Prevent The Future

Ch - 9 The mission or the team

Kakashi Hatake woke up in sweats and tears. He had just watched himself abandon his teammate and complete a mission, only to be hated by the village.

The guilt gnawed him as he watched his friends die horrible deaths, even the blonde instructor that he only knew for few months had died to protect him. But just when the Hatake thought it was over, the whole scene repeated itself over again.

He tried to fix it, he tried to help his teammates and save them with the knowledge he gained from their previous deaths. However they died nonetheless and everyone's fingers pointed at him.

At the 5th time, the chunnin gave up and just watched in silence. Slowly his eye clouded and his face turned pale. Some times, Kakashi would react to their deaths and reach out to help, other times the silverhaired would just watch with a muddled expression.

"No-!" He reached out to his best friend's hand albeit failing to grab him as he watched Obito dye for the 13th time.

"What do you mean?" A voice, familiar but also unfamiliar, echoed. "Isn't this what you wanted?"

"Weren't you planning to put the mission over the life of your teammates?" It inquired one of Kakashi's deepest thoughts.

"No I-"

"But the villagers hated you nonetheless"

"That's becaus-"

"Were you just lying to yourself to deflect how you truly felt about your fath-?"

"I DON'T KNOW" Kakashi yelled out, covering his ears in attempt to block out this strange voice. "I don't know okay? I don't know where I am, what I'll do, how I feel! Just leave me alone."

"..."

And the next thing the silver haired knows is he's lying in the plain grass. He's body was aching and his mind was in disarray.

Regardless the prodigy had already figured out that he was in a genjutsu cast by the rogue beside him. He narrowed his eyes, burning holes at the time traveler that was healing him with an E rank medical ninjutsu.

"Don't touch me" He hissed, moving his hand to slap the jounin's support away. "Who are you ?"

Sasuke let the chunin have his space, "I believe I've already introduced myself? Or did Kakashi-san zone out back then?" Sasuke took the innocent route.

"You know what I mean, stop pretending already." Kakashi started plotting a way to escape the Uchiha and report the hokage of the spy.

"Why are you meddling in my business and what are doing in leaf." Kakashi interrogated.

"Just think of it as an advice from a senior Kakashi-san. And for the latter, I joined to protect the village of course. "

"Don't kid with me" As if the chunin was dumb enough to believe that.

"I'm not" Sasuke answered so confidently, that the silver head's own confidence wavered.

"Since, Kakashi-san doesn't like beating around the bush, I will get to the point." Sasuke straightened.

"Choose either the mission or the lives of your teammates." Sasuke stated, he's voice strict and icy

"...what" The topic was a controversial one to kakashi, but the jounin did not even hesitate to touch it.

"I'm sure you know the war going on is dreadful. But you haven't been in the front lines even once correct?" The Uchiha queried but never waited for an answer "There has been scarcity of soldiers that anybody will be pushed to fight. Believe it or not, Minato has been refusing the hokage to let you bunch too deep for a while now"

" Do you know why?" Sasuke asked but this time, he urged the teen to answer.

"...cause he thinks we are not ready."

"Well you're half right." Sasuke didn't catch if the chunin would hate him and smoothly spit facts "Cause your uncooperative self will get your team killed."

Kakashi's face contorted inside his mask as he couldn't deny that fact that Minato was somewhat right.

"Ever wondered why you, a gifted shinobi, hadn't gotten a double promotion?" Sasuke didn't give him time to process "Because your behaviour isn't what a shinobi should have. Your classmates from academy however had the right mindset."

Kakashi could accept the fact that he was in cooperative but his classmates had the right mindset? They who only joined the academy for the honour, ignorant of how dangerous bad bloody a Ninja's life is? "You think they can eve-"

But his instructor placed his two hands on the chunin's shoulders, causing him to stop talking.

This time however, Sasuke kneeled infront and begged Kakashi "Make up your mind, Kakashi. Make sure you listening to the one you will regret the least. Or it wil eat you out." Different from his calm and stern self a minute ago, this time the jounin looked very vulnerable and defenseless.

Shocked by the sudden shift in character, Kakashi froze in place. It was for few seconds but the chunin could feel the sadness and regret those charcoal eyes held.

But sasuke got up first, "The village is full of hypocrite. Sakumo was shunned not
because he was wrong to choose he's priority but because many saw it as a chance to bring down the man who could take on the sannins. Don't try considering what they'll think about your actions but what you won't regret."

Kakashi watched as the rogue walked away, "Also, look for Rin and Obito. Obito should be somewhere near Forrest of the dead or inside while Rin should be around the academy. You need teamwork to complete the trial" He said before disappearing.

Kakashi stood there for some time, pondering what he felt just now before looking for his friends, pushing all the questions he had.

.

Obito panted and fell to take some rest. The genin had just noticed how tired and worn he was from all the running.

It wasn't long before he heard his name called, "Obito." Kakashi called after finding him "Fast, we have only 6 hours before we fail the 'practice'." He says

"Hold on" Obito called, "Im still confused, why was I inside the Forrest of dead and what happened to Rin." He asked. Time sure works funny, it definitely felt like days yet his teammate is saying its the same day.

Kakashi paused but didn't remark sourly. "All I know is that light teleported us three separate places. And three of us are needed for the completing the mission and Rin should be near the academy-"

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! LETS GO" Obito raced, worried about Rin's well being.

Kakashi sighed before following him.

Watching from afar, Sasuke watched the whole exchange. He couldn't help but inwardly cringe at the last minute bullshit he made up. It was a fact that Minato was protesting on his team join the war but it prolly wasn't all because of Kakashi.

"Well atleast it's working..." He sighed