Ahhh...my second one-shot. I hope it's okay! If you think this is okay, then go check out my other one called 'Once an ANBU, Always an ANBU' (it's also Kakashi-centric, sorry, he's one of my favourite anime characters)!

Enjoy!

Minato was having a bad day. First, his alarm clock was being kicked off the bed by Kushina, who was a kicker in her sleep. She was lucky that he loved her. Second, Obito came way too late, resulting in needing to camp out at night for a mere D-rank mission. Third, Kakashi and Obito didn't seem to understand that he was in a freaking horrible mood and really wanted peace and quiet. They bickered for what seems like years until Rin got them to calm down.

So yeah.

He was having a bad day.

"Please," Minato groaned, "stop it."

Kakashi, knowing his sensei very well, could tell the blond man was getting to the end of his patience.

"Shut up, Obito," Kakashi hissed, elbowing the Uchiha in the stomach.

Obito growled. "Excuse me?! You—"

"What's this?" Rin cut in, pointing to some white thing on the ground. Minato was grateful for the distraction, and almost too happily walked over to his female student to peer down at an unusual pattern drawn in white paint on the grass.

"Is it a seal?" Obito asked.

Kakashi sighed. "No. It's not."

"Kakashi's correct," Minato mused, "but it's not something I've ever seen before. Maybe it would change if I out some chakra inside…"

"That sounds like a dangerous idea." Kakashi bent down next to his sensei, brushed a finger over the white paint. "It could be a trap."

"All of you, stay back," Minato orders, before taking a couple of steps back. Focusing on his chakra, the blond man sent a bit of it towards the white paint, and realised that maybe Kakashi was right as the paint glowed a faint white.

"Crap." Minato cursed. "Let's get out of here."

"Uhhhhh," Obito says nervously, "my foot's stuck."

True to the Uchiha's word, his left foot was stuck on the ground, a white light omitting from the sole of his foot.

Kakashi rolled his eyes and made his way over, only to find that his foot was stuck too. "Sensei?"

"All of our left feet are stuck, huh?" Minato grumbled, rubbing his forehead. He really had bad day today. He just wanted to go back, eat some of Kushina's cooking, and have a good night's sleep. For once. But no.

"Minato-sensei!"

Rin's voice broke him out of his thoughts, and he whipped around, looking for his student. She stood there…but not there either. Her bottom half from waist down was gradually turning transparent, and her feet were nowhere to be seen.

"We're all like that," Kakashi reports, a kunai already in hand. "Sensei?"

But then Minato froze, looking at Konoha in the distance. Somehow, in a weird parallel universe…he was the fourth Hokage. His face was there, etched in the mountain, right next to the Sandaime.

"Holy…" Obito cheered. "Minato-sensei's the fourth Hokage!"

"Captain!" A female voice called, and a group of ANBU burst into the clearing, feet silent.

Rin and Obito were suddenly behind Minato, the sensei pulling them behind. Kakashi was already behind, but still walked forwards in a defensive crouch to stand by his sensei.

A familiar silver-head held up a hand, and the whole team stopped. "We'll camp here for the night. Bear, Viper, you're on first watch. Then it's me, with Owl."

"Hai." Two ANBU saluted, before rushing to set up the perimeter traps. A black-haired girl starts to draw seals on the ground using chakra, and Minato's eyes widen.

"Those are…" He peered closer. "Uzumaki seals!"

But no one heard him, other than his own team, and the silver-head walked right through Kakashi like the boy was a ghost.

"Captain…" The black-haired girl called. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," the ANBU captain replies, running a hand through his defying gravity silver hair. "Continue writing those seals."

But then there was another ANBU who took his mask off, and the whole genin team stifled a scream as it was Genma Shiranui who was under the mask.

"He's so old!" Obito bounds forwards. "Hey, Genma-kun! Oi! Look here!"

Genma then walks right through Obito and his waving hand, confirming Minato's suspicion. "We're in the future. And we're ghosts seeing the future."

Then the blond man turned to look at the ANBU captain, narrowing his eyes. That couldn't be…

"Cap," Genma taps the taller man's shoulder, "perimeter's set. Anything else?"

The captain turned around. "You set up a barrier?"

"Course."

"Alright. We rest."

And with that, the captain took off his mask, and Minato let out a sigh. It wasn't a sigh of content that his student was alive, but it was confusion. Why was Kakashi looking so young but an ANBU captain?

"That's…Bakashi?" Obito gulps.

"Kakashi…" Rin breathed. "You're an ANBU captain in the future."

Kakashi nods slowly, walking up to his tall and older self. "I look…different. Now where are you and the crybaby ninja?"

"Good question," Minato narrows his eyes again, "maybe they're not in this squad."

"Or maybe they're not in ANBU at all," Kakashi suggests. "Uchiha certainly isn't good enough."

"HEY!" Obito yelled, running to tackle Kakashi. The Hatake, who though Obito would just fall right through his ghost form, was taken by surprise when his teammate actually tackled him to the ground.

Rin nods. "So we can touch each other, but not others from a different timeline."

"Captain!" A purple-haired girl appeared. Minato smiled. Yugao.

ANBU-Kakashi turns to her, breaking his conversation with Genma. "Yes?"

"Someone's broken the perimeter!"

ANBU-Kakashi's face hardened as he placed his ANBU mask over his face. "I want Owl and Viper on the inner circle; Bear's going to sense whoever's coming, and I'm going. Tell Possum to stay on duty."

"Hai!" Genma shoves his mask back on before leaping back to the centre of camp, calling for the black-haired girl. Yugao runs the other way, obviously looking for their other member.

"Let's follow me," Kakashi says, not asking for permission, but actually running after his older self, marvelling at the ANBU-Kakashi's speed. Minato looked at his student, impressed. This was almost at Minato's full speed. Obito and Rin couldn't keep up, and thank Kami for that.

Without warning, Kakashi had opened his left eye - Minato hadn't even noticed that ANBU-Kakashi closed his left eye when he took his mask off, it looked so normal - and some lightning jutsu lit up the forest. It was night already, even though in their timeline, it was supposed to be early noon.

ANBU-Kakashi's lightning encased hand stopped a centimetre away from another ninja's throat. "Who are you?"

The other ninja swallowed. "Can't tell you."

"Do you know who I am?" Kakashi leaned forwards, his mask's mouth right next to the other ninja's ear. "I think you do. Now you have five seconds before I slit your throat and go for your friend who is horrendously bad at masking chakra."

"I-"

ANBU-Kakashi slit his throat anyways.

"You weren't going to tell me." He sighed. "Now, friend of the dead guy, you're going to tell me something."

And without warning, even Minato's fast eyes couldn't see ANBU-Kakashi's movement, only seeing the silver-head arrive behind a shaking Ame-nin, who looked just as startled as Minato and young-Kakashi were.

"I'm…" Kakashi swallowed. "Fast."

"Very." Minato agreed, just as Rin and Obito arrived. Rin's eyes were already on the corpse lying on the ground, whereas Obito was instantly running towards ANBU-Kakashi, seeing something.

"You…" Obito growled, turning to Kakashi with anger. "You have the Sharingan! Not fair!"

"I what?" Kakashi said, baffled.

Minato too, was surprised. He was too caught up in the fact that not only was his student an ANBU captain but also a cold-hearted assassin.

"Sharingan?" Kakashi ran forwards, peering into his own face, not even fazed that his body was in the Ame-nin's. "Wow. I do. I have something I'm not supposed to have."

"Kakashi Hatake," the Ame-nin gasped, and both genin shot back to stand beside their sensei. "Copy Ninja. All these people you kill, they'll come back to haunt you."

ANBU-Kakashi barked out a dry laugh, finished with his interrogation. "I already have three people haunting me. Do you know what's worse than killing people you don't know?"

The Ame-nin fell dead, the lightning jutsu coming out the other side of his chest. "It's killing people you know."

"Captain!" Yugao appeared. "Others have breached!"

Kakashi looked up, face hidden by his mask. "Where?"

Then Yugao shook her head. "Whoops. Viper's already onto it. It was the north-west side, and now it's the east — nope, Owl's there."

"I have info on our mission," Kakashi says, walking towards Yugao while wiping his bloody hands on his black trousers. "We'll meet up at centre after all intruders are taken care of."

"Hai!" Yugao salutes, before disappears to tell the other ANBU squad members.

ANBU-Kakashi looks up at the sky, oblivious to the fact that he was surrounded by his genin team from the past, himself included.

"That's the one hundred and fifty-third person I've killed," Kakashi sighed, "Minato-sensei, how much did you say your kill count was again? Wasn't it like three hundred and something after the war?"

All three genin had blanched at the mention of the kill counts. But Minato was interested in the last sentence. After the war? Has the Third Shinobi War ended?

Kakashi let out another sigh. "I'm sorry, Obito, Rin, I haven't been visiting you. Possum won't let me out of my infirmary bed the last time I got back. I promise to visit soon."

And then ANBU-Kakashi shimmers, and he teleports away, something that made all three genin gape at. Minato smiles to himself. He must've taught Kakashi the seal.

But then Team Minato felt a weird sensation—

It was cold—

But hot too—

And it sent shivers down their back—

Minato even broke out in a cold sweat before it was all over, and they stood there, but it was morning. But it was different to before. The trees were thicker, larger.

"We're in the future," Rin notes, "again."

"Maaaaa, sensei!" A blond boy who looked startling like Minato burst into the trees. "Help me!"

All three genin snapped their necks at Minato, who shook his head. "I looked different back then."

"Baka!" A pink-haired girl reprimanded, slamming his head into the ground. "Just because you lost in a taijutsu match against Sasuke-kun doesn't mean—"

"Get down," a boy who had some resemblance to Obito cursed, tackling his two companions. "Sensei's nearby. Great. Naruto, I'm going to murder you!"

"You can't." The blond boy furrows his brows. "Because sensei'll stop you. Dattebayo!"

"Shut up!" The pink-haired girl hisses, just as a man who was even taller that the tallest person Minato knew appeared behind their two teams. But Minato wasn't focused on the man. He was focused on the fact that the boy - Naruto - had said 'dattebayo', like Kushina.

If they were in the future…and this kid looked like Minato…but spoke and had the same attitude as Kushina…this couldn't be…Minato's child? Kakashi had come to the same conclusion, eyes wide. But Kakashi was looking at the tall man, eyes glued to the Konoha hitai-ate which covered the man's left eye.

Kakashi.

Kakashi Hatake.

In the future.

As a jonin sensei?

"Maa," the sensei-Kakashi smiled with one eye, "you thee look cute all piled on top of each other."

"Sensei!" All three of them bounded up, all of them in a defensive position.

Sensei-Kakashi smiled, but it looked strained. "That took you seven seconds. Too long. Jeez, what are they teaching in the Academy these days?"

"That's…Bakashi?" Obito gulps.

Rin turned to him. "You know you've said twice now, right?"

"Nope." Kakashi smirks. "He's too much of an idiot to count one and two."

"Enough." Minato cut in before anyone could speak. "I'd like to find out where we are. This is timeline two, but we still haven't seen ourselves, but every time we've seen Kakashi."

Kakashi murmured his agreement, but still watched himself pick up the three children and reprimand them.

"Training's over." Sense-Kakashi yawned. "Sasuke, the Hokage wants you. Sakura, your mother is the worst banshee I have ever met, no offence. She's screeching for you. And Naruto? Stop painting the Hokage faces. Thanks."

And Kakashi was gone with a poof. Naruto waved a fist. "That baka-sensei, coming to us with a clone!"

Sakura bows her head. "I need to go to my mother."

"The Hokage wants me…" Sasuke's face was grim. "I wonder if he had anything on Itachi."

Itachi? Minato was confused. The Uchiha prodigy? Obito pounced on Sasuke, even though he knew that he'd pass right through.

"Itachi?" Obito questioned. "What you want with my younger cousin?"

"Ohhhh," Naruto nods, "that weirdo brother you have?"

"He killed my entire clan," Sasuke hissed, grabbing Naruto's collar, "he's not my brother. Not anymore."

Obito yelped, leaping away. "You're my cousin too?"

Kakashi shook his head. "Baka. Let's follow me again. I should be doing something that could help us acquire information. I want to know about this Uchiha clan killing."

"Whoa," Obito gasps, "does that mean I'm dead?"

No one answers him. Kakashi nods towards the village, and Minato starts to walk towards Konoha. Not much has changed. Nothing really. There was a new stall now; Ichiraku's Ramen, as well as more and more civilians living in the village. Minato smiles. It seems like the war was really over.

"Kurenai!"

All four of the time-travellers heave a sigh of relief. They finally found a familiar face — other than Kakashi. Asuma walks over, waving at the red-eyed woman.

"Asuma, hey!" She smiled. "Have you seen Gai?"

The man shakes his head. "I think he's training his genin team somewhere."

The woman sighed. "What about Kakashi?"

"Him?" Asuma shrugged. "Probably at the KIA Stone."

"KIA?" Obito asked, looking at Minato.

"Killed In Action," Kakashi replied, before turning on his heel and bolting towards the black stone. Minato follows, only after listening to the two jonins talk longer, smiling proudly as he remembered the small Kurenai and Asuma trying their hardest to muster up a genjutsu.

"Whoa." Obito's face was unreadable. "You looked depressed, Bakashi."

Sensei-Kakashi was standing before the stone, his hand tracing names. Young-Kakashi was reading those names, standing in front of his older self, and as Kakashi's eyes read over the names, his eyes slowly widened and grief overcame his features.

"What's wrong?" Minato walked forwards.

Sensei-Kakashi perked up like he heard something, and disappeared in the direction of the Hokage Tower, leaving the time-travellers by themselves.

"Is that…" Minato peered. "My name?"

"And Obito's…and Rin's." Kakashi's face was pale. "And they were kind enough to write the year. Obito died…next year. Rin died a year after him. And you died the year after that."

"So we were dead when we saw ANBU Kakashi?" Rin touches her own name, her finger sinking into the obsidian stone.

"Alone…" Kakashi whispered. "I'm alone again. Of course. It's my curse isn't it, Minato-sensei?"

The older man didn't have time to respond when that weird feeling came again—

Hot and cold—

Shivering—

They were back at the KIA Stone, but again, in the future. Kakashi looked ghostly, Obito looked like he was going to vomit anytime soon, and Rin was unreadable. They were all dead, except Kakashi. Though, Minato thought, it was probably worse for Kakashi, who thought being alone was worse than dying.

"Old Man Kakashi!" Another Minato-clone — though this one looked more like Naruto — appeared, and an older looking Kakashi stood where his ghost-self was, in front of the stone.

The man turned. "Boruto. What is it?"

"We have to bring someone who experienced a war to class," Boruto jumped forwards, "and you're someone who's been in two! Please?"

"I have things to do." Kakashi ruffled up the child's hair.

"Like what?" Boruto whined. "You're not even the Hokage anymore! Dad is!"

That shook Team Minato out of their daze. Obito snapped his head to the stone, and gaped as the masked face of Kakashi Hatake was etched onto the stone.

"You became Hokage!" Obito turned around to look at young Kakashi, who was staring critically at Boruto. "Not fair! So I get to die and you become Hokage?!"

Rin was still staring at the stone. "Obito…you died again. In the future."

All of Team Minato bar Kakashi crowded around the stone. Kakashi watched as his future self picked Boruto up and slung the blondie over his shoulder and started to walk towards the Academy. Was this his life? Forever alone?

"Wow," Obito found his old name, discovering it had a slash through it. There was a new name; OBITO (TOBI) UCHIHA. "I died twice?"

"No," Kakashi said, walking over, "you supposedly died the first time but you obviously didn't and died properly the second time."

"Kakashi's right," Minato furrowed his brows, "but why are there so many names added on since last time? Did we have another war?"

"Boruto did say that Kakashi's been in two." Rin nods.

"Lord Sixth!" A man called. "Lord Seventh is calling for you!"

"See, Boruto?" Old-Kakashi patted the boy's head, placing the boy on the ground. "Your father's calling for me."

"Hmph." Boruto crossed his arms. "It's tomorrow!"

"We'll see," Kakashi smiled, before teleporting to the Hokage Tower. "Thanks, Kiba-kun."

And with that—

The sensation came again—

But this time they were where they started, back where the paint was.

A crying horde of ninja were laying down flowers for someone who had died, and Team Minato knew instantly who it was. Kakashi.

The four of them phased through all of the participants and their eyes widened as they realised Kakashi had died in action, not of old age. An old twenty-year-old looking Boruto was crying silently, his hands clenching a white flower.

"Sorry," Boruto whispered, "Old Man Kakashi. You died protecting all of us."

"Baka-sensei," a mature looking Naruto had tears overflowing, and he stood at the front with Sakura and Sasuke, who both looked much older than the last time Team Minato had seen them.

Sakura sniffed. "You died protecting us, like always. You didn't have to, y'know? Team 7 could've worked together!"

"Sensei." Sasuke looked devoid of all emotion. "It's my fault. If I hadn't overused chakra beforehand—"

"It's all of our fault!" Another Uchiha cut in, gripping Sasuke's cloak. "If we hadn't been so useless when you fought by yourself against gods then—"

"Sarada's right," Sakura says softly, patting the Uchiha's head. "It's all of our faults, sensei. We'll protect Konoha with everything we've got."

Naruto scowled through his tears. "Next generation Sannin my ass, we couldn't even save our sensei!"

A Hyuga appeared by Naruto's side. "Kakashi-sensei, even if you didn't teach me, all of us knew what a great teacher you are. Even though you blamed yourself for Sasuke's defection and Obito's villainy, you became Hokage for a reason."

Naruto smiled faintly. "Thanks, Hinata."

Hinata took in a deep breath. "This is for Kakashi Hatake, genin at five, chunin at six, jonin at twelve, ANBU at fourteen, ANBU captain at fifteen, jonin sensei of Team 7, general of the Allied Shinobi Forces and the Rokudaime of Konoha!"

Kakashi watched with a smile as he saw so many people at his funeral. Maybe he wasn't destined to be alone forever.

"Villainy?" Obito looked at Hinata. "You're wrong…I'll never be a villain."

"We can change the future." Rin said, stubborn. "We've seen this, so we can change it."

"That is," Minato said sheepishly, "if we can get back."

"I was jonin at twelve," Kakashi muses, "we're not changing that."

Minato chuckled, but then the sensation was back—

—and gone like it never happened. Team Minato stood on the field, the white paint nowhere to been seen, back where they started.

"Alrighty!" Obito cheered, his body finally opaque. "Let's go change the future!"

"Agreed." Kakashi mumbled.

Minato smiles to himself, watching as his three students bounded towards Konoha, the two boys sniping at each other. But then he stops. He never did confirm that Naruto was his child…or if Boruto was his grandchild.

But that didn't matter now. The future Yondaime steels himself. He was going to save his students' lives first, or he would blame himself forever.

That was shorter than anticipated...but meh. I'd like to know my readers thoughts, how was it? Was it okay? Rushed? Also, are there any requests for a Kakashi-centric fanfic?

Thanks!

~ VirgoAthenaPurple