I do not own Naruto or the characters.

The gates to the Uchiha compound towered above a forlorn Kakashi, as he merely stood there, pondering, or was it more like brooding? The guard didn't know which. Either way the brat needed to scram.

Indeed, the Konoha police force member recognized the dejected jonin. He was quite the shinobi and talked about in expert circles, son of the disgraced White Fang, the prodigy with the mask, skilled in every respect, the poster child of the ninja world. With no attachments, rare displays of emotion, and an obsession with duty, the kid was a shining textbook example of what every shinobi should strive to be. Yet for some reason, judging by the tragic look in Kakashi's eye, the guard did not want to be in his shoes.

"Hey! You need something? If not, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

Kakashi looked up at the Uchiha sitting within the station, studied him for a few moments, and finally nodded to the guard's great relief. For a second there, he thought the boy was going to attack.

But Kakashi turned to go, further reflecting on the cruel twist of fate which sent him back here to this day. What was the purpose? Was it punishment? Or had he just lost his mind, and it was nothing but an illusion, as he bled to death back on the battlefield where he had taken Obito's life.

It was sad really. How the once-cheerful-Uchihan outcast-turned-psychopathic-murderer still thought of Kakashi as his main rival. Kakashi imagined that those early feelings of inferiority never truly went away, and at last in their final confrontation, it was a self-fulfilling prophecy when Obito found himself unable to take down the illustrious Copy-Cat Nin. And like a true servant of Konoha Kakashi dealt the final blow.

Madara could only teach Obito so much, and like Kakashi told Sasuke before, the sharingan is not invincible. But combining it with a mastery of all other shinobi arts, and then! Then you have real power. Power Kakashi never asked for or set out to get.

He remembered that one mission just before he became captain, that his own commander was killed in an ambush where really no one should have gotten out alive. The three of them fought their best, but the other two quickly fell. At that point Kakashi became numb and to some extent relied on his instincts but mostly he concentrated more than the enemy who that day made stupid mistakes which Kakashi took full advantage of.

It wasn't because he was necessarily more talented than the other two Anbu. He'd say he was about even then. But for some reason the enemy made more mistakes around him, and Kakashi exploited it to the fullest. At the end, with Kakashi leaning over, the Commander breathed his last words which have come to resemble a curse rather than a simple observation: "You just won't die will you?"

And he didn't die. Not during the war with Iwa. Not during the Kyuubi attack. Not against Zabuza. Not against Itachi. Not against Hidan. Not against Obito. He outlived everyone and every time it was just stroke of luck which sustained him.

Kakashi raised his hand to his right eye. It still throbbed. Just hours (if this was real and not a dream) his eye had run continuously with blood, staining his cheeks. He thought for sure that by the end of that battle he would be nearly blind, having dished out dozens of kamui's, some simultaneously at different targets, while engaged in taijutsu and weaving signs for ninjutsu. Really, Kakashi didn't want to toot his own horn, but he was pretty good at what he did. At least while he had chakra. If his fight with Obito had gone on for another single second, then he would've lost, succumbing to chakra exhaustion.

He pondered some more, as his feet unconsciously led him to the memorial stone. The habit was too ingrained. Whenever he began to feel like this, the names called out to him, and his conscience drove him there.

However, en route he sensed a disturbance. A feeling you get after years of warfare where you know something isn't right. And then out of the trees dropped a cloaked figure, gunning for Kakashi's neck. But Kakashi anticipated this and stepped to the side at the last second, experiencing a whiff by his ear. Not one to overreact Kakashi intended to just turn around and be at peace, but the sound of the sheathing of metal automatically compelled his hand to go for his own kunai. Without looking he stabbed the assailant through the heart with lightning efficiency.

On alert for other attackers, Kakashi put away the bloody kunai, cursing his instincts. The war had truly been rough on him. When slaying Zetsu clone after Zetsu clone, murdering becomes easier and well-practiced. The dispensable clones too closely resembled a valuable human being.

He inspected the newly dead, noting the Anbu mask and the seal in his hand, which just so happened not to be a sword.

Crap. A dozen or so more Anbu suddenly had him surrounded, and Kakashi could only bow his head, as they cuffed his hands and suppressed his chakra. "This is all a misunderstanding," he said in his future offhand way. He could tell they were perturbed by how lightly he was taking it. His younger self, so confident in his righteousness, would have probably demanded an explanation and refused to go peacefully.

"You're not Kakashi." An alive Minato (Kakashi still hadn't gotten over that yet; it was after the Kyuubi battle) reprimanded him with arms crossed in an underground chamber. Inoichi and Ibiki Morino reclined in the background.

"Is this an interrogation? Because you're going awfully easy on me. Should I be getting mentally prepared?"

Minato frowned, Inoichi rolled his eyes, and Ibiki appeared angry. Kakashi sighed. He just had a way with words. When he was brought in about an hour ago he decided to put off figuring out what exactly had caused these circumstances in the first place. He could get to that later after he got out of this potentially painful predicament.

"I think you are underestimating the seriousness of your situation. We know you're not Kakashi. Your chakra system is too developed. A Hyuuga confirmed this. So why don't you just drop the illusion now, huh?"

Minato, Kakashi thought dryly, the voice of reason. "But I am Kakashi. Can't you tell the chakra's the same? There's just more of it!"

"That is exactly what angle a spy would use to get us to trust him. Where's the real Kakashi? He's not dead, is he? If he is, then so help you—"

"Relax." It was kind of touching how concerned Minato was for his sake. "Kakashi isn't dead." The others looked on expectantly as Kakashi dragged the silence on. "He's me."

Minato visibly deflated. "Well, it looks like you get that chance, Morino." The hokage rubbed his forehead, distressed no doubt over the perceived disappearance of his best student.

"Gladly," Ibiki smirked. "This one needs an attitude replacement in the first place." The top interrogator gathered his tools together from a table on the far side of the room.

Kakashi shrugged. "You're not the first one to have said that," he said with Tsunade in mind. "But might I recommend nothing that leaves any permanent damage. After all, you don't know for sure that I'm not Kakashi. What would he—I mean—I say, if my fellow comrades, much more my team instructor, permanently handicapped me? Can you imagine the betrayal I'm experiencing right now?"

Minato couldn't believe what an act this guy was putting on. Clearly fake, yet sincere enough to be believable. Teenage kunoichi exhibited less drama than this man. "You forget the fact that you killed one of our soldiers. You are automatically standing trial and most likely execution for that act alone."

"He snuck up on me! What was I supposed to do?" Kakashi entreated the hokage. "I can't help it I got awesome reflexes."

"Enough of this!" Ibiki shouted. "By the time I get through with you, the only sounds coming out of your mouth will be begs for mercy.

Kakashi realized he might have put on the young-Obito act a little too thick, as he eyed the knife making its way towards his cheek.

"Wait," Minato said. "Take off his mask first. If it's not Kakashi, you will be able to remove it. Because it's a fact of nature that the real Kakashi would never be caught without his mask."

Frowning, Ibiki did as he was told. He peeled down the left side, simultaneously lifting the Konoha headband above the sharingan.

Minato stepped closer, curious about why he kept the eye closed. The only logical reason supported his theory that this wasn't Kakashi. There probably wasn't a sharingan. "Open it."

"No."

"Open your eye before we cut it out," Ibiki threatened.

Kakashi let out a loud breath of air. "Okay. You asked for it." He opened his eye to reveal a red three pointed shuriken with a black background. Everyone in the room stared before the genjutsu took place and they all slumped to the ground. Utilizing kamui to eradicate the bindings which held him to the chair Kakashi stood up and stretched. "Where to now?"

He decided to take it step by step. First he would leave the room but not before leaving a note.

Next time do not take the chakra suppressors off. Ta-ta.

Kakashi, situated on a log just outside the border of Konoha, sighed when he felt the presence of a familiar chakra, dead in his time, but very much alive in this twisted reality.

Minato kept his distance, not willing to underestimate this man again. Though he looked like Kakashi, boyish and lean, he carried himself like a veteran: the slumped shoulders and half-lidded eye, all to draw attention away from how every movement was timed and how his muscles tensed at the slightest rustle. And though Kakashi never smiled, the one before him bore a haunted look, which greatly contrasted his earlier carefree manner. "So the metaphorical mask comes off. Am I seeing the real you?"

Kakashi smiled sardonically and rotated one hundred eighty degrees so that his back was towards Minato. He didn't think he could look at his old mentor right now and not break down. "The face you see is indeed the real me, truer than you have ever witnessed before. Yet there is so much more I could tell you. I remember when I was younger, at night I used to consider sharing how I felt with you. About my dad, about being alone, about what it was like to sell your soul to Konoha. But my pride held me back every time. Because then, I would be admitting to having problems just like everyone else...when I had to be the best. If my Dad couldn't cut it, as respected as he was, then what hope was there for me?"

Minato frowned. This was not what he would expect from Kakashi, but what he spoke of, it sounded so much like what the boy would say should he ever open up. "We got back the DNA test. I know it's you Kakashi, or if not, a darker twin we never heard about before."

Kakashi stood up and turned around, his left eye concealed once again by the head band. "It's weird being older than you. I don't like it that much. Back then I always saw you as the invincible guardian whom nothing could faze. You were my goal."

Minato's frown deepened. What did he mean by 'older than you' and 'back then'? "What are you talking about, Kakashi? You're six years younger than I am."

Kakashi shook his head. Then lifting his eye to meet Minato's, he demanded, "Fight me. If you want proof, fight me."

"I'm not going to fight you Kakashi. I realize you're mad about earlier, but everyone is sorry. We had to take precautions." Minato held up a finger. "Now, there will be consequences to killing a fellow ninja, even if it's accidentally. But you'll be clear in six months."

"I said, fight me!" Kakashi barked. All the emotion and drama which had been building up since his arrival teetered under the surface, and he found himself angry, his limbs itching to move, to slash, to maim, and to mutilate. Kakashi didn't know if his subconscious had yet to adapt to the fact the war had ended, and now the urge to kill once again rose to the forefront.

Minato's words died in his throat when he was forced to block a jab and jump back from a sudden earth jutsu which threatened to pull him into the crust. Landing on a branch, he attempted once more to reason, but a spinning back fist from nowhere barely missed his jaw. Minato, back on the ground, searched for Kakashi, wondering how he became so good at concealment, but the prodigy found him first when a fire jutsu shaped like a dragon surged forth from a shadow in the woods. Raising a mud wall, Minato removed several of his go-to knives. He prepared to rush out from behind the dirt barrier but Kakashi had beaten him to it, appearing behind him and sending a variety of punches and kicks. Minato struggled to block each one; Kakashi's taijutsu had improved immeasurably, with very few openings.

Thus Minato retreated. He shunshin'ed into the trees, and began to secretly place the knives at various strategic positions outside the edge of the clearing. He figured a few places from which to sneak Kakashi would be helpful (and he admitted, a few places to retreat to).

To his surprise Kakashi strolled into the clearing nonchalant and with nothing more than a book in his hand. His nose was glued to the page and his other hand stuffed inside his pocket. There's no way he was taking this seriously, Minato thought. But just to be on the safe side, Minato appeared a good twenty meters away. "What are you doing? First you wanted to fight, and now you want to read? What is going on?"

"Hmm. Who said the fight was finished?" Kakashi didn't look up from his book.

Minato heard a crackle from behind him and barely sidestepped a clone formed from what appeared to be lightning. Guessing how dangerous it would be to make contact, the Hokage decided it was time to utilize the seals he arranged earlier.

But to his alarm, he found himself not two inches from Kakashi who smirked and motioned to the stolen knives in his vest. Minato absorbed the blow, and countered with a sweep which actually caught Kakashi off guard, seeing as he still held his book. And was that a promiscuous woman on the front page! Minato's disbelief allowed Kakashi time to recover and tossing the visual novel, he threw a right hook as hard as he could. Minato, taking advantage of his physical superiority, swiped Kakashi's fist to one side. Reaching for Kakashi's hair (he wasn't afraid to play dirty if that's how the boy wanted it), he brought his knee up into Kakashi's abdomen with terrific force.

Under normal circumstances this wouldn't have affected Kakashi, but seeing as how his future body (which truthfully had been built, more so than most ninjas; it was bound to happen when your rival is Gai) had been replaced by this scrawny sixteen year old, it hurt way more than he would have liked. And that brief moment of pain was all it took for Minato to maneuver behind Kakashi, sweep him to the ground and lock his arms around his back. "Are we done yet?"

Kakashi grimaced when Minato put pressure on his shoulder just for emphasis. "Um, yes. But you forgot something."

Minato's eyes grew wide when he heard the hiss of lightning for a second time, but before the clone could strike, one of the Hokage's men dispelled it with a water jutsu.

"Hokage, are you alright," the Anbu inquired. A woman judging from the voice swept the area for more threats. "Shall I get the rope, sir?" she continued, referring to Kakashi's arrested form.

Minato sighed for the thousandth time that day. "No, that won't be necessary. And thanks for the help. I once again underestimated my student."

On that point she stayed silent, not wishing to speak out of line. She saw the boy around the compound sometimes. At first he seemed stuck-up and to a certain extent she guessed he was, but from what she could tell, he just had a lot of confidence in his abilities. And judging from what she just witnessed, he had a right to be. Not many could give the fourth Hokage a run for his money, even in a friendly spar.

Minato let Kakashi up and dusted himself off. "Kakashi you'll go with Raccoon here back to your apartment. You're under house arrest. We'll discuss what happened today later."

Kakashi merely nodded and started shuffling back toward the village. Minato turned to Raccoon. "Establish a perimeter around his place. Don't let him out of your sight." He stepped closer and whispered so that Kakashi couldn't hear. "He's to be treated as an unknown and highly dangerous. Don't let your guard down."

Okay, so I'm a big fan of Kakashi. Personally I think he has the most skill in the ninja world. it's just because he doesn't possess heavy hitter techniques that he isn't the best. Besides Madara of course. Cause he's invincible.

Summary part two: But the road to villainy is paved with good intentions. Not even Kakashi is immune to the Uchiha curse.