AN/ Sorry for the untimely hiatus of my story, I was lost in the path of life, suffice to say. Anyway, long story short, I finally graduated, got a job in the wedding industry, which means that I have lots of free time depending on how many clients will be wed every month. Needless to say, I am back in the writing business!

As for the story, yes this will be revamped, since I lost track of the plot, I am redoing the story starting from chapter 31 some parts will be edited out but it will be familiar enough to some of the readers, since after reading the first thirty chapters I have no heart to change any of them. Mostly because I reread the whole thing and had a bout of sentimental affection to those chapters, aside from the grammatical errors, of course, speaking of those, I have no beta and admittedly I might do the same mistakes (Even after graduating that habit still affects me so yeah)

Since chapter 1-30 of 'In a new world' will now be considered as an introductory phase. (I might be planning a trilogy) This continuation will be mostly filled with pre-teen to teenage years of Kakashi, and I still have no solid plot but I promise, I will finish this story to the best of my abilities.

Also for the new readers! Just a heads up this is Part 2 of the fic In a New world, so you better read that first one just to get an idea what this story will be all about.

Note of counterparts:

Samantha Glass - Tsunade

Sherry - Sakura

Tenrou - Tenzo

Sohpie - Anko

Tobias - Obito

Reyn - Rin

Shin - Shino

Anyway on to the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Four years, Kakashi thought as he stared at his attire, gone were the shorts and the vest of his elementary days, he was now wearing the full-fledged uniform of the middle schoolers, jacket, and all that jazz. Ironic, since the uniform was given to him just a week before being told he was graduating from middle school. Something that Miss Glass, conveniently forgot to mention to him after finishing the year-end exams.

Yes, he somehow managed to graduate.

He did thought he might still remain in middle school for another year at most considering that he has an irregular schedule.

"It feels longer." Kakashi hummed reminiscing his school days as he fumbled his tie loosening the knot wide enough not to give paranoia that someone will strangle him with it.

The news of his graduation was abrupt and he fondly remembered how his parents reacted at the email that the school had sent to them, Tamashi was ecstatic and Sakumo was partly proud and confused, after all, he's an irregular student and honestly, they have no idea how he managed to graduate without any warning. Needless to say, they paid a quick visit to Tsunade's counterpart to get the full explanation.

Miss Samantha gave a quick apology at their entrance and explained that he is valid to graduate middle school since a majority of his subjects were on that level, and the elementary subjects were now considered as supplementary classes aside from his Tech class, which counts as a major subject. In short, he managed to butcher the school's system bad enough with his scheduling that the only way the teachers can asses whether he was fit to be graduated was by the units he finished. With his Saturday Tech classes, Kakashi manage to pull up his units from breezing through every lesson, managing to rack up 75 units along with others he had taken in the middle school, enough amount to pass the requirements for him to be considered in the graduating class, but sadly not within the top ten- honestly Kakashi was glad for that, more anonymity.

Still, it was redundant, Kakashi sighed at that thought, surely most would note of a nine-year-old graduating middle school.

"Well as anonymous as a 9-year-old genius I guess." he mused as he took off his tie, grumbling at the sight he wore it again and tried to retie the knot.

A small mechanical release of air made his head turn in the direction and he saw his mother entering his room.

"Kashi-chan are you ready?" Tamashi asked him as she stepped inside, looking at him with eyes filled with pride.

Kakashi glanced at the failed knot in his tie, after sighing he gave up and replied. "Aa."

"Mou, Kashi it's your graduation, don't you think it's fitting to wear your tie properly?" Tamashi asked.

"Nope," he answered.

His mother shook her head in exasperation. "I knew it. Come here, Kashi," she said gesturing at him to come closer.

Kakashi rose a brow, but followed nonetheless, when he stopped before his mother, Tamashi pulled his necktie off and dangled a new one before him.

"You're pretty much stubborn about not properly wearing a necktie, so I borrowed one of dad's clip-on." she smiled and leaned over to him to attach the necktie but suddenly paused. "Honestly, why didn't I just bought your clip-on ties in the first place?"

"I wonder why." Kakashi mused blandly and his vision was suddenly covered by his hair as Tamashi ruffled it.

"None of that cheek, mister." Tamashi chided and let out a giggle as she saw how much she messed his hair.

"Maa, now I have to redo it again," Kakashi whined and began combing through his locks. There was nothing to redo actually, his hair was spiky as ever but that won't stop him from playing along with his mother's teasing.

"Well, at least your uniform is complete." his mother grinned.

"Hey Dad!" he called out as he saw Sakumo in his peripheral. "Matching ties," he said tugging the clip-on in front and gave the two a beaming smile.

"Huh you finally did it, honey." his father smiled and Kakashi rose a brow when he saw the man subtly hide something behind his back.

"Did what?" Tamashi asked in confusion.

"Clip-on ties," Sakumo stated knowingly. "It took you what? Four years?" he teased and got a slap on the shoulder.

"Don't gang up on me boys." his mother said. "I happened to be in charge of the celebratory dinner. Keep this up and both of you are going to eat in the fast-food joint."

Kakashi and his father shared an alarmed look, both of them were a pretty much-eating balanced diet. Kakashi due to his past life- kept an eye on what food he's eating, well...except when Tamashi was cooking. His mother cooked breakfast that was made up of heavy food. Since he never had a taste of his mother's cooking in the past life, he would gladly eat it no matter how much his stomach would ache later on.

Sakumo, on the other hand, had begun checking what food he would eat after that fainting incident. Kakashi didn't know whether it was because of the promise or because of his aunt's threats- Aunt Tsuna's threat was very detailed, by the way- that Sakumo made a one-eighty turn on his food intake. At least Kakashi had finally got a comrade that has the same culinary interest as him.

Tamashi...meanwhile was the epitome of high metabolism, let's leave it to that. Talking about a woman's eating habits was a taboo. Even the author was afraid to write it.

"We're stopping," Kakashi said raising both of his arms high, his father followed suit though he only raised one arm.

Tamashi giggled at the silly act and gave a Sakumo a nudge. "Well, before we go, we have something for you Kashi."

"Hmm?" he offered with a raised brow.

"A graduation gift." his father answered and revealed their presence.

There was no wrapping since it wasn't Holidays but Kakashi couldn't care less, because as far as he can see his gift was handmade. He was not picky when it comes to gifts although he preferred something practical in his everyday life. Clothes were more often than not -since well, he couldn't ask for kunais and shurikens could he?- and by some chance that he got gadgets it would more likely end up in a box under his bed.

"A scarf?" he breathed looking at the knitted navy blue scarf with a curious eye.

"You like it?" Tamashi asked.

"Aa." he nodded and took hold of the scarf and felt the thin threads that made it up, at one end of the scarf Kakashi let out a laugh when he saw a heno-heno-moheji.

"Good, because dad made it...well most of it."

Kakashi almost dropped the scarf at the revelation, his dad made this!?

"What?" Sakumo asked a flush of red on his cheeks. "Why are you so surprised about this?"

'Perhaps shocked was a better word.' he thought. "...You knit?"

Tamashi laughed. "After Miss Glass' call about your graduation, we decided to give you a handmade gift, something that we hadn't tried before."

"So knitting?"

"Yep, we played rock-paper-scissors. The winner gets to buy the supplies and the loser would do the knitting. As you can see, dad lost and he surprisingly found it relaxing."

Kakashi didn't know whether to laugh or cry when the image of the infamous Hatake Sakumo was now holding a pair of knitting needles instead of the White Fang. Still...

"Thank you," he said with an eye-smile.

"Saa, you deserve it, besides I knew someone in here is camera shy," Sakumo replied and gave him a wink.

Kakashi blinked but didn't disagree, instead, he wore the scarf and did it a way that would cover his lower face.

"It's comfy," he commented and felt a pair of hands ruffling his hair.

Their little moment was disrupted when Kuro entered his room, in its hands was a neatly folded toga and the odd squared hat on top of it. The three of them looked at the object with different expressions, Tamashi was getting teary-eyed and Sakumo was wearing a proud look, he, on the other hand, looked at it with something akin to resignation.

"Maa...this makes me feel old," he muttered.

"Kashi, don't say it like you're thirty or something," Tamashi commented with a giggle

"You still have high school and college graduation," Sakumo added.

"This still makes me feel old...too old to be precise," he whispered the last part.

After all, if you strip out the other factors, the only thing that would be left was seeing a nearly forty-year-old veteran shinobi, a feared ex-ANBU and Sixth Hokage... graduate from middle school.

Elana snorted as her son landed on a thin branch...again, her ears twitched as the familiar sound of Arashi falling on the ground echoed in their clearing, which was soon followed by a whine. She watched as Arashi tried again jumping on the lower branch and gaining height as he hopped from one tree to another.

She snapped her muzzle, warning her pup that he's going to land on a thin branch...again. Unfortunately, he didn't manage to heed it in time.

Elana hid her face under her paws as another fall echoed. She knew that Arashi can master tree hopping, but her pup was easily excited and when he's excited, Arashi tends to miss a lot of things. Like the branches, the cues during their hunt, the branches and sometimes even the ground. Oh, and the branches.

Honestly, she doesn't know which of the two males in their pack was the oddest one...no, wait...never mind that part, Silver would always get that title hands down.

Silver was the name they gave to the odd human they took in. Besides, if he gave them names it was right to give him one right?

Elana could vividly remember the first time they met Silver. It was a month after she gave birth to her pup and four months after she migrated to this area. Before that, she was kicked out of the pack that the humans had dropped with. However, being an anomaly was something those canines couldn't take, they tolerated her presence for a time. But mating with one of them was the last straw it seemed as it was the reason why she became a lone wolf.

But back to the story, she had decided to mark the area so other predators would know that there was a new one and also because...well she's a polite canine. The bears didn't like of course and they began to hunt her, it was fortunate that time that they didn't know the existence of her pup and Elana had easily defended herself. That was until one-day curiosity got the better of Arashi, the bear that attacked him was the biggest one she had met so far, although size doesn't matter when she saw it swiping at her child. With a ferocity that she never knew that she had, she fought the bear and killed it.

Still, the fact that her child was wounded worried her after all, saliva couldn't heal that level of injury in such a short time. It was then then that the human came, her instincts blared in alarm that day when she felt that odd energy in the human. It was that reason why she didn't outright attack the boy, as far as she could tell the human was nothing like the other that experimented on her or the ones that saved her.

That energy was an unknown factor, one that made her shift in a defensive state.

She growled and bared her teeth at the boy, warning him and telling him to leave, but the human was stubborn. When the boy said he could help and Elana could only think of the white room that she recuperated in. Of course, she didn't like that, if help was bringing her son to the humans then she would rather kill herself to even allow it.

However, the human did something odd, he cut his hand with a sharp stone. And when the smell of blood reached her nose she stopped growling. The question of why was clear as the day. But the boy told her to watch and watch she did. The boy held out his uninjured hand and slowly a green glow began to appear, emitting that odd energy she felt. It was by far the weirdest thing she saw and her curiosity was piqued when the boy brought his hand to his injury and she watched as the wound began to stitch itself, healing at a slow rate and by the end of it, it was closed. No blood, no scar, it was as if the cat wasn't there, to begin with.

It was then she knew how the human could help them. It was a long debate on her part but with the health of her son on the line, she made a decision that changed everything.

For months that they spent their time with the human they got to know him more, his oddity more so, as more often than not they saw him dancing in the clearing, kicking and punching the air with grace and strength. Other times the boy would breathe fire and water, shake the earth and hold the lightning. It was an amazing sight but she knew enough just by the damage alone that it was better for them to be out of the clearing when the boy does that. The human could also make copies of himself and walk on every surface she could think of. The last one greatly interests her, it was the reason why she had begun training that skill until she mastered it.

There were times that the human would disappear at days and come back at a later date, Elana knew that the human had a pack of his own... A human pack to be precise and she was slightly jealous of it because you can't call a pair of wolves a pack, can you? When the boy had disappeared for months, she was worried that the human won't come back, until one day he did. It was also that day that she finally noticed the longing look in the boy's face when he stood alone in that clearing, and she knew...she knew that the boy wanted a pack of his own, not a human pack but a wolf pack.

Elana couldn't even stop herself from not allowing it, because she, wanted a pack too.

She found out, in time, that they were nearly similar in every aspect despite being different species. She and the human were an anomaly of their own, they were both different from their species. She, because of the experimentation she got through and Silver, because he can do something that regular humans could never do.

Years passed by, the two of them had become comfortable with the boy's presence to point that they allowed him to join their hunt. It was there that, Elana realized that Silver was a great hunter, he made plans and taught them codes to make each of their hunt a hundred percent success. It was the reason why her territory widened.

However, just recently, Silver had let out this dark aura that made their hackles rise. Elana knew that moment that something was wrong, so she began to observe Silver until she knew why. The reason was simple enough, it was the animalistic urge to kill, an urge that she was very familiar with during her experimental days. A lot of 'prison mates' had lost their battle to control their urges and more often than not they were killed because of that.

The only remedy that she could think of was to let it loose, they weren't in prison so it was okay for the human to release it. The problem was where he would lose it.

Elana had scoured the areas out of their territory that has an apex predator that would challenge Silver and consequently one close enough that they could take over. She did find one, but she didn't like who the apex was. It was The Cat, one of the successful experiments back in her days. Despite their differences, Elana did have a camaraderie of a sort with the feline.

She was surprised when she met the mountain lion on one of her patrols a year ago, more so when she realized that the cat was different, the reason why she didn't like her was that the mountain lion had succumbed to the urges and was already a lost cause.

It was a hard decision but The Cat needed to die, her ecosystem was dying from overhunting and soon enough the feline would find other territories to hunt on and Elana doesn't like the idea of her hunting in her turf.

With that decided, Elana related her plan to the human and Silver quickly said yes. After she leads the boy into The Cat's territory she was admittedly worried about Silver, he was still a human after all. When the time limit was up, her worries were for naught, she followed the scent of the boy and she looked at the destruction that they -he- had caused. Tongues of fire scattered about along with splinters of branches on the grasses, there was a segment of the ground that turned into spikes and there were blood splatters on the trunks.

Thankfully, she knew whose blood it was.

Minutes later, she found Silver in one of the clearings, his arm was lodged deep into the chest of The Cat, the feline had a lot of slashes in it's hide and the tail was cut in half. She didn't bat an eye on the feline's death, because there was something that took the majority of her attention. It was the dark aura that shrouded Silver was so oppressive that Elana shivered, it was discerning how much destruction that Silver could do. When the boy slowly pulled back his hand, Elana could only watch warily as the human looked at his blood-soaked limb.

There was a moment where she felt an air of satisfaction from the human but as the seconds passed by it ebbed away. The process was slow and as if a switch was turned, Silver sighed withdrawing the tension in his body. Elana gave the human a few minutes to compose himself before she showed her presence by barking at the boy. Conveying to Silver to return to the clearing to rest and wash the blood out while she started marking their new territory. The boy wearily nodded at her order and swiftly hopped back into the trees.

During her marking, Elana had noticed something that made her freeze.

A drone, something she had been familiar in her past…misadventures. Thankfully, it looked to be just newly arrived.

There had been humans scouting in the area, something that she missed despite her senses. Caution took over her for the next three hours as she methodically stalked the gadget until it reached her sense of smell, the moment the scent of the drone reached her nose, her hackles raised and made her blood boil. It was the scent of blood and death, something she wished she would never smell again. But here it was, a reminder of her past, with viciousness she destroyed the drone with a swipe of her blade and watched it fall towards the earth.

It continued on for months, one after the other, the drones vary in their quantity but she took her time to destroy them whenever they caught a whiff of it. She did have half a mind to tell the human about this but the boy seemed tired. Silver once told them about the tournament and some 'volleyball' training. Taking a bit of pity, Elana decided not to tell Silver until she was sure that he won't look like a scarecrow. One time during their self imposed mission, they met Silver, she would have told him about the drones since it might be the right time. But it wasn't, the boy was with the humans and a hasty retreat was more important than telling him about the news.

Now, one week had passed since their unexpected meeting and Elana was annoyed at the long disappearance of Silver. What was taking the human so long to visit them? Even sending a copy would help them relay the information.

Elana winced as another fall echoed. She eyed Arashi and saw her pup nursing his muzzle. Elana let out a snort, well watching her pup would make her entertained enough for the time being.

Kakashi huffed as he stood on the stage, the mirth of the graduating student body was visible, especially the crowd that a certain blond onii-chan was part of. It was weird when graduation practice had started and the Taijutsu seniors were there, Kakashi had planned to get some space after the club camping trip as to get an 'emotional impact' when he'll meet Naruto at their graduation saying another tearful goodbye. As it was, with him attending the graduation practice, Naruto had taken the time to announce- or rather bragged- his 'Onii-chan' title every time he was near him. Suffice to say Kakashi was not amused as the majority of the females cooed at the attention given to him by the blond.

It was embarrassing, to say the least.

Although the current dilemma he was in right now might top that experience, as it was, the crowd before him was containing their laughter as the announcer kept saying his name, despite him being already on stage. He was nearing five feet for kami's sake he's not that short to be looked over, right? Glancing at his right he finally noticed how tall the podium was and huffed, with just a quick look, he knew that the size and angle of the podium would render any speaker to have a blind spot on his position.

His name was once again announced and with a mischievous eye smile, he placed a silencing gesture towards the crowd and promptly sat at the bottom of the stadium, with this he was fully hidden from the speaker and honorary people on the stage. The crowd was rather enjoying the bafflement of the people on stage as they looked at one another. Kakashi heard his name announced three more times before one of the students guffawed at the absurdity.

It was at that point that Miss Glass took the cue to finally take pity at the announcer who was probably confused and frazzled at the reaction of the crowd.

"Kakashi Hat-" His name was cut off and Kakashi knew that the flustered speaker finally got the memo.

Staring up, Kakashi looked at the speaker, when the man peeked over the podium. The man fumbled at the sight and with a quick hushed conversation ("You didn't tell me he was short!")- in which the crowd finally reacted with a laugh- with Miss Glass, the man finally proceeded with his speech, listing his accomplishments and other titles he had gotten and never remembered.

Hiding an eye roll, Kakashi waited for the last line- the cue that he could finally move from his spot. A lot of people clapped at his achievements, noting that Naruto and Sherry's voices were the loudest, followed by the hollers of his mother and aunt at the edge of the crowd, how the two females manage that Kakashi has no idea, they were in the high school gym, the place was big enough to have at least three more graduation ceremonies. However, after grabbing his diploma and posing for a picture, Kakashi took the chance to glance at his mother's area and gave a pitying look at the crowd before Tamashi and his Aunt Tsuna. Based on the hand covered ears, the two female's voices must be reaching critical levels.

Kakashi gave a cheery salute at the crowd and walked down from the stage.

~Shift

Kakashi hummed as he idly stepped aside, letting the square hat pass him and hitting the bum of a student behind. The hats were supposed to be thrown upwards and not like a frissbee, he heard the complaints of the poor victim and being a helpful soon to be high school student, he pointed at the offender.

He watched as the two teens banter one another, pulling at each other's cheeks all in good nature.

Aside from the pinching, the end of graduation was filled with hugs, kisses, and words of congratulations, well at least for his older peers anyway. He was yet to be tormented by thos-

"Kashi!"

"Nii-chan!"

'Ah...spoke too soon.' he thought lamely as a pair arms took hold of his extremities. He froze and with will power reeled back the instincts to defend himself.

Why couldn't they just appear before him? And not on his blindside. For three years he had come to know how much troublesome it was when every single being around him has very, very low chakra. Not that he wasn't aware, who was where and what they were doing, but there's a thing called 'hair-trigger' and he doesn't want them to 'trigger' it now, do we?

Pushing a minuscule amount of chakra on his feet, Kakashi braced himself. Tenrou had grabbed hold of his arm while his mother was squeezing the air out of his scarf with her...assets.

Other women would have been okay, but she's his mother for kami's sake and that's one step too far from the line.

"Aunt Tama, your son is tapping out." Sasuke provided helpfully with a smirk- not that Kakashi could see.

"...Tapping out?" his mother asked.

"Honey." that was his father's voice. "Uh, you won already...so -uh... our son?"

"You're suffocating your son." his aunt deadpanned.

"Oh...Oh!" Kakashi breathed in as he was finally released and stopped patting his mother's shoulder. "Kashi-chan- I'm so sorry, are you okay?"

Kakashi coughed -just for the extra drama- and gave the group an eye-smile. "Aa...I think I'll live until my highschool graduation."

~Shift

The post-graduation dinner celebration was a reminisce of the ones that he -rarely- attended back in his old life. Which were filled, smiles, laughter, cheers, teasings and all other rowdy activities that would result in some broken bottles or plates and sometimes dragging a drunken shinobi on the way home. Not that he was doing the dragging, he had most of the time read his book throughout each celebration that his colleagues blackmailed/threatened/forced him to join, he did drink, not enough to knock him out but enough to get that almost buzzing feel.

Some would have said that his intake wasn't enough, but Kakashi was more than entertained when a majority of those 'some' -usually Asuma- would come out of the bar in such a drunken haze that they would be flirting with a pole for thirty minutes straight.

To Kakashi alcohol was mostly the reason why every shinobi mini-celebration was wild. To say that he was surprised at how wild the post-graduation without alcohol was an understatement.

It all started like everything else. Normal.

They -Taijutsu team, and some family friends- waited for their food without a fuss as most of them were asking him about his expectations for a soon to be high school student and for curiosity sake he picked on some bits that interested him, the teachers, the lessons, the rumored special projects and other dramas that the tertiary level would entail. Some of them were interrogating his aunt about her life which had become the main topic since most of his answers were purposely blithe. Aside from that, there was one major bit that he managed to raise his eyebrows. It was Tobias and Reyn, the two of them -along with Tsunade's counterpart- were invited for their post-graduation party and it took him a few more seconds to get the gist of their current status. He was happy to know that they're slowly getting back to their old selves.

The rest of the wait, nothing unusual happened. Though Kakashi knew that it won't be long before the other shoe drops.

It did drop, when the food had arrived did the tolls of chaos sounded. The group had been immediately divided into two, while the rest of the group started to eat their meal, Sophie, Naruto and surprisingly Iruka were watching him like a hawk. Because of one thing.

His scarf.

Somehow, somewhere, somewhen...and in a series of unfortunate events, the celebration turned into a food fight. It started from a simple fall of a glass of juice that Sophie accidentally toppled over, which consequently soaked Tenrou. Somehow in just seconds, that little accident had escalated into a mini food fight between the two. Of course, no one could escape when two kids were smudging one another with sauces were beside them, it took exactly three seconds for Iruka and Naruto to join in. Somewhere along with the fight, his aunt decided to stop the four but in a perfectly cliche result, she was the one who took the biggest and healthiest hit.

A bowl of salad on her face, courtesy of the blond prankster. There were twenty seconds of silence when all eyes on the table looked at the woman in horror and amusement, the latter was vocalized by his father with wheezing of his laughter. Not to be the only one to be laughed at, his Aunt Tsuna decided that another adult victim was needed and as everyone expected the woman evilly dropped her hand in a bowl of ramen -Naruto's face was of pure agony at that second- and threw the noddles directly at his father's face.

Kakashi nearly had a heart attack when his father -who still had his mouth open- began to choke on the noodles. Thankfully, his mother immediately dislodges it with a whack on his back, while doubling on laughing at her husband. Sasuke joined along when the raven saw Naruto's distressed yet comical look as the blond looked at the ramen bowl in horror. It was there that everything downhill...or uphill...as the rivals began to throw food at one another, heedless if they had hit their target or not.

Fish, rice, vegetables, noodles even the hardboiled eggs were thrown without care, even accidentally hitting other customers. Surprisingly, the customers joined the fray and somewhen in those continuing minutes, the staff began to pull out pies out of their kitchen and began giving the ammunition to whoever was close by, and consequently exchange the foods with the desert without anyone noticing it- well except him of course. Also, it was a thoughtful act since the staff had quickly taken their breakable plates, bowls, and glasses back in the kitchen to prevent a real accident from happening.

Interestingly as the minutes passed by, Kakashi saw a clear distinction between the food fighters. Of course, it wasn't surprising to who had led each 'team', the infamous rivalry of Indra and Amaterasu seemed to have traveled in this world too. Which was thankfully not as 'world-changing' as the one in his previous life...it was just messy... in a culinary sense. In no time, the line between the groups was clear and it was then that a game was born.

'Dodge Pie'

...

No comments on his part but the game was simple. The same rules apply, but the only difference was that no one can catch the 'ball' the only way to win the game was to be faster, nimbler and have a really good arm to throw the pies.

...All of this happened, just because of his scarf.

He didn't know what to feel about that. Though, at the moment he was happily eating his meal by the sideline -with his scarf lowered of course- cheering at his nii-san and family and laughing when his father got a direct hit on his face.

"Maa, graduating isn't so bad after all."

"Have you found it yet?" An annoyed voice demanded, grabbing the laptop's screen and pushing in back.

Shin slapped the man's hands away with annoying sound. "Shut it Kiba, just be patient for once yeah? I had ten drones in my command and that 'prospect' of yours destroyed half of it, I don't need your grumpy ass hovering my neck. You'll have a much better view, idiot." he nagged glaring at his cousin.

"Oh fuck you, this grumpy ass just found out that his fighter is dead! I can be grumpy as much as I can!" Kiba yelled, kicking a chair roughly and breaking the wooden legs of the furniture.

"Oh shut up." Shin huffed and returned staring at the live feed of the drones, the visuals were bad considering that this was made from junk, he was just glad that he can distinguish trees from ground with the height of their drones. "Clear off section 4 to 7."

He eyed Kiba who touched the hologram map of the forest where they last saw the carcass of cat-mech, the segmented areas where Kiba touched turned red. A series of beeps took his attention and Shin grumbled when he saw that three of his drones were low on battery while the others were nearing their limit.

"Kiba gets the goons to section five, it's time for a battery charge," Shin announced as he maneuvered the three drones in a small clearing, he kept his eyes on the screen eyeing each one attentively, it would be bad if wolves were near and destroyed another batch. With their budget nearing their limit Shin knew that Kiba can't afford another batch of scraps., suffice to say, he's more careful of their gadgets nowadays.

"I'm the boss here Four-eyes," Kiba grumbled as he took out his phone and made a call, one annoyed conversation later, Shin saw their truck ambling through the undergrowth. Eyeing the surrounding trees, Shin deemed it safe enough to land the other two drones. A few minutes later the goons changed the batteries, and once again Shin went back to work.

Four more sections were cut off before Kiba spoke.

"You know, I'm starting to hate how intelligent our prospect is."

Noting the musing note of Kiba's voice, Shin turned his head and watched his cousin, he eyes the FlatPad on Kiba's hands and saw one of the feeds that they manage to scrounge up from his destroyed drones. It shows a single image, specifically the one where the bio mech's mouth was inches away from the camera, showing a glint of fury in its eyes.

"How so?" Shin asked as he continued his work.

"It's almost human, like a person…"

"You know Kiba, philosophy is not for you," he replied.

"Oh shut up, you know what I mean, you saw it too right?" Kiba grumbled throwing a piece of a screw at Shin's head.

"Well, what of it?" Shin finally replied.

"I dunno, I guess that using Beta operation would be risky, if it will react like a person then we should use tactics for a person." Kiba grinned showing his teeth.

"And that is…?" Shin asks.

" A Hostage."

Snippet 1. Dreams

Kakashi was odd.

A fact that anyone that knew him would agree.

Still being odd has their negative impact, Sakumo knew that he saw how Kakashi would sometimes daze off, would look at him as if he was seeing something else, would speak as if he was as old as them.

Kakashi being odd was like a norm, a part of their lives.

But the thing was…

Despite raising him, Sakumo felt that there's a part of his son that he doesn't know yet. It was a parental instinct, one that made Sakumo worry that there might be another oddity that Kakashi was not sharing with them.

His fears were confirmed when he fainted from stress and found out that that the sight of him made Kakashi emotionally wrecked for a week at least. His classmates/club mates gave them worried messages of Kakashi's behavior and Sakumo just gave a lighter version of his fainting incident and advised the kids to give Kakashi some space.

It did help somehow when Kakashi reverted to his old odd self, and Sakumo was thankful for that, promising himself to take care of his health so that his son won't be such a worrywart.

Still…the conversation they had on that day remained intact on his mind, it reminded him of the nightmare Kakashi had during their trip in the Water World and Sakumo hoped that Kakashi was not having a recurring dream of him dying.

His thoughts were interrupted when he saw the door on their bedroom opening and Kakashi was standing there, eyes dazed and glimmering with tears.

'Jinxed it.' Sakumo thought bemusedly.

"Kashi?" he called out softly as he watched the boy's eyes focus on him.

"...Dad?" Kakashi replied nearly a whisper.

"Had another nightmare?" Sakumo asked keeping his voice gentle, he watched as his son blinked and a few seconds after made a small timid nod.

Sakumo wordlessly patted the space beside him, he wished Tamashi was here but unfortunately his wife has a two-day convention in the North City and won't be home the day after tomorrow. Kakashi trudged his way towards the bed and Sakumo watched as his son tucked his knees near his chest and just stared.

A beat of silence.

"You…" Kakashi started barely a whisper. "You were gone…"

Those three words made Sakumo's heart clench.

"Kashi…remember my promise to you?" he asked, as he crossed his legs and moved closer to his son. The action made Kakashi look and Sakumo softly ruffled the silver locks.

"Un."

"I'm going to fulfill that no matter what," he added, hoping that his words would be forever echoed in his son's heart. "I won't leave, ever."

Kakashi once again blinked, and Sakumo watched as he smiled at him but it was short and fleeting.

"I know…" Kakashi murmured. "…I know," he repeated.

Sakumo prevented himself from sighing, it was frustrating him that he could not help his son. There was stretch silence as Sakumo thought of something to add but Kakashi spoke.

"...I'm sorry." Sakumo blinked at the apology.

"For what?" he asked.

"For not being there for you."

The answer baffled Sakumo, it was only until he realized that Kakashi was not looking at him but through him that made him pause.

"I was a brat back then, too stuck up and too blind to see what was really important." Kakashi continued, his voice getting shaky by the second and Sakumo has no idea how to react.

Out of nowhere, Kakashi gave a sardonic laugh. "I guess it was karma that I ended up being alone too…I lost my best friend…my teammate and even sensei…I was all alone like you…"

Sakumo could not take in how much broken his son sounded at that moment and with one swift move he hugged Kakashi.

"It's alright, Kashi, everything is alright." he murmured and felt Kakashi's shoulders starting to shake. "I'm here now, I won't leave…" He repeated those words like a mantra until he felt Kakashi falling asleep in his arms.

~Shift

As Sakumo tucked Kakashi on his side, his brain was finally catching up with him, Kakashi's words were odd, was it him that Kakashi was referring to? Or was there another person he was conversing with? Who was those people that Kakashi mentioned, a best friend…a teammate and a sensei?

Sakumo gave a frustrated sigh when nothing came up.

Nothing made any sense.

AN/ Reviews are appreciated since they are the lifeblood of this story.

Also I'm happy to note that I have written 3 more chapters, hoping to write two more before updating the second one. Schedule for updates...twice a month at the least, on Saturdays or Sundays, and I'm open for ideas for the snippets since I missed writing those.

Until next time peeps. \(-v-)