The light disappeared. When Minato slowly slid his eyes open once more, it was dark. And they were in a room. Kakashi's room to be exact, judging from the sleeping figure on the bed.

"Urgh, where are we now?" Obito groaned, rubbing the sore spot on his arm which he had hit upon the rough landing. Kakashi simply directed his attention to the sleeping figure.

"Kakashi again?" Obito questioned. "Why you? There's nothing interesting about your life."

"Well if you and Sensei are dead, then there's only me," Kakashi retorted.

"Yeah, but you look so young here. I couldn't have died that early."

Neither Kakashi or Minato had the heart to tell him that there was a possibility that he did die so early. After all, they were embroiled in the middle of a war and that meant a high number of casualties. Inwardly, Kakashi vowed that he wouldn't let Obito sacrifice himself when they got back. Maybe if he was the one to die instead, the future would become an even better place.

Their conversation was interrupted when future Kakashi suddenly sat upright in his bed, breathing heavily like his life depended on it. Upon approaching the future version closer, Minato could see the droplets of sweat trickling down his forehead. His left eye donned a scar and the future version kept it firmly shut. His left hand gripped the wrist of his right, holding it up to his face. His lone eye stared at it in horror.

His eye reflected many untold stories that led to this horror. Minato's heart ached for the young boy, even if it was the future, Kakashi was still his student. If his future counterpart was still alive at this point in time, Minato cursed himself for not giving his student enough attention.

Without warning, future Kakashi flung the blanket off of his body. Feet swinging to the floor, he practically bolted to the kitchen. With one flick, the sink was turned on and his right hand was dosed under the stream of water.

Obito was the first to enter the kitchen, gasping as he watched future Kakashi viciously rub at the skin of his hand. Kakashi followed, doing nothing more than staring apathetically at his future self.

"Oi Kakashi is crying," Obito pointed out. He hadn't meant it in an insulting way; contrary to what Kakashi thought, Obito could read the current situation well enough to know this wasn't a joking matter. It was just shocking for him to witness any version of Kakashi crying.

Kakashi was a lot of things but he wasn't a crier.

"It won't come off. It won't come off," future Kakashi murmured as his hand continued to scrub at his skin. Tears continued to stream down his face, the fabric of the mask soaking it up. Despite his left eye remaining firmly shut, tears leaked out of that eye too.

Minato's paternal instincts kicked in, his hand reaching out to pull future Kakashi into a hug, but his hand passed straight through the boy and grasped air. The bottom of his lip quivered as he slowly retracted his hand and continued to watch future Kakashi scrub his skin until it turned raw.

Mechanically, the boy shut off the faucet, wiped his tears, and returned to bed as if nothing had ever happened.

His two students were strangely quiet after the whole ordeal. Kakashi wouldn't speak even when prompted by Minato, so he left him alone.

It had taken a day of following around future Kakashi to find out everything was going to go horribly wrong in the near future. It started with future Kakashi wandering through the village streets, blatantly ignoring Gai's proposal to spar and Asuma's invitation to come join them for dango.

The three time travellers froze upon hearing Kurenai's words.

"He's still hurting, isn't he? I mean, I can't even imagine...losing both Obito and Rin in such a short amount of time." She kept her voice hushed as she spoke, almost like she was afraid of being overheard.

Hearing those words only confirmed Kakashi's thoughts. Both of his teammates would be dead, along with his sensei. If they were still alive, Kakashi would never have been Hokage and he imagined that he would have seen them in the future already. Despite what they thought, his team was a huge part of his life.

His future self looked no older than thirteen at this point in time.

In two years, Kakashi would lose both of his teammates.

Obito was the one to break the solemn atmosphere. "Hey, so opening the scroll was a good thing after all! Since we know what happens, we'll prevent it from happening."

His words made sense, but Kakashi was hesitant to believe it.

"We don't know how you died so how can we change it?"

"When we get back, I'll train extra hard to make sure that all three of us get out of there alive, isn't that right, Sensei?" Obito proclaimed.

Minato flashed him a warm smile. "That's right."

When the trio caught up with future Kakashi, the boy in question had just picked a book titled "How a Shinobi Should Die." Obito went on a rant about why he would read such morbid things to which Minato gently replied that it was possible that future Kakashi was going through PTSD.

It wasn't just a possibility, it was a fact. Kakashi recognized all of the same signs and actions that followed after witnessing his father's suicide. Only, it looked as if his mental state had deteriorated even further in the future.

Future Kakashi saw something, startling him enough to drop the book onto the ground. He promptly fled, leading Team Minato to chase after him as he sped across the rooftops at a ridiculous speed.

He found his solace at the memorial stone.

In Minato's opinion, the copious amount of time that future Kakashi spent at the memorial stone was exceedingly unhealthy. For the next three hours, future Kakashi simply stood there staring at the stone, not even saying a single word. It had gotten to the point where Obito had begun to grow restless and had opted to explore the nearby area. Even when Obito had gotten bored and wandered back to where they were, future Kakashi hadn't moved an inch.

Obito groaned. "Is he just going to stand there all day?"

Kakashi scoffed. "Maybe you should learn a little patience."

At the three hour and a half mark, future Kakashi tilted his head to look at the sky, noting the sun's position. His posture relaxed marginally as he stuck his hands into his pocket. His gaze slid back to the memorial stone before he took slow, deliberate steps towards the memorial stone. Future Kakashi bent down, the tips of his fingers brushing over where Obito's name had been carved in.

No words had to be said. Minato understood that this was future Kakashi's way of bidding Obito a farewell.

As future Kakashi walked away from the memorial stone, Obito was the first to race after him, calling for Minato and Kakashi to get moving. Minato had been hesitant to follow at first, thinking that there would be another time skip, yet after two minutes of nothing happening, he took off after his student. Kakashi followed the pair quietly, mind whirling as he tried to piece together everything he learned thus far.

He refused to let this happen.

The Hokage Tower was future Kakashi's next destination. Minato watched as future Kakashi mechanically knelt down in front of his future counterpart - the Fourth Hokage - in the same manner that all Anbu personnel did.

Minato wanted to curse his future self. What had he been thinking when he enlisted Kakashi into the Anbu? At the rate it was going, being in the Anbu would only deteriorate Kakashi's mental health.

Hokage Minato gestured for future Kakashi to get up. Bowing his head, future Kakashi slowly picked himself off of the ground, still refusing to meet Hokage Minato's eyes.

"You can still call me Minato sensei," Hokage Minato stated softly.

Future Kakashi answered with a sharp nod. "Did you need something, Sensei?"

"I just wanted to see how you were doing. It's been a while since we spoke about things other than missions."

"I'm okay." There was no hesitation in future Kakashi's words. "You don't have to worry about me."

"Kakashi…" There was a mixture of hesitation and pain in Hokage Minato's tone, but everyone in the room knew that the harder that he pushed, the more that Kakashi - both versions - would recoil from the invasiveness.

"I'm okay, really."

Obito snorted. "That's so unconvincing." Kakashi shot him a glare.

Hokage Minato cocked his head to the side. "You're three hours late. You're never late."

Obito opened his mouth, probably to tease the younger counterpart for being late, but Minato clamped a hand over Obito's mouth, effectively stopping the words from coming out of his mouth. One, he simply didn't believe that it was a joking matter, especially seeing future Kakashi's haggard state. Two, Minato didn't want to miss future Kakashi's reply.

From the outlines of the mask, Minato could make out a hint of future Kakashi's attempt to smile, but the lifeless look in his eye didn't match it.

"I wasn't on time when it mattered the most, so what's the point?"

Future Minato pressed his lips tightly together. Minato recognized that as his go to move for when he wanted to stop himself from reprimanding Obito every time he was late or lecturing Kakashi to care about his comrades for the umpteenth time. He imagined his future counterpart was fighting the urge to comfort his student.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" future Minato offered. He didn't take the bait. Future Kakashi only absent-mindedly nodded, the words going into one ear and then out the other.

"Is that all you wanted me for, Sensei?"

Future Minato nodded. "Come over for dinner tonight."

"Can't," was all future Kakashi had to offer before he flash stepped out of the Hokage's office before future Minato could prod him any further. The Hokage slumped over at his desk, using the palm of his hand to prop his head.

"You're still so difficult to work with in the future," Obito stated, earning himself a scathing glare from Kakashi. Minato wanted to chuckle, but his future suddenly let out a sigh, loud enough to be heard even across the room.

"I feel like I failed him," future Minato murmured, the movement of his lips hardly visible. "If only I had gotten there in time…"

The three of them never got the opportunity to hear the end of that sentence. A flash of bright light shined down on them, forcing them to squeeze their eyes shut. Inwardly, Kakashi hoped that it would show someone else this time; he didn't really want to find out more of the terrible things that he had done in the future.

Of course, fate was never really on his side.

A/N: Hi again!

Thank you for reading! Until next time.

-MM