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Chapter Text

At the age of four, Kakashi Hatake is a gifted child. He can read at a university-level, he has excellent physical coordination, and he is vastly more mature than his peers. 

What he doesn't have is a Quirk.

The average age that children begin to display their Quirks is at four years old. Most of his classmates in his preschool have already exhibited their Quirks - Kakashi is one of only two children who have not.

According to the x-ray his father took him to get a few weeks ago, there's a 99% chance he may never manifest a Quirk.

Kakashi isn't too devastated about it. The majority of Quirks have minimal impact on daily life. There's plenty he can do without a Quirk, and he can already run circles around the ankle-biters in his class who do possess Quirks.

However, he does worry about Miki. As the sole other member of their  "Quirkless until proven otherwise" club, Miki had been a quiet but otherwise well-liked member of their class prior to Quirk manifestation. She adjusted poorly to suddenly becoming an outcast like Kakashi and has been crying in the bathroom every other day during their breaks. 

Kakashi has done his research, and he knows that society's treatment of Quirkless people has grown more and more discriminatory as time goes by. That's why he is profoundly unimpressed when two of their classmates decide to corner Miki and him in the restroom. He isn't surprised, but he also isn't going to put up with it.

As a result, Hatake Sakumo is soon called to the principal's office.

Sakumo can feel a migraine coming on when he sees two children with scorched clothing crying to their angry parents, and a bored, completely untouched Kakashi standing at a distance.

The principal says through gritted teeth, "Kakashi somehow engineered a small explosion during break. While no one was injured, he's given quite the fright to these children. This is his first infraction, but it is quite the serious one."

Sakumo resists the urge to face-palm.

He's not at home as often as he would like, due to his frequent patrols and agency work. While his late wife was a clever and strong woman, neither of them were prodigies in the way that Kakashi has proven to be.

Sakumo hadn't allowed him to skip grades because he wanted for Kakashi to socialize with his peers, but he's starting to think that may not have been the best choice.

He crouches down to be eye-level with Kakashi. "Is what your principal saying true?"

Kakashi shrugs. "It is true in that she has only discussed a fraction of the story and is ignoring any facts that don't fit into her perfectly neat worldview."

Sakumo sees the principal turning purple with anger in the corner of his eye, and the other parents are starting to clamor as well, but they aren't his priority. Kakashi is, and will always be, his priority.

"What facts are missing?"

Kakashi recites in monotone, "They cornered us in the bathroom. Ichiro pushed Miki down and called us 'Quirkless losers.' Kentaro was about to burn her with his Quirk."

Kentaro interrupts. "That's not true! I wasn't going to burn her. I was just - playing around."

Kakashi rolls his eyes. "You had a flame in your hand, about two inches away from her face. Forgive us for not 'playing along' with you."

Miki's mother frowns severely at Kentaro and Ichiro's parents. "Is this true? Was your child threatening my Miki with illegal Quirk usage?"

Kentaro's father promptly stops glaring at Kakashi. Good, because Sakumo probably would have poked out his eyes if he continued any longer.

"O-oh, I see. I didn't realize that was what happened. Perhaps we should just let this incident pass - let bygones be bygones."

Miki's mother says coldly, "You weren't so willing to let things go when you thought Kakashi was the instigator instead of your son."

He laughs nervously. "My son has a powerful Quirk; he can't be expected to have full control over it at such a young age. But I'll be sure to give him a good talking-to after this."

"Wait. I'm confused. If this Kentaro is the one with a fire-based Quirk, why did you say Kakashi caused the explosion?" Sakumo asks. "He doesn't even have a Quirk!"

The principal hesitates. "We're aware of that, but they've all testified that the explosion was because of Kakashi."

Kakashi looks away evasively.

"Kakashi..." Sakumo uses the same warning tone he used when he returned home to a disassembled computer that his child was hoping to turn into a police radio.

His son sighs. "Fine. It was me. That idiot didn't even know about dust explosions. You would think someone with a flame Quirk would do some proper research on combustible material."

"So you...?"

Kakashi lifts his left hand. "Dispersed fine particles left over from the wall construction, in an enclosed space." He raises his right hand. "Imbecile with a poorly mastered fire Quirk." He puts his fists together and imitates the sound of an explosion. "Ka-boom."

Sakumo pinches his nose bridge. "We've had this discussion about your science experiments before."

"I calculated the volume of the room and the amount of dust! There was practically no risk of bodily harm!"

"No experiments without supervision," Sakumo says firmly. "Ever."

"Like it would be of any use. Your chemistry knowledge is even worse than mine," Kakashi mumbled under his breath.

The principal clears her throat. "If we could get back to the main topic? Kakashi has admitted that he was the one to cause the explosion. Regarding punishment-"

Miki's mother interjects. "It's evident to me now that Kakashi was defending himself and my daughter. Moreover, there was no physical harm caused by his actions, so I understand he was well within his means for legal self-defense."

She tosses a business card onto the principal's desk. "If the next words out of your mouth aren't, 'regarding the punishment for illegal Quirk usage,' you will have a Quirk discrimination lawsuit on your hands so fast it will make your head spin."

Now that Miki's mother is standing with her arms akimbo, Sakumo remembers where he's seen that pose before. Her face is plastered on billboards all over town as a civil rights attorney at the top law firm in Musutafu.

The principal must know her background too, because her face goes bone-white, and she starts backpedaling like crazy.

In the end, Kakashi gets away with only detention as a punishment, while the bullies are suspended for two weeks.

Sakumo still believes it is important for Kakashi's development to make friends with kids his own age. And it does seem like he's gained a little follower in the form of Miki, who now seems to view him as her hero.

Yet Kakashi obviously needs more intellectual stimulation than what he's been receiving learning the alphabet and how to add and subtract.

"How would you like to take some university courses online?"

Kakashi's eyes light up.

Kakashi is so excited that Sakumo feels guilty for not making the suggestion sooner.

He decides to reduce the frequency of his patrols moving forward. Hero work is important to him, but he only has so many years to be around for Kakashi's childhood.

As it turns out, Kakashi's childhood ends up being shorter than either of them could have ever imagined.

Chapter Text

One year later, Kakashi is still Quirkless, and still excelling at life.

At five years old, he's halfway through a bachelor's degree in psychology, and planning to get a dual degree in history as well.

With his father reducing his hero work, and the annoying children at his school giving him a wide berth since the dust explosion incident, his life is going more smoothly than ever.

His father's hero work is important for the public, but at the same time, Kakashi can't help but feel selfishly happy that Sakumo is at home more often.

The White Fang is an up-and-coming hero. His Quirk 'Wolf' is immensely practical for combat, involving heightened senses and the ability to manifest the physical capabilities of a wolf.  While he's nowhere near heroes like All Might yet, he's easily on his way to breaking the top forty in the national hero rankings.

Recently, White Fang has disappeared from the local news as Sakumo focuses less on career and more on family.

As he often tells Kakashi: "I'll always have time to concentrate on my job as a hero later, but there's only so many years left where I can still lift you up like this!"

This statement usually cues Sakumo hoisting up a squealing Kakashi by his armpits and tossing him in the air to defy gravity.

(Kakashi will never admit that he enjoys it.)

Sakumo has arranged things at the agency that he is free on weekends to take Kakashi out to have fun.

On this particular Saturday, they've decided to visit a famous street snack alley in a nearby town.

"Tou-san, open your eyes! You need to admit to yourself that red bean ice cream is superior to sesame ice cream," Kakashi argues.

His father disagrees. "Red bean ice cream is too sweet. Sure, I can eat it now, but my metabolism won't be able to handle it in a few years."

"You're barely thirty. Stop talking as if you're about to step into the grave."

"'Barely thirty' - that's unusually kind of you, Kakashi."

Sakumo and Kakashi are cutting through a deserted alleyway on the way to the subway station when they hear crashes and screaming in the distance. 

Sakumo tenses. Off-duty or not, he's always a hero on the inside.

"Son, you need to -" he begins before widening his eyes at a sight behind Kakashi. "Move!"

Sakumo grabs Kakashi into his arms and starts running to the entrance of the alley.

Slung headfirst over his father's shoulders in a firefighter's hold, Kakashi finally gets a visual on what Sakumo was so worried about.

The building next to them is crumbling down. Kakashi and Sakumo are still within the fall radius - they won't make it in time!

But somehow, his father sprints the last meter and manages to throw Kakashi a distance away.

Kakashi lands and rolls like his father has trained him to do. Aside from bruised knees, he's able to stand up immediately.

Coughing at the dust that has settled around him, he calls, "Tou-san?"

There's only silence for a heart-stopping moment. Then, he hears his father weakly answering, "I'm here, Kakashi."

Kakashi rushes towards the sound of Sakumo's voice, only to halt at the sight before him. Surrounded by pieces of the broken building, his father is on the ground with his leg pinned down by a steel rafter.

"There must have been a villain breakout. It's not safe to stay here" His father looks grim but determined. "You need to go."

"I'm not leaving you behind," Kakashi says firmly.

"Think logically!" Sakumo raises his voice in frustration. "You can't do anything for me here!"

"You said there was a villain breakout! I'm not leaving you here alone to be collateral damage while you're incapacitated!" Kakashi tries to lift the steel rafter, but it's useless. He's too weak.

He looks around desperately for other survivors. "Somebody! Anybody! Help!"

There were very few people around in this area to begin with. The individuals nearby are either unconscious or buried under even larger pieces of rubble.

"Tou-san..."

"Go, Kakashi. You're not abandoning me. You're regrouping and finding reinforcements."

Kakashi nods with reluctance. He's about to leave when a mysterious figure appears through the cloud of dust.

"What do we have here? Survivors?" a sibilant voice croons.

Kakashi can make out the strange silhouette: long, flexible claws extend from curled hands. The screeching sound as the claws scrape against the ground adds to the eerie atmosphere.

"...it can't be!" Sakumo whispers.

The figure is completely visible now. Kakashi shudders at the insane smile on the man's face and the blood-splattered claws.

A villain.

"You look so familiar. Now just where have I seen that gray hair before..." The villain taps his chin with a finger, ignoring the cut he scratches onto his own face. "Oh, that's right! It's the noble, upstanding hero - White Fang!"

"Slicer," Sakumo growls.

"You remember me! I would hope you did, considering you put me away FOR SIX YEARS!" Slicer starts out speaking amiably but ends his statement with a crazed shriek.

Then, just like that, the villain wipes away his hideous grimace. "Oops! My therapist did say I needed to work on my anger issues."

Slicer smiles with all his jagged teeth. "I've already killed the first two heroes to the scene, but you're the one I'll really enjoy."

Kakashi knows now that Slicer is unhinged. Slicer is not one of those villains with goals like robbery or power; he's is someone who revels in violent slaughter.

"I'll put you away again, where you can't hurt anyone else," Sakumo vows.

With a grunt of pain, he pulls himself out from under the rafter.

His leg is mangled from the action, but he has no better options. Better to render one leg useless than to stay trapped while Slicer attacks him.

Sakumo has six more years of experience compared to the last time he fought and captured the serial killer, but he also had two other experienced heroes to assist him. Today, he's alone and at half his normal mobility.

At a huge advantage, Slicer has decided to take his time playing around with him like he's a toy. 

Sakumo dodges too slowly, and watches in slow motion as his arm is cut cleanly off at the elbow and falls to the ground.

It's the most agonizing sensation he's ever experienced, but Sakumo strangles his pained shout after a second. He doesn't want to scare Kakashi.

Kakashi has fallen to his knees a few meters away, two hands covering his mouth to prevent a shocked scream from escaping.

His son is too close to their fight for Sakumo's comfort, but it would be useless to tell him to escape now. Slicer would kill Kakashi immediately if he tried to run.

Sakumo must win this fight for Kakashi to stay alive.

"Uh-oh!" Slicer giggles. "Two limbs down, two to go!"

Sakumo's moves get slower and slower. His vision is darkening at the edges. But he can't lose, can't fall. He has to stay awake and alive to protect Kakashi.

"Are you tired already?" Slicer asks, disappointed. "I think you need a wake-up call. Let's see if you've got enough energy to dodge this!"

In a flash, he extends his claws towards Kakashi.

Sakumo isn't fast enough to knock the attack aside. All he can do is grunt as he takes the claws in his back.

The last thing he sees before he falls is Kakashi's horrified face.

"How boring," Slicer tuts. "I thought he would last longer."

Sakumo is slumped over in front of him.

His father is covered in lacerations, and Kakashi can see through the holes in him once Slicer withdraws his claws. The stump of his arm is bleeding copiously, and his leg isn't even in the shape of a leg anymore...

"Tou-san?" Kakashi asks in a trembling voice.

He doesn't answer.

His father isn't moving. 

His father isn't moving.

And Kakashi...

Kakashi remembers.

Returning home only to find the blood stains on the tatami mat spreading from father's room.

The disdainful glares from the villagers. "He looks just like the White Fang. What a disgrace!"

Secretly vowing to follow the rules, and to never become a failure like his father.

Donning a cloth mask at age 6, which he keeps on for the rest of his life. He avoids mirrors now.

His genin team: Minato-sensei, Obito, Rin. They're annoying, and loud, and in the way. But somehow...he doesn't hate them.

The dead-last but loyal Obito: “In the ninja world, those who don’t follow the rules are trash. But, those who abandon their friends are even worse than trash.” 

Obito, crushed under the rock, but somehow still smiling. 

"I'm about to die, but I'll become your eye."

A gift, from a dying friend.

They call him Sharingan Kakashi now.

Rin, begging him to kill her before she can destroy Konoha.

The blood that ran down his arm. The look of relief on her face, belying the hole in her chest.

Kakashi, the friend killer, they call him now.

He goes cold, even colder than before.

Then, the Kyuubi attack.

The last lights in his life - Minato, Kushina, gone.

He isn't even cold anymore. He's just empty.

There's no one left except for him.

Kakashi is alone.

Kakashi opens his eyes.

Slicer approaches him, brandishing his claws.

"Your father's a goner, but I'll send you on first. Do you think he'll wake up one more time to see your corpse? I hope he does."

He places the sharpened claw tips on Kakashi's thin neck, drawing blood.

"Any last words?" Slicer says with a sneer.

"Yes," Kakashi breathes. And he hasn't used this before, only experienced its torturous effects, but somehow he knows the technique will work for him.

His eye bleeds into red and black. "Sharingan: Tsukuyomi."

Chapter Text

Hatake Sakumo opens his eyes to a white ceiling.

He has a moment of suspended memory until the twinges of pain remind him of what he has forgotten.

"Kakashi!" Sakumo gasps and tries to sit up.

A large hand gently presses him back into the bed.

"Slow down, Sakumo. You really shouldn't be moving around yet." At his bedside is his old friend, Yoroi Musha, the Equipped Hero.

As one of the top ten heroes in Japan, Yoroi has been an invaluable mentor and friend to Sakumo over the years. The Equipped Hero is over fifty years old and has been successfully protecting the citizens of Japan for decades, with no signs of retirement in sight.

"How is Kakashi? Is he safe?" Sakumo asks urgently.

Yoroi doesn't answer at first, and Sakumo pales.

No...

"He's fine!" Yoroi says quickly, upon seeing his bloodless face. "Your son is completely unharmed."

Assured of Kakashi's well-being, Sakumo slumps down in relief and finally has the mind to consider himself.

He takes inventory of his physical condition. While the doctors were able to re-attach his arm, his leg is propped up in a sling with several metal pins visible through the bandages. 

He is dosed up on too large a quantity of pain medication to accurately assess of the extent of his injuries, but he wouldn't be surprised if they turned out to be career-ending. There's no way he's getting back to 100% condition with the beating he received. Nevertheless, Sakumo feels lucky just to be alive.

"The last thing I remember is that I wasn't able to stop Slicer. Did another hero show up to the scene? Did they defeat him?"

Yoroi has a strange expression on his face. "By the time reinforcements arrived, Slicer was already incapacitated."

The only other person around when Sakumo fell unconscious was Kakashi. Sakumo is intimately familiar with how perverse Slicer is - there's no way he would have spared Kakashi.

"You mean..."

"They believe your son has finally manifested his Quirk. And that it's a powerful one."

"Slicer was 'incapacitated,' you said?" he repeats weakly.

"'Catatonic' might be more accurate," Yoroi corrects wryly. "The police are still working to figure out the ins and outs of the situation. They're in the middle of questioning your son now."

Sakumo struggles to sit up again. "He's a minor - they're not supposed to do that!"

"It's not a formal interrogation; they just want to know what happened."

"Take me to them. Now," Sakumo orders firmly.

Yoroi holds his gaze and seems to realize Sakumo will crawl to Kakashi if he has to.

"Let me go get a nurse."

Detective Kenji Tsuragamae is very confused.

Kakashi Hatake, while by all means a genius, was otherwise reported to be a happy, well-adjusted, Quirkless five-year-old. However, the child described in their files bears little resemblance to the Kakashi sitting in front of them.

All three people were found unconscious next to the collapsed building, and there were no other witnesses to the battle.

Kakashi woke up a few hours after he was brought to the hospital. He was unharmed, aside from bruises and exhaustion.

The surgery to save White Fang's arm and leg was successful, and the doctor predicted that he should be regaining consciousness soon. 

On the other hand, despite Slicer being the least physically injured of the three, the doctors are unsure whether he'll ever "wake up" again in any real sense.

When they shook the villain awake for an interrogation, Slicer screamed like he was being tortured. They couldn't get anything intelligible from him. Healing Quirks had no effect. Ultimately, they resorted to sedating Slicer so that he wouldn't bite his own tongue off.

White Fang has a Transformation Quirk that allows him to take on characteristics of a Wolf, and it's clear that whatever happened to Slicer wasn't caused by a simple physical attack.

As improbable as it may seem, the running theory is that Slicer's condition was induced by Kakashi.

Medical records state that the child was Quirkless. To the contrary, nurses recounted observing his left iris fade from red back to his normal brown seconds after he opened his eyes. If so, he may be part of the miraculous 1% of the population who awakens a Quirk after the age of five.

The different eye color implies a Transformation-type Quirk like his father, but Tsuragamae can't think of any form of Transformation-type Quirk that could have brought Slicer to such a state.

Tsuragamae has no further leads, and the only person who can give him answers hasn't spoken a word since waking up.

The dried tear tracks on his cheeks indicate that Kakashi cried at some point. Now, the child has no expression, and is staring blankly into the distance. Going numb is a common reaction to trauma.

Tsuragamae finally spots some emotion on his face when White Fang bursts into the room in a wheelchair with the help of the Equipped Hero.

"Kakashi!"

Ice cracks and melts, and Kakashi opens his mouth to let out a choked, "Tou-san!"

Tsuragamae allows them to have their touching reunion before lightly clearing his throat.

He gets a glare from the hero in response, which he pretends not to have seen. "White Fang, now that you're here, we would like to ask your son a few questions."

White Fang draws his child to himself protectively. "Kakashi is only five!"

"I understand, and we have no requirements of him. All Kakashi needs to do is answer our questions to the best of his abilities."

"Be honest with me: are you feeling up for this? Would you be willing to tell the police what happened?" White Fang looks searchingly into Kakashi's eyes. "I don't want you to push yourself if you aren't ready."

At Kakashi's nod, White Fang lets out a sigh before smiling reluctantly. "I'm proud of you, son."

He turns to Tsuragamae, and his softness is immediately replaced by the stern expression of a professional hero. "I'll allow it. But if it's too much for Kakashi at any point, we're leaving."

"Very well." Tsuragamae inclines his head. "Let me reiterate that Kakashi is not in any trouble at all. Whatever he may have done to protect himself from Slicer would be considered self-defense. We only want to get a clearer picture of what happened."

Tsuragamae isn't known for his bedside manner, but he tries his best to make his voice soothing and non-confrontational. "Kakashi, can you tell us what happened today?"

The child narrates the events as dispassionately as an officer reeling off a situation report. His words seem to match the bits of surveillance they were able to obtain.

"Tou-san protected me from the attack, and was impaled through the chest with Slicer's claws." Kakashi's voice turns strained for the first time. "He fell down and didn't get up again. Slicer said that he would kill me first, and let my father join afterwards."

Sakumo clenches the arm of his wheelchair so hard that it creaks.

"And then?" Tsuragamae probes gently. Whatever information Kakashi reveals next should be the key to the story.

"I looked at him, and my Quirk appeared," Kakashi answers shortly.

After it's evident that Kakashi isn't going to expand on his statement, Tsuragamae pushes harder. "But what exactly did your Quirk do?"

Kakashi glances briefly at his father, who gives him a tremulous but encouraging smile.

Squaring his shoulders, he admits, "It put Slicer in an illusion where he personally experienced the pain he caused to his victims." A beat. "I call it Tsukuyomi."

"You were alone with him for a few minutes at most," Tsuragamae says disbelievingly.

He has encountered illusion Quirks before, but none that could wreak such a devastating outcome so quickly. Such effects are more often in-line with strongly influential mental or emotional Quirks.

Kakashi shakes his head, almost amused. "Detective, I didn't need that long. I only held eye contact with him for ten seconds."

This time, Tsuragamae drops his pen in shock. "How is that possible?!"

"My technique is named after Tsukuyomi, the God of Time. One second in the illusion is equivalent to 1 x 10¹¹ seconds in real time." Kakashi pauses. "That means Slicer spent decades in my purgatory."

Tsuragamae doesn't hear any vindictive pleasure in his voice; regardless, it puts him on guard.

As a mutant with a permanent Dog Quirk, he's faced considerable discrimination while climbing up the ranks at his station. Tsuragamae is vehemently opposed to the practice of labeling Quirks as "good" or "bad."

Yet he is unable to deny that a technique like Tsukuyomi would be widely condemned as a villainous Quirk if it were made public.

Moreover, the level of composure Kakashi is displaying in this interview would be unnatural for an adult, let alone a child. It is disconcerting to witness.

Tsuragamae refrains from accusations, but he can't help but start to question. "Your technique..."

"I have a sense of measure, Detective," Kakashi interrupts calmly. "It was the first time I used my Quirk and a far from ideal awakening. It won't happen again."

At the end of the interview, Tsuragamae is still feeling unsettled despite discovering the truth.

From what Kakashi has disclosed, it is unlikely Slicer will ever recover from his psychosis. He'll live out the rest of his life in a mental hospital.

Tsuragamae feels no sympathy for a villain who murdered dozens of people, but he does see the irony in the situation.

It's an ignominious conclusion for the notorious serial killer, brought onto himself by staring into the eyes of a formerly Quirkless child for a span of mere seconds.

Kakashi possesses the potential to become either one of the greatest heroes or greatest villains of their time.

Tsuragamae shudders.

He knows which side he'd rather see the child fall on.

Chapter Text

Officially, Kakashi's Quirk is recorded as Sharingan, or "Copy Pinwheel Eyes."

No one knows what the name means except Kakashi, and that's exactly how he likes it. They initially thought that Tsukuyomi was his Quirk, and he had to explain that it was only one component.

His father feels much better about the whole Slicer situation after Kakashi assures him of the non-murderous and/or insanity-inducing applications of his Quirk. 

And his Quirk is all he really has to work with now. His chakra reserves were considered average at best in his previous life, but in his new life Kakashi truly has next to nothing. It seems to be a function of this particular world, because Kakashi hasn't seen anyone else with a chakra system like him.

He has enough rudimentary chakra to make him stronger and more durable than the average person, but he'll probably never be able to recreate any ninjutsu in this body. Sadly, he will have to bid farewell to his old moniker, "Kakashi of the Thousand Jutsus."

Luckily, he still has Obito's Sharingan. Perhaps due to the Kakashi being "born" with the eye in this life, he is able to turn it on and off at will. The Sharingan isn't a chakra-drain like it used to be, utilizing his own energy instead. He can use it in a passive state for up to an hour, and he believes he can eventually increase that duration with practice.

Although there is no chakra in this world, he is able to observe certain Quirk-related energy precursors flowing through the body, which should help him to predict attacks and give insight into people's Quirks. Similar to the previous world, the Sharingan endows him with perfect memory, the ability to copy any skill, and immense clarity of perception.

Casting Genjutsu takes a little more effort, and techniques like Tsukuyomi or Kamui are considerably draining. Using Kamui, it's much easier for him to expel things from his dimensional pocket than to store them for the first time. One usage often knocks him unconscious, and the largest item he's managed to hide away so far is a computer (which his father was not happy to find missing, again).

Overall, while many of his old techniques will have to stay as memories, Kakashi should still prove to be a substantial threat in his new world.

Despite thorough research, he hasn't come across anyone else from his past life, and Sakumo shows no signs of remembering anything. It saddens Kakashi to know that he will never be able to rejoin his old teammates and friends in the Pure Lands, but Kakashi is also grateful that he and his father received a second chance together.

Sakumo recovered better from Slicer's attack than the doctors expected. He will be more than able to lead a normal and even physically active life. However, his newfound limp and weakness in the previously severed arm ensure that he can no longer return to his pro-hero career. Despite his antagonistic first meeting with Detective Kenji Tsuragamae, Sakumo decides to join the police force as a crime consultant. 

Kakashi is secretly relieved that the potential for Sakumo to be pushed off his pedestal and ruined by those who used to admire him was cut off early in this life.

The White Fang retires with accolades for being the hero who sacrificed himself to permanently take down the infamous Slicer. It is universally agreed upon that Kakashi's involvement will be kept confidential.

Before regaining his memories and obtaining a Quirk, Kakashi hadn't been considering heroics as a potential career. He enjoyed learning and had entertained vague ideas of becoming a scientist or researcher in the future. He is still amazed at the breadth of knowledge available in this new world, but after remembering his life as a shinobi, he knows there is only one path he can take.

He had always been a better sword than shield in his previous life, but he would like the opportunity to do better in protecting those he cares about this time around. 

Sakumo mistakenly attributes Kakashi's newfound passion for heroics to the the lingering effects of the villain attack. It leads him to support Kakashi wholeheartedly in the process, so Kakashi doesn't feel the need to correct his misapprehensions. 

His father has been very encouraging about Kakashi's Quirk training, but there's a limit to how much Kakashi can accomplish in home or private facilities.

For example, he's been meaning to test whether he can pull off the Amaterasu technique, creating black flames that supposedly burn as hot as the sun and cannot be extinguished with water or time. He can't exactly experiment with "the fires of hell" in their manicured backyard. 

The perfect opportunity arrives at their doorstep in the form of the Hero Safety Commission.

While Kakashi's involvement in the Slicer case was not disclosed to the public, it clearly wasn't a difficult discovery for this shady government organization.

Their offer practically screams "child soldier training program," and Kakashi is reminded (not fondly) of ROOT. He gets the feeling that if Sakumo weren't an influential former hero, the Hero Commission would snatch Kakashi away, never to be seen in public again until he reached the legal age to become a hero.

His father is similarly wary of the Hero Commission representatives.

"I don't trust them to have your best interests at heart,"  Sakumo says tactfully, like he's worried about shattering Kakashi's dreams by revealing their government is corrupt and exploitative.

Ha! Like that's some sort of surprise.

"Oh, I don't trust them either!" Kakashi assures. "I'm just planning on using them for their training resources for as long as I can, before they realize I don't plan on becoming their pet hero."

He agrees to enter the program as a conditional candidate as a trial run. He has to sign a non-disclosure agreement, but there are no other restrictions on the contract. He's free to go whenever he wants. He's too valuable a candidate for them to pull any tricks.

Kakashi is curious to meet the other victims the Hero Commission tricked into the program.

As it turns out, Kakashi is one of the first two candidates for the child hero training program.

He enters the program under the codename Hound. The other participant is called Hawks, an apt title given his huge red wings.

Hawks is the same age as Kakashi yet much smaller in frame. Kakashi can see that he hasn't been treated very well by his previous caretakers. 

Unlike Kakashi who is under the protection of the White Fang, Hawks has no one except for the Hero Commission. He lives, sleeps, and trains at the facility. It appears his parents have already transferred their guardianship over to the government. In other words, Hawks doesn't have the option to quit or leave the program, and he knows it.

Hawks is a quiet kid. He is more mature than he should be due to the circumstances, and he possesses a natural instinct to help people along with the ability to accomplish it. There is no doubt that Hawks will make an amazing hero, but Kakashi would have liked for him to have the choice.

Hawks is surrounded by adults who only see him as a tool. Kakashi may be the only peer Hawks will be able to interact with for the indeterminable future, unless the Hero Commission manages to abduct/swindle/purchase another child into the program.

If Kakashi leaves the program in a year like he originally planned to, Hawks will be left with no allies and no support. Isolated, he'll grow up thinking his life of deprivation is normal.

Kakashi is no paragon of mental health himself (very few shinobi who made it to jounin were), but he thinks he can help Hawks make it to adulthood with one or two fewer neuroses.

Kakashi decides: he is sticking it out for long as he can in this ROOT 2.0 program. It'll be like training Tenzou to be human all over again. Fun!

"Change of plans - you're mine now," Kakashi announces. 

"I'm what?" Hawks looks adorably confused.

They are allowed a mere ten minutes as a training break, and time is almost up. (Depressingly, Kakashi suspects the break is even only that long on the days that he's present, and the Commission is forced to remember that child labor laws exist.)

Kakashi doesn't have long to explain, so he just declares, "You're my person now. Part of my pack - or flock, if we're continuing with the animal metaphors."

Hawks brightens. "Does that mean we are friends?"

He's so pure! Kakashi is resisting the urge to burn down the government facility, assassinate the more egregious Commission members, and kidnap Hawks home. Baby steps, baby steps.

Kakashi clarifies, "That means I would die and kill for you, but sure. 'Friends' works too." 

Hawks seems to suffer from selective hearing. He says with widened eyes, "Best friends?"

Kakashi holds up his pinky. He waits for Hawks to hook it with his own pinky, and then shakes it solemnly.

"Best friends," he vows.

Chapter Text

Kakashi ends up adopting a schedule where he attends elementary school twice a week and spends the rest of time in a home-schooling/training environment.

Being stuck in a classroom for five days a week learning about the basic concepts of math and reading was mind-numbingly tedious as a genius child. As someone with over thirty years of memories shoved into his mind, it would have been downright torture.

He occasionally drops in to check on Miki, as well as to assert his dominance over the class and scare them into being good people.

Sakumo prevented Kakashi from skipping grades all the way to college because he wanted him to have a childhood and make friends, both of which have been somewhat accomplished.

Compared to the horror-show that was his childhood before, his childhood now is a dream come true. It turns out that not having a disgraced father commit suicide at age six is doing wonders for his mental stability. Kakashi makes a token effort to continue brooding, but his father is so doting that his dark moods can't really last.

Additionally, Kakashi has a grand total of two friends now in Miki and Hawks, and he feels quite satisfied with that amount. They may be much younger than him mentally, but Hawks is mature for his age, and Miki is a sweetheart.

Or at least, a sweetheart by Kakashi's definition. The general populace would probably define her as "menace" now instead.

She's taken swimmingly to Kakashi's self-defense and self-esteem lessons, and has most recently suplexed a classmate who tried to push her around for being Quirkless. She didn't even get in much trouble over it, since their principal is still wary of a lawsuit from her mother.

(Kakashi wipes away a figurative tear. They grow up so fast!)

Once Miki discovered Kakashi's newfound direction in life, she set her goal to joining him at U.A. in the support department.

"I'll design a cool-looking mask for you! Way better than that medical mask you started wearing for no good reason."

"I'm afraid of germs," Kakashi says blandly.

"You've never even been out sick," she points out. 

Kakashi thinks for a moment, and tries again. "I'm hiding my hideous facial birthmark."

Miki says with confusion, "Kakashi, I know what you look like. You're the prettiest person in our class."

Oops, he forgot about that.

He wore a mask in his last life because he didn't want to be reminded of his father, which isn't a reason any longer. He's been wearing it recently out of habit, but he's also not as determined to cover his face as he used to be, and his classmates have all already seen his appearance.

"Kentaro is always asking where you are," Miki says knowingly, and Kakashi shudders.

Ugh, puppy love. That's one good reason to wear his mask. He is not looking forward to puberty.

He's also getting used to having access to both eyes again. It helps that in this life, he never had to keep his Sharingan eye constantly covered to avoid chakra drain. 

Kakashi briefly contemplates recreating his slanted Konoha headband look. He ultimately decides against it because it seems more tactically sound to not have an extra step of uncovering his Sharingan in battle. 

(It has nothing at all to do with the fact that the one time he tries wearing an eyepatch, it sparks a trend in his elementary school. His classmates, having adopted the look as a fashion statement, wander around bumping into things for a week before the teacher gets involved.

Kakashi is relatively shameless, but even he doesn't want to match with a bunch of snot-nosed brats.)

The days pass by peacefully, as Kakashi continues to train, assists Miki in becoming the queen of her class while avoiding the lovestruck Kentaro, collects blackmail against the Hero Commission as leverage, teaches Hawks the joy of rebellion during their trainings, and safeguards his neighborhood. 

Kakashi handles a few small incidents over the years, but it isn't until he turns nine that he encounters a major incident. 

Chapter Text

Kakashi is patrolling Tasomiya Ward when the incident occurs.

Tasomiya is a distance away from his home, but thanks to the neighborhood watch patrol he initiated and "polite" warnings he's released to small-time criminals through his information network, the wards nearer to him haven't had much trouble recently. As a result, Kakashi has been venturing further and further out lately. 

Funnily enough, no law has been passed that makes it illegal to do vigilante work without a Quirk. With a Quirk, sure - but there's no law against Kakashi coincidentally passing by a burglary and coincidentally tripping muggers into slamming their faces into brick walls. Repeatedly. 

Judging by Detective Tsuragamae's look of exasperation every time Kakashi shows up at the station, they may be pushing through an amendment to that law any day now. 

Honestly, he should be thanking Kakashi. Crime incidences in the places Kakashi frequents have dropped by over 15% since he started, and Kakashi is much better at paperwork than the more arrogant, impetuous newbie pro heroes. 

However, not every day involves a dramatic rescue on Kakashi's part. Most of the time, there are only minor issues when he goes out to patrol. Often, the most exciting thing he does is help a grandma carry her groceries home or fish stray cats out of trees. 

Today looks like another calm day. It's peaceful enough that Kakashi spots two trainee heroes helping children from a local daycare cross the street. 

Kakashi may not be the biggest fan of the glitz and glamour of the professional hero industry, but most of the student heroes usually haven't gotten the chance to be dyed dark yet by the corrupting fame and power of the industry. 

The two trainees are likely from the nearby U.A. In fact, he recognizes both from last year's U.A. Sports Festival. 

Shirakumo Oboro, the blue-haired boy with the ability to generate clouds, performed reasonably well before bowing out early due to a clumsy mistake. His cheerfulness and goggles reminded Kakashi of another loudmouthed idiot he once knew. 

Meanwhile, Aizawa Shouta made it to the semi-finals. The dark-haired teen from the General Department possessed some sort of visual-based Erasure Quirk. For the first few rounds, he encountered classmates with Quirks he could disable and then take down in their surprise and failure to adapt. His last round was an unfortunate match-up with someone with a mutant Quirk that gave them super-speed. 

Kakashi remembers being especially impressed with Aizawa. The boy was basically going up Quirkless against his opponents. His hand-to-hand was scrappy and unpolished but leagues better than most of the idiots out there who only knew how to use their Quirks and were helpless otherwise. 

He's glad that the judges weren't completely blind - U.A. must have promoted Aizawa from the General Department to the Hero Department upon seeing the results of the festival. 

Kakashi nods to them as he passes by. 

"Hey, kid! It's a weekday. Shouldn't you be in school?" Shirakumo calls. 

"I already graduated," Kakashi says, deadpan.

It's technically true, since he's collected multiple degrees at this point. If it weren't the fact that attending a high school like U.A. was the quickest way to obtain a professional hero license, he would be completely done with compulsory education - and good riddance. 

Aizawa looks skeptical. "I didn't realize kids these days had started skipping class this early on."

"You would too if you had to re-learn basic geometry," Kakashi mutters under his breath before chirping, "Don't be too nosy about things that aren't your business, future hero to be! You'll get stress lines early."

"What a brat," he hears a disgruntled Aizawa say as he walks away. "This is why I could never teach children."

Kakashi is examining the sky and musing on how it seems like it's about to rain, when the two trainees come running back the alleyway. 

"We need to evacuate! There's a villain coming this way," Aizawa tells Kakashi and the nursery teacher. 

The warning comes too late. 

The villain Garvey is already here. His Quirk is Stock, but Kakashi doesn't remember him being over two stories tall. 

This may be a bit of a problem. 

He's combing through potential battle plans in his mind when the concrete chunks start falling from nearby buildings due to the villain's attacks. 

A particularly large chunk is headed straight towards the teacher and her students. 

Luckily, the nearby Shirakumo has long-range ability and conjures a cloud to divert the falling wreckage. 

Or not so lucky, since it seems Shirakumo has entirely neglected his own safety in protecting others. 

Kakashi makes the calculations in a matter of milliseconds.

He uses the limited chakra in his body to put on a spurt of speed to reach Shirakumo's side and pushes Shirakumo towards the wall behind them. Kakashi has the time to see Shirakumo's face turn from terrified but determined to horrified upon his arrival. 

He hears Aizawa's anguished cry of, "Shirakumo!"

But Kakashi doesn't have time to worry about other people right now.

Staring up at the rock that is about to crush them, Kakashi shouts, "Kamui!" 

Chapter Text

"You could do just about anything if you put your mind to it!" Shirakumo says to Aizawa as they walk away from the street corner.

"Anything? Like run a daycare? Or become a teacher?"

"Yep, exactly." Shirakumo shoots two finger guns at him. 

Aizawa shakes his head dismissively. "Try thinking before you speak."

"I'm serious!"

Shirakumo is delusional - Aizawa is possibly the least suited person on this earth to become a teacher.

The brief but aggravating encounter with that precocious silver-haired brat just proved his point. 

Aizawa is about to argue exactly that, when his phone rings. 

"Huh, it's Kayama." He picks up the phone, only to hear her panicked voice. "Aizawa! Start evacuating the area, now! We've got a nasty villain wrecking the neighborhood."

Shirakumo and Aizawa look at each other and blurt out at the same time, "The kids!"

They run back around the corner. Aizawa is relieved to see both the daycare class and the silver-haired elementary school student still there. 

He informs them of the situation, and they start to evacuate. 

Unfortunately, they aren't fast enough. The villain Garvey is soon upon them. 

Aizawa is relieved to see the Purple Highness arrive, but the pro is no match for the bevy of Quirk attacks Garvey has stored in his body. 

Purple Highness is thrown into a nearby wall. He doesn't get back up again. 

Garvey's attack also causes debris from the building to rain from the sky. 

Aizawa doesn't react quickly enough. He sees a large chunk of concrete about to crush the daycare teacher and her students. Shirakumo stops it with a cloud, but - 

"Shirakumo!" Aizawa cries, as a pile of debris drops where Shirakumo was standing. He could have sworn he also saw a flash of silver before the rubble fell too. "No! Shirakumo! No way!"

His mentor is unconscious. Shirakumo is trapped somewhere under the rocks. Aizawa is the only one left standing. 

He's about to send himself into a tailspin with all the considerations of how to fight Garvey when he hears Shirakumo's voice come from the radio. 

"You got this, Aizawa!" says the staticky device. 

That's right. This isn't the time to hesitate. 

He tries strategy one - delaying his use of Erasure until the moment that Garvey's lumps activate their Quirks. Unfortunately, the attacks still cause damage to things nearby, such as the daycare class he needs to protect.

Strategy two, then - lure the villain into overhead attacks. 

It seems to be working, but Aizawa is quickly knocked to the ground again. There's no way to deal with the villain's huge body. 

He doesn't know what to do.

"You can do it, Shota! You're the only one who can protect everyone. You're strong, you won't lose!" Oboro exhorts from the radio. 

Aizawa is knocked down again and again, but with Shirakumo's warm encouragement, he's able to get back up every time. 

Finally, he succeeds by using his scarf to swing Garvey's lumps into his own mouth, forcing him to self-detonate. 

"I did it!" Aizawa says from where he's now lying exhausted on the ground. "Shirakumo, I did it!"

The ambulances, rescuers, and other trainees arrive shortly afterwards. 

"It's hard to believe that one trainee took that thing down on his own," a pro hero receiving medical treatment comments. 

"Nah, it was a team effort. My partner was cheering me on the whole time. Right, Shirakumo?" Aizawa addresses the radio speaker.

There's nothing but static as a response. 

For some reason, Aizawa has a bad feeling. 

"How are his wounds looking, Kayama?" he asks. 

Her back looks lonely in the rain. She doesn't respond. 

"That bad? Really? Let's get him to the hospital, quick." Aizawa says to Yamada who is picking up Shirakumo's speaker, "Ah, see that speaker, Yamada? That's Shirakumo's. We better take it with us."

Sensoji examines the speaker. "Huh? This thing's totally busted."

Aizawa feels a chill run down his spine. "That can't be. The whole time, Shirakumo was - "

"You're saying you heard him cheer you on to the end? Nah, you couldn't have.  You were just giving yourself a pep talk and imagined it was coming from the speaker." Sensoji says, not unsympathetically. "They say that can happen when it's do-or-die."

"No way," Aizawa denies. "His voice kept me going..."

His voice trails off as he sees the rescuers carry out a body covered in a tarp. 

"Most of the fatalities weren't even from direct hits, but from the collateral damage Garvey caused," Kayama says quietly. 

"Ah," Sensoji says with realization, "so Shirakumo..."

The tarp slips, revealing an unfamiliar arm. 

"It's not him," Aizawa says. "That's not Shirakumo!"

"The last place you saw him was where the rubble was coming down, right?" Yamada asks. He sounds like he already knows the answer. 

Aizawa shakes his head in denial. "No, Shirakumo is fine. They just haven't dug him out yet! He must be under there somewhere."

Kayama puts a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Aizawa..."

"Survivors! We've found survivors!" a rescuer shouts. 

Aizawa pulls away from Kayama and starts running towards the rescuer. An officer tries to stop him from going into the roped away area, but Aizawa easily ducks past him. 

He sees familiar blue hair and nearly collapses to his knees in relief. 

It seems Shirakumo doesn't have any major injuries, but Aizawa has never seen him so agitated and anxious before. 

He's gesturing over a small, limp body. It can't be any of the preschool students; Aizawa is sure all of them were accounted for.

Shirakumo shifts slightly, and Aizawa is able to see clearly who is lying on the stretcher.

Silver hair. It's the brat. 

Chapter Text

Shirakumo has a moment of realization: Ah, I'm going to die here. 

There's no reel of memories that plays through his mind before the end, or sudden epiphanies. 

He feels scared (I don't want to die), sad (they're going to have to tell my parents), and resigned (there's nothing I can do to stop this from happening). 

At least I saved those daycare kids and their sensei, he thinks. 

Then, he's shoved backwards by the silver-haired boy that he and Aizawa met before. 

His resigned acceptance quickly transforms into horror. 

The prospect of dying is scary, but what's scarier is the prospect of someone dying because of you. 

But neither of them die in the end.

"Kamui!" the boy shouts.

And a dozen bundles of steel rebar appear out of nowhere. 

The chunk of concrete that was about to smash their heads hits the rebar with a screech. 

In retrospect, Shirakumo understands why the boy shoved them backwards to the wall. The rubble of the building meets the wall at just the right angle so that the two of them have some breathing room and aren't crushed. 

But judging by the subsequent thuds on top of the piece of debris, they won't be getting out on their own any time soon. 

The space is cramped and dark, but Shirakumo is just grateful to be alive.

"Are you alright?" the boy asks. 

"I'm fine, aside from a couple of bumps." Oboro says wonderingly, "You saved me." 

The boy grunts. "Eh. You two U.A. students were annoying, but not 'let them die' levels of annoying."

"How about you - are you okay?"

"I'll be fine."

Shirakumo lets out a sigh of relief. He would have felt really guilty if the boy had gotten hurt trying to save him. 

"What's your name?" he asks. 

"Hatake Kakashi. And you're Shirakumo Oboro, right?"

"That's right! How did you know?"

"I saw you and Eraserhead in the Sports Festival." He pauses. "You need to work on your situational awareness."

"Haha, yeah. Aizawa always says that if I keep my head in the clouds all the time, I'm going to lose it some day." 

"Do better. I'm not going to be there to pull you out of danger every time," Kakashi admonishes.

It's strange, because Kakashi can't be older than ten years old, but he sounds just like an exasperated teacher. 

Shirakumo is glad it's dark so that Kakashi can't see him flush. It is pretty embarrassing that a hero trainee was saved by the civilian he was trying to rescue. But just how did Kakashi rescue him? 

"How did you do it?" he asks with curiosity. "Do you have a metal creation Quirk?"

"Not quite. I have a dimensional pocket in my eye." 

That...is one of the more unusual Quirk descriptions Shirakumo has heard. 

"I knew those steel bars would come in handy. And to think my tou-san was arguing with me about whether I needed them - 'when's the next time you'll encounter a collapsing building?' he said. Shows what he knows."

"Uh, is this not your first time almost being crushed by concrete?"

"It's my third," Kakashi says with resignation.

Damn, what kind of life has this kid been living? Has he been purposely throwing himself into dangerous situations or something?

"Are you aiming to be a hero? A dimensional pocket isn't an obvious offense Quirk, but I think you could get creative with it."

"I am. I'll be attending U.A. in six years."

"Confident, are you?" Shirakumo teases. 

"Well, seeing as how I just rescued one of U.A.'s finest..." he trails off suggestively. 

"Okay, okay, I got it. Aizawa's right, you are kind of a brat. How old are you anyway?"

"I'm nine." 

"So you're in fourth grade? Why were you skipping class today?"

Kakashi huffs, like he's heard this line of inquiry over a dozen times before. "I wasn't kidding when I said I graduated. I've already gotten three degrees."

"Whoa, seriously? Are you some kind of prodigy?"

"Yes," Kakashi deadpans. 

"Six more years, huh? Aizawa and I will have long since graduated by the time you enter U.A." Shirakumo jokes, "Who knows? Maybe you'll have Aizawa-sensei as your teacher."

"Perhaps. I do get the feeling he's better suited to the profession than he thinks."

They continue chatting in the dark, but Kakashi's responses become shorter and shorter.

"Kakashi?" Shirakumo tries, when Kakashi fails to make fun of one of his more egregious knock-knock jokes. 

"Ah. I'm sorry, Shirakumo. I didn't tell you the full truth." Kakashi says in a strained voice. "I thought they would find us sooner."

Shirakumo says seriously, "What's going on, Kakashi?"

"I normally don't eject that large a volume of items from my pocket. It takes a lot out of me. Also, there were some glass shards from the building's windows, and I - may have gotten cut."

"You got cut?" Shirakumo raises his voice. 

"I calculated the trajectory with the least amount of potential damage to the two of us, okay? I didn't think the glass would cut as deeply as it did," Kakashi says grumpily. 

Shirakumo would think it was cute if he wasn't so upset right now. 

"You - how badly are you injured?"

"I'm going to need you to take over applying pressure to my wound in a few minutes. I may or may not be passing out at any moment now," Kakashi says.

He is far too calm for someone suffering from severe blood loss.  

"You - this is the type of information you tell people in advance, alright?" Shirakumo fumbles to find Kakashi's hands. They're pressed against a large gash in his abdomen. 

Shirakumo replaces Kakashi, and applies pressure to the wound. He can feel the warm blood seeping through his fingers. 

Shirakumo tries to keep Kakashi awake by chatting with him, but the pauses between his responses get longer and longer. 

At some point, he becomes delirious from the blood loss. 

"Obito?" Kakashi says groggily. "Did I save you this time?"

"My name's Oboro, Kakashi," Shirakumo says patiently. "Stay with me, okay?"

"I'm here. You - you're the one who didn't stay. I've always been here. You guys are the ones who left."

"That's not true. I'm right here, aren't I?"

This paradox seems to confuse Kakashi. "You are. You're alive. You and your stupid goggles. Deadlast. Crybaby. Loudmouth."

Delirious Kakashi is mean. 

"That's not very nice of you to say. I happen to think my goggles are both fashionable and functional. I lent a pair to Aizawa," Shirakumo says, masking his worry with good humor. 

Kakashi considers this, and says softly, "Sorry. I'll be nice. Don't leave, okay?"

Shirakumo is trying very hard right now not to shed tears from frustration. It would just prove Kakashi's point about being a crybaby. 

He doesn't know what to do.

Kakashi is clearly in no state to use his Quirk to get them out of this mess. Shirakumo knows he doesn't have enough power to lift however many tons of rocks are above them, and he's afraid that he'll cause the rest of the rubble to come crashing down on them if he makes a wrong move. 

The only thing they can do is wait for rescue. 

The sounds of fighting calmed down a while ago, which assures Shirakumo that Aizawa and the other heroes must have somehow won against the villain. 

But it's already been twenty minutes, and Kakashi doesn't have much time left. 

If only Shirakumo still had his speaker on him. It fell off of his belt at some point during the battle. 

Well, Kakashi and Aizawa have both said that he was a loudmouth. He might not reach Yamada's levels of volume, but he can try. 

He takes a deep breath. 

"HELP! Is anyone there? Help!"

Muffled silence. 

"Help! Anyone! We're down here!"

He tries again and again. Past the point when Kakashi stops responding, until his voice has gone hoarse.

He doesn't give up. 

The crack of light that breaks through the darkness when they're finally found is the most beautiful thing Shirakumo has ever witnessed. 

Chapter Text

The first thing Kakashi hears upon waking up is his father saying, "You are so grounded."

"Tou-san," he says.

He's lying in a hospital bed, with an IV hooked up to his arm. He feels dizzy and lethargic, but it's no worse than the (numerous) occasions in which he used to pass out from chakra exhaustion. 

"Until you're thirty, Kakashi," Sakumo continues. "You almost went into hypovolemic shock! The only reason I found out you were injured at all was because the folks at the police department recognized you by your hair."

"I'll carry an ID card with me next time," Kakashi vows.

"No, no next time! You didn't think you were subtle with your neighborhood patrols, did you? It was okay when it was just petty thieves and kittens stuck in trees, but this is too far."

"I'm going to be facing situations like this eventually when I become a hero," Kakashi tries to persuade. 

"Yeah, when you become a hero. Which is six years from now, plus three years of U.A. training, and maybe a year or two of working as a sidekick. Not now, when you're nine years old."

"But..."

"Nope, you're not budging me on this one," Sakumo says. "You scared the hell out of me, Kakashi."

Noticing the strain on his father's face, Kakashi relents. "I'm sorry for worrying you. What happened after I passed out?"

"One of the trainee heroes - Eraserhead - managed to take down Jarvey on his own. There were a couple of casualties, but only two fatalities."

Kakashi is surprised. "On his own? Aizawa must have improved a lot since the Sports Festival."

His father concedes, "He's going to be a great hero one day. I would have pegged him as more of a support or ambush than a main tank, but he did what he needed to do, when it came down to it."

"What about Shirakumo?"

"He's fine, thanks to you."

Kakashi sighs in relief. "See? Didn't I tell you those steel bars would come in handy?"

Sakumo throws his hands up in exasperation. "Maybe if you didn't run around looking for trouble, you wouldn't encounter a collapsing building more than once in your life!"

"Maybe I should commission a giant bubble once I get to U.A. from the Support Department," Kakashi muses. 

"You treat your dimensional pocket like some sort of depot," Sakumo grumbles. "I've lost track of the random things you've stuffed in there."

"I'm still experimenting with storing complex living beings. No luck yet, but I think corpses are a go!"

"...I'm starting to understand why Detective Tsuragamae worries so much about you."

"Don't worry, tou-san," Kakashi says cheerfully. "At worst, I'll become a vigilante. Or maybe a double agent." 

"Let's stick to heroics, if we can. Save me a few white hairs," Sakumo jokes. 

Kakashi wants to know, "When will I be discharged?"

"You are not resuming training as soon as you get out of the hospital," his father immediately replies. 

"But, but - Hawks!" Kakashi protests.

"I've already informed him you'll be taking a break. He sends you his best wishes, but those Commission people won't let him leave the facility to come visit you."

"I need to improve my stamina. Ejecting the rebar took way too much out of me," Kakashi says with determination.

"You've already improved so much. When you first started, you would have been knocked unconscious from storing an apple," Sakumo says encouragingly.  

Kakashi shakes his head. "It's not enough."

He's still too weak. Kakashi knew he wouldn't be able to reach the strength of his previous life, but he was taken out much too easily by the villain this time. 

Sakumo sighs. "I won't argue about this with you anymore. I just hope you stay within your limits."

"I won't know my limits until I reach them," Kakashi counters.

"I agree, but you're not testing your limits in real combat situations anymore. Stick to the training room until you get to U.A."

"Fine!" Kakashi leans back into his pillow with an annoyed huff. He'll just have to put more efforts into his digital information gathering activities instead from now on.

"By the way, the trainees wanted to come by and thank you." 

"Ah, are they still in the hospital?"

"They were discharged almost immediately, but they've been waiting anxiously for you to wake up for the past few hours. Are you open to them visiting?"

Kakashi assents, and Sakumo leaves the room. He comes back with the two teenagers.

Shirakumo immediately brightens when he sees him. "Kakashi! I'm so glad you're alright!"

He bops Kakashi lightly on the head. "Hmph! That's for not telling me you were bleeding out until it was almost too late."

Kakashi considers arguing that it wouldn't have done any good when they were both stuck waiting anyway, but decides not to at Sakumo's warning glare. 

He changes the subject. "I won't do it next time. By the way, congratulations, Aizawa. I heard it was quite the takedown on your part."

"I was lucky. Things could have gone really badly if it weren't for you, Kakashi." Aizawa bows slightly. "Thank you for saving my friend."

Shirakumo looks flustered. 

Kakashi feels the same way. For all that he exudes self-confidence, he's not actually used to sincere praise and thanks. He clears his throat. "Well, I wasn't much help afterwards. I really need to work on exercising my Quirk. I was useless after one usage of Kamui."

Aizawa nods. "I think this incident showed me how much further I have to go as well." He turns around and pinches Shirakumo's ear. "And you! What did I say about paying attention to your surroundings!"

Kakashi laughs. "I said the same thing. He has zero situational awareness."

Pouting, Shirakumo complains, "Okay, now you guys are just ganging up on me."

"We wouldn't be, if you hadn't gotten saved by a nine-year-old," Aizawa deadpans. 

"Oh come on!" Shirakumo groans. "Kakashi's different. If all nine-year-old kids were like him, pro heroes would be out of business."

"Are you aiming to become a hero?" Aizawa asks Kakashi. 

"Not aiming. I will be a hero," Kakashi says confidently. 

Aizawa doesn't show any of the skepticism from their first meeting. "I'm sure you can do it."

"Maybe I'll see you at U.A. one day, Aizawa-sensei?" Kakashi says teasingly. 

Aizawa snorts. "Not likely."

Chapter Text

Kakashi's role in saving a U.A. trainee in the Tasomiya Ward Attack goes unreported yet again by media.

The Hero Commission, however, is well-aware of events, renewing their belief that training underage heroes is a great idea and not at all morally ambiguous. They start bringing in candidates to the Root 2.0 program again, but no one really sticks. 

It's both fortunate in that no one else gets tricked into the child soldier program and unfortunate in that Hawks did really like that one rabbit Quirk girl. 

"Miruko," she introduces herself by a codename before rolling her eyes. "It's really weird how they won't let you guys use your real names here. That's really shady."

Miruko had a powerful Quirk, two loving parents, and no desire to sacrifice her life to a corrupt governmental bureau the way Hawks did - to the supreme disappointment of both Hawks and the Hero Commission. 

"Sorry, I don't think this program is for me," she tells Hawks and Kakashi apologetically. "I plan to just apply to a local hero school in Hiroshima. We only came here because they told us this was a Quirk assessment for 'budding heroes.' I don't even know how they found me."

"Hawks and I are planning to apply to U.A. You should apply too - we could be classmates," Kakashi says, unwilling to give up. 

Hawks frowns. "Well, we don't know yet if I'll be allowed to attend high school. They were planning on just homeschooling me until I'm old enough to get my hero license."

Kakashi says kindly, "Don't worry, Hawks. I'll make sure to have enough dirt on them by the time we're fifteen, so that they'll have no choice but to let you attend U.A."

"Am I supposed to be hearing this?" Miruko asks.

He turns to her, and launches into his persuasive argument. "Miruko - you're amazing enough that I have no doubt you'll become a top hero no matter what school you go to. But Hawks and I would love if you could attend high school with us at U.A. I'll send you some links to scholarships and help you apply."

He nudges Hawks, and Hawks dutifully gives her the puppy eyes. 

She sighs gustily. "Fine. I'll apply - only because you guys aren't total dopes compared to the kids at home. But if I have to write any essays, I'm out."

"I'm great at forging handwriting!" Kakashi assures her cheerily. "Here's my number - just let me know when you need assistance."

Miruko bids them farewell as she returns to her hometown in Hiroshima. Hawks' wings are droopy for the next few weeks; he really hasn't had many opportunities to socialize with children his age.

Most of the children who came to the facility were massively self-entitled jerks who thought their Quirks made them superior to other people. They quickly learned otherwise as Hawks and Kakashi showed them what genius potential really was. Those spoiled idiots weren't suitable to be friends with Hawks, and Kakashi was honestly too lazy to whip them into shape. 

Miruko was the rare child who had a strong Quirk, a sense of confidence that didn't require belittling others, and an interesting personality. Hopefully, they would see her again in a few years at U.A. Otherwise, Kakashi had no doubts she would be reaching the J.P. Hero Charts at some point or another. 

No other candidate lasts for more than a few training sessions until Flashfire - or, as they will eventually call him, Touya. 

Touya is a year older than them, but he's relatively childish so it all balances out. 

"Hound and Hawks, huh? Should I have come up with an animal codename, too?" Touya wonders aloud. 

Touya isn't an orphan. Neither Hawks nor Kakashi have seen his parents drop him off, but judging by the driver that usually takes him to the facility, they must be rather affluent. From what Touya has told them, his father is a well-known hero, and he's only here to train because sometimes his father is too busy to train him on his own. 

The redhead is cheerful, optimistic, and eager to become a great hero. Hawks is infatuated. 

Well, not really, since they're all still children. But Kakashi has an eye for these things, and he can tell Hawks is on his way to a budding crush on Touya. It'll definitely hit the two boys like a truck once they reach puberty.  

Kakashi is somewhat offended he wasn't the initial choice - hello, he's got a great first-love face right here - but ultimately happy for Hawks.

Kakashi can be his friend, mentor, and support, but Hawks is too young for him to consider any sort of romantic entanglements. He's like a little brother. Kakashi is proud to see Hawks developing emotionally outside of the isolated, dutybound shell the Commission tried to turn him into. 

Touya is oblivious, of course. However, Kakashi observes that he also favors Hawks. He can be reckless and hotheaded with Kakashi, but he's always very gentle and doting to Hawks.  

It makes Kakashi feel like a particularly obtrusive third wheel. He plans on paying the two boys back with interest and tease them until they cry when they finally realize their feelings in the future.

Touya is a year older than them, so he will likely head off to U.A. first, and they'll be able to overlap at high school for two years. Then, the three of them will become professional heroes, out of the clutches of the Hero Commission.

Kakashi has it all planned out.

Until, one day, Touya stops coming to their sessions. 

Chapter Text

Touya doesn't show up for three weeks. Hawks is disappointed the first week, anxious the second week, and in a full-blown panic that Touya is never returning by the third.  

The Commission is closemouthed; they've never enjoyed sharing information unless it was in their best interests. Kakashi tries to do some digging to find out a way to contact Touya. However, Touya's family must be more prominent than Kakashi had initially thought, because his information is incredibly well-protected. 

Hawks frets. "Do you think he's still coming back, Kakashi?"

"I don't know. Let's give it a few more days. It's only been three weeks. I'll try to push the Commission representatives a little harder if we don't hear anything by the weekend."

A few days later, Touya comes back. However, he returns sporting a new head of white and a chip on his shoulder.  

He explains his absence. "My father took me to the doctor. Apparently, I inherited my mother's cold resistance instead of my father's heat resistance. He says I can't be a hero and won't train me anymore. I had to convince him to let me still come here."

"You'll have to be careful. If you push yourself too hard with your Quirk, you'll end up hurting yourself," Kakashi says.

Touya snorts. "That's what the doctor said. But I don't care. My father's wrong - I can still be a hero, and I'll prove it to him."

"You can do it!" Hawks says, with the sparkling eyes and unconditional belief he always has when facing Touya.

Touya has been uncharacteristically grim since he returned, but he softens at that. "Thank you for believing in me, Hawks."

He glances at Kakashi, who has remained silent while thinking of the implications of the diagnosis. 

Kakashi finally says, "It's dangerous, but it'll be less so if we train you slowly to gain resistance to your flames. I have a feeling that your flames will only get hotter as you get older. I'll come up with a good training plan for you."

Touya breaks out into a grin. "I knew I could count on both of you! I don't need my father's special recommendation. I'll get into U.A. with my own power!"

Touya can't be pushed too hard. Kakashi stops their exercises whenever he thinks Touya is about to burn himself, but Touya still ends up getting first-degree burns multiple times. 

"I told you to stop ten minutes ago!" Kakashi scolds as he wraps Touya's arm in bandages. 

Touya tries to smile through the pain. "How can a little blister stop me if I'm going to be a hero? Look at Hawks, he's still going through the obstacle course now!"

Kakashi lowers his voice. "Hawks doesn't have a choice, Touya. The Hero Commission is officially his guardian. But you have parents, a family. No one can force you to do anything."

"I know that. This is what I want for myself," Touya says. 

"There's no need to push yourself to the point of injury. I told you, I can help you get into U.A. safely."

Touya lowers his head. "I can't wait, Kakashi. Did I tell you that my parents had another child after they found out I was a failure? He has the ideal Quirk. My father has just started training him." 

Kakashi pauses. Honestly, Touya's father sounds like a glory-obsessed, utilitarian man. Kakashi is in a child soldier training program and actually was a child soldier and trained others a lifetime ago, so he doesn't have much place to speak, but he knows that this isn't Konoha anymore. In this world, it isn't normal to start training children to fight so early. 

He would try to find out the identity of Touya's father, but Touya is too closemouthed about it. 

"...I'll tattle on you to Hawks," Kakashi says, as his last resort. It usually works. 

It does this time as well. Touya groans. "Fine. But only because he frets too much."

"We're all varying degrees of self-destructive. I would say Hawks worries a perfectly reasonable amount."

"Self-destructive - a great characteristic for budding heroes," Touya counters. 

"Better than the alternative, though not by much," Kakashi acknowledges.

Kakashi would rather work himself to the bone than be too weak to protect what he needs to, but he recognizes it isn't the healthiest mindset. He's gotten much better about burning himself like a match to warm others compared to his old shinobi days, thanks to the friends and family he has in this life. 

Touya says thoughtfully, "The alternative. Kakashi, have you ever thought that heroes aren't always good?"

Kakashi looks at him sharply. "What do you mean by that?"

Touya breaks away his gaze. "Never mind."

"You mean how the hero industry is filled with heroes who care more about fame, power, and victory than the people they are saving?"

Touya nods without looking up. 

Kakashi sighs. "Touya, there's no profession where everyone is good. Even among heroes, you'll have people who are doing things for the wrong reasons."

"Like my father."  

"Perhaps. I don't know him well enough to say. But I've met good people who do bad things, and bad people who do good things. People are complex, Touya. The world isn't so simple, especially not the world we're planning on stepping into."

He thinks of a boy who could be as cold as ice but as soft as the falling snow, a man everyone considered a monster, and how pure the bond between them was. How cold it was the day he accidentally killed the boy and the man swiftly followed, accompanying him to their next life. 

He thinks of a man who loved his village so much that he destroyed it in the name of the greater good. A hero turned villain. 

"Do you still want to be a hero?" Kakashi asks Touya. 

 Touya doesn't answer for a moment, but eventually punches Kakashi cheerfully in the shoulder. 

"...yeah, of course. What else would I be? Someone has to take care of my two underclassmen at U.A. to make sure you guys don't get bullied."

Kakashi thinks anyone who tries to bully him or Hawks is in for a world of pain and humiliation but it's the thought that counts. 

He bats his eyelashes dramatically and pretends to swoon. "Our hero!"

Chapter Text

For weeks, Kakashi has been trying to improve Touya's firepower without causing backlash to his body. 

Kakashi is intimately familiar with how to maximize the efficiency of his power through control, a habit from his previous life where he always had limited chakra to work with. However, Touya has the opposite problem. If Kakashi's power was a faucet on low, Touya's was a faucet that could go from a trickle to a blast with the slightest change in pressure. 

In the end, it's Hawks who figures out the key. 

"Instead of aiming for the right amount of power, why don't you take it step by step?" Hawks mimics the act of slowly twisting a faucet. "Go from 0 to 1, then 2, 3, and eventually you'll get to where you want!"

Touya scoffs. "That's so obvious. There's no way that will work."

Hawks pouts. "You haven't even tested it out yet!"

At this point, Kakashi is out of ideas. "Just try it. Maybe a simple-minded method is exactly what we need."

Touya glowers at them, but eventually surrenders. "Fine! But don't say I didn't tell you so when it fails again."

He lights up a lively orange flame in his palm.

"That's not zero!" Hawks nags.

Huffing, Touya douses the flame and starts again. This time the flame is noticeably weaker and a dull red. 

It slowly turns bright red, orange again, then bright yellow. Sweat is dripping down his forehead, but Touya persists. The flame turns white, and then a piercing shade of blue. 

The temperature of Touya's fire must be over 2,900 degrees to have attained its blue color. That's even hotter than the number two hero Endeavor's highest temperature attacks. 

"Now bring it back! Slowly, slowly!" Hawks urges. 

With a grunt, Touya dampens the fire from blue to white, yellow to orange, and finally back to red before it disappears. 

As soon as the flame winks out, Hawks tackles Touya in a hug. "You did it! I knew you could do it."

Touya looks at his hands in disbelief. "I did it? I did it!"

Kakashi is vaguely annoyed he didn't think of such a basic technique, proud of Touya for finally figuring out a viable method for increasing the intensity of his flames, and impressed with Hawks for his insight. It seems Hawks would make a good mentor - he knows just what learning style to apply to his students. 

"A simple-minded technique for a simple-minded kid," Kakashi muses aloud. 

"Don't ruin the moment, Kakashi," Touya says, before turning to Hawks to plant forceful smooches on either cheek. "Mwah! Mwah! You're a genius, little man!"

Hawks flushes, absently touching his cheek. 

"I've got to show my dad! This time he'll finally acknowledge me!" Touya grabs his backpack. He calls over his shoulder before leaving, "I'll see you guys tomorrow. Thanks again, Hawks! I owe you one."

"Hold on, we should practice the new method first..." Kakashi tries to say, but Touya's already out the door. "...and he's not listening. What an impatient brat. Why do you admire a guy like that, Hawks?"

Hawks finally snaps out of it. "Huh? I mean...Touya's the best. He works really hard, and he never gives up on his dreams."

"The best? What about me?" Kakashi pouts. He's not wearing a mask, so the beauty crit is doubled. 

Hawks averts his eyes. "Senpai is senpai. You're in a different category."

Kakashi's heart melts. "Adorable! You're so cute, Hawksy-pie." He intentionally smacks his lips where Touya kissed Hawks before. 

"Ugh, gross!" Hawks shoves him. 

"Such double standards." Kakashi sighs forlornly. "Now that you have Touya, senpai is just last year's old news."

"You know what this means, right? Touya's a shoo-in for U.A. this year," Hawks says excitedly. 

"All he has to do is wait for us to join him next year," Kakashi agrees. He can already envision the bright future.  

That night, Kakashi is shaken awake, and the first thing he sees is the grim face of his father. 

"Kakashi. The Hero Commission needs your help."

By the time Kakashi arrives at the scene, the flames have been burning for hours. 

"The fire started at Sekoto Peak, but it's spreading too quickly. It'll reach inhabited areas soon," the handler informs him. 

Kakashi has picked up a trick or two with Amaterasu, but he's far from an expert with fire. "Why call me? This is within the patrol range of Endeavor's agency."

The handler hesitates. "...Endeavor has already visited the scene. He was unable to stop the fire."

The only time when Endeavor has difficulty in controlling flames is when they belong to another Quirk-holder. 

Kakashi feels his stomach drop. 

"What color was the fire before?"

"The fire was blue when it started this evening."

"Touya - was it Touya?"

"Since you already know, it's no use in hiding it from you. Touya lost control of his Quirk at approximately 6pm tonight. He was the originator of the fire, and it is highly likely that he has already perished in the fire of his own making," the handler says briskly. "Please use your Quirk to stop the fire before it harms anyone else."

Amaterasu has several downsides - it's unwieldly to maneuver, it's not that hot of a flame, and it is an ominous black color that won't come off as very hero-friendly in the future. One of its major benefits, however, is that it can consume and convert all types of fire - including that of other Quirk users.

Kakashi releases Amaterasu to herd and fence the flames back to its original circumference in Sekoto Peak. He's never used it on such a large scale before, but his determination keeps him going. 

By the time he extinguishes Amaterasu, the originally green mountain is covered in gray ashes. Everything was burned away in the fire. 

The only thing that they can find of Touya is a fragment of jawbone. 

"Was it my fault?" Hawks asks, when Kakashi finally breaks the news to him. He seems very calm, which worries Kakashi more than if he were to cry. "I was the one who told him to try that method."

It isn't the first time Kakashi has lost a friend, but it never hurts any less.

"It wasn't your fault, Hawks. I shouldn't have let him run off like that. I should have known he would push himself too far and too fast without us." 

Hawks shakes his head. "If it isn't my fault, it's not yours either."

There was nothing left of Touya in the end for them to keep other than memories. The jawbone was given to his family for cremation. The Hero Commission maintained confidentiality to the very end, so they still have no idea what Touya's full name was or which family he belonged to. Kakashi and Hawks weren't even invited to the funeral. 

"We should train. We have to make it into U.A. after all," Hawks says. Aside from his red-rimmed eyes, his expression is uncharacteristically blank. 

It is clear that Hawks is refusing to process his grief properly. Kakashi could try to intervene but since his usual solution for pesky emotions is repression and distraction, it would likely come off as hypocritical.  

"...alright."

As if by tacit agreement, they don't discuss Touya again. 

Chapter Text

Life goes on. The day of the U.A. admissions test arrives, and aside from looking pale and tense, Hawks says nothing else. Miruko successfully passes with a high score, and they send their congratulations from Musutafu. They don't talk about Touya. 

Kakashi returns to visit Sekoto Peak every once in a while. Usually when he's feeling down about his perpetual inability to protect anyone who is important to him, as he tends to do. They've cordoned the area off for recovery, but that's no hurdle for a trained professional like Kakashi.

For once, he's glad that the Hero Commission is so strict about letting Hawks outside the compound, because he doesn't think it would do Hawks any good to see the once green mountain turned to ashes. Or for Hawks to wonder whether part of Touya has been mixed in with the other ashes. 

Kakashi and Hawks train harder than ever, spurred on by an invisible third partner who had always been so competitive. However, they take opposite routes.

Hawks has always had a firm handle on his Quirk, but now he is determined to master every minute detail, going from controlling 30 feathers in different directions to over 100. The consequence is head-splitting migraines and nosebleeds, but Hawks refuses to stop after the Commission doctor confirms that the damage is temporary. The reported cause of Touya's death was self-immolation. Hawks is well-aware of the importance of controlling his Quirk instead of being controlled by his Quirk.

Kakashi, on the other hand, puts a pause on practicing with his Sharingan, and redirects his efforts to Quirkless weaponry. From his past life, he is proficient in common ninja weapons such as shuriken, kunai, and the garrote. The tanto blade, learned from his father, used to be a frequent companion when he was young, but as he grew older and his chakra pool expanded, he transitioned to a jutsu-focused fighting style. In this life, he learns to wield a new range of combat weapons on the Commission's dime, from the crossbow to the chain-whip.

Touya and his parents, Kakashi's former classmates, the Commission - all of Japanese society, really - are too obsessed with "heroic Quirks." Touya once asked Kakashi if he thought Heroes were always good. What Kakashi didn't say at the time was that he believed people were too quick to equate Quirk with character. A "good" Quirk meant you were a good person, a "weak" or no Quirk meant you were a useless person, and so on. Kakashi is reminded of how much discrimination Gai faced as an aspiring genin with no talent in ninjutsu and genjutsu before reaching a point where he could destroy "blessed" bloodline limit holders with his bare fists.

Sharingan is a powerful Quirk, but it doesn't have to be used that way. Kamui, at its core, is a big, interdimensional backpack. And what if Kakashi demonstrated this lesson - that a person could fight essentially Quirkless and still be a competent hero?  At the moment, Quirkless individuals aren't even allowed to apply for the U.A. Hero Department. 

Kakashi plans to change people's minds. He hopes one day there will not be a need for a next Miki, Touya, or even a next Hawks to appear. 

Chapter Text

Another year, and a new batch of hopeful heroes-to-be. What's new is that this is the first year that Aizawa will be a homeroom teacher. 

With more free reign over his class, Aizawa is finally free to expel students. Hizashi says Aizawa is too harsh, but the truth is that some students don't deserve to become heroes, even if they passed the entrance exam. 

Other students seem like they were born to be heroes. In particular, the student admitted through the recommendation exam, Takami Keigo, whose Quirk is Fierce Wings. 

Nedzu has decided to put Keigo in his class, despite the fact that Vlad King would joyfully exsanguinate Aizawa for the honor. 

"I bet you grading duty for a year that he'll be in the top ten before he hits your age," Vlad swears. Aizawa is not stupid, so he does not take that bet.

Keigo is one of the most talented aspiring heroes Aizawa has ever witnessed, but his background is also one of the most troubling. His application was sponsored by the Hero Commission, and given the amount of control the boy displayed over his Quirk, they must have had a heavy hand in his training. Aizawa doesn't want to think about how early Keigo would have started training or how hard that training must have been for the boy to get this good this young.  

Aizawa has a feeling he's going to end up with all the most problematic students in his section 1-A. No doubt, this is the principal's revenge for him sneaking a cat into campus that one time. Despite vehemently refusing to identify as a rat, Nedzu has no fondness for the traditional archenemy of mice. 

"Who do you have an eye on, Aizawa?" Nedzu asks knowingly. As the principal, he compiles the student files, and he possesses a vaguely legal information network second only to that of the Hero Commission. He most certainly is aware of who Aizawa is looking at.  

Kakashi Hatake. Six years ago, the nine-year-old saved his best friend Oboro's life, and then griped about Oboro's lack of situational awareness. Aizawa would never forget the startlingly mature silver-haired-boy.

"Moe Kamiji," he answers blandly instead. To be fair, he does think the energetic, flame-haired girl will go far as a hero. She would excel in Endeavor's office, as long as she can put up with his violent temper. 

Nedzu taps his chin with his paw. (Aizawa would rather die than admit he thinks the gesture is cute.) "Really? I was impressed with Ms. Kamiji's control over her Blazing Hair Quirk, but the applicant who stood out to me the most was Mr. Hatake. What a mysterious Quirk, Sharingan." 

"I still don't understand what 'Pin-Wheel Eyes' is supposed to mean," Aizawa admits. 

"The pinwheels describe the visual transformation element of his Quirk, but they fail to cover the dimensional storage ability, body enhancement, fire, and psychological components of his Quirk. It's absolutely fascinating!" Nedzu claps his hands in delight at the new mystery to solve. 

"Psychological component? Fire?" Aizawa repeats. 

"Oh, those are still unsubstantiated rumors," Nedzu says airily. "I wouldn't worry too much about those parts of his Quirk that may or may not exist."

...Aizawa now plans to watch out for psychological and fire-related disasters this year.

Because it's clear that Kakashi is a shoo-in for U.A., and so him and his Quirk will soon become Aizawa's problem, if Nedzu has any say in class assignments, which he does. 

Oboro told Aizawa about Kakashi's dimensional storage ability Kamui secondhand. It may not be a flashy combat Quirk, but it would be incredibly advantageous for rescue and support purposes. More than his Quirk, it was his bravery, strategic mind, and resourcefulness that impressed Aizawa. 

Those are all the traits Kakashi is displaying on the screen now, as he plays down the usage of his Quirk and essentially uses it as a backpack to carry weapons. Weapons that he's completely mastered, from Aizawa's point of view. 

"A kusarigama?" Aizawa says disbelievingly. The chain-sickle is a traditional Japanese weapon. Aizawa came across it when he was researching esoteric weapons that he could use with his Erasure Quirk for take-downs. Not even the ninja hero Edgeshot knows how to use a chain-sickle, and he loves historical Japanese weaponry.   

Kakashi swings out the chain, cutting a swathe of robots in his path. The blade of his sickle lodges itself in a three-pointer's chest, and he yanks his weapon back, pulling the robot towards him and knocking down all the robots in the way. 

In order, Kakashi takes out of his Kamui: a katana, bo sticks, and a battle-axe. He slices, stabs, and crushes robots with ease. He also doesn't hesitate to help out other applicants as he passes them by. 

Aizawa is now wondering if Keigo and Kakashi were raised at the same shady governmental agency, because it's clear that Kakashi has thoroughly mastered the art of Quirkless fighting. 

At the very end, the gigantic zero-pointer finally appears, wreaking destruction with every heavy step. Kakashi waits until everyone has fled away before blinking red eyes. 

"Kamui," Aizawa can almost hear him whisper. 

Nedzu has the status window of the zero-pointer open on the screens. Instantaneously, the core engine component of the robot blinks out of existence. On the cameras, they can see the zero-pointer collapse to the ground. 

"Could he do that the whole time?" Aizawa asks incredulously. But didn't? is the unspoken question. 

Kakashi must know what they're thinking because he accurately makes eye contact with one of their hidden cameras, winks cheekily, and bows like a performer.

So he hasn't changed much. Still a brat. 

Aizawa hides his smile in his scarf.  

Chapter Text

"Now I have both of your letters from U.A. here," Hatake Sakumo says. "I just want to say - Hawks, Kakashi - that no matter what happens, I will be proud of both of you. There isn't just one path to becoming a hero. My father used to say-"

"Just open the envelope, dad," Kakashi interrupts. 

Sakumo scowls. "I'm trying to make an inspirational speech about success and failure right now."

"There's no need. Both Hawks and I are shoo-ins for the hero department," Kakashi says blandly. "The only question is whether I managed first or second place in the exam."

Sakumo deflates. "Jeez, aren't you guys nervous at all?"

"After years of inhumane training in a shady government agency, I would be embarrassed at this point if we couldn't get in." 

"I'm a little nervous!" Hawks pipes up. 

"Humility becomes delusion when it's excessive, Hawks. You're going to be the best hero of our generation and beyond," Kakashi says as Hawks turns bright red. Adorable. "Dad, open the envelopes."

Deprived of any sense of ceremony, Sakumo grumbles as he tears open Hawks' envelope. 

He pats Hawks on the shoulder. "You got in! Congratulations!" 

"I got in, Kakashi!" Hawks says with sparkling eyes. 

Despite the fact that Kakashi has told him a million times he would be accepted already, Kakashi indulgently rubs Hawks' head and says once more, "Welcome to your high school academia."  

Unsurprisingly, Kakashi, Hawks, and Miki all end up getting into U.A. Kakashi gets first place, as he expected, and Miki is in the top three of her class as well. 

"I'm going to become the number one hero equipment designer!" Miki declares. "Kakashi, Hawks - you have to let me design your first costumes." 

Kakashi raises an eyebrow. "Are you going to give me a mask?"

"And hide God's gift to mankind?" Miki protests. 

"Miki."

She grumbles but agrees. 

"Powerloader is one of my favorite heroes," Miki chatters. "I'm so excited for the opportunity to learn from him. First year heroes are divided between two main homeroom classes. Any particular teacher you hope to get?"

Kakashi thinks back to a dark-haired U.A. student who was grumpy but caring and swore he would never become a teacher. He's kept loose tabs on both boys he met that year. Loud Cloud has been shooting up in the ranks with his flashy Quirk, while Eraserhead silently became one of the most capable underground heroes. 

He smiles. "No one in particular." 

On the first day of classes, Kakashi walks into gossip, about himself, no less. 

"The zero-pointer just fell down out of nowhere! I wonder whose Quirk did it."

"Maybe it wasn't a Quirk, and the robot just broke down?"

"Oh, come on! This is UA - their equipment wouldn't just break down out of the blue."

Hawks raises his eyebrows, and Kakashi nods, acknowledging that it was his work. 

Upon stepping into the classroom, his eyes immediately go from the loud classmates to the yellow sleeping bag propped up in a shadowy corner. None of the U.A. students seem to have noticed. 

Is that...?

"Hello, Ai-za-wa-sensei!

The sleeping bag twitches and then unzips from the inside. Kakashi is met with the older but still recognizable face of Aizawa Shouta.

He looks supremely unimpressed with Kakashi. He had probably been planning to use the moment when everyone had filled into the classroom to pop up and surprise everyone with a lesson about constant vigilance.

Kakashi is sorry to have ruined his fun - he deeply empathizes with the educator's impulse to screw with his students - but also happy to have successfully gotten one in on his future teacher.

From this incident alone, Kakashi senses a kin desire to hammer hard life lessons into students' tiny brains through mild psychological warfare. While it is fun from the teacher's side, it is probably less enjoyable if one is the student. 

"Perhaps in the future, you can show up earlier than 30 seconds before class begins," Aizawa says.

If Kakashi had his way, he would have showed up late to class, but Hawks wanted to make a good first impression on his classmates and show up early. Their compromise was arriving exactly on time. 

"I can't guarantee that!" Kakashi says cheerfully. 

"I'll expel you." 

"I'd like to see you try!" Kakashi continues to beam. 

The two hold each other's challenging gaze, sparks flying. 

A classmate finally notices the talking sleeping bag in the corner. "Whoa! Is that our teacher?"

"I thought that was a pile of trash in the corner!"

"Damn, I wanted Vlad. His blood power is so cool. Who's this guy?" 

Aizawa finally steps out of the sleeping bag. "We're skipping the opening ceremony - it's useless. Head to the training grounds. It's time for your second entrance exam."  

Amid wails of disbelief and disappointment, Kakashi stands out for his anticipatory smile. 

Chapter Text

Aizawa asks Kakashi as the first-year representative to throw a baseball as hard as he can, without his Quirk.

Heroes and villains alike neglect basic training in favor of over-reliance on their powers. That's why Aizawa almost always wins against emitter-type villains once he disables their Quirks. However, Kakashi has trained his body to Olympian standards and is certain he could be a hero with or without a Quirk. So he winds up his throw and obliges. 

"135 meters. I believe you've broken the Quirkless record for your age," Aizawa says dryly. 

Kakashi blinks innocently. 

"Now use your Quirk to throw the ball."

Kakashi takes the new ball that Aizawa hands him but doesn't throw it yet. "How far can your machine detect?"

"10,000 meters."

"That's far. Luckily, my eyesight is good," Kakashi says. He can use Kamui anywhere his eye can see. 

The baseball disappears from his hand into a glowing portal. Two seconds later, he opens another tear in space, exactly 10,001 meters away, and drops the ball gently to the ground. 

The machine dings cheerfully, reading ???. 

"...I'll put in a request to Powerloader for a machine that can measure farther distances," is all Aizawa says, while the rest of the class bursts into impassioned murmurs. 

Aizawa proceeds to announce that whoever gets last place in this exam will be expelled. 

Kakashi is 99% sure he's just fucking with them, but he doesn't really care anyway. He's not going to be in last place. 

Kakashi proceeds to not use his Quirk for any of the following exercises, since Aizawa doesn't remind him to. He still lands in the top eight of the class with his ingenuity and well-trained body. Hawks is number one, of course. 

A boy with a radiation Quirk places last. He looks ready to break down at the thought of being expelled on his first day of class. 

The kid has potential, but he's one of those heroes who relies entirely on their Quirk. He floundered when it wasn't useful for these specific exercises. He doesn't have zero potential though, and Kakashi would be disappointed in Aizawa if he couldn't see that. Fortunately, Kakashi is a good judge of character, and Aizawa isn't stupid. 

"It was a logical ruse to make sure you all tried your best," Aizawa says. "No one's getting expelled." 

Now that, Kakashi doesn't believe. If the person in last place had no potential, he's sure Aizawa would have gone through with his threats.

His classmates are upset; however, he appreciates the ruthlessness. Better to cut the unfit early, rather than let them die as cannon fodder later. 

"Kakashi, why didn't you use your Quirk in the rest of the trials?" Aizawa asks after the chatter calms down. 

"Did I break a rule?" 

"No. But I'm curious about your motivations."

"Maybe, it was a demonstration that a flashy Quirk doesn't make you a hero." Kakashi smiles beatifically. "Or maybe, I just didn't feel the need to use my Quirk. After all, didn't I beat two thirds of the class without one?"

He can feel his more impetuous classmates bristle at the condescension. 

Kakashi appreciates Aizawa providing him the chance to draw hatred from the rest of his class. Nothing gives him more joy than needling, ahem, mentoring self-important, clueless adolescents who think they're God's gift.

These next three years are going to be so much fun.  

Chapter Text

Aizawa was less than pleased with Kakashi refusing to use his Quirk to its limit for most of the assessment, so Kakashi feels obligated to tell him that he plans to do the same thing again. Only this time, on a televised, national level. 

Training with his classmates and teacher is one thing. Kakashi has continued practicing Kamui's storage abilities and has been working on teleporting living beings and going intangible. Susanoo is an ability that he has an intuition he'll be able to use one day, but that day is still yet far away. Other abilities like Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu he's keeping a secret. One, because they're too destructive and would be better suited towards the Hero Commission's practice grounds. And two, there are some cards that he wants to keep to himself for now, even at school. 

However, the U.A. Sports Festival is the best venue Kakashi is going to get to convey his message publicly while still a student.

"The Sports Festival is your first opportunity to display your talents as a hero to Japan. You have a powerful, versatile Quirk. Are you sure you want to hold back and risk not getting any agency offers? The rest of your classmates will be giving it their all. This is your hero career you're risking, Kakashi. And for just a message?" Aizawa says. 

Kakashi knows that Aizawa is speaking out of concern for him, so he lets his careless gaze turn sincere.

"I know, Aizawa-sensei. This message is worth it. Quirks don't define you as a person. If only one person with a 'weak' or 'bad' or even no Quirk internalizes that message, it will have been worth it." He flips a switch and eye-smiles cheerfully again. "Besides, do you really think I won't get any offers as someone who places in the top 3?"

Aizawa sighs. "As long as you know what you're doing. Top 3, huh?"

"You should place your bets now; it's a good time to get some money back from Vlad-sensei after the last wager you lost."

"How do you know that - never mind. You are such a problem child, Kakashi."

"But I'm your problem child," Kakashi says sweetly. 

He leaves the consultation room humming happily now that he knows he won't get in trouble with Aizawa after the Sports Meet. Now, he's got a point to make to the audience.

Kakashi flips open his phone and makes a call. "Hi Miki! I've got some support requests for you..."

Because Aizawa is a relatively new teacher at U.A., he gets roped into doing the commentary with Present Mic. That means he gets a front-row seat to Kakashi's shenanigans and has to comment like he doesn't want to strangle the brat the entire time. 

As the hero department student with the highest entrance exam score, Kakashi is supposed to give the first year pledge. He had sent Aizawa an eloquent and inspirational three-minute speech transcript that would have brought tears to the eye of a more sentimental man.  

What comes out of his mouth on the podium is "Welcome to the U.A. Sports Festival! I'm Kakashi Hatake, your first-year hero department representative." And that's it. 

An entire stadium waits expectantly for him to continue. Midnight eventually clears her throat. 

"What about the rest of your speech?"

Kakashi pretends to think for a moment. "Ah, that's right. Plus Ultra, everyone!"

They wait another minute. 

"Anything else to add?" Midnight says, forehead vein visibly throbbing.

"My father said that a man proves himself with actions and not words," Kakashi says solemnly. 

Midnight ushers him off the stage pretty swiftly after that. 

Present Mic laughs awkwardly. "What a...bracingly concise speech from our first-year representative!"

Aizawa rolls his eyes so hard he almost strains something, but luckily the television audience can only hear audio from the commentary booth and not see the visual feedback. 

He should have known the problem child was going to pull a stunt like this. 

Kakashi has a modus operandi at this point. He's driven in his message about Quirk discrimination three times on Aizawa's count. In the U.A. Entrance Exam, during the first day assessment, and now at the U.A. Sports Festival.

One, he briefly displays his powerful Quirk. Like it or not, people with less-than-ideal Quirks protesting about Quirk discrimination can easily be written off as sore losers. For example, Quirkless protests have been going on for years and have made almost no traction because no one wants to hear from the people at the bottom of society. People are only willing to listen to the strong, attractive, and popular. Someone with an ideal Quirk like Kakashi indicating that Quirks aren't everything is a lot more convincing than someone who doesn't come from the same privilege.     

Two, he purposely avoids using his Quirk or uses it in such a way that subverts it. In the entrance exam, Kakashi could have broken records by using his Quirk to vanish the core components of all the robots. Instead, he used his Quirk like mere storage and showed off his mastery of weaponry. Anyone could carry equipment and anyone could learn how to use weapons, they didn't need a Quirk to do so. He shows that even though he has an impressive Quirk, he can succeed without it, and others can too. 

Three, he does all of this in an insouciant, carefree manner. No one likes being preached at, so that's not what Kakashi does. Rather than lecture his audience about Quirk discrimination, he performs like he's in a show and everyone's in on the joke. In the aftermath, the audience is left to ponder on the implications of his performance and draw their own inevitable conclusions. The message sinks in more deeply when it isn't forced down your throat, but left for you to "discover." As an added bonus, opponents can't immediately jump to claim that Kakashi has a certain political agenda because he can always say he was "just joking around." 

So Kakashi has a set M.O, but that's because when something works, it works. And just because his routine is predictable from an overall standpoint doesn't mean it isn't still impressively executed. 

The first event is an obstacle race. It won't be particularly easy for Kakashi to place in the top 3 here, but he doesn't need to as long as he's in the first fifty spots. The first event is always meant to narrow down the ranks anyway. 

Aizawa expects Kakashi to do something absurd, like bring out a skateboard and roll his way to victory.  

Instead, Kakashi doesn't budge from the starting line when the whistle goes off. Some of his classmates shoot him concerned glances over their shoulders, but Kakashi seems completely unbothered.

So unbothered that he brings out a folding chair and a fruity drink (is that a pina colada?) and watches the contestants leisurely. He looks like he's tanning on the beach rather than participating in a modern-day Olympics event.   

"Is our first-year representative giving up on the event? Providing classmates with a headstart? It seems a little overconfident," Present Mic speculates.  "What do you think, Eraserhead? You're his homeroom teacher."

"If I tried to understand what is going on every day in Kakashi's mind, I would give myself an aneurysm," Aizawa says calmly. 

But even Aizawa starts to get anxious when Hawks reaches the 3/4 mark and most of the contestants are at the halfway mark. Even if Kakashi pulls out a motorcycle at this point, he might not be able to catch up. 

Is Kakashi trying to make a point by being the top-ranked first year and giving up on the Sports Festival? If he gets eliminated here, he won't be able to move on to the next stages. That certainly sends a message, but not the one Aizawa thought Kakashi wanted to convey. 

Then, Kakashi finally makes a move. He finishes his drink, puts away his chair into his dimensional pocket, and cracks his neck. 

He accurately meets Aizawa's gaze in the commentator booth despite the distance and tinted windows and...winks. 

That has never boded well for Aizawa's blood pressure before. 

Kakashi turns his head to look at the finish line, where Hawks is leisurely flying towards and about ten seconds away from reaching in first place. He points a finger at the destination and mouths something that Aizawa can't quite read. 

In a blink of an eye, Kakashi disappears and reappears right in front of the finish line. He turns around to wave at Hawks, and then takes a step backwards past the finish line. 

"Amazing! Despite his late start, in first place for the first U.A. Sports Festival event is Kakashi Hatake. If we don't count the time he was waiting around, he's definitely set a new record for the obstacle course. Who knew that Kakashi could teleport?"

"Not me," Aizawa says through gritted teeth.  

That...brat!