Gonna be honest here. Kinda thought this would fade into obscurity. It would appear not.
This year kinda kicked my ass but one year later and you beautiful assholes are stil commenting.
So here's to everyone who followed, favorited, AND REVIEWED.
Here's what I got. Lemme know if you're looking for anything in particular bc I don't really have a direction for this.
Unbeta'd as per usual.

Chapter 3

The trip to the estate by rooftop was made in silence, as each member of the party tried to cope with the situation in their own way and analyze the shinobi leading them to their temporary residence. Minato was sure to keep an eye on Kakashi, the younger one his student for any signs of panic or overt distress. So far, besides his unusually pale complexion, there was little to signify he was about to stay in the same home that his father had killed himself in. Which is worse, the bad memories? Or the good?

As they neared their destination and the decrepit gates came into view, Minato caught a small falter in Kakashi's footsteps. He made eye contact with the boy to let him know that he could talk to him anytime. He received a terse nod in reply as the group focused on their destination.

Before them was the Hatake estate. While it had already been sealed after Sakumo's death, seeing it years after the fact, more than anything, convinced him of the reality of their situation. Only the preservation seals Minato himself had put in place in case Kakashi ever wanted to come back kept the place from being condemned.

Minato watched as their host opened the gate, and lead them inside the property. In the front yard of the huge house that once housed the entire Hatake clan were a few abused training dummies and abandoned shuriken. Observing the house itself, Minato hid a wince at the memories that crowded his head as he stared at graffiti that must've been ten years old.

"What the hell happened here?" Obito exclaimed, following after Minato and looking at the abuse the outside of the estate had sustained.

"None of your business, dumbass." The young voice barely hid the telltale tremor.

Minato turned around to look at his student, who still stood at the gate, almost as if incapable of moving.

"Shut up Bakashi!" Obito replied, not completely oblivious to the emotions running high. Minato approved of how he appeared to be trying to keep his teammate focused on him instead of the environment.

Having already crossed the yard, the tense shinobi that was his student, just years from now unsealed and the entrance to the Hatake Estate, entered the abode and left the door open behind him, presumably in invitation.

Jiraiya entered first, followed by Kushina, Rin and Obito. Minato sent a glance to his remaining student are you going to be alright with this? and received an eyeroll in return, before Kakashi stubbornly denied the existence of feelings and walked inside.

As he passed through the threshold, Minato joined the growing semi-circle of his companions as they properly met face to face face to mask? with their one-time assailant for the second time that night.

Before any of them could voice questions to the older version of Kakashi, the teen beat them to the punch in a terse order.

"Everyone stay out of the master bedroom and the study, other than that, sleep where you like."

The ANBU turned abruptly to make his escape before Minato quickly called out, "Kakashi, you can't hide behind that animal mask to avoid us."

The figure paused, tensed as if for battle, and after a moment of stiff silence the older incarnation of his proud student slowly turned to face them, gaze searching.

After a few seconds that seemed to stretch for eternity, he slumped, shoulders lax in exhaustion, back slouched in defeat. He gave a minute nod before reaching up and removing the hood, revealing his trademark white hair, not quite living up to its usual gravity-defying reputation due to both the lack of the Konoha headband and the rust colored substance staining select parts of it.

Kakashi hesitated for another split second as his hand hovered in front of his Hound mask. Minato watched every movement as the boy and he was a boy because despite everything, he was still so young removed the impersonal Hound mask.

He still wore that damned face-mask. That was the first thing Minato registered. The second was the violent scar that stretched down his student's and no matter how old or how many years passed, Kakashi would always be his student closed left eye.

Minato opened his mouth to speak, to comment, to say /anything/ when he was interrupted again.

"We'll talk tomorrow." The sentence was curt and denying the chance for reply, the older Kakashi swept out of the room, headed upstairs to presumably rest.

It was, Minato supposed, for the best.

~~~~~~~~x

Hound Kakashi, he was Kakashi slumped against the wooden door that closed him off from the outside world. He was exhausted, physically and emotionally.

How could he just go on with the fact that the entirety dead family was very much not-dead anymore?

How did the Hokage expect for him to sit down and tell them exactly how he failed each and every one of them?

He had long ago accepted responsibility for his actions, his broken promises.

Taking a deep breath, he focused on avoiding a panic attack. Let's be honest, it's not like you haven't seen their anger, their disappointment before in night terrors, waking dreams and the occasional blood-loss induced hallucination.

It was probably just fair that the real deal not just ghosts conjured by a guilty conscience got the chance to vent their rage. He certainly had no right to deny them the knowledge to save what he couldn't. No right to deny them the identity of their killer, nor of their judgment.

No, it would be best if he followed through for once in his life.

Coming back to himself, Kakashi found himself curled up against the door, as of barring reality from entry. Looking at the random guest room he'd locked himself into, he made his way slowly to the futon still sitting in the center of the room, as if not a day had passed. Making the token effort to remove his stained armor it would be difficult to clean later he settled down for a fitful night.

He dreamed.

~~~~~~~~x

The shinobi was fighting in the dark. Faceless opponents fell and with each one he grew more desperate. He had to get out.

There was someone -who? Who was he supposed to protect-? It was important. So important. He needed to protect her.

He promised he would do this.

If ever the was a god out there he hoped they would listen to his prayers because he was screaming out.

The forest floor wet and each movement he made seemed more and more sluggish.

The blood, oh god the the blood was soaking him to his knees, raining from the sky and his mask was soaked hecouldn'tbreathewhycan'thebreathe.

Choking.

Never good enough.

The rocks were falling.
The boy is beating the ground, knuckles bleeding and it doesn't hurt enough, not nearly enough.
For the first time in a very long time, he cries.

Tails the size of mountains destroyed his home, their home, the only thing he has left of them oh god please let me protect something of them.

A white coat enters the battlefield.

The village might be saved but the rest of his small world has just been crushed.

The enemies are surrounding him, the rain and blood mix and he charges chidori to take out as many as possible.
One chest cavity, two, three.

-
There's rain outside.
Thunder churning the skies and lightning piercing the gloom.
Blood is soaking the floor and suddenly he learns that the darkness was a mercy and kindness.
He hates the illumination for the truth it brings.

His hand burst anew through the sternum, ribs cracking as they give way to the beating muscle underneath and the exit as bone splinters inside the ribcage and his hand, dripping with blood bursts through his victim's back.

His shameful screaming, sobbing -begging: a thousand birds screaming for pain.
He doesn't deserve the sweetness of a life in the dark.
-

Chidori-!

The Fourth Hokage's coat is redredredred and it looks so much like his father's he can't breathe and he /hurts./

No.

"Ka-" Blood spills from her lips, what little breath left in her ruined lungs expelling in a death rattle "kashi."

nonononono.

I'm so sorry.

I killed her.

I'm sorry, I'msorryI'msorryI'msorry.

I promised Obito. I never meant to-

His hand is in her chest and she's dying. Red clings to him racing down his harm and he's- There's no strength left in her knees and the girl's Rin's no not Rin he PROMISED weight is balanced on his arm. Ribs and broken bone sucking at his flesh through the gaping ruin he's wrought on her.
His trembling hand pulls through the fragmented marrow and the gruesome wrenching of the devastating wound he gave her.

She falls.

He is alone.

Kakashi woke an hour before dawn, tangled in sheets and mired in memories; Hound left through the window.

~~~~~~~~x

Minato was attempting to prepare breakfast downstairs, after waking in the Hatake household he'd been forced to deal with the fact that no, last night was not in fact, a particularly vivid dream.

Running another check of chakra signatures on the estate, he knew his students were finally waking up to the smell of food. Kushina and Jiraiya were in the sitting room with the seals laid out before them, attempting to remedy their current situation.

The elder Kakashi hadn't been in the house since before dawn, as much as he wanted to hunt the younger shinobi down for breakfast, he wanted the time this allowed him to both gather his thoughts and talk to his students before confronting the situation at large.

As his chuunin stumbled down the steps, Minato set the table.

"Right on time, call in Kushina and Jiraiya-sensei before you grab a seat."

As they all sat around the kitchen table, Minato could feel the tension in the air as they all avoided pointing out the obvious.

They all, of course, excluding Jiraiya. "Well Minato, this one is certainly new."

Kushina snorted, smothering a snicker at the utter ridiculousness of their situation.

"Yeah! How come Kakashi's STILL an asshole?" Obito exclaimed, gladdened for the lighter atmosphere.

"Well he is ANBU now Obito." Rin pointed out with a shy glance in the white-haired chuunin's direction. As Minato took a closer look he made a mental not to see how well Kakashi had slept last night in his old home, as he could faintly notice dark circles under the boy's eyes.

"So? He totally should've recognised us!" The Uchiha exclaimed.

Kakashi seemed to discreetly fidget a second, "Last night, that shinobi said- he said most of us were dead.

"Hm," Minato took a second to absorb the sobered faces around him, "I think that's something we'll have to ask our host about when he comes back."
"'Comes back?' Where'd he go?" Obito asked.

"It looks like he left early the morning. I'm not sure where he got off to." Minato replied
"Ah, no matter brats! I'm sure our big and scary ANBU can take care of himself!" Jiraiya joked, trying to bring some levity to the room.

"In any case, we need to figure out what to ask him," Minato said "He wasn't very forthcoming at all last night.. I don't know how hard we can push him for answers."
Kushina pursed her lips for a moment, contemplating the sober (more so than even his younger counterpart) young man. "That may be true but there's no escaping the fact that we need answers. What happened to us? Besides, I don't think Kakashi will appreciate us walking on glass around him."

"Oh yeah!" Obito interrupted, "We gotta do something about that! We can't call both of them 'Kakashi', we need a nickname or something for one!" He exclaimed, looking for all the world as if he'd just articulated a grand and vastly more important issue.

Rin nodded in agreement and turned to her white haired teammate, "Ah, Kakashi-kun, did you have in mind any nickname..?" She trailed off with a slight bush at Kakashi's deadpan stare.

"No nicknames. That's ridiculous." Kakashi resolved to be firm about not needing some cutesy thing to be called god forbid Kushina-nee took it as an invite to go back to calling him 'Kashi-kun.' "If you need to call someone another name, call the other one something else, not me!"

"Eh?! But he's ANBU! He could kick my ass!" Obito protested, only to be met with a glare from his teammate that said: I could kick your ass.

"None of this matters till he gets here, chibis!" Kushina decided, before digging into her breakfast with vigor.
Taking that as their cue, the rest of the band joined her.

~~~~~~~~x

It was after they had cleaned up and the sun was hovering around midmorning when Jiraiya perked up from his seat on the floor hunched over a copy of the hiraishin seal.

"Minato! Your oldest brat's finally here!" He called into the next room where Team Minato and Kushina were gathered.
As a unit, the occupants of the room turned to the door, only to be thrown for a loop when a slightly suspicious ANBU crawled in through the kitchen window. The younger members of Team Minato stared in incredulity as Kushina and Minato shared a look, communicating the need to keep an eye of the stability of the near-stranger.
"EH? Where the hell were you all morning Bakashi?!"
"Mah, sorry I'm late everyone, I saw a black cat on my window sill last night and had to spend the morning helping old ladies with their groceries to counter all the bad luck."