Summary: Kakashi has been having dreams of his whole team dying, one by one, until he was left totally alone. Other nights he dreams of three small genin children who he has such a strong urge to protect, even at the cost of his own life, and gut wrenching guilt because he had failed them just like he had for the others... But Kakashi doesn't know these kids. He's never had his own genin team, he's only 11 (not even a jonin yet), and the rest of Team 7 is very much alive.

A/N: Hey there! So I uh...I have a problem guys. I'm a sucker for time traveling fics, ESPECIALLY, if it's Kakashi going back in time and fixing things. Of course this isn't the fic where Kakshi actually time travels into the past, it's more where he has these dream like visions of the past.

Also if you're here and you know me from my other Naruto fic A Friend in Chains then...oops sorry. I promise i haven't abandoned it guys! It's just my mind creates more fics while im trying to finish said fic.

I should also mention that in this fic Kakashi is two years younger than his generation. So when Kakashi graduated the academy at 6 Obito and Rin were 8. Kakashi became a chunin when he was 7 and was teamed up with the rest of Team 7 a year later. In canon Kakashi age of when he graduated and became chunin is really confusing so I'm basing this on my own headcanons.

Ships may be added later.

Anyways, thanks for clicking on this and I hope you enjoy!

Kakashi woke up gasping for breath as tears flowed from his wide eyes. He looked around in a panic, his throat starting to hurt as ugly, body shaking sobs come out of his mouth. Kakashi hugged himself in a pathetic attempt to stop himself from shaking.

His chest started to hurt from how hard he was crying and the fact that little moments of the nightmare replayed in his mind. He could still remember a dead Rin and his hand straight through her chest (the feeling of her dying heart pulse in his hand. Once, twice…then nothing), the feeling of total hopelessness and unbearable sadness as the Fourth (Minato-sensei) was declared dead, and the soul crushing guilt he felt towards a half dead Obito smiling up at him before his face twisted into a bitter, angry face of a man he couldn't recognize. He remembered his genin team and how he had failed them, failed them just like every other team he had ever had.

No...Kakashi...Kakashi has never lead a genin team before; he didn't even want to be a Jonin instructor!

He didn't know these kids, but he couldn't ignore the warm and protective feeling when the image of those same three kids, young and happy (before he messed it all up, like everything else he had touched. He just keeps messing things up), smiled up at him (well the Uchiha boy's smile was small but noticeable and he just somehow knew that he could count that as a win).

"Kakashi-Sensei!"

It felt like hours before Kakashi's body stopped shaking, his sobs having turned into hiccups. His arms fell to his sides, having finally let go of himself, as he noticed the rays of sunlight that streamed from his window. Kakashi was pretty sure it had still been dark when he had woken up.

Kakashi crawled out of bed and got himself dressed even if his eyes stung and his head hurt from the lack of sleep. With a quick tug at his hitai-ate to make sure it was on right, he walked out his front door, locked it, and made his way towards Team Minato's unofficial training grounds.

The rules were something that Kakashi followed religiously (even if he didn't believe in all of them). It was something that separated him from his peers and something he tried to use to prove himself to the village that still couldn't differentiate him from a shadow he just couldn't get rid of. So Kakashi found it weird that he couldn't help but take his time getting to the training grounds.

He didn't mind as much as he would have yesterday, even though he had an instinctual feeling that he was already an hour late to meeting with the team.

"Obito probably beat me there," Kakashi said to himself, as he strolled through the already busy Konoha market. Children who were too young to start school yet were running around their mother's legs, who were too busy trying to convince the vender to lower down their prices.

Kakashi wanted to stay longer, curious to see how far he could push this before Minato started to think he was dead, but the villagers started to notice him, with his silver hair and the headband that branded him as one of the leaf's shinobi; the son of the disgraced white fang.

All around him there were angry eyes glaring at him with bitter words that stung deep. The easy and almost lazy mood he was feeling dispersed and was replaced with the cold numbing feeling he trained so hard to have.

He easily maneuvered himself around the busy crowd and only started to quicken his speed when he was finally out of the market place. It only took him a couple of minutes to get to the training ground where he saw a worried looking Minato-sensei and Rin trying to calm down a fuming Uchiha.

"Who does that bastard think he is—"

"Morning," Kakashi said, nonchalantly. He felt his body move on its own as he shifted his weight to one knee, felt his shoulders slouch, and raised a hand in greeting. "Sorry I'm late."

Minato-sensei smiled kindly at him, obvious relief on his face. "It's fine Kaka—"

"What!" Obito screeched in anger, turning around to look at his sensei. "No, it's not! He's always preaching about being on time and about following the rules and then he doesn't even follow them! It's totally not okay sensei!"

The sounds of Minato-sensei trying to calm the Uchiha boy started to fade out, until all Kakashi could hear was an uncomfortable ringing, but that was the least of Kakashi's worries. It felt like Kakashi was seeing double; one second Minato was standing in front of him patiently letting Obito voice out his frustrations and then the next he was in the Hokage's robes, bloody and his usual bight blue eyes, dead and dull. Obito changed from a thirteen-year-old to an older looking man with a heavily scared face and a look of pure hatred aimed right at Kakashi. His body started to shake again, and he couldn't breathe.

He couldn't breathe.

He didn't hear his name being called but he felt someone grab his face and forced him to look away from Obito and Minato. It took him a while to register who it was but when he did he was met with a worried looking Rin. Her mouth kept moving but nothing seemed to come out. There was a positive chance that she had been saying his name but Kakashi was too focused on the fact that his arm was in her chest.

Oh god, oh god, oh god. He promised! He promised he would protect her. Oh god, oh god, Rin…Rin he's so sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Sorrysorrysorrysorrysorry—

Kakashi hadn't realized that he was saying that out loud until a harsh slap caused his head to snap to the side. He clung to the stinging pain and how his cheek pulsed. It helped him remember that he was awake, and what he thought he saw was all just a dream (right?).

"Kakashi," He heard Minato-sensei say (Rin mustn't have had the courage to have done it herself). Kakashi slowly turned his head to meet Minato's eyes. The young sensei had moved from his original spot to where he was now kneeling in front of his youngest student. Minato lightly squeezed Kakashi's shoulder, something he always did whenever he was worried about him. Behind Minato, Kakashi could see his teammates watching the two of them with their own looks of concern. "Kakashi, are you alright? What's wrong?"

Kakashi stayed quiet as he let his eyes scan his team, the three people he begrudgingly let himself care about (of course he would never say that to their faces), who looked like they were full of worry but, most importantly, looked very much alive.

"I'm fine," He finally said. His voice sounding soft and vulnerable, much to Kakashi's dismay. "I just…I didn't get enough sleep last night. Nightmares."

"Well that explains why you look like the walking dead," Obito said, as tactful as ever.

"Thanks," Kakashi deadpanned.

Rin stepped closer to Kakashi and Minato-sensei after she had lightly slapped Obito's arm. "Kakshi-kun maybe you should head home—"

"No," Kakashi quickly cut in, sounding panicked. He tried to play it off, hoping that the others hadn't noticed, but by the worried furrow Minato's eyebrows did, Kakashi knew that they had. He rolled his shoulders and tried to save the tiny bit of dignity he had left. "I'm fine, there's no reason to send me home."

"You were just having a panic attack," Obito reminded him slowly, giving him look that perfectly showed how unbelievably stupid he thought Kakashi was.

"Obito's right—" Minato held up his hand stopping the irritated words he had anticipated from Kakashi. "You're in no shape to train with the rest of the team. Besides, this will be a perfect chance for Rin to practice her tiajutsu with Obito. You can stay and observe and give Rin some pointers along with me."

Minato didn't ask why Kakashi didn't want to go home but was still giving him an excuse to stick around. Kakashi snuffed out that warmth that started to grow in his chest. That warm feeling, he only ever remembered having back when he was younger (when his dad was alive).

"Okay."

Minato smiled. "Alright, you can go and watch from under that tree over there. I'll join you when I'm done giving them the rules for their spar.

Kakashi nodded before he slipped away from Minato's hold and went to sit under the tree. The second his butt touched the ground he felt the fatigue and the Lack-of-Sleep induced headache come back with a new vigor. Kakashi groaned and closed his eyes, the brightness of the day suddenly being too much for him to handle. In the background he could hear Minato setting the limits to the spar and giving Rin a couple of last encouragements. It mixed well with the soft rustle of the leaves as a lazy breeze started to settle in Konoha. It was peaceful.

When Minato turned around to check on his youngest student he was surprised to see Kakashi, with his head leaned back against the tree, fast asleep. The blonde smiled fondly at sleeping boy before he turned back to moderate the spar between his other two cute students.

"Don't be afraid Rin! Trust yourself!"

Kakashi was coming in and out of consciousness as he heard three weirdly familiar voices he's never heard before, speak over him.

"He's asleep," He heard one of the voices say, it sounded bored and like the speaker was trying, really, hard not to show any emotion. He heard an unhappy hmph come from the left of him, followed by a girl saying, "Of course he is."

"Hehe…let's try to see what's under the mask, dattebayo" The third voice sounded like what you expected the sun to sound like if it had a voice; loud, bright, and obnoxious. "You know, since we didn't get to see it last time we tried."

"Obito don't!" He heard as he quickly grabbed his assailant's wrist, stopping the hand that had only been a couple of inches away from his mask. A panicked squeak came out from Obito's mouth

Wait, Kakashi thought. Obito? Kakashi finally opened his eyes to see the guilty looking black eyes of his team mate, instead of the bright blue eyes he had expected. He doesn't know why he felt disappointed.

"What are you doing?" Kakashi glared up at his male teammate, but, unlike the other times this has happened, his tone held no venom.

"Nothing! You just uh…had a fly on your face," Obito said, his cheeks red. He tried not to meet the younger boy's eyes. "So, I was just trying to shoo it away."

Mmhmm, sure, Kakashi thought to himself. He didn't believe the idiot for a second, and he was sure that Obito knew that, but he let go of the Uchiha's wrist. He didn't feel like arguing with him today.

"How are you feeling Kakashi?" Minato-sensei stood behind Rin, that fond smile on his face he always seemed to have whenever he was around his students.

"I feel alright," Kakashi said, rolling his head to get the kink in his neck.

"Are you sure?" Rin asked, her tone soft and careful as if anything she said could set him off. He didn't like it. Kakashi turned to give the brown haired kinochi a glare, not understanding why she was talking to him like that.

"Yes. I'm sure, why—" That's when he remembered. He remembered the nightmares, how his teammates shifted right in front of him, and how he had broken down in front of them. They had seen him cry and lose control of his emotions. Kakashi had done the very thing that he had been reprimanding Obito for, for years now.

"Yes, I'm fine," Kakashi said, less harshly this time. "…Thank you."

The other three didn't seem to believe him as they looked him over, as if expecting him to lose his mind again. They clear had a million questions running through their heads. They wanted to ask him why he had cried and apologized to Rin about some horrible thing he had done to her, even if the girl couldn't remember what exactly it was, but they didn't and Kakashi had never felt so grateful towards them.

"You're welcome, Kakashi-kun. I'm glad." Rin said. A weird sense of nostalgia (he ignored the soul crushing guilt that came along with it) coursed through Kakashi's body when a small smile tugged at Rin's lips.

"Well you three should be heading home," Minato said after the interaction between Kakashi and Rin was over.

With a happy cheer Obito turned on his heel and started to run back to the village, yelling a goodbye over his shoulder and something about his grandmother making his favorite tonight. Rin followed, saying a quiet farewell to the remaining members of her team, blushing a little when she looked at the silver haired boy. Kakashi watched them leave, a sense of fear went through his body. He didn't know why but he was afraid that if he looked away, they would disappear, as if they had just been a figment of his imagination this whole time.

He was brought out of his thoughts when he felt the steady warmth of Minato-sensei's hand land on his shoulder. Kakashi tore his eyes away from his teammates to look up to meet a pair of bright blue ones.

Naruto.

"Come on, I'll walk you home Kakashi."

His mother had been a civilian. She had been a calm but confident woman who had been rescued from a destroyed village and brought to one of Konoha's orphanages. His father had met her when she had been working in some grocery store. They had dated for a year or two before they got married but had difficulty getting pregnant. They both had been so happy when they found out about Kakashi. She died during childbirth.

Kakashi never met his mother. All he knew about her was what he had heard in the stories Jiraiya and his father had told him.

His father had obviously missed her but Kakashi never knew how to feel about her. She was only a stranger to him, a stranger he only heard about in fairytales.

It was a completely different story with his father. Sakumo had meant the world to Kakashi. He had been everything Kakashi had wanted to be once. If he thought hard enough (and he never did because he was trying so hard to pretend like he never existed) Kakashi could probably still hear the low rumble of his voice whenever he said his name, or how a comfortable and safe feeling came over him, the same feeling one gets when they believe their blanket is going to protect them from whatever is under the bed, whenever his dad would come and pick him up from the park.

He always tried not to think about his father very often, because it reminded him of how alone he was now.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Minato asked. The two of them were walking the path Kakashi usually used to get home. It was taking a bit longer than usual since Kakashi wasn't roof-hopping this time around.

The sun was position in the middle of the sky, a telling that it was around lunch time, and it really looked like it. The streets were equally as busy as they had been this morning, maybe even more so, as shinobi and civilian alike rushed to their favorite restaurants. The only difference there was, compared to this morning was that none of the villagers gave him the evil eye (of course none of them bothered to look at him either, but still) and Kakashi was pretty sure it had something to do with the fact that he had Minato-sensei next to him this time.

"Not really," Kakashi said.

"Are you sure?" Minato asked. Usually when Kakashi told him that he was fine, Minato would drop it knowing that the boy didn't really appreciate it when others pried; of course, Kakashi had never broken down in front of him like that before either. "You know you can talk to me about anything, Kakashi."

"I'm sure and yes, I know."

They had reached Kakashi's apartment complex, it was one of the nicer ones that mostly housed leaf shinobi. Kakashi had been saving and managing his money since his first D-rank and had been able to get his own apartment and move out of the ones the leaf village had put away for the orphans. (He would have rather chewed off his own fingers before he touched any of the money his father left him.)

"Alright," Minato trailed off as he found Kakashi up the flight of stairs to the correct floor. Kakashi had was feeling around his pouch, looking for the keys to his apartment, when Minato spoke up again. "I'm meeting with Kushina at Ichiraku's for lunch today."

"That's nice."

"You can join us," Minato said. Kakashi didn't have to turn around to know that he was smiling. "I know Kushina would be happy to see you."

"Thank you but I already have something defrosting," He said, looking over his shoulder. He pushed the door open and let himself in the second he had managed to unlock it, and with a quick "see you next week", he shut it closed.

Kakashi only took a couple of steps away from the door when it happened again.

Everything in front of him changed with a loud crack, as if someone had set of a firework, and suddenly he was in a demolished forest looking down at a dead Minato-sensei and Kushina and the were covered in blood.

There was so much blood.

He was covered in it.

He...he can't get it off!

T he more he wipes at it the more he seems to be covered in it!

He can't get it off!

He can't get it off!

HE. CAN'T. GET. IT. OFF.

And then, just like that, it was over, he was back in his apartment. Kakashi's heart was thumping loudly against his chest, his head felt light headed, and Kakashi was sure he was minutes from passing out; but as if his body had decided on its own he found himself rushing back towards his door and frantically looking for his teacher. He had only taken a couple of steps away from Kakashi's door.

"Minato-sensei!" Kakashi yelled, trying and successfully getting the jonin's attention. Kakashi tried to rein in his panic and the tears that were threatening to pour out because Minato-sensei was okay. He's right here. "Can I…is the invitation still valid?"

The shock on the blonde's face turned into a warm, happy smile and Kakashi just couldn't ignore the feeling of a blanket being draped over his shoulders.

"Of course, Kakashi."

So, I feel like I should explain Kakashi's mood swings towards his dad. I just kinda imagined him obviously still loving and missing his dad (based on the fact that he had carried his tanto around with him for so long) but I also imagined him still being angry towards him about just quieting and leaving him alone with a pretty judgmental village. So I just feel like if I was in Kakashi's place I just wouldn't exactly KNOW what to feel towards Sakumo.

Well anyways, I hope you enjoyed this!