Grass

The sudden explosion is startling for all of them, even from across the little makeshift town they're being hosted in. Kakashi immediately connects this to his student, and is off in an instant. He doesn't spare even a first thought to maintain the illusion that he is a 'guard' for Tsunade. She'll understand. Shikako…

He makes it the source of the smoke in only a few heartbeats – though even that's a heartbeat or two more than it might have been had the alley and surrounding streets been less chaotic. It's easy enough to see why. Kurenai and a Grass official are in standoff one wrong twitch away from full battle. Some of the Leaf genin and the puppet boy from Sand are scattered around the alley, distress leaking off of them.

Other Grass officials are scattered around, trying to keep people from the alley and calm the crowds. He can see why they're having trouble, between the killing intent being thrown around by the present shinobi, the smoking, headless body, and the… lump (not his student, not Shikako, not dead… oh please not dead) not well hidden by the shadows.

Tsunade arrives an instant after, and immediately kneels by Shikako's… (body) by Shikako. Kakashi isn't sure if he's happy or not that the Grass shinobi didn't try to stop them or not. On the one hand, he doesn't want anything to slow Tsunade down for even an instant. On the other, it would mean he could intervene, and he needs something to do. Something other than menacing the others or trying not to choke on his fear as one eye watches Tsunade's glowing palms move.

It seems like an eternity before Tsunade looks up at him. She shakes her head, eyes mournful. "Kakashi…" He doesn't know if she says more than that. The world has dropped out from under him. The sky has gone dark. The world has narrowed to just himself, and Shikako('s body). His soul writhes with denial, self-loathing and fury. After a choking moment, he decides to focus on the last. Regardless of his own failures, it doesn't change the fact that someone – that Grass, probably – had hurt his student.

He is prepared to make them all pay, right then and there, damn the consequences, but Tsunade isn't Hokage for nothing. An iron grip locks him in place before he can really move. A commanding voice says, "Kakashi, get the other Genin back to our quarters. Tell everyone to pack up and be ready to move when I get back. Konoha will not be participating in the remainder of this farce of a chuunin examination. Kurenai, stay with me while I deal with things here."

Only years of ingrained training allow him to shove everything down deep into himself and choke out a "Yes, Ma'am."

He organizes and begins to move the other genin, including the puppet boy (Shikako's friend). Suna's quarters are on their way and they need to know about this. It's easier to slide into mission mode now that he has something active to do, but he still almost loses it when Kurenai slips a black-banded scroll into his hand as they leave.

No one says anything as they sprint across the rooftops, quickly ushered through the other Leaf jounin's heightened security measures back at their rooms. The other (kids) genin are waiting inside. When they see him, they demand to know what's going on. Asuma tries to keep order, tries to catch his eye to see what Kakashi wants him to do. Kakashi doesn't look at him, too focused on one of the genin. Sasuke's eyes roam over the group that just returned, and he seems slightly crazed as his eyes fail again and again to find what he's searching for. The Uchiha's eyes are still searching right up until finally finds his voice. Then he pins Kakashi with an inscrutable stare.

"Where's Shikako?"

Kakashi says nothing. Slowly, deliberately, he pulls a black-banded scroll out and presents it to his (last) student. The boy stares uncomprehendingly for more than a few moments.

"No," Sasuke breathes.

"Yes." Kakashi won't say it, can't say more than that.

"No!"

Kakashi pulls his student into a tight embrace. It's not a hug, so much as a way to immobilize his now-enraged student. It's also easier to pretend the trembling is all Sasuke like this. Kakashi doesn't release Sasuke until the boy's tremors have broken into sobs. He'll leave this to the others; he's never been capable of dealing with grief. Instead, he moves to help the other jounin pack, and tries not to imagine repeating this scene with Shikaku, Shikamaru, and Naruto.

XxXxX

In the end, they don't even need to go to war. Leaf's withdrawal from the exam is quickly followed by the Sand and Mist delegations. The Fire, Wind, and Water daimyos agree to leave with their respective shinobi delegations, and their citizens follow suit. Waterfall, Bird, and Tea likewise take their immediate leave. With no remaining competitors and three quarters of the clients gone, Grass is forced to call a premature conclusion to their exams, eliminating their last chance of legitimacy. The loss of standing and support from Konoha only exacerbates the Grass civil war, and the threat of The Alliance's wrath keeps the other nations from stepping in.

Grass rips itself apart, without Konoha ever lifting a finger against it.

XxXxX

He twists his wrist to bring a tanto across an enemy's throat. Simultaneously, a flick of his thumb brings a kunai out of his other sleeve to block the shurikan barrage from the back left. He spins, putting the newly-created corpse between him and the next side-swipe, and disguises the slide of his knee to connect with the nin's head. With that final push back, Kakashi finally touches the ground… and finds himself surrounded.

Fourteen Grass ninja have one Sharingan no Kakashi outflanked. Too bad for them.

He twists between two jutsu, catching his opponents with friendly fire, and through the two ninja who try to engage him in taijutsu. He downs another half dozen opponents with relative ease and no moral qualms. He's moving for the last cluster when runes burn across his skin, and his chakra leaves him. Years of experience keep him upright, but only just.

"Konoha ensured our ruin, it's only fair we ensure yours, Copy-Nin!"

It's the damned Kantokusha clan. The ones who're responsible for…

Well. The clan may frighten many jounin, but Kakashi is in the running to be Rokudaime Hokage. He can make it out of this. It looks like his fighting retreat will have to be more fighting than retreat, though. That's okay with him. Anymore, Grass blood doesn't seem to stain his hands the way blood of other foreign shinobi caught on the wrong side of the job does. He manages to cut through two more, almost reaching the Kantokusha shinobi. Almost.

"Sensei! No!" He doesn't need the shrill cry to see the katana slicing to remove his head from his shoulders. He won't be able to block. He's already moving to dodge the worst of it, but it's too late.

Then, the world around him is a wash of light, heat, and noise.

XxX

Maybe it's the explosions that make him think of her as he breathes his last few breaths. He can't manage to peel his eyes open, but somehow he's sure it's her presence. Perhaps the explosions drew her spirit, and she's staying to be his guide to the next life. Or she's here to watch him sink into hell with her own eyes. Either is fine with him, if the latter is what she needs to sooth her soul from his failure. She draws close… coolness touches the wetness in his lungs…

"M' comin, 'Kako…"

"Sensei…. Sensei! Stop talking! You have to stay awake!"

Why? His thoughts are hazy, but that one definitely comes through. He's tired and he's hurt and he has so many more loved ones on the other side...

"Don't you dare give up on me, Kakashi-Sensei! What's rule number one of Team 7?"

"Don' die…"

"Exactly. You can't die, Sensei. Not yet!"

"Buh you di'. I just wanna join you." Please. Please give me your blessing to join you. Give me the chance to make it up to you, since I've failed every one else.

"No!"

Her rejection hurts, far more than he thought he was still able to feel.

"Look, please. If you want to stay with me, you have to stay awake." A pause. "And stop moving. I don't have a fraction of my control or skill from before. I'm barely capable of a patch job right now."

"Wha?"

With great effort, he manages to crack open his eyes and sees, not the ghost of his beloved student, but a scruffy, brown-haired toddler. A trick, he thinks, she's clearly from Grass, and even though she feels like Shikako, that could be genjutsu. The pain should be disrupting that though, unless it was part of the genjutsu too.

"What are you- Stop!" She's too slow, far too slow to stop even a weakened jounin of his level; Kakashi meet no resistance when he captures her hands in one of his, while at the same time sliding a kunai across his thigh.

Pain. It slices through his leg and radiates from injuries across his body that he must have gotten from the fight, now aggravated by his sudden movement.

The world doesn't waver.

"Kako?" he croaks, releasing her hands. He almost can't breath, his throat is so tight with hope. The girl – Shikako – nods and smiles blearily at him, and he has air again. "Shikako."

"I've been going by Kazuko, actually."

Harmonious Child? He snorts as best as he's able. That doesn't suit Shikako at all. But that's not what really matters now.

"How?"

"You really believe me then?" He does, with every fiber of his being. She looks so different, but everything about her just feels too right. He doesn't think – won't let himself think, not right now – that it's merely his own desperate hope either. He jerks his head – up, then down.

"Thank you," She breathes, too quiet for him to hear if not for his enhanced sense. Always, he thinks, though he would never say it aloud. "I… I don't know how, exactly, but the best I can understand is that I got reincarnated with my memories of my past life. Even just after my birth to a civilian couple from Grass, I remembered being Shikako."

"The cou'le? Not parents?"

"The couple died when I was a few weeks old. They didn't have time to be my parents. I was cared for, if you want to call it that, in a military orphanage. Shikaku and Yoshino Nara are the ones I remember as actually raising me. It's good, though. I sensed you skirting the edge of the village. I figured, I have no bonds here to keep me from going home with you, so I was trying to intercept you. Unfortunately, the others got there first."

That's right. The ambush that he only survived because of heat and light and noise… "How'ju save me?"

"Sealing power is paid for in time and knowledge, not power or control. I still have that knowledge." She sketches out a symbol that is undeniably Shikako's Touch Blast for him to see. "It wasn't elegant, but I guess it worked."

He nods, again. This is all too surreal. He's lying in a ditch in a hostile country, talking to his dead student who apparently got reborn and managed to save him despite being in a toddler's body. Actually, now that he thinks about it, that's not really the weirdest thing to ever happen in his life. Not that those around him ever seem to believe the oddities he reports, for some reason.

They're going to think I've finally lost it. He thinks, and tries to convey as much.

She kindly ignores the chance to poke at that statement. They're both too raw for that. Instead, she says, "I'll do my best to convince them, too."

"Yoo be'er, brat."

"I believe that's Tsunade's line. And what happened to 'cute little genin?'"

"Too small for genin."

"That's rich, coming from you!" Her faces scrunches up and she tosses down the rag she had been wiping his forehead with in exaggerated frustration. Kakashi briefly wonders if the hormones of a little body sap her maturity. That protest had far too much immature, brash Naruto in it for his usually mature, brash Shikako. The thought makes his eyes crinkle.

"Mah, mah."

His whole body hurts, and they're still hours from home and safety, but, in this moment, listening to his student's exasperated chuckles, Kakashi feels wholer than he has in three years.

XxXxX

It's a boring day at the front gate before Hatake Kakashi drags himself home from a mission in Earth half-dead, carrying a toddler on his back. It would have raised eyebrows regardless, but the obvious Grass in her features sets speculation on fire. Kakashi hates Grass. Konoha hates Grass. Is this some sort of personal vengeance? Are they going to war? Is she a hostage? What does this mean?

Tsunade calling in her successor, the Jounin commander and his successor, Jiraiya, Ibiki and Uchiha Sasuke does nothing to quell the rumors. Neither does the surge of Kyuubi chakra that emanates from the Hokage Tower a few minutes later. The Ninja are so far past twitchy it's not even funny.

They don't go to war, though. No, what happens is far less interesting to the civilians, and far more interesting to the shinobi of Konoha. Kakashi takes the little Grass girl home and adopts her.

It is not so unusual for him to rename this new child, this prisoner of war, but it's such a Kakashi thing to do to name her after his beloved student; sweet, but probably unhealthy. The weird thing is when Team Seven – including Sakura, for all intents Shikako's replacement – embraces the toddler like their missing link. Then Jiraiya starts tutoring her in seals. Then the Nara give her access to their archives and Shikamaru makes her play shogi with him.

People side-eye them all when she started carrying around notebooks full of seals. They actually take complaints to the Hokage when things start blowing up. It's not healthy, they say, They're remaking the poor child in her image. Tsunade blows them off. Don't tell me how to deal with the mental health of my own shinobi.

Hatake Kako enters and leaves the Academy at the age of three, solving the mystery of Why Hatake of all people?After Uchiha Itachi, no one wants to let her out too soon, but it's wartime so allowances must be made. People are wary of her maturity, her cleverness. Still, none of the shinobi complain when her seals shut down the threat of Edo Tensei before it even begins.

Foreigners get to know her only by her seal work, and whisper that even death could not take the fearsome Shikabane-hime from her work. Most of Konoha's citizen's roll their eyes and scoff, though they don't outright dismiss a rumor that makes them so feared.

Shikako's loved ones just smile.

XxXxX

Gai is a blaze of green and orange and sparkles as he crashes through his friend's window.

"MY ETERNAL RIVAL! WE HAVE HEARD YOUTHFUL AND UNYOUTHFAL RUMORS ABOUT - WHO ARE YOU, LITTLE ONE?"

His dynamic entry has startled a small child from her slumber on the couch. The little girl blinks up at him, sparing a quick glance to where a number of Kakashi's jounin friends are waiting in the window frame behind him. "Is Kakashi-se…san, okay with you breaking in?"

"No. He's not." Kakashi appears in the room, slouching casually between him and the girl.

"MY RIVAL! AS HIP AND COOL AS ALWAYS! WHO IS THIS YOUTHFUL SPECIMEN?"

Kakashi sighs. "Gai, meet… what are we going to call you?" Kakashi turns to the child, who shrugs.

"Kazuko?"

"Absolutely not. Meet… Kako. Hatake Kako, when I get this stupid paperwork done."

Gai's jaw drops. From the sounds behind him, Genma just choked on his senbon, and someone else straight up fell off the wall.

"What?!" Anko leaps through the window and shoves past Gai. "Are you telling me someone is letting you be in charge of a brat? A real brat, not the half-grown ones Iruka gave you? Who's stupid enough to do that?" Anko asks in near disgust.

The fake eye-crinkle-smile Gai's best friend has been holding since they came in goes completely still. "Grass, apparently."

This time no strangled "What?" comes. They're all struck dumb, for the third time in as many minutes, Gai among them.

Kakashi is a dear friend, but he's not exactly the most stable person… as evidenced by the fact that he evidently kidnapped a small girl and named her after the dead student her people killed. Sure, Kakashi's already said more to them than he probably has in the last month, which is good, but that doesn't justify what's happening. Why would Lady Tsunade allow it though?

"It's fine," Kakashi blows off Gai's concerned looks with a wave. "Now if y'all don't mind," Kakashi drawls, it looks like my students are back with the groceries. If you'd let them through…?"

The Jounin at the window rearrange themselves to let Naruto, Sasuke, and their many bags through the window. Shikamaru comes in right behind them, bearing bags of children's clothes from his clan. Kakashi's (former) genin squabble as the put the groceries away. The Nara lazily drops the bags in the corner and slumps down on the couch, pulling the girl – Kako – easily into his lap.

Gai watches their interaction with interest, though his mind is still stuck on what Kakashi just said. Kakashi called them his students. He hasn't done that since Shikako… well. Somehow, this little girl's presence has helped him accept the boys back into his life.

Anko's still stuck on the lat declaration. "Okay… so you kidnapped a girl from Grass and Tsunade just said, 'sure, keep her?'"

"Rescued. I rescued her from Grass" Kakshi rebuts pointedly. Kako's snort does not go unnoticed by anyone.

"But how does she feel about all this?" Kurenai asks gently.

"I'm right where I want to be, thank you very much." If he weren't on the receiving end, Gai would find this funny; a toddler staring down a group of Konoha's most elite shinobi. Nothing can pin Gai's enthusiasm for long, though.

"HOW YOUTHFUL!" Gai cries, moving to scoop the little cutie up, but Naruto and Sasuke both block him before he reaches her. Even Shikamaru tenses. Hm. They're as overprotective of her as Kakashi. Well, as long as his friend's older kids approve, who is Gai to disrupt a healing family? There's still more they need to talk about, but that can come later. For now, his friend looks better than Gai's seen in years. He can accept the little one that made it happen. "CONGRATULATIONS ON THIS WONDERFUL ADDITION TO YOUR FAMILY!"