Hi guys, I will have the main notes and explanation at the end of the chapter, but I just wanted to apologise for the really long wait. Here is a summary for the story so far for those who have been waiting for an update but due to my incompetence have likely forgotten parts of what's happened.

Kakashi is back in the past after dying at Obito's hand. Struggling with keeping up the act of a twelve year old, and under the watchful eye of Minato, Kakashi is unsure how to deal with the issue of Obito's later betrayal. He does, however, have someone who knows the truth: Pakkun. So far Kakashi has:
- Sparred with Gai (finding short limbs a difficulty)
- Visited his father's grave
- Concerned everyone around him
- Told Pakkun the truth
- Been given a mission to be undertaken in the next few days.

Hope you all enjoy the new chapter.

Kakashi, leaning further into a defensive pose, eyed the twinkle in Minato's eyes with mild regret. He had come to realise later in life that his sensei, the sentimental fool, had viewed their sparring sessions as a form of 'bonding'. Just seeing how happy the blond was now to spend time with him caused a twinge of sadness to curl in his gut. He didn't have long to dwell on this feeling though as Minato sprung forward.

With barely enough time to curse his short arms, Kakashi quickly brought a kunai up to his chest to block the attack, automatically swinging a kick at Minato's knees before flipping over him.

Probably best to stick with taijutsu with this one, Kakashi thought grimly as he evaded numerous attacks, No idea what techniques I'm supposed to have right now and sensei isn't giving me any time to plan ahead.

Minato was fast. Which he already knew of course, but it was easy to forget just how fast he really was (even though Kakashi knew he still wasn't going all out). But while Minato thought he knew his student's fighting style and weaknesses, Kakashi actually knew his sensei's.

Now. Kakashi moved from his defensive blocking into a quick counter-attack, using his kunai to keep Minato's hands occupied as he delivered a swift chakra fuelled kick to his stomach. Minato let out light 'oof' sound, both from surprise and the impact, as he was forced back a couple of meters. Sensing an opportunity to gain the upper hand, Kakashi charged forwards and tried a string of swipes and kicks which Minato blocked with what appeared to be relative ease.

Kakashi was beginning to get frustrated. He should be better than this. He had been worried before that Minato would notice a change in fighting style, but that concern was so far from his mind as his entire focus had moved to proving (mostly to himself) that he was better than before. The logical part of his mind was telling him that of course he was not as strong right now as his adult self; he did not have the muscle tone, stamina, or the cohesion between body and mind. Or the sharingan. But panic was taking over as how was he going to be able to save Minato and Rin and everyone if he was a useless child?

His attacks were becoming more and more erratic, the fluidity of his movement and fighting form was beginning to fade. And, to no one's surprise, this was not improving his efforts against Minato. The lack of concentration had also meant that a few of his attacks had come up short, and Kakashi tried to ignore the mild bewilderment that was growing on his sensei's face.

The spar went on for a few more minutes, Out of pity, Kakashi thought bitterly, before Minato finally utilised the upper hand he had gained and grabbed Kakashi's wrist as he came up short in another strike. Minato twisted his wrist and dumped him into the ground in one swift motion, leaving Kakashi with little opportunity to do anything but nod his head in defeat. How embarrassing.

"You've really improved, Kakashi," Minato said cheerfully, helping him to his feet. "I'm impressed."

Kakashi just stared at him moodily, "You don't have to be nice. I was terrible."

"What?" the blond let out a short laugh. "There's a massive improvement in speed and agility. Yes, you lost it a little towards the end there, but I bet that was more mental than physical." Minato laid an uncertain hand on his shoulder, "You should be proud of yourself Kakashi, all of your hard work is paying off. I can see you making jōnin soon."

His instincts were telling him to shrug off the hand, but he just couldn't bring himself to. It clearly meant a lot to Minato. It means a lot to you too, a voice in his head whispered.

"Okay," he said quietly. When Minato didn't move his hand after a few long seconds, Kakashi looked up at him.

Minato was frowning, "Where has all your confidence gone, Kakashi?"

"…My confidence?" Kakashi repeated, confused.

"Yes. Your confidence," Minato replied, grudgingly pulling his hand back from his student's shoulder. "It's one thing to be hard on yourself, but it's another to not even recognise your own improvement. This is so unlike you."

A beat of silence passed and Kakashi was grateful that Rin and Obito had not stayed to watch the spar, as he didn't want extra eyes watching him squirm under his sensei's questioning gaze. Minato hadn't even brought up yet the fact that many of his hits hadn't even reached their target, let alone land.

"I was just… expecting to be better." The best lies were based around the truth.

"Well, you are better," Minato smiled, but Kakashi could tell by the way it didn't quite reach his eyes that he was not entirely convinced. Or maybe he was building up to asking him what the hell half of that spar was. "Kakashi…" Minato began again, suddenly exuding awkwardness.

Oh, here we go, Kakashi cringed internally. He had no idea how he was going to reasonably explain why his last few punches were about a foot off. Maybe Obito's demon possession idea?

"…Everyone deals with grief differently," Kakashi felt his mind stutter for a second. Grief? "But the lack of eating and sleeping, and now being unreasonably hard on yourself is not good. I don't want to pry into your personal life, but I am concerned."

Kakashi simply stared at his sensei with wide eyes. What is he… Grief? What am I grieving? Kakashi paused mid-thought, Well… a lot actually.

Appearing to take his shocked silence as a sign that his student was not taking his concern well, Minato quickly backtracked. "Obviously it's only been a few days, I think, but I just didn't want to have to see you get worse or have you think you had to deal with it on your own."

"…Oh," Kakashi responded, still confused. Minato did not add anything further, and Kakashi realised that he was waiting for him to continue talking. For him to say something that would reassure him. "I'm okay, sensei… experiencing loss is a part of being a shinobi."

This did not appear to be the right thing to say. Minato's face dropped and he shook his head slightly, eyes downcast. "That may be so, Kakashi," he said quietly. "But we are still human, we're not just mindless machines."

This was not going how Kakashi had expected, when or how did they even get to this topic? Something told him however that this was not out of the blue; Minato had been thinking about this for a while. Despite this assumption, his sensei's body language practically screamed awkwardness.

"…Of course, sensei," Kakashi replied, trying to stop himself from shuffling his feet awkwardly. "I should probably go get some lunch now… don't want to keep Pakkun waiting too long…" he trailed off, ignoring the fact that Pakkun was likely expecting him to keep him waiting.

Minato sent him a lopsided smile, "Of course, er… tell him I said hello," he finished lamely. Kakashi nodded and shunshined away, shaking his head at his sensei's strange behaviour once he had reached the edge of the village buildings. Minato had always been caring and sensitive towards others, which was one of the reasons he would have made a great long term Hokage, but this time Kakashi was dumbfounded as to what he was talking about. Grief? Perhaps the blond subconsciously knew that he was different, and his mind filled in the blanks and came up with grief. It was not too far off, if Kakashi was being honest with himself.

Making his way aimlessly through the village, Kakashi took more time to take in his surroundings. He had been previously thinking that the attack from Pein had changed things drastically, but he had forgotten that the attack by the kyūbi (and therefore Obito) had levelled parts of the village. There were buildings here and there that had stood the test of both events, but much of the scenery was vastly different. So much shit to come, Kakashi thought, the feeling of dread beginning to curl in his gut. He had a lot of work to do.

"-A couple of years, and I expect him to graduate not long after," Kakashi paused as he caught the edge of a conversation, realising now how close he was to Konoha's Military Police building. "He is exceptionally talented, I believe he has the potential to even surpass Uchiha M-" his eavesdropping was abruptly cut short as possibly the grumpiest face he'd ever seen came into view. "Hatake," Uchiha Fugaku eyed him warily, but not with the disgust and barely concealed rage that he remembered so vividly.

As an overwhelming urge to scratch his left eye came over him, Kakashi remembered that he did not have the sharingan and therefore Uchiha Fugaku did not hate him with every fibre of his being.

"Lord Uchiha," Kakashi bowed slightly, wracking his brain to remember if he had ever spoken to the Uchiha Clan Head before the incident with Obito. He was coming up blank, meaning that Fugaku's new first impression of him was that he was an eavesdropper.

Fugaku maintained his unnerving stare, the frown lines etched into his face deepening as Kakashi held eye contact. To some, it would have seemed like the older Uchiha was unnecessarily attempting to intimidate the chūnin. But Kakashi knew better; Fugaku had almost made a huge mistake and was determining whether Kakashi, albeit with the appearance of a twelve year old, had noticed.

And he had noticed. Fugaku was clearly talking about his prodigious son and had almost, in public, compared him to Uchiha Madara. It was honestly a fair comparison, but an Uchiha saying Madara's name (or almost saying it, in this case) in public was still, even at this point in time, seen as a sign of rebellion. Even if it was just the Clan Head bragging about how powerful his kid was.

Making his appearance and posture as disarming as possible, Kakashi bowed deeper this time, "My deepest apologies for interrupting your conversation, Lord Uchiha. I was distracted and you caught me off guard."

Fugaku let his silence linger for a second more before responding, "Perhaps you should be training harder so you will not be distracted by listening to private conversations, or simply just be better at it."

That was fair. By his marginally more relaxed face, Kakashi deducted that the older Uchiha had dismissed the thought that he was gathering intelligence, or even knew what name he was going to say.

Kakashi nodded politely before continuing on his way, trying to ignore the feeling of a dark pair of eyes piercing into the back of his head. Maybe Fugaku was not completely convinced of his feigned innocence.

He spotted a barbeque stand and his thoughts quickly returned back to Pakkun; the pug had likely told his other ninken what Kakashi had told him, although with significantly more monotone. The thought of again being able to be completely honest about his situation to someone gave him a spark of energy, and he ordered as quickly as he could and shunshined back to his apartment. He paused for a second and debated whether to summon the entire pack, but the aroma coming from the multiple bags in his arms was causing his stomach to concave, and he knew with the whole pack here he would not get enough food to satisfy his hunger. Another time.

Once again using the middle of his bedroom to summon his ninken (his younger self would be horrified), Kakashi triumphantly held up a steaming box of barbeque as Pakkun appeared in a cloud of smoke.

"…Well I can't say I wasn't expecting you to be back to your normal self the next time I saw you, Boss," the pug said, tilting his head lazily. Kakashi deflated a little bit at that, opening the box containing chicken and reaching for the chopsticks inside. "Where are the vegetables? Are you not a huge health freak in the future?"

Kakashi sent a glare towards Pakkun and pulled his mask down, "If you're going to be mean, you will get no barbeque," he said and paused mid-bite. "And I do eat vegetables, this was for your benefit."

"Sure…" Pakkun muttered, but made his way over to the silver haired shinobi all the same.

The two ate in comfortable silence, and Kakashi could feel his stomach thanking him for finally giving it something to eat, although barbeque may not have been the best option for the first meal in a couple of days.

"So," he started, swallowing the piece of beef he had been chewing. "I've been thinking. I need to make a few changes."

Pakkun looked up at him in mild interest, "To what, the future?"

"That makes it sound a bit dramatic, but yes. First of all, I need to go and find Tenzō. I've got no idea where to start, but I need to find him before he gets recruited by ROOT."

"Okay…" Pakkun said slowly, "Who's Tenzō?"

"A friend."

"You have friends?"

Kakashi rolled his eyes, How predictable. "Very funny. Tenzō is currently or already has been experimented on by Orochimaru; remember him, the snake guy? I don't want him then to be recruited by Danzō, the bad guy with the eye patch on the Council."

Pakkun maintained his half-lidded stare, "…I don't think I know Danzō."

"That's probably for the best, he's had a hand in a lot of the bad shit that happened in Konoha," Kakashi said, taking another bite of the beef. To be fair to Danzō, he thought he was doing what was best for Konoha (most of the time), he was just a little too power hungry to make the right decision. "ROOT is a particularly degrading program, Tenzō would be much better off not experiencing both that and being tortured by Orochimaru."

"As fun as it is hearing you talk non-stop," Pakkun yawned, "I think you're just trying to avoid one particular topic."

Kakashi simply raised an eyebrow in response.

"Obito." Pakkun finished, and Kakashi closed his eyes and sighed. "What are you going to do about your insane teammate?"

"He's not insane yet, so I can't really do anything about it," Kakashi replied, pinching the bridge of his nose as he felt a headache coming on. "I can't exactly go and kill him when he hasn't done anything wrong, I'd be locked up for good and Minato would never speak to me again."

"…I never said anything about killing him," the pug eyed him warily. "I was thinking maybe stopping whatever thing made him crazy in the first place from happening. What the hell is going on in your brain, Boss?"

Kakashi felt suddenly defensive under his ninken's disapproving stare, "You didn't see what happened to him, he'd totally lost it-"

"So, I don't know, maybe stop him from losing it?"

"It's not that easy," Kakashi hissed, feeling the frustration start to bubble inside. "What if that is Obito, who he is meant to be, and I stop him from being crushed under a boulder only for some other unforeseen event to occur and he turns crazy then. And besides, he's an Uchiha; as you said they basically have a predisposition for insanity."

Pakkun still looked unamused, "Well… they can't all be crazy."

"That is not what you said this morning. They are- well," he paused and tilted his head. "I suppose Itachi never went insane, he just pretended to." And it was a very convincing act, it was only after his death that anyone found out the truth.

"Can you stop just saying names when I have no idea who these people are," Pakkun grumbled, moving back to devouring the meat in front of him.

"Sorry," Kakashi replied, wincing slightly. He kept forgetting that this wasn't the Pakkun he was used to, and this younger version did not share very many experiences with him at all. "Itachi is only four at the moment I think, but he's already very intelligent and talented. In my future he is ordered to kill the entire Uchiha clan by the Council lead by Danzō, the bad guy with the eye patch, but under the expectation that he will become a missing nin."

Pakkun listened intently to the explanation, his mouth frozen mid-chew. "Huh. That's pretty heavy… so everyone thought he had just suddenly snapped or something? I can't imagine a four year old killing an entire clan."

"What? Oh, no it was much later, he was twelve or thirteen I think," following Pakkun's example, he started again on the beef he was eating before. Anything Obito related made him lose his appetite. "But yeah, we all thought he was some evil kid, he was on my ANBU squad too so I always felt like I should have noticed something was off."

"You think you'll try and stop all that from happening?" Pakkun asked, and Kakashi could sense the sympathy coming from his ninken. Pakkun was beginning to understand now just how much he was up against.

"I'll try," he sighed, absently twirling the chopsticks between his fingers. "The massacre is extremely complicated though, its decades of build-up leading to that night. I'm not sure there is too much I can do about it. The only thing on my side is I've got plenty of time to think about it before it happens."

Pakkun mumbled a 'poor kid' before stretching his legs and resting his face on his paws.

The pair sat in silence once more, and it was only then that Kakashi felt a sudden overwhelming urge to do something. To change something. All this talk of the unfairness of Itachi's life was providing him with one of the most powerful sources of energy: purpose.

Kakashi rose up from the floor so suddenly that Pakkun jumped a little in surprise and proceeded to glare up at the shinobi.

"What are you doing?" the ninken asked, eyeing Kakashi with cautious interest.

"I'm going to go see Itachi," Kakashi responded determinedly, and then gestured to the half-eaten beef. "You can finish that if you want."

"Er... didn't you say he was two years old or something?"

"No, he's four," Kakashi corrected and Pakkun gave him a flat look.

"My mistake," Pakkun replied, rolling his eyes. Kakashi knew what his ninken was getting at, but chose to ignore him anyway. He never knew Itachi when he was this young, although he knew of him, but Kakashi guessed the kid probably already acted like a thirty year old. "And what do you plan to achieve by seeing him anyway?"

That, Kakashi couldn't answer. He just felt like it was important to see the young Uchiha heir, and a Pakkun who hadn't seen what he'd experienced in the future wouldn't truly understand why he needed to do this. Kakashi didn't really understand either, and if he were being honest with himself, a small part of his sudden urge to see Itachi was just pure fascination and curiosity.

"So," Kakashi said, ignoring Pakkun's previous question. "I'm going to go to the Uchiha Compound, don't destroy this place while I'm gone."

Pakkun squinted up at him, "You're just going to stroll into the Uchiha Compound? And demand to talk to a baby? I don't think they'd let you do that."

"Quit doing that, he's four. And I'm sure I can just ask-" Kakashi paused, remembering the way Fugaku looked at him earlier. It would look slightly dodgy to anyone considering what he had overheard, but to the Uchiha clan head, it would look like a downright conspiracy. "…Well, I'll figure out a way."

Simply raising a heavy eyebrow, Pakkun turned to the food Kakashi left him and let his silence speak as to how little faith he had in this idea.

Kakashi sighed. Sparing one last look at his ninken, he swept out of the bedroom window and landed silently on the overgrown grass outside. He had no actual plan, but he had confidence that something would come to him when he needed it.

The village was bustling with energy as the silver-haired shinobi wandered somewhat aimlessly through the main street, academy and non-shinobi school hours must have finished as there was a significant increase in children compared to the past few days. Kakashi found that he didn't dislike the increase in noise and activity, finding it almost peaceful and relaxing somehow.

"Oi, Kakashi!" an uncomfortably familiar voice called out, and Kakashi felt his good mood slowly leaving him. "Thought you were having lunch or something? I hope Minato-sensei kicked your ass."

Kakashi levelled a bored stare at Obito, debating whether to just shunshin away from irritating chūnin. Did he have no concept of time? It had been at least a couple of hours since training ended. Instead of making a grand escape, Kakashi just kept walking and was completely unsurprised when Obito decided to follow.

Realising that Kakashi wasn't going to respond, the Uchiha kept talking, "Me and Rin got some sushi, it was great. Asuma was there," Obito didn't even try to hide his annoyance that this, "with some guy I don't know, I think it starts with an 'R' or something, I can't remember."

Kakashi had a feeling that might have been Raidō, who he was sure Obito must have spoken to before as they were in the same academy year.

Tuning out the Obito babble, Kakashi felt an idea forming. Obito, who occasionally complained about how Itachi was just breezing through everything he had struggled with, would likely know how to find Itachi without having to first go through Fugaku. He could feel his blood beginning to boil at the thought of spending more time than necessary in Obito's company, but this time it just couldn't be helped.

Kakashi stopped and turned towards his older teammate, who he realised had actually stopped talking and was staring ahead moodily.

"Obito," he said, capturing the Uchiha's attention. "I need your help with something," he added a twang of frustration to his voice in the hope that it not only piqued Obito's interest, but made it sound like he was slightly desperate.

"Oh, er, with what?" Obito stared at him in surprise, sounding shocked but immediately attempting to hide it behind a poor act of indifference. "I doubt if I can though, I'm pretty busy."

Kakashi resisted the strong urge to roll his eyes, "Right. Well, it's about Uchiha Itachi-" he paused as Obito's expression of barely concealed interest dropped from his face and was replaced with one of disappointment.

"Oh, well then you should speak to Shisui then…" Obito trailed off, staring resolutely at the ground and kicking at a few stones.

Kakashi blinked a few times; he had not expected this reaction.

"No… um, I just need to know when Itachi trains at the Uchiha Compound," Make it sound cooler, "But I don't want Fugaku to know about it."

Obito looked up, confused. "Why don't you want him knowing? What's going on?"

"He doesn't like me much at the moment," Kakashi said. It was sort of true; Fugaku didn't like him, but he probably didn't dislike him either. But it didn't really matter, because Obito was interested again.

Seemingly sold on the idea of a small defiance against the clan head, Obito's spirits visibly lifted. "Cool. Itachi trains with Lord Fugaku sometimes, but I'm pretty sure that he trains by himself in the afternoon. That's what everybody raves about anyways."

Kakashi nodded, understanding why there was a bit of resentment towards the topic of his younger fellow clansman. Obito had hated being shown up by Kakashi, but he imagined it must have been worse with a point of comparison being a four year old prodigy.

"Do you know where he trains?" Kakashi asked, and the added, "I just want to see what everyone is talking about."

"Oh yeah, it's always the same place," Obito replied. "I can take you there."

Wait, no. That wasn't part of the plan.

"No that's fine, you can just tell me. I can find it myself," Kakashi pleaded internally that Obito would just tell him and leave, but he knew it wouldn't happen. Kakashi was grateful that their conversation in the middle of the main street was largely being ignored by passers-by, as he suspected it would be a strange conversation to overhear.

"How would you find it if I told you anyway? You haven't been to the Uchiha training grounds before," Obito replied cheerfully, seemingly unaware that Kakashi was grinding his teeth in frustration.

"…Fine," he bit out. Why was Obito being so difficult? Did this have something to do with the 'grief' Minato suggested he was suffering from? Or was he just determined to piss off Fugaku.

Adjusting his goggles, Obito looked away in thought. "Actually, I don't think Itachi would be training today. I heard yesterday that there was some meeting or something going on today, Itachi will probably have to go. Poor bugger, those meeting are boring as hell," Obito said, not sounding very sorry at all. "We'd have to go find him tomorrow."

Kakashi suppressed a groan, this was all very much not what he had in mind.

Thank you to everyone who continues to leave comments and kudos, you are all so kind. If I'm being honest, I've actually had most of this chapter written for months now, I was just struggling to find the motivation to finish it after I was unable to upload it before I travelled overseas. I am so sorry for the long wait, I will definitely be uploading chapters much quicker now that my life is a little more in order.