Chapter 1: So Youthful!

Kakashi blames Naruto. He doesn't know how, or when, or why but it can only be Naruto's fault. He can't really remember what exactly happened to him. He is sure that he died though. The events leading up to his, by shinobi standards probably very timely death are not as clear.

What he does remember is fighting. He was always good at having anything to do with fighting. He could almost hear his inner Obito complaining, "Shitty genius being good at everything." That was an excellent reproach from his dead friend. He is good at everything, but fighting was special. It was part of him. Not anyone can become genin at six.

Anyway back to point. Kakashi remembers a new Otsutsuki showing up a few years after Momoshiki and Kinshiki. With really bad timing too. Naruto was at the five Kage meeting in Iwa and had left him in charge of the village while Sasuke was who knows where.

Long story short the guy whose name he never learned started wracking the place so Kakashi fought in this weird pocket dimension of his where everything tried to eat him. Of course he won. Fun fact: If you rip the heart out of a wannabe God they will die.

Another fun fact: Having a pocket dimension collapse around you is not good for your health. And so he is sure that he died. Not sure how but that he did is without doubt.

This however brings forth another question. What is he doing walking around an old stone castle in a world without any form of chakra? The Copy Ninja didn't have an answer. He was somehow reborn apparently, but how it is possible for this world to even exist he doesn't know. Chakra is life after all.

He wasn't aware of himself immediately after his rebirth. His childish brain probably couldn't handle it. He awoke slowly. Or it would be better to say came back into himself since he remembers his early years and can't find himself having changed overly much since he became aware that somewhere a dimension away he had a mountain with his face carved into it.

He was always an eerie, quiet child. But that wasn't the problem since his father here is apparently known as "the quiet wolf" it could be overlooked and often was. He was also too aware, too intelligent, too skilled, too much of anything. In other words with or without his memories Kakashi was still Kakashi and apparently a genius.

It wasn't so bad. Because he was so quiet some thought him a little dumb at first but since he grew older it became apparent that he was extraordinarily gifted. No one was pushing him to go out and kill for them soon though which was nice. It doesn't hurt to try something different once in a while.

His memories have been slowly coming back to him for almost a year now. Each day remembering a little more until he could recall it all. Even tons of stuff he didn't want to.

Now with the gloriously mature body of a four year old child the Copy-nin was wholly back to business. He would be at least if his body wasn't too young for anything of significance other than doing flexibility stretches and finger dexterity exercises for children. Or if he still had chakra to use but there is not a drop of it to be found anywhere.

What makes it totally impossible for the sixth Hokage to be back for duty is simply that he isn't Kakashi anymore. His new name is Asta. Supposedly it means silver in the old tongue here, or starlight. He is obviously named after his hair color now even more silvery than ever. The name is a little girly but if he is truthful a big step up from scarecrow.

In the end he simply isn't the men known as Kakashi anymore. Nor is he only the child growing up as Asta. Rather he is a sum of them both. Oh and he was a she now, but shinobi are nothing but adaptable. She isn't looking forward to puberty though. That's a whole other can of worm she isn't touching with a ten foot pole till she has to. Denial always was her most trusted comrade.

She idly wonders what her old rival would say to her situation and can nearly hear his voice shouting, "SO YOUTHFUL!" With entirely too much green in the voice. How can there be color in a voice? It should be impossible. No that's her friend denial again. She is sure Guy could do it.

At the thought she has to stop her steps to shudder furiously, a cold shiver running down her spine. This causes the older girl dragging her along by the hand she was holding to pause as well and look at her concerned.

"Asta? Is something wrong?"

Seeing the undue concern on the eight year old features she is quick to reassure. " . Don't worry Allyria. I was just thinking about the power of youth." This causes a giggle from the other girl. Asta doesn't know why though. It's a serious topic with hidden depths of depravity.

"You are so weird sometimes," says the girl not taking the dangers of youth serious, with amusement clear in her voice. "Come on we will be late to break our fast."

The excited girl is the reincarnator's aunt on her Mother's side, the second born daughter to the noble house of Dayne. She has typical Dayne coloring with deep blue eyes and beautiful, long, black hair. The same type of hair her older sister, Asta's mother had. She can see already that the eight year old will one day be a great beauty.

Her own bright violet right eye and shoulder length silver hair is rarer but still a very typical Dayne feature due to the Rhoynar blood of house Martell married into the linage of the first men. Sadly she has to share the coloring with Allyria's 12 year old cousin Gerold. Anything good is wasted on the little shit. It's a blessing he is being squired far away in Yornwood since last year.

She is glad that at least her left eye doesn't compare to him. Where Obito's red sharingan used to be is now a soft grey pupil. It is supposedly a typical Stark look so she has her father to thank for that. Asta isn't sure how he would take it if she did though.

She is a bastard. It seems that Ned Stark and her mother Ashara promised to marry and made…hnnn…well...Asta. Before they could be wed however his sister was kidnapped by the crown prince and his father and older brother were killed by the king. They found each other on opposite sides of the ensuing civil war. He had to marry his brother's fiancé to ensure a win in the war and her mother died soon after giving birth weakened by the ordeal.

Apparently nobody saw fit to inform her old man about her birth, angry at the death and broken promise. Evidently she was Ashara Dayne's daughter and would be raised as such. Even though being born out of wedlock makes her technically a Sand rather than a Dayne here in the Kingdom of Dorne she is treated not really that different to a trueborn daughter.

The whole concept of bastards is a little dubious to her. As shinobi they were very liberal with their affections so it wasn't uncommon to have children outside of a relationship, not even talking about a marriage at all. The clans were all about the bloodlines, so it was either in or out depending on having it or not.

Asta knows her uncle and guardian Eiric Dayne Lord of Starfall the ancient castle of house Dayne wants to legitimize her. The problem is that the King needs to approve all such proceedings since some bastard price named Blackfyre drowned half the kingdoms in dragon fire for his rebellion some time ago."

Getting approval isn't really the problem though. If they did go to the King he would need information of her parents and would then contact her father. They are best buddies or something. She pictures her father with a bowl cut and a wide grin giving a thumps up to the king. No! Just no. She pictures the king doing the same to her father. That is even more terrifying. She doesn't want to live in a country were that reigns.

Lord Stark honorable as he is supposed to be would take his daughter north with him and not let her stay here. So it would seem there's no Dayne for her name yet. She doesn't really care. It's just a name and from what information the former shinobi found bastards have their own freedom. You can die but you can't get rid of politics.

Reasserting her aversion to politics she reaches the dining hall in tow of the older girl. Entering the open doors her young aunt spots the two people around the table quickly.

"Good morning brother. Good morning sister." Allyria gives a small nod in greeting to each of them and I follow her lead.

"Good morning uncle. Good morning aunt." Her manners are something rather new belonging to Asta and not Kakashi. He was incapable using those. Here in the world of Westeros they seem to be vastly more important, now that you can't just shove an electric hand through everything bothering you. She will really miss that. It even worked on wannabe Gods.

Anyway Asta's aunt Evelyn Dayne former Manwoody and younger sister of Lord Dagos of Kingsgrave, the guardian of the prince's path in the north and with it the entrance to Dorne taught her manners and so she will use them. Women don't have it easy in these lands and she is sure she will need them rather sooner than later.

It is a little like it was for kunoichi just a generation before Kakashi's. Woman are not expected to fight or be good at it, or be good at anything really except for marrying early and being good wives making tiny little hires for their husbands.

The former shinobi lucked out with being born to a dornish house there. Dorne is the most liberal of all the Kingdoms in Westeros with these matters. Maybe it's due to the heat and the harsh dessert but woman dress very reviling here. At least they do by westerosi standard. Essos is a completely different can of worms. The Woman here in Dorne love and fight freely and can even inherit land and title.

There is just no way the former shinobi would not be a fighter. It is part of her. Under other circumstances she would probably have jumped ship, quite literally and gone to Essos, the friendly, slaving neighboring continent and joined some mercenaries. She has experience.

As it is Evelyn is a very loving young woman and her and Allyria's surrogate mother. Asta never had a mother. Not even as Kakashi. It was all new and weird feelings for her. It made her a little uncomfortable with her combined life experience she was at least twice the age of her aunt, but she definitely didn't dislike it. She grew up in her arms and loving care after all.

She just knew she was going to get more issues from that. She mourns her long gone healthy psych. Wait. Did she ever have one? Ma. Probably not. Nobody bat an eye though when she declared herself to be the next best warrior in the Seven Kingdoms a year ago. That was nice.

Evelyn had blond long hair and soft features reflecting her inner nature. She sat decisively close to her husband Eiric at the dining table. It was a political marriage like most are for the noble houses. The Manwoodys were a good ally to have. They were important, not to far from them and share the ancient blood of the first man. Really just like the old shinobi clan politics.

Eiric was a rather stoic man with black hair and dark tanned skin. He doesn't show his emotions a lot but is quite a good guy. He just has problems expressing his emotions. Asta felt a kindred spirit. She knew all about being an emotional constipated. The reasons appear to be similar to her own as well.

He was more open in his youth but the loss of two siblings during the war and his parents lost at sea closely afterwards left him with a few issues of his own. There were no shinobi yet Westeros seems to have its own fair share of tragedy, grieve and loss. Asta felt right at home.

As heir to Starfall Eiric had to do his duties shortly after all his losses happened and married young Evelyn. Her sincerely kind and warm being helped him a lot to come through his grieve and they are very much in love now.

It was a good story Asta thought. Not as good as her Icha Icha. She missed the books. The former copy-nin looked for something similar in the vast library of Starfall she wasn't allowed inside yet but couldn't find any smut. It was scandalous and she swore to eventually correct this shortcoming even if she had to write some herself. Jiraiya would be so proud of her.

She also wasn't allowed to bring books out of the library to carry around or read. Paper and books especially seems to be very precious here. It seems all of them had to be handwritten as no printing was yet invented. A lot of obstacles but romance would find a way. It always did.

Being lost in her dreams of worldwide accessible smut she was only half listing to the conversation going on around the dining table and but catching her name brought her back to focus.

"I talked to Maester Morten about your lessons Asta. He said you could join Allyria in her lessons like you wished to."

That was good news from her uncle. She liked the old master of Starfall and she wanted to have more lessons and spent more time with Ally at the same time. He reminded her a little of Hiruzen, all wise with age, keeping his kind demeanor and treating the path of knowledge. He wasn't an S-ranked threat though. "Thank you, uncle. I'm sure it will be good."

"What? Really Asta? That's great. We will have so much fun." It seems like her young aunt liked the idea as well.

"Go easy on Maester Morten girls. He is not a young man anymore." Evelyn injects and she does have a point. Better to make sure he doesn't get a heart attack or something. She gets the feeling that he is to stubborn to die anytime soon but at his age you can't be too sure. "If he thinks you are ready for his you can attend my lessons too. I know they are less to your choosing but are important as well."

She is talking about the lady lessons she gives to Allyria. Asta really doesn't like them much but sees the necessity. She also never learnt such things in her past life. Doing embroidery and wearing dresses is completely new to her. The dances, the music, the manners and traditions here are also totally different from what she knows from her Daimyo court experiences. Huh? She really should learn that stuff. "Thank you, aunt. I'll be sure to learn what you have to teach."

Eiric's lips twitch a little upwards. "I believe you. Maester Morten can't stop lamenting that the Citadel in Oldtown doesn't allow woman in their midst." Ah yes. The citadel, Asta muses to herself, is not really her thing. Too many rules and stuck up old people. She wouldn't join for life in any case but would have liked to study a few things. She concludes that maybe she will sneak in at a later date before her uncle continues.

"He says he never saw anyone teaching themselves to read before and that you take in knowledge as fast as it is given to you." He chuckles softly. "Apparently you have the greatest mind of this age and the fools in the citadel are to narrow minded to see. He fears it going to waste. Your mother was smart too. That's why she was valued as friend by Princess Elia Martell and became her lady-in-waiting but even she was not this outrageous."

"Ma. I'm more of the warrior type anyway." Books are great Asta thinks, but not great enough to spend her entire life dedicated to them.

Her uncle snorts. "You haven't even held a weapon yet. But I suppose we will see in time if you are that determined." Seeing his wife's warning look he quickly adds, "When you're older of course."

Having finished her meal Allyria urges her to hurry "Come on Maester Morten is waiting. Lessons will be so much better with you" Losing her patience quickly she starts dragging Asta of by her hand again. "You are too slow."

Seeing the rest of her oil dibbed bread and fruit juice disappear in the distance she mournfully reaches out her other hand in its direction. Leaving through the door the last thing she perceives of her breakfast is the betrayal of her surrogate parents as they smile in weary amusement at her plight.

Kakashi died in defense of his village. Minato would be proud. He was a good teacher. He had found family with his students in Konoha and now Asta found family again. She is sure her former teacher would be even prouder. Kakashi had looked forward to seeing him again with Obito and Rin and all his other friends and family long since passed. Asta is sure they can wait a little longer. It's not like they have anywhere to go. They will laugh at him so hard. It can only be Naruto's fault.