming that the trap had been sprung. Tsunade felt the lump of tension that had been taking up space in her stomach start to gain weight because a simple C-level retrieval mission that most certainly did not merit a debriefing with the Hokage.

Her suspicions were confirmed when a tense Nara Shikako was followed into her office by a much too short Hatake Kakashi. Looking at one of her best jounin in miniature, Tsunade swore.

oOo

Supporting her face with a perfectly manicured and deadly hand, the Godaime Hokage pinched the bridge of her nose to ward off the upcoming headache and took a calming breath. Slapping her hand down on her desk with a small pop, she snapped, "I know all I authorized you to do was retrieve a scroll from a clan compound with the approval of said clan. So Nara, care to explain how the hell you came back with a brat instead of your jounin-sensei?"

The Special Jounin held her composure well, Tsunade noted as the girl started to relay her report. She slowly tapped, tapped, tapped her fingernail as she listened to Nara go over the mission from when they left to village, their journey to the Uchiha clan compound and their investigation and recovery of the scroll once inside. Absently, Tsunade noticed herself stop tapping when Nara described the security seal that Hatake had been caught in and the beginning of their return to Konoha. After listening to Nara's account of Hatake's awakening post-seal, she turned her attention to the shrunken shinobi.

"Name, rank and registration number," Tsunade ordered, her focus now on Kakashi, "and how old you think you are and the last date you remember."

"Hatake Kakashi. Chunin. 009720." The prompt response was accompanied by a professional posture and respectful tone not often seen in the adult Hatake, "I am eight years old and I last recall it being late summer in the 29th year of the Sandaime Hokage."

These were the first in a series of questions the Godaime Hokage quizzed the temporally displaced chunin on; ranging from older security codes ("Truth and temperance, upon this sinless wall of dreams unleash") to whom his mentor is ("Jounin Namikaze Minato"). After he answered the Hokage's queries to her satisfaction, she called him closer for an informal but thorough medical assessment. Her silence held sway over everyone's attention as the green glow faded from her hands.

"Hatake, report to the hospital immediately." Tsunade ordered, breaking the quiet tension, "Shizune, I want you to start on a full physical and chakra work up; I want you to especially take a look at that eye. Send someone with the clearance to go pull Hatake's full medical file and see if you can verify a physical age match with the scar history. I'll be joining you soon."

"And Shizune?" Tsunade added, grabbing her apprentice's attention at the door as the corners of her mouth twitched smugly upwards, "Make sure to take plenty of pictures, it's important that we properly document this unique medical anomaly."

oOo

Shikako could see Tsunade-sama fighting to keep the smirk from spreading over her lips as she ordered Shizune to take thinly disguised blackmail photos. Judging by the glare coming from Kakashi, he had also picking up on this unsubtle hint, but a sense of decorum his older self had deliberately misplaced kept him from voicing his protests.

Having received her orders, Shizune subtly gestured for Kakashi to precede her out of the Hokage's office. Pausing long enough to give a regulation perfect bow to his superior officer, the chunin left without comment or acknowledgement of anyone else in the room.

Now Shikako and the Hokage were alone in her office, a fact that was not lost on the Special Jounin as the tension thrumming through her frame increased like a strand of ninja wire pulled taut.

This is it, Shikako thought as shifted her weight and braced herself for a chewing out with a simple retrieval mission having gone so badly.

oOo

Tsunade now turned her gaze on her single remaining shinobi in the room as the kunoichi braced herself for the dressing down she was expecting.

"Well done on taking field command Nara," judging from the wide eyes and sudden laxness of her shoulders, she had caught the girl off guard, "Having a mission leader be caught in such a unique and unforeseen type of security seal is not something you could have anticipated or prepared for. You showed commendable composure and foresight in copying down what you could of the seal and getting Hatake back to the village quickly and in one piece."

"That all being said," the Hokage continued, "I want you to go and inform Uchiha Sasuke that I need more details on the more... esoteric security features his clan had in place at that outpost. Tell him I am expecting a verbal report within the next twenty-four hours on the non-documented security measures employed for this particular location; then report back to me at the hospital."

With a sharp, and obedient "Yes Hokage-sama," the Special Jounin bowed and silently slipped out of her office.

oOo

Senju Tsunade was doing her best to enjoy the evening cup of sake she was slipping past Shizune as the Hokage found herself with the dilemma of having to arrange a protection detail of one of her top jounin. Hatake Kakashi, who at eight years old was already a formidable ninja, was also in no way able to handle the threats his almost thirty-year-old self regularly faced. That was aside from the fact that no matter how skilled or mature, she didn't believe in leaving a child of interest unattended, temporally displaced or not. Especially considering the hints of some rogue elements subverting the village from within that Jiraiya had dug up.

Taking a sip, Tsunade reflected on what to do with now prepubescent Hatake Kakashi. This was not something she wanted to deal with with the current political situation both internationally and in the village. At least the perpetually late brat had timed it well enough that he would not be expected along the border by foreign intelligence agencies for a few weeks given his recent rotation out.

Even two decades ago Kakashi had already been a bit of a political lit explosive tag with his early graduation, then subsequent promotion and his father's high profile disgrace and suicide. As she thought back to the situation two decades ago, a snug expression grew on her face as she came up with just the perfect solution, or rather stole an idea from the past. After all, at this point in his life, wasn't Chunin Hatake Kakashi assigned by her sensei to the care and supervision of promising young Jounin and Jiraiya's sealing protégé Namikaze Minato? So who currently would be better to take care of him than the Jiraiya-trained sealing expert, fellow teammate and logistics-headache-causing Special Jounin Nara Shikako?

A public caretaker and defender now chosen, the Hokage turned her attention to the Anbu waiting silently in the shadowed corner of her office. Anbu agent Cat was a trusted and loyal operative as well as a personal friend and former teammate of Hatake and tonight's lucky responder to the possible intruder alarm at the village gates.

With a commanding gesture, Tsunade summoned Cat to her to hear his report. The Anbu agent flickered forward to kneel at attention before her and gave his report of the evening's events from responding to the alarm at the gates to observing Nara and Hatake on their way to the Hokage Tower to his impressions of their reports.

At the conclusion of Cat's observations, Tsunade asked, "I know sealing is not a specialty of yours and your only extended contact with the clan was when you were briefly on a team with Uchiha Itachi, but what is your opinion on the inclusion of this seal in the Uchiha clan security plan?"

"It is certainly an odd security feature to have, but it does makes sense in a twisted sort of way." Cat answered, "An eight year old is old enough to be able to identify themselves, their village and know some details but, unlike sempai, most don't have the necessary combat skill to protect themselves or to escape and evade capture."

The Hokage nodded in agreement, "While this seal would prevent you from getting details on the particular mission or reason to steal from the Uchiha clan, it certainly would make it easier to catch and identify a thief. Ideally, after restraining and identifying your thief, you would then be able to reverse the effects of the seal and obtain the pertinent details of the mission."

"If the seal is reversible…" The thoughtful silence broken by a hesitantly pessimistic Cat.

"It damn well better be reversible," muttered Tsunade, before she continued thinking aloud. "Getting a second set of twenty years of service from Hatake in his prime would be a boon, but I don't think it would outweigh the loss of all those years of experience and knowledge."

The Anbu agent didn't reply verbally, but his silence was obviously in agreement with her assertion. Though, Tsunade mused, he is probably a bit more individually concerned with the loss of a personal history and connection with Hatake.

Tsunade took another contemplative sip of her sake, before setting the cup down with a soft clink and straightening is her seat.

"Agent Cat," the shinobi's attention focused back on her when hearing the note of command in her voice, "I am assigning you to observe and guard Hatake Kakashi until the effects of this security seal have worn off. Chunin Hatake isn't considered a flight risk, but I am concerned about him being a high value kidnapping target. He is not to leave the village or the custody of the person I'm assigning him to."

Hearing his Hokage, Agent Cat froze like fresh genin on their first mission and Tsunade would have put money on his face going pale behind his mask. Rolling her eyes, she reassured the experienced Anbu.

"Don't worry Cat, Nara Shikako will get to deal with brat Hatake in all his eight year old glory. You just have to watch out for anything unsavory and make sure he doesn't disappear before we find a way to reverse this seal."

With a dismissive gesture, Cat disappeared back into the shadows of her office. Senju Tsunade threw back the rest of her sake before pushing up and away from her desk to go deal with the shinobi leading the running for 'Konoha's Worst Behaved and Least Cooperative Patient.'

oOo

Shikako marched towards Sasuke's apartment, the scroll responsible for this whole mess tucked in her vest and a barely perceptible tremor in her hands. Dodging through the late evening sea of shinobi and civilians on autopilot, she sorted through her mental checklist of potential future problems, firmly marking 'possible medical complications' and 'informing the Hokage' as done. If under the personal protection and attention of Senju Tsunade wasn't a safe place for a young Hatake Kakashi, then Shikako doubted there was any place safe in the whole of the Elemental Nations.

All that was needed to officially end this terrible mission was to hand over the requested summoning scroll to Sasuke. Catching two nin in one trap, Shikako needed to officially inform the head of the Uchiha Clan about the Hokage's request for records on clan security records and unofficially, she needed to let her village-bound teammate know what the security seals in his clan's compound had done to their sensei.

Shikako channeled her nervous energy into pounding on Sasuke's apartment door until an annoyed flare of chakra signaled her teammate's awareness of her demanding presence. Taking deep, calming breaths as she worked to smooth out the last of the nervous shaking in her hands and the tension thinning her lips as she felt Sasuke approach his front door and undo the locks and basic security seals. But as Sasuke snapped the door open, so did Shikako's calm composure when she felt the seal on his upper arm.

Most of Shikako's frustration funneled into a punch that shoved her teammate back into the entryway. She stomped forward into his apartment and kicked the door shut behind her, a frustrated snarl on her face.

"What the hell Sasuke?!" Shikako hissed, "Anbu? Really?"

Sasuke's widened eyes and surprise at her aggressive entry lasted only a few seconds.

"Good to see you too Shikako. You seem unusually stressed this evening." Sasuke intoned flatly, before pushing himself off the wall she had shoved him into. "Did sensei ditch you with the mission report?"

At the mention of their perpetually tardy teacher, Shikako stiffened and jerked her gaze away from her teammate. Sasuke reacted to her suddenly avoidant body language and switched to a mission ready posture and tone of voice, almost able to conceal his worry.

"Shikako. What happened?"

"Kakashi-sensei is in the hospital, he's not injured and Tsunade-sama is checking over him." Shikako answered quietly.

"What happened."

"He got hit with one of the security seals outside of the compound. The seal was really complicated, I was able to copy most of it down but I've never seen anything like it…" She trailed off. Sasuke reaching up and placing a hand on her shoulder leading her to look up and meet his eyes.

"The seal had some sort of de-aging effect on Kakashi-sensei; he looks and acts like he is about eight years old. And his memories match his age."

Sasuke's hand dropped off her shoulder and he took a step back, tension falling away from his frame.

"Not funny Shikako," he said, then rolled his eyes, "Was this revenge for the sneaking up thing?"

"I am not joking!" Shikako shot back hotly, "Tsunade-sama wants you to make a verbal report to her on the undocumented security measures for that compound within the next twenty-four hours."

"A seal that de-ages someone? Shikako, you can't be serious."

"This is all your fault Sasuke," Shikako hissed under her breath, her stress and worry at the current situation bubbling up and spilling out onto her teammate.

"My fault?" He responded, affronted.

"Your crazy paranoid relatives, your fault."

"You were the one who was there!"

"You were the reason we were there in the first place!"

"Well, maybe then we should just go ahead and pin all the blame on Naruto; since he isn't here to defend himself and this sounds like the kind of crazy stunt he would find hilarious," Sasuke said sarcastically.

Shikako snorted, "Maybe we should just blame our 'team luck'."

The tension between them now completely broken, Shikako leaned against the wall and gave off an air of being well and truly drained.

"And don't think I didn't notice that seal on your arm. When everything is less crazy, we're going to have words." Shikako sighed, brushing her bangs back from her face. "Tsunade-sama wants me to report to her again at the hospital. I don't know what's going to happen or what she's going to do with sensei, but I'll try to make morning practice tomorrow, ok?"

"Sure, I'll see about making it if I can," Sasuke paused and smirked, "Good luck with babysitting Kakashi-sensei."

Shikako let out a surprised snort before warning her teammate, "Don't ever let Kakashi-sensei hear you talk about 'babysitting,' I think at this age he would take it as an invitation to demonstrate his combat abilities."

Sasuke rolled his eyes as his kunoichi teammate waved goodbye and slipped away into the night.

oOo

Possibly Triggering Situations:

-Child soldiers

-Description of a character's mental and physical condition during a near panic attack

-Anticipation of punishment from military commander

-Anticipation of verbal dressing down from military commander

-Mental speculation about possible assassination of a minor

-Mental speculation about possible kidnapping of a minor

-Mental speculation about rogue black ops within home village

-Character flashback to previously traumatizing experience

-Pressuring gate guard into expediting entrance into village

-Anticipating bad luck due to superstition

-Mention of gambling

-Implying the taking blackmail photos under the guise of medical records

-Alcohol consumption

-Reference to canon suicide of Hatake Sakumo

-Discussion of the possibility of physical change and memory loss being permanent

-Mention of the loss of friendship due to memory loss

-Assignment of protection detail without informing the person being protected

-Knocking on someone's door to deliver bad news

-Punching a friend

-Bad news being disbelieved and taken as a joke

-Verbal argument between friends

If anyone can think of anything else to add to the content warnings or list of possibly triggering situations, feel free to contact me either through the pm system or (preferably) at my tumblr zoe324writes