A Dusty, Old Scarecrow

Chapter 1

The fire continued to burn, the flame crackled upon the firewood as its embers danced at the top. All around was nothing but pitch black, surrounding the fire, however, sat several stones large enough to be used as seats. Two figures sat there, casting long shadows behind their backs that blended into the darkness.

Kakashi knew what would happen if a person's chakra reserve was empty, he understood its consequence, but he did it anyway. He had fully expected to die, coming to peace with himself that his death would somehow contribute to the survival of Konoha. The memories of his teacher and teammates came forth as soon as he had drifted into the darkness. It was about time he supposed. Kakashi didn't expect to find a small campfire in the middle of nowhere, it surprised him even more to find someone else already there.

That person wore a standard issued Jounin flak jacket, though what caught his attention right away was the silver hair and a white short left sleeve marked with red triangles. Kakashi didn't have to second guess himself.

They had sat there for awhile, neither had spoke. How much time had passed, Kakashi didn't know. He wasn't even sure if time even existed in this place. He continued to wait there.

And soon the voice came.

"Who would have thought that you and I would die so early?"

It was deeper than his own, yet the intonation and speech similar.

Kakashi didn't respond, he only sagged his shoulders and resumed watching the flickering flame.

"Although not as early as your mother," the voice spoke again.

Without changing his posture, Kakashi replied.

"Father, I've always wanted to ask you something."

Kakashi felt his father's eyes turned to look at him, he didn't return the gesture.

"Why did someone like you, who was known as the White Fang of the Leaf... choose to ignore the village code, and abandon a crucial mission in order to save his comrades?"

He paused at the memory of that one fateful night before he continued.

"If you had not done so, no one would have condemned you and you wouldn't have become so miserable," Kakashi felt his teeth gritted together. "I felt so bitter."

The air become quite once more saved for the crackling of fire. Kakashi relaxed and resumed his slouch, there was no need for anger here. They were dead after all, what good would it do.

"I see...," Sakumo decided to reply. "You took it pretty hard, didn't you?"

"Yeah," Kakashi nodded in acknowledgement. "But you know, whatever the outcome, I know you did your best."

He could feel his father's startled face from the corner of his eyes. It was a gaze Kakashi never thought he'd witness. His father was his idol, he was the ninja that Kakashi aspired to become. He may have been called a prodigy when he was young, Kakashi had always strive to do even better just to catch up to him. Then everything just fell apart, he didn't understand why his father would do such... a stupid thing. Wasn't serving the village take precedent above all else? Kakashi hated him, no, he loathed him. His father's not even a ninja that died on the battlefield, but one that shamed himself to death.

But then come the Third Shinobi War, Obito and Rin happened. Not only had Kakashi fail to protect his team, he could not fulfill a dying wish.

"I can see that now and I finally understand," Kakashi spoke with sadness, regret began to rear its ugly head back up. "You broke the code to save everyone, and I'm proud of you for it."

They stayed in silence for some time, then Kakashi heard it.

"Thank you."

His chest felt a lot lighter after saying that. Kakashi didn't want to die with regrets, though he supposed that wasn't possible after all. He had failed Sasuke, should Konoha survive, he would never get to witness Naruto become the Hokage, or Sakura teach the next generation of shinobis in the art of medical ninjustu.

When suddenly he felt something hit his back and wrapped itself around his body. It was a green aura of sorts, it didn't hurt, but rather uplifting almost. Kakashi quickly stood up and watched at what was happening.

"What's this?" Kakashi asked, moreso to himself.

"Seems like it was too soon for you to come here," His father simply gave a small smile and spoke to him. "There must be something you're still meant to do."

"Father..."

"I'm glad we got to talk," Sakumo said as his smile grew slightly wider. "Thank you for forgiving me. Now I can move on in peace."

Kakashi didn't get a chance to respond when the light pulled him upward swiftly. His father grew smaller in the distance as everything began to turn dark.

When he came to his senses, Kakashi opened his eyes suddenly. When the chakra suddenly spiked from his Sharigan, he winced and closed the scarred left eye. Why did he feel so wet and everything smelled of salt. He sat up and looked around only to find things he was not expecting. This was not Konoha, for he didn't recognize the landmark. It wasn't daylight like when he fought Pein, but instead night with the stars dotting the sky proudly as they shone. To his left laid a forest with large trees bristling in the wind. What shocked him the most however, was the abnormally large moon that seemed to have shattered, its pieces lingered where it cracked.

Kakashi could only stare at it dumbfounded.

"...What?"

He sat there in shallow waters staring at the broken moon with many thoughts in his mind. Everything else didn't look out of the norm. Trees looked like how they should and the water was clear enough for him to see the sand beneath it. The wind blew softly across his hair, Kakashi could feel the chill from the part that drenched. With a groan, he pulled the headband down to cover the scarred eye and stood up, splashing the water as he did so.

This was no genjutsu, Kakashi was sure of that. He felt groggy and tired still, either a side effect of being brought back to life, or Death gave him enough chakra just to survive. He decided to head for shore, feet sloppily waded through the water. The dirt felt soft beneath his sandals, printing the steps as he walked. Kakashi glanced around him once more before coursing for the forest.

The sight reminded Kakashi of home, towering trees cloaked the sky. The moon's beams protruded through cracks between the shifting leaves, illuminated the grass in an almost mesmerizing way There was no man-made dirt roads so he had to tread carefully, doing his best with the light given. Eventually he found himself in the middle of a small clearing, tired from the low chakra reserve and soggy clothes, Kakashi decided to camp for the night. He would try to find some sort of civilization in the morning.

Kakashi gathered a couple of dry branches and huddled them together in a spot. He lined stones around in a circle to prevent fire spreading. Gathering a small amount of chakra, he sparked a small flame upon the sticks. The fire sparkled and came to life within seconds and flickered its light around it. Kakashi took off the Jounin vest and took out a scroll from its compartment. He unrolled it and placed his hand upon the center swirl that was part of a seal. With a puff a smoke came a pile of neatly folded clothes.

He smiled to himself, he's always prepared with a new set, even if all his outfits looked exactly the same. With new comfortable clothes, a warm fire, and soft grass, Kakashi leaned back to a tree and began to sleep. At least he wasn't hungry, hunting now wouldn't feel too good.

It didn't last long, his nap that was. Kakashi awoke when a burning smell reached his sensitive nose. Even for someone who just came back to life, his ninja senses remained sharp. It's not like Kakashi had ever needed much sleep, with the constant amount of S-rank ANBU assignments being handed to him back then, he's always on alert.

Kakashi swiftly pushed himself off of the tree and stood facing the direction that the smell came from. Quickly putting out the fire and sealing his old clothes, he dashed off.

As he got closer, the smell became stronger, burning houses and flesh. No matter how long he has been in the field, Kakashi could never get used to the latter. He heard screaming, men and women alike, but what worried him more was the roars. They didn't sound like any animal that he knew, but more like beasts or creatures of abomination.

He saw the fire and many pitch-black creatures prowling about, attacking the citizens that live within the burning town. The beasts looked like bears and boars, a some sort of humanoid wolves with spikes all over their bodies. Despite all of them looking like ink, they all wore some sort of white masks with red markings. Their eyes also glowed a bright red. It puzzled Kakashi, however, that he couldn't sense of bit of life within them, it's almost as if they weren't alive.

"GYAHHHAHAAHH!"

The scream tore Kakashi from his observation, a man was being dragged with his legs stuck in the bear's jaw. His body laced with cuts and blood, his right arm bent the wrong way and was simply flailing along the ground. Before Kakashi could react, another monster jumped on him and tore the man apart with ease.

Kakashi's frowned at the sight, but he decided to sneak in farther into the village, the beasts didn't seem to notice him. With his chakra still on the low side, helping the villagers escape would be better than fighting off the overwhelming number of monsters.

He heard the sound of fighting, steel against flesh and metal striking. Kakashi saw the people attempting to fend off the creatures with all manners of weapon: pitchforks, knives, staffs, sickles. Some even had swords and spears, probably guards. The houses were burning, Kakashi hadn't seen the creatures spewed fire so some unfortunate stoves or fireplaces must have been on. He noticed something during the display, the weapons seemed to just bounce off of the monsters, very strong hide or bones he guessed.

Majority of the village was still intact so the attack must have been recent. Kakashi had seen enough and let himself known by jumping down, not that anyone really bothered to look at him with all the chaos happening. Corpses littered the street where the monsters were. The citizens made a defense line of sort and it somewhat kept the creatures at bay, though for how long Kakashi didn't want to find out. He made a beeline for the closest ramshackle house that he could hear crying from. Lifting the fallen planks and debris out-of-the-way, Kakashi saw a woman holding a child close to her, a body laid there with the lower part completely smashed by rubbles, blood stains everywhere.

Kakashi slowly held out a hand to the lady, who looked to be of a woman in her twenty's, probably her husband was killed. She looked at him fearfully, but she relaxed a bit when he gave her an eye smile.

Crashhhh

"AHHHH!" The woman shrieked and held her child closer when the roof suddenly came down.

Kakashi grunted when it impacted his arm, but held it nonetheless. Out of nowhere a roar happened along with a claw that swiped down at him. Instead of jumping backward, he dashed forward instead to reach the pair, wrapping his hands around them, and with a small boost of chakra, Kakashi leapt up. He landed with the two still in his arms a small distance away. He saw the humanoid wolf staring back at him, growling in anger. The crowd of people weren't far away and if he had to fight, he was not going to do it someone clinging on to him.

The defense line seemed to have been pushed back, if he didn't help them fight these things, everyone would definitely die.

Kakashi gave a small sigh, he was just brought back to life, but he already had work. Using a simple single hand seal, he pushed the pair toward the citizens with a gust of wind. The woman yelped but he knew she would catch her footing easily. His fingers fished out a steel kunai from the pouch, as he ready for the fight, two more of the wolves showed up. They didn't charge right away like he had seen with the other ones, so these had more intelligence.

How troublesome.

He would have to deal with these quickly before going over to help with the others.

The two creatures split up and attempted to flank Kakashi from both sides, the last one kept watching him. The claws both swiped at the same time and he ducked and flipped his body sideways, switching the kunai to a reversed grip, Kakashi used the momentum to slash at the beast's leg to his left. Even without chakra, Kakashi was no slouch in physical strength. With enough force he cut clean through, but the kunai's length, he couldn't severe its limb. It howled in rage and swung its other arm downward, the other one tried the same thing.

Kakashi didn't let his speed go to waste and jumped on to the injured one's neck and stabbed it. He dragged the blade down along its spine, leaving a trail of smoke as he did so. It shrieked and flailed its arms uselessly, trying to hit him. Kakashi didn't let it continue when he cut through its lower body section, where he saw was the narrowest part of its build. The monster flopped down to the ground and trembled before dissipated in smoke.

Were these things even alive in the first place? It's almost as if they're some kind of summons.

He stopped his train of thought when that thing's pal attacked him. The sloppy attacks allowed Kakashi to dodge them with ease, he did small cuts here and there, but he needed a strong final blow to kill these things. As he was about to lop its head off, Kakashi suddenly felt the third one from the pack racing at him. With no room to maneuver while in the air, Kakashi looked for the closest object to take his place.

Landing a distance away, Kakashi saw a smashed barrel where he was just a second ago. He stared back at the two monsters, the one that just attacked him seemed was larger with more spikes poking out from its arms. It howled like a wolf into the night sky, suddenly, the wolves that were attack the villagers turned their attentions to him. Kakashi scowled beneath the mask. Things just got harder too. Although he saw that the villagers actually managed to defeat some of the smaller boar creatures, but the bears were still wrecking havoc; killing men and women alike, even any children they managed to get their paws on.

Kakashi gauged his chakra reserve, the short rest gave him back enough for maybe a few jutsus. These things only required a blow strong enough to kill and since they still behaved like animals, the head should do it. Kakashi pulled out exploding tags from his leg pouch, he just needed to stick them on their masks. He gathered some chakra into his feet for a quick burst of speed. Kakashi surged forward over the closest monsters and slapped the tags onto their masks. He was fast enough for them to not react in time. Many more ahead were waiting for Kakashi and they charged at their target. He ducked and pivoted himself in the air, sticking tags as he moved from one creature to another. Kakashi flipped to separate himself from the group.

With a flick of a single hand sign, the explosive tags began flashing simultaneously. Wind and dust billowed in all direction. Kakashi saw limbs and bits flying leaving trails of smoke. When it cleared, headless and severed beasts fell to the ground and dissipated, the ground charred in black soot. The largest wolf, however, survived. Kakashi narrowed his eye when he spotted the torn tag.

Another surprise came when it dashed at him with speed far faster than its brethren. Kakashi avoided the low claw with a jump. It did a complete turn with a backslash right at his torso. Kakashi grunted when he felt the hit and flew backward. With a body turn, he stabbed the kunai into the ground and spun like a clock to rid of the momentum. A boar charged at him from the side, only to hit a wooden crate.

Kakashi staggered back, one hand clutching the dirtied kunai while the other grasping at the bleeding wound. Breathing has started to labor, with so many of these monsters left, he didn't know if he would last. A bear jumped at him from out of nowhere, he was about to make another hand seal when arrows started pelting it.

He heard some yelling from the villagers behind him. To Kakashi's amazement, the people began to charge forward, weapons in hand. They lined up in front of him, holding off the beasts. A few deep breaths later, Kakashi pulled out a second kunai and pointed at the last wolf standing. He saw a few nods from the people, it seemed they understood, despite he couldn't understand a single word they were saying. He had no tags left, but if the rules of armies were the same; he just needed to kill the leader.

Using someone's shoulder as a step, Kakashi launched himself right at the targeted beast. Many creatures rushed to him, but were teetered back by barrages of arrows. The wolf attacked by jumping at him as well, claws at the ready. It opened its jaw with an animalistic roar. The spikes elongated and became lethal weapons.

Kakashi deflected the ivory bones, veering their paths while creating openings. He actually doubted these things even had any vital points like a real living being would. With cuts here and there, they didn't faze the monster at all and it wasn't getting weaker. He couldn't keep this up. Two arms came down for a smash, Kakashi dove in between its legs, stabbing its joints. Unexpectedly he got kicked hard in the torso and was flung backward. He stopped when the village's wall took the brunt force.

The wolf turned fast with a lunge, Kakashi hurriedly replaced himself with some wooden plank. He was breathing hard now, his kunais had started to chip apart. The beast didn't give him time to think when it attacked again. Kakashi tossed some shurikens at it, unsurprisingly, they merely bounced off like some annoyance.

Ah to hell with it.

Through some hand seals, Kakashi blew fire pellets at the raging monster. It worked as the wolf staggered from the blows. He dashed, both hands gripping on a kunai for a thrust. It went right through out to the creature's back, it howled in pain. Kakashi quickly let go when it swung its arms wildly. He brought two kunais and stabbed at its feet, nailing them place. He grasped at its lower jaw and pulled it open, the other hand curled its fingers, chakra began to gather into the center and lightning began to form. The sound of a thousand birds' chirping resonated, louder than anything that night.

In an almost cruel way, Kakashi shoved the concentrated ball of electricity down its throat. Its body lit up from the inside and promptly fizzled instantly into dust.

He let the Chidori die out, when it did, everything turned quiet. Kakashi saw astonishment from the villagers' faces, the black creatures didn't move as they stared at him. Only to gang up on him within seconds, completely abandoning what they were doing earlier. Kakashi picked up a random sword on the ground and charged at the leftovers. There weren't many left, and these were much slower. Once the people snapped out of their stupor, they joined in.

Before sunrise, they had managed to kill every last monster. Since they didn't leave carcasses, the only things laid on the ground were either debris or human bodies.

Kakashi was wheezing by this point, barely hanging on to the broken blade as he kneeled on one knee. His clothes and Jounin jack torn, blood running freely from the wounds, chakra level dangerously low. He glanced at the shattered moon once more before letting darkness claim him as he fell.

Not beta'd

Author's Note: Welp, finally sat down and wrote a Naruto X RWBY fic. I did Kakashi cuz he's my favorite character from the series. Is this fic gonna go anywhere? Who knows. You can probably guess who I'm going to introduce in the future from the title alone.