Title: Falling, per chance, to change
Author: nana chan the weird
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Unknown as of yet.
Summary: Kakashi scanned over the thirty or some odd papers and realized that they were all in order. He didn't have any qualms with them except for the teeny part about going to hell if he failed but he supposed there must be some sacrifices to be made when dealing with a god.
Thanks: Thanks to my beta reader, Japyra. She pointed out some grammar mistakes and that Kakashi seemed a little bit of a flat character, I tried to remedy that as best I could. Also thanks to all who review, reviews make me happy and feel welcome. Criticism is welcome so long as it is pertinent.
Author's note: Well it's the beginning of another story. My other one probably will only go on until the end of the chuunin exams anyway. I was struck by this idea after reading one of the many Naruto goes back in time and something happens to forever alter Konoha's history fics. I thought 'Why not Kakashi? He would do better surely then a ninja who, no matter how much I love him, seems to lack some brains at the most necessary times.' I'm talking about in canon here, so no offense to anyone who thinks that this might be directed at their story. It's not. Also I was watching an AMV entitled Kakashi's life with the song "this is your life" Anyways on with the story…
Chapter One: The chance
He was falling.
Subconsciously, he knew that taking on a team would be the death of him; he just wasn't aware that it would come true in such a literal sense. Killed by a student, how overused. His eyes were closed; he could still see his teams' faces as they waited for him at a bridge. It was another team mission that he was late to, three hours and four minutes late to be exact. Sasuke stood there scowling at the world in general with the slightest outward signs of annoyance brushed across his face; Naruto had managed to spend the last three hours annoying him and was in for a thrashing whenever they next sparred. Sakura stood there ignoring Naruto's rather pathetic attempts to get her to pay attention to him, her eyebrows were furrowed in frustration; Kakashi could practically hear her screaming to herself. Naruto was squatting down staring at Sasuke like he was some sort of mystery. The thought of his team made him smile.
His team- his smile faded from his face and was soon replaced with a frown- he had failed them, like he had so many others. He had left them to the figurative wolves by not teaching them the most important thing that a shinobi must learn, teamwork. It was naturally harder for shinobis to trust anyone but themselves, relying on others was more often than not viewed as a weakness; yet it was the most necessary skill to learn before battle. The death rate of shinobis that worked
alone was startlingly higher than those who worked in teams. Team Seven- like the two previous team seven's- fell apart due to lack of teamwork and comradeship. The members of his team had held so much potential. And yet…
Konoha used to be the subject of much envy from all the other shinobi villages. It was known for constantly producing geniuses. People, who in the long run, just managed to add more pain to the already painful village. He was one of those people; the ones who caused so much suffering regardless of his intent, it rang true throughout his heart. All he could feel was the pain that he had brought onto others, ones who would have done well if they had never met him and found someone else. He had watched many people go through his bell test, some even had managed to impress him many a year ago, but none had ever come close to doing anything quite like team seven had.
Haruno Sakura, the only female of the team, had the most precise and accurate chakra control he'd ever had the pleasure of seeing. He had ignored her in favor of her two male teammates; because of this she'd never learn that she had an aptitude for genjutsu. Because he ignored her she had been forced into asking someone else to help her learn. It wasn't that she hadn't done well as a medic ninja, she had, but she really would have excelled beyond anyone's belief in genjutsu. She had the makings of becoming the next genjutsu expert. Konoha hadn't had one since Ochiai Keiko (1). Had he only used her crush on Sasuke to an advantage perhaps things would have changed… He could have told her Sasuke only liked strong girls then proceed to accidentally leave behind a scroll of genjutsus, if she didn't believe him he could have made it work somehow…if only.
Uchiha Sasuke had been their year's number one rookie. After the Uchiha massacre he needed to be able to trust people again, not constantly wonder if he was good enough to handle various people's, including Kakashi's own, expectations. He had really held a lot of potential; he needed to learn not techniques like chidori that could kill; but ones that would simply maim or wound. He had the potential to become an elemental specialist. Konoha had never had the privilege of housing such a specialist. Probably because of their annoying tendency to make all of their genius become insane and abandon the village.
Uzumaki Naruto had a hard life, that much was without doubt. He lived on his own, and thought that no one cared about him, he dealt with the villagers hate, and the ninja's scorn every day. He had a permanent smile that could be seen on his face every day no matter what happened. What he needed was respect, not someone constantly pointing out his mistakes for the entire world to see. He, out of all of them, needed Kakashi's help the most and; yet he got the least of it. Konoha's number one unpredictable ninja had the potential to truly become the Hokage, what he had always dreamed of. Thanks to him that might not happen since his new aspiration was to bring Sasuke back to Konoha.
Perhaps he shouldn't have played favorites… then maybe… But none of that mattered now because he was falling.
Hatake Kakashi awoke to find a room like none he'd ever seen before. The room held no windows, doors, or even walls for that matter. He didn't know why he had called it a room but it
had a room-like quality to it. It was really just space. Empty. Open. Infinite Space. He didn't know why but he felt strangely at peace. It was most likely the trails of incense he saw whisking through the air that induced him into this peace-like lull, incense always had calmed him. And then, a deep, booming voice interrupted his contemplation.
"Hatake Kakashi," it said, "you are in the afterlife's waiting area."
'Really, that explains so much' Kakashi thought sarcastically. It actually did but Kakashi didn't feel like admitting as much to some voice he had never heard before. As a ninja he was naturally suspicious, suspicions were ingrained into him and came out rather forceful at times, especially when he was somewhere he didn't recognize.
"It is our job to judge your life and place you where you best belong. You seem to have been dwelling on your mistakes and thinking about what you should have done. Perhaps you want to know what will happen to your team now that you're gone?"
The voice paused, waiting for an answer. Kakashi's eyes widened slightly more than normal, something that would not have usually been perceived. How had he known that he was just wondering what would become of them? The voice resumed when the speaker saw Kakashi nod.
"Uzumaki Naruto will take your death the hardest and will defect to join Uchiha Sasuke, who will in turn kill him. Haruno Sakura upon learning of Naruto's death will renounce being a ninja and be killed by Orochimaru in an attack on Konoha. Sasuke's body will become Orochimaru's new host." Kakashi closed his eyes.
'All of this happened because I didn't keep my promise to sensei and Obito. I really should have…' He thought.
"I will allow you another chance. I will let you relive your life from the day before you meet your team. I do have some conditions. First, you must make them work as a team. None of this stupid rivalry stuff. Second, Naruto must trust his team enough to be able to tell them about Kyuubi before he meets Jiraya. Third, Sasuke must be able to tell the team about his family before the chuunin exams. Finally, Sakura must be taught to fight. Do you accept these conditions?" The voice asked.
Kakashi simply nodded; astonished that he was getting a chance to correct the mistakes that he made with his team.
"Very well." The voice said.
Suddenly papers materialized in front of Kakashi. "You will need to sign all of these as a written agreement that you will follow all the requirements necessary and will agree to all the terms. You can read over it if you wish put all it says is what we talked about."
Kakashi scanned over the thirty or some odd papers and realized that they were all in order. He didn't have any qualms with them except for the teeny part about going to hell if he failed but he
supposed there must be some sacrifices to be made when dealing with a god. Kakashi scrawled his name across the paperwork and set it down when he was done. The papers were swept off to some unknown henchmen's desk (2).
Kakashi's first thought was that the sun needed to die a slow and painful death for having woken him up from a dream at a chance to change things. His second thought was his bed was extremely comfortable. His third was…wait…bed? He jumped up. He was supposed to be on a mission so he shouldn't be in a bed. He looked around and found that he was in his room of places for him to be. He then proceeded to grab the calendar (3) off of his nightstand. Well it looked like it really wasn't a dream. He was four years in the past and according to the calendar a day before he began to royally mess up three shinobi's lives and dreams. He closed his eyes and thanked Kami-sama for giving him this opportunity to change his life. He started off his day by visiting the memorial stone. Looking at the thing that he had long since memorized he realized how much of his life he spent regretting his mistakes, blind to the ones that he was making until it was too late. He had become trapped in a vicious cycle. He knew how to break it.
"Well Obito. Looks like it will be a while before I will come and see you again. I need to let go or so they say. I need to move on. There is going to be a genin team that will actually pass. They will need my attention and I can't do that if I am preoccupied with wallowing in my past mistakes. I might as well let it go. Nothing I can do about it now. So for now this is Goodbye. I'll see you later." Kakashi said to Obito. As he stood up he was able to stand a little straighter, his purpose gave him a sort of confidence that he had so desperately needed. His eyes cleared and he realized that his rival, Maito Gai, was standing behind him with a curious look upon his face.
"How much did you hear?" Kakashi questioned the usually loud, abrupt ninja.
The man in front of him still seemed shocked and serious, a look that was very rarely seen on Konoha's green beast. Gai took a moment to study Kakashi. It had been quiet a while since he had last seen Kakashi with such a grim look on his face. He looked serious which hadn't been seen in Konoha since the last time Rin visited.
"Just you saying goodbye to Obito. What's up that you need to say goodbye?" Gai asked in surprise.
Kakashi sighed in relief. At least his secret wasn't out. "Ah… I just decided to give up on my regrets and move forward."
He stated trying to act as if it was nothing big and no one should worry about his sudden change in personality. He couldn't change everything at once or the whole of Konoha would become suspicious.
End chapter one
Notes
1) In case you were wondering if there was any fact from this name. No. I got the name from the last name of Kurenai's voice actor (Japanese, obviously) and the first name is from one of my friends names. The name is in traditional format. Last and then first name.
2) This reminded me of Koenma from YuYu Hakusho. He would always have a stack of papers on his desk and would try and shift them off onto his henchmen. They would always come back to him though.
3) It's an Icha Icha calendar. It's Kakashi what else would it be?