𝓣𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮'𝓼 𝓪 𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓸𝓷 Hatake Kakashi has been asked to make critical decisions early in his life. He has that kind of cold logic, there's a rationality to his thoughts, and he usually tries not to get attached. But tries is the keyword here. And maybe that's why he feels like a fifty-year-old man—broken beyond repair. Because even if Kakashi gets attached, nobody knows, and he still makes decisions no matter the cost, always for the greater good.
"Are you going to say something, eventually?"
Hana's voice is sharp and cuts like a knife through the thoughtful silence Kakashi has installed between them. His room is only lit by a few candles, and their dancing flames illuminate the girl's bronze skin, giving more edges to her angular face. She's wearing a revealing outfit, and every time Kakashi's eyes rest on her cleavage, he's reminded of his meaningless nights with Wolf, the woman who once inhabited Hana's current body.
But this isn't the Inuzuka he met in his youth. She's not an ex-Anbu of twenty-something years old. She's still just a girl, an eighteen-year-old girl.
"Is my appearance perturbing you, Kakashi?"
He wants to wipe that playful smile off her face. There's nothing funny about the current situation, nothing at all.
"I wasn't expecting you to be inside Wolf's body."
"It makes you uncomfortable," she states, her smile unwavering. "Why? Because you killed her?"
"Because I used to sleep with her."
And at last, Hana drops the corners of her mouth.
"Then why kill her?"
He sinks into his bed with a sigh but jumps back up abruptly when she joins him.
She's a kid, Kakashi reminds himself. She's just a lost kid.
"I never meant to kill her," he answers her initial question, back against the wall, lone eye piercing through locks of silver hair. "But Sakura needed me. You needed me."
"Yes, I needed you. But you failed me."
"I tried."
She leans back on her elbows, eyes wandering to the ceiling.
"But did you, really?"
The answer is no. But Hana already knows that, or else she wouldn't be asking.
"It was your choice not to trust me. You're the one who left. And your decision had unprecedented impacts on the lives of Team Seven's other members."
"You're saying this as if I was once part of that team. We both know that's a lie."
"You chose to distance yourself, to see it as a competition against Sakura."
At that, Hana snaps her gaze back at him.
"It was a competition. And I was losing."
"Is that why you left? Because you felt Sakura was winning?"
Kakashi holds the girl's dark stare with a knowing look. Perhaps Hana had lost the popularity contest, but Sakura could have lost her life. They would have become one—at best—but the pink-haired girl would have drifted away with time.
Hana shakes her head and pats the bed beside her.
"Why won't you join me? Afraid of what might happen?"
He ignores her offer and the hungry look she's giving him.
Just a girl. Just a girl.
"You said Sasuke had changed?"
"Didn't we all?" she fires back, a smirk stretching on her lips as she crosses her long legs and props an elbow on her knees.
"What makes you believe Sakura might be in danger? I don't see how Sasuke's feelings could have just evaporated. He loved her."
Hana rolls her eyes.
"He thought she was pretty. There are plenty of pretty girls in the world, Kakashi, as I'm sure you know."
"It was more than that."
She shrugs.
"Well, let's just say it didn't take Sasuke long to forget about her."
He raises an eyebrow.
"And I suppose you helped him forget?"
"I've heard snippets of conversations over the years in Orochimaru's hideouts. I don't know the specifics, but the snake and Kabuto were adamant about one thing: Sasuke needed to kill Sakura. Helping Sasuke forget about her wasn't just for my benefit. It saved Sakura as well."
Kakashi observes her as she picks at her nails. Again, he realizes he cannot read the girl's facial expression. And contrary to him, she doesn't need to hide behind a mask to accomplish this surprising feat.
"So, you and Sasuke? I thought you hated him."
"I do. I hate Sasuke very much. But you have to give it to him; the guy is good-looking," she answers, not even glancing at Kakashi.
The silver-haired man nods knowingly and pushes himself off the wall.
"Hate can be an expression of love."
Hana shakes her head, unconvinced.
"In any case," he says, planting himself right in front of her, his arms crossed over his chest, "you didn't give me much that made me consider Sasuke a potential threat to Sakura."
"Yes, I think I did," the tall girl answers, getting up and almost reaching Kakashi's height. "Killing her was on his to-do list. And if I'm not mistaken, it's the only thing left, except for finding and killing Itachi."
"And what makes you think it wasn't just a way for Orochimaru to ensure Sasuke's allegiance? In which case, seeing as Sasuke never tried to kill Sakura in the past four years, it would mean that he never truly was with the Sannin."
Hana shrugs, eyes roaming up and down his form.
"Believe what you want, Kakashi. But I have a feeling if you looked at Sasuke's medical file in Kabuto's office, you would find something to change your opinion."
Kakashi snatches her wrist before her hand can slide inside his jacket.
"What are you playing at, Hana?"
She retrieves her arm and sends him an annoyed look.
"We're both alone, aren't we? Single? Or did you finally work out your issues and find a girlfriend to patch up your wounds?"
"I cared for you when you were thirteen—"
"Fourteen."
He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"You say this as if it made any difference."
"It does. I'm eighteen. I'm not a child anymore."
"Well, you still sound and act like one."
They hold each other's stare for a while, but eventually, Hana's scoff breaks the silence.
"Is that your final answer?"
Kakashi shakes his head in disbelief upon seeing the flash of hurt in the girl's eyes.
"What did you expect me to say, Hana? What type of man do you think I am? Even if I wanted to, you deserve more than that."
She swirls around and strides to the door, but he pulls her back by the wrist.
"Good night, Kakashi."
"I won't have sex with you. That doesn't mean you have to leave. I'm going to Kabuto's office. You can join me."
She tugs on her arm until he releases her, then shakes her head.
"Kabuto's office is off-limit for me."
She pushes the door open but stops and spares him one last glance.
"Turn left when you reach the end of that hall. His office is down the stairs. You'll know which door to choose."
Off limit?
Kakashi's brows furrow, but he doesn't call after her when she finally leaves his room. As worried as Hana might make him, he has more important problems to fix.
He runs stiff fingers through his unruly hair, then follows Hana's instruction by diving into the half-lit corridor. He knows the hideout is situated under a lake, and the puddles of cold water and the droplets landing on his silver mane are not helping his claustrophobic tendencies.
Did she say down the stairs?
Kakashi glances left at the end of the hallway. Sure enough, there's a stairway leading to an unlit corridor. He grabs the last torch hanging on the wall and stretches his arm forward. The light doesn't illuminate much, but how it reflects against the floors tells Kakashi enough: the basement is flooded.
"How convenient," he whispers in his mask as he heads down the stairs.
You'll know which door to choose.
Hana's words made him believe Kabuto's name would be engraved on the office's door. But as Kakashi reaches the bottom of the stairs, he finally realizes how wrong he's been. He knows which door to choose because there's only one, per se; all the others are made of bars.
He dives the torch between two bars to illuminate one of the empty cells. Chains are dangling from the ceiling, and there's a bucket floating atop the flooding water. A shiver runs down Kakashi's spine, and he returns his focus forward, eyes glued to the only wooden door of the corridor.
His footfalls create splashing sounds as he walks to Kabuto's office. He doesn't believe he'll be able to access the files or that they'll still be readable, but it's the only thing he can do to ensure Sakura's fair chance of survival if Hana's right about Sasuke.
Kakashi pushes the door open and watches, in growing irritation, the desk sailing around the room. He heads to the floor-to-ceiling cabinets. The first one contains an impressive amount of medical tools, and the second is full of suspicious-looking jars that seem to hold a variety of organs. Kakashi's curiosity is piqued when he notices the chakra lock on the third one.
Sakura's nearly perfect chakra control would have been handy in this situation. Kakashi knows it would have taken her only a few seconds to open the cabinet. He groans, then secures the torch to the wall before pulling a chair in front of the lock and taking a seat.
Accepting Hana's offer would have been more pleasant, Kakashi thinks as his chakra flows inside the lock and travels around Kabuto's energy. Not so long ago, he would have probably caved in upon meeting Hana's flirtatious stares. He wasn't known for doing the right thing back then.
But it's not just any random girl. It's Hana. The girl he failed four years ago. The girl who reminded him so much of himself. He knows how it feels to lose your innocence too young and how some people will play on that. So Kakashi cannot see her as the woman she claims to be because he wishes that, back then, people would have seen him as the lost boy he really was.
Kakashi once held pure feelings for a kind, beautiful girl named Rin. And he tried very hard to ignore the tension between him and his teammate, Obito. But he never got to test the water with the ones he liked, and the people that came to share his bed quickly turned into blurred faces without names, feelings, and needs.
He doesn't wish that upon Hana. And he knows he'll never love her because loving her would mean loving himself. And that he can never do. But even if he cannot give her what she deserves, he can ensure someone else will. Someone younger, kinder.
A civilian, perhaps? Someone from the resistance?
Who would have thought Hatake Kakashi would one day become a matchmaker?
He shakes his head and pulses more chakra inside the lock. His feet are slowly numbing, immersed in the freezing water, and he can't find a comfortable position without letting go. But he won't give up for two main reasons:
1. He's Hatake Kakashi, and there's nothing the copycat cannot do—except maybe fall in love.
2. He's already let Sasuke hurt Sakura once. He's not about to let that happen a second time.
When his chakra finally turns from its ruthless energy to a colder, calculating one, he has a cramp in his hand and a pain throbbing in his forehead. Mingling with Kabuto's chakra feels like touching a corpse, but thankfully, the ex-Anbu has experience dealing with death.
The lock clicks open, and Kakashi jumps to his feet. He stretches his arms over his head and tries wriggling the toes of his sandalled feet. After squaring his shoulders, he opens the last cabinet.
"Bingo," he says, eyes wandering over the boxes of files.
Kimimaro is written in capital letters on a few of them, but there's not even one about Sasuke. Kakashi moves the boxes around, his hope slowly dying, when he glimpses at two famous last names: Uchiha and Ōtsutsuki. He pulls the boxes out of the flooded cabinet, thankful the water hadn't reached their shelf, and drops them on the floating desk. Once he's spotted a file with Sasuke's name, he takes the boxes and exits Kabuto's office just as the torch extinguishes behind him.
He climbs the stairs in the dark, eyes glued to the half-lit corridor at the top, but his mind is hundreds of miles away. Ōtsutsuki is the Rabbit Goddess' last name. In any other cabinet, this box wouldn't have meant much, but it isn't any other cabinet. It's Kabuto's. And what can the binocular man possibly want to do with the tales of a power-driven goddess who once tried to subjugate an entire world?
Nothing good, that's for sure.
When Kakashi finally returns to his room, he closes the door behind him with a kick of his foot and drops the boxes on his bed. He shakes his head, sending damp grey locks flying left and right. Then he runs a hand through them as he kneels before his bed, ignoring his numb toes and dripping trousers.
He opens both boxes and sifts through them, then pulls out the file named Sasuke and all the ones he finds concerning or confusing.
Then, he stares at the files from the Uchiha box: Madara, Obito, Itachi, Sasuke, and the biggest of all, Sharingan. Nothing really surprises him from this box. Kakashi's eyes drift to the files from the Ōtsutsuki box next: Kaguya, Kaguya's daughter, Haruno Kazuo, and Nezumi Hana. Nothing makes sense in that second box, and Kakashi finally gets out of his damp clothes, knowing full well he's off for a lot of concerning reading.
"𝓐𝓵𝓻𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽, 𝓰𝓾𝔂𝓼. Let's play Fuck, Marry, Kill!"
"Yosh!"
Sound of hands rubbing.
"Can we just do the dishes first? Kakashi-sensei won't be too happy with the mess we created."
"We can do both at the same time."
Sound of a plate breaking.
"Oops."
Kakashi's tired eyes close in annoyance as he nears the noisy kitchen.
"Ok, guys. Listen. Ino-Shika-Cho."
"Ah, man! Come on!"
"No, no, no. That's good! I know!"
"I thought you didn't want to play."
"Fuck: Shika. Marry: Chōji. Kill: Ino."
"How come you're killing the only girl?"
"Ino is too insufferable for even a one-night stand."
Kakashi enters the room to find eight blond boys frowning, seemingly deep in thoughts. There's a broken plate on the ground and another on the edge of falling from the counter. It smells like burnt rice and tuna cans.
"Sensei! What have you been doing all day? We were worrying."
"Obviously," he says, taking a seat, elbows propped on the table and face hidden in his hand. "I'd like to hear the end of the explanation. Why marry Chōji?"
"Ah, well, for the food, of course!"
"And because Shika would be the worst wife. He's always complaining."
"But he's not so bad on the eyes."
"Thus the fucking."
A chuckle finds its way to Kakashi's lips, and he shakes his head.
"And apart from playing stupid games and creating havoc in the kitchen, what have you been doing all day?"
In one giant cloud of smoke, the clones evaporate.
"Not much," Naruto says, joining his sensei at the table. "Itachi and the shark guy left the area this morning, and since then, no sign of any kind. We're completely alone."
Kakashi nods as he lifts his head up.
"So, we have every right to believe he was telling the truth."
Naruto shrugs.
"If he wanted to catch me, he would already have done it."
"That doesn't mean everything he said was true, though."
"Must you always be suspicious?"
"Must you always be such a moron?" asks Hana as she enters the kitchen. "Never believe an Uchiha. They're all egotistic bastards."
"And you know plenty about egotistic bastards," Naruto spits out when she sits before them with a plate of steaming rice.
"Meaning?" she cocks her head as if daring him to say more. Kakashi observes her from his side of the table and notices slight changes in her appearance. Could what he has read be true?
He inhales deeply and dives in.
"I found some interesting things in Kabuto's office," he says, gaining everyone's attention. "But you already know this."
He cast a pointed look at Hana, who only frowns.
"What do you mean? I'm the one who suggested you go search there. I knew there was a file about Sasuke but never got to read it. I can barely control Wolf's chakra as it is and definitely can't bypass this lock."
Kakashi studies her for a while, cursing her unreadable expression and her talent for deceptiveness.
"What did you find?" Naruto urges, hands gripping the table, knuckles turning white.
Kakashi holds Hana's gaze a little longer, then turns to his blond teammate and lifts his headband out of his scarred eye.
"Some disturbing information about the Sharingan, for one."
"You have the Mangekyō?"
His mismatched eyes land on Hana upon hearing her question.
"Why do you look so surprised? What do you know about it?"
She shrugs.
"Only that Sasuke was looking for a way to get it or to get around it."
"Sasuke knew how to get it; he just wasn't ready to do what needed to be done to gain it."
"Which is?"
Kakashi narrows his eyes. Maybe she really doesn't know, after all.
"Killing someone dear."
He lets the words sink in and keeps analyzing the girl's reaction. Her frown tells Kakashi she's already connected the dots.
"Sakura."
He nods.
"WHAT?"
Both snap their heads to Naruto to notice the redness of his eyes.
"Breathe," Kakashi orders, one hand reaching for the boy's elbow. "He didn't act upon it for the last four years. I don't think he would do it even now."
Naruto's eyes turn back to soothing blue as his shoulders relax.
"He doesn't have a chance against Sakura-chan's charm."
Hana snorts.
"He's not so innocent anymore."
"That's what you want to believe," Kakashi counters with a knowing look. "But it's not because he doesn't love you that he doesn't care."
She squares her jaw but stays silent, and he can tell he's aimed right.
"In any case," he continues, turning to Naruto again, "Sakura isn't the only person dear to him. If Sasuke is still the genius I know, he probably realized that by now."
Naruto tilts his head to the side.
"What do you mean?"
"He's coming for one of us."
"You mean he's coming for me?" The blond shrugs. "That's what I wanted, anyway. A chance to knock some sense into his thick head."
"One more thing to add to your to-do list, then," Kakashi replies with a shake of his head. "I still sent Pakkun on Sakura's trail, though. Better be safe than sorry. I might be wrong about him. After all, Uchiha's are known for their ability to kill the people they love most."
"And who did you kill?"
Hana's question echoes in his head for what seems like hours, and it takes everything in him not to leave the room like the coward he is. He slowly turns his attention to her, trying to ignore Naruto's curious gaze.
"Someone dear."
"Obviously."
"Doesn't matter," he adds. "What's done is done."
One corner of her mouth quirks upward in victory. She enjoys toying with Kakashi and wants to make him pay for her previous humiliation.
"But why do it? Did you know about the Mangekyō already?"
He closes his eyes, images of Rin's empaled body turning his hands into fists.
"You're on dangerous ground, Nezumi," he mutters through gritted teeth, summoning lightning to his fingertips.
"Sensei?"
Hana scoffs and mimics Naruto.
"Sensei? Do you even know who you're worshipping, Naruto? Or are you really the moron I think you are? This man is hiding a life's worth of mess. Where does that Sharingan come from? Who did he kill to have the Mangekyō? What is he willing to do for the greater good?"
She gets up, then leans forward, eyes boring into Kakashi's mismatched ones.
"I can see through you, Hatake Kakashi. You're just as bad as I am. You'll do the dirty job with the best of intentions, then you'll be able to live with the guilt because of what you gained."
Kakashi jumps out of his seat and leans forward as well. He wishes Hana would recoil from the dangerous proximity, but she doesn't. He would have been surprised if she had.
"Yes, we are the same," he says, body shaking with the rage of being so easily read, with the hate of himself, of her, with desire, too, a desire he's not supposed to feel, not for her. "That's why I know I can't trust you. Because even if you get attached, you'll always be able to do what has to be done. But instead of doing it for the greater good, you'd do it selfishly."
She snorts.
"You're just as selfish as I am, Kakashi. You're doing those things because it makes you feel powerful, useful, exactly like me."
Hana retreats, but Kakashi grabs her arm.
"So you admit it?"
"Admit what?" she tries to wriggle out of his iron grip, but he doesn't let go.
"I found the Ōtsutsuki box in the basement. I know who you really are, who Sakura really is. You're trying to make us believe you care for her—"
"I said nothing remotely close to that," she interrupts, brows furrowed.
"But you want her alive for your own selfish reasons."
"Now you just sound crazy. Why would I want Sakura alive or dead? I never saw that box. I don't understand a word of what you're saying."
"Me neither, sensei," Naruto whispers.
Upon hearing his teammate's voice, Kakashi releases Hana and sits back in his chair with a sigh. He must calm down before risking exposing too much of his knowledge. Maybe she really knows nothing. In which case, it's better if it stays that way.
"Her name was Rin," he says instead. "And I'd do everything in my power to go back and change it. But I won't because the living needs me more."
He sends her a pointed look, then leaves the room, his feet taking him back to the box, to the concerning information in the files, to what could most certainly seal Sakura's fate if it were to come out.
Hopefully, Kabuto didn't tell anyone about this.
But who is he kidding? Of course he did.