Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It starts like this:

Tobirama is becoming fond of his gaggle of children, he really is. At first, he didn’t think anything of it by taking a bunch of clan children under his wing, children part of the last generation born before the founding of Konoha, and part of the first to graduate their newly founded ninja academy.

There isn’t really an abundance of suitable sensei, and well, who would be more suited to teach them than the Hokage’s brother himself?

He’s sceptic at first, not knowing much about teaching children beside babysitting his younger clan members, but after a year, he can’t imagine a life without them.

Koharu and Homura bicker more than the entirety of Konoha’s elders combined, always at each other’s throats, and Tobirama has long since given up on trying to make peace between them. Hiruzen is a bright child, kind, intelligent, and mature, easily the most advanced of his teammates. He soaks Tobirama’s teachings up like a sponge, easily keeping up with him as he explains various parts of his research to him, and sometimes even sharing valuable input. Tobirama can see him growing into someone truly powerful in a few years. 

Danzo, for all his effort into trying to act aloof and above everyone else, is a cunning and crafty little shit. He sticks to Hiruzen’s side like glue, more often than not taking personal offense when he succeeds in something faster than Danzo. Tobirama knows it’s unhealthy behaviour, but despite his efforts Danzo hasn’t shown signs of change. That one-sided rivalry with Hiruzen will destroy him sooner or later- not that Hiruzen is aware. He thinks they’re the best of friends.

Torifu is the youngest of the batch, however much he tries to prove himself, and always blushes when Kagami teases him about it. He’s not from the main line of his clan, but ahead enough of his peers that he doesn’t struggle more than usual under Tobirama. He may go under between Hiruzen and Danzo’s constant contest, Koharu and Kagami’s boisterous personalities or Homura’s never ending questions and complaints, but his shy and kind nature is the glue that sticks the team together. More often than not Tobirama sees him comforting Kagami after another argument with the clan elders, setting himself between Homura and Koharu when they’re at each other’s throats again and listening to Danzo when no one else would.

And then, there’s Kagami. Tobirama had felt a nagging irritation at the back of his head when he was first assigned to him, the kind still present from his time at war with the Uchiha before Konoha’s founding. Madara’s defection soon after team Tobirama formed also didn’t help. And he knows exactly why Hashirama placed the child in his team, even if he hates to admit it, because there have been nagging rumors amidst the clans of konoha, how Tobirama hates the Uchiha, how he thinks they’re all insane- and, well, they’re not wrong but Tobirama knows better than projecting his hate of one single person onto an entire clan.

(He regrets killing Izuna- he truly does. But in the few years before Madara left, he had never enough courage to swallow his pride and properly apologize to him after what he’d done. 

He knows, that if Madara had killed Hashirama, he would have ended his life then and there. 

In a way, he doesn’t resent Madara for leaving.)

And- it’s so hard to hate Kagami, and so easy to like him. He’s different from every other Uchiha he knows, with his constant smiles and his joking personality that never fails to put a smile on his teammate’s faces. He’s an anomaly in the usually stoic and cold Uchiha that Tobirama can’t explain himself, and if he didn’t know better he would guess that Kagami is half-clan.

Oh, he has all the skill of an Uchiha, no doubt about that- a genius in his own right, with a skill in Genjutsu unmatched by anyone else in his clan. 

(Madara would’ve had have a field day with him, Tobirama thinks, if he hadn’t been so busy festering in his own hate and misery.)

There’s a sharp intellect beneath the facade of the mischevious trickster, one Tobirama has taken to poke and prod more than once. Despite his age, Kagami is a worthy shogi opponent, even if he has yet to beat Tobirama in a match. He contemplates sicking the Nara on him- Shikari especially, the current clan head, would enjoy taking him apart.

Tobirama loves his students. He has been with them through the first war, through fighting and death and misery, through every milestone in their life.

He was there when Homura’s parents died, when Torifu’s little sister was killed in the war, when Koharu fought off her parents kicking and screaming because they wanted to marry her off to some merchant’s son in kusa, when Kagami activated his Sharingan for the first time when he watched Hiruzen take a hit for him that would’ve killed him. 

He was there for the more mundane things as well, through every birthday and celebration, through their hormonal teenage phases, through Torifu’s puppy crush on Kagami and Koharu’s emo Phase. 

And, in return, they became his family too. 

When Hashirama died and he was appointed Hokage, they were by his side. When he couldn’t stand being in the same room as his brother’s children, when he avoided Mito weeks after the funeral. They yanked him out of his depression, prevented him working himself into an early grave and finished paperwork for him when he fell asleep at his desk. 

They were there when every one of his efforts to prevent another war failed, and they fought by his side from the moment the first attack hit them. 

And when the moment came where they found themselves in a surprise ambush, days away from home, after months of endless fighting, Tobirama knew that he had to leave them behind.

He senses the silver and gold brothers at the edge of his awareness, the corrosive feeling of kyuubi chakra coming closer and closer, and he knows he won’t risk any of his student’s lives in an impossible fight.

But he’s not overly sad- Tobirama has lived a good life. Only about one third of it was in peacetime, and he lost more people than he can count- but that’s alright. He knows he’s leaving Konoha in capable hands.

He turns around, Hiruzen’s name on his tongue- and hesitates. 

Hiruzen is strong, maybe the strongest of his students. He’s grown much from the snot-nosed brat he once was. But- Tobirama can’t see him leading a village, can’t see him making decisions for the good of the entirety. He’s too kind, too soft-hearted.

And then there’s Danzo to fracture into the calculation- if Tobirama makes Hiruzen Hokage he’ll never get over it. Their competition has the potential to morph into something dark and twisted, and Tobirama doesn’t want to be the catalyst. 

And where Hiruzen is too soft, Danzo is too rash, willing to do anything and everything for his own selfish reasons. Where the others eventually understood that in war both sides lose, Danzo never learnt to see past his own ideals. 

Danzo and Hiruzen are two sides of the same coin- so who leaves that?

Tobirama’s eyes wander to Kagami. Bright, warm Kagami, bright like the sun shining amidst the rain clouds. He’s intelligent, and mature even amongst prodigies like Hiruzen. He knows firsthand the dangers of corruption, of greed, having seen it in his own clan often enough. Despite his sharingan, and his heritage, or maybe because of it, Kagami is fiercely loyal- loyal to the village, loyal to Tobirama.

And Tobirama can see it- Kagami growing, filling out the hole soon to be left by Tobirama, maturing into someone that can protect Konoha better than Tobirama ever could. He’d have the backing of the Uchiha, instead of having to work against them like Tobirama, and he knows the Senju will support his decision. 

When Tobirama sends them ahead, telling them he’ll stay behind to fight their pursuers off, Kagami is the one who protests fiercely, who screams, who begs Tobirama to take Kagami with him, that all together they’ll have a chance. 

Hiruzen’s face twists like he wants to say something, but ultimately he doesn’t. Danzo is quiet- he understands, just like Tobirama knew he would.

Tobirama smiles, open and genuine in a way only reserved to his family, and grasps Kagami by his shoulders. 

“Kagami. I’m making you the third Hokage.”, he says, and Kagami’s red eyes go wide. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Tobirama sees Danzo grit his teeth, and Hiruzen’s mouth fall open.

“Protect each other, and the village, and those who will become the next generation.”, he says, and he knows it will be the last words he’ll say to him. 

“Protect Konoha for me, Kagami.” Kagami nods, tears building up in his eyes, and Tobirama gives in to the urge to wipe them away. “And you”, he gestures to the rest of his students, “make sure he doesn’t run after me. You all need to stay alive for me, alright?”, he says as he rises, looking into each of his student’s eyes. “You’re the ones who will continue protecting the village, not me. I’ve fulfilled my part- now it’s your turn.”

With that, he turns around, and runs, in the opposite direction of his remaining family. He tries not to think of their faces as he runs, scared and helpless. He has made his decision. It’s time for the new generation to take turn leading Konoha- Tobirama has done enough. 

Hashirama, I’m coming, he thinks as the enemy signatures come closer and closer. 

There are many things he regrets, but his students aren’t one of them.

There’s silence after Tobirama-sensei left. 

Just for a second- they can’t allow themselves to waste more of the time sensei has bought them.

“Let’s go”, Hiruzen says, tugging a frozen Kagami upright as he turns, away from his sensei, in the direction of konoha. 

Something in him screams, telling him to go back to Tobirama-sensei, but he knows he can’t.

“Let’s go”, he repeats as Kagami still doesn’t budge. 

He shakes his head, pure pain on his face “Sensei-“ 

“-is going to be pissed when we get killed-“ too, he wants to say, but shuts his mouth.

“You’re the Hokage now, Kagami. We need to go back to Konoha.”

Kagami inhales and exhales with a shudder, and turning away from where Tobirama disappeared into the trees seems almost phisically painful to him. But he still does. 

He follows Hiruzen, doesn’t protest as he practically drags him along, a hand on his shoulder the entire way back. Doesn’t protest as his team (without sensei) falls into formation around him.

Koharu, Homura and Danzo throw glances at him and Kagami, and he knows what they’re thinking because he is too. Hiruzen is and has always been the team leader, the strongest of them, the perfect candidate- so why…? 

Hiruzen looks at Kagami, expression pained and eyes staring straight ahead. It’s not like Hiruzen dislikes Kagami, and he doesn’t doubt that he will become a great Hokage- but why not him?

Only Torifu seems oblivious to it all, running ahead of them in the formation, silent tears slipping down his cheeks. He was always the more emotional one of them, and it seems even the death of his sensei couldn’t shake the habit.

Hiruzen quickens his pace, the hand around Kagami’s shoulder almost too tight. The only thing that matters now is getting them back to konoha. The rest can wait.

Kagami feels it when Tobirama dies. 

He’s not a sensor- never was, abysmal even in comparison to Koharu, who was the only one to really grasp sensei’s teachings- but he knows. He knows like he knows his own name. 

He feels his heart and his eyes ache, swallows back the sob that threatens to emerge, and the pain in his head threatens to make his knees buckle as his eyes change. A sun swirls to life in his eye as bloody tears fall down to the forest floor. Kagami has heard about the mangekyo- most Uchiha have. But he doesn’t care, doesn’t care that the elders will be pleased to see the first mangekyo sharingan awakened since the first war, doesn’t care the power that it will bring him, doesn’t care that his teammates might see, because sensei is gone. Sensei, who took him in and trained him even after Madara’s defection, when everyone whispered and pointed at the Uchiha clan. Sensei, who was there for him when even his own family wasn’t. Sensei, whose body was probably being desecrated by enemy nin.

Kagami wants to turn around, fight his way back to the border, to at least give his sensei a proper burial. But he doesn’t.

He doesn’t even register when they finally reach the gates, tired and so, so exhausted, doesn’t listen as Hiruzen informs the guards and announces sensei’s death, when he tells them Kagami is his successor. He ignores the sudden hush that follows, all eyes training on him.

One brave Jonin steps forward, bowing low. “What are your orders, Hokage-sama?”, he asks.

Kagami looks down at him. 

Take care of Konoha, sensei had said.

He can mourn later. Konoha needs him now.

Kagami takes a deep breath, shoving his feelings into a far corner of his mind and locking the door, then he straightens.

“Where are our troups stationed?”, he asks with a steel in his voice he doesn’t recognize.

“This way, Hokage-sama”, they say, and isn’t it so bizarre to hear the title that has been his sensei’s for almost as long as he can remember now directed at him? 

But Kagami ignores the pain, the anger, the sadness, ignores the stares and the voices. Tobirama left him his village, everything he and the shodaime have been working on for years, and it’s Kagami’s job now to make sure it remains standing.

The Uchiha clan is extatic about Kagami’s promotion, as expected. For years since Madara’s defection they have been the scorn of the village, victim of baseless rumors and accusations. Kagami being Hokage is like a breath of fresh air for the clan, and he just hopes it stays that way. He knows that his actions as Hokage will directly reflect on the clan.

Kagami tries to ignore the clan elders trying to manipulate him in one direction or the other, and has to remind them more than once that just because he is the Hokage it doesn’t mean that the Uchiha have full control over Konoha. He has ties to the Senju just as much as the Uchiha, maybe even more, when he remembers all the times he had fought with his clan. If the elders think he’ll dance to their whims now that Tobirama is gone, they are sorely mistaken.

He spends most of his time in the Senju compound, nowadays. The house his mother left him feels awfully empty now that he’s expected to show presence in the Uchiha compound, and it feels surreal to wake up in the same room he has spent childhood in now that so much has changed. The elders aren’t happy that he barely shows his face at the compound, but he could care less.

Kagami is busy- of course he is, it’s wartime and he is the Hokage- but in his freetime, he visits Tobirama’s family. 

Mito has told him again and again that he’s always welcome among the Senju, and even though most of the older generation try to stare him to death anytime they see him, he believes her. 

They grieve together, for Tobirama, for Hashirama, for every member of their family gone and buried, and Kagami feels the enourmous burden placed on his shoulder lessen when they talk. 

He makes sure to spend time with Tobirama’s and nieces too, Mito’s children, who treat him warmly even after everything.

Yanagi’s daughter, Tsunade, is a little hellion, but Kagami can’t help but coo over her and pinch her little cheeks anytime he sees her. He knows Tobirama adored her as if she was his own granddaughter.

The others don’t visit as often as he does, even if they show their faces from time to time. Torifu especially can be often seen in the kitchen, cooking or baking something for Tsunade and little Nawaki when their parents aren’t home. Koharu and Homura come by once every few weeks, but they always seem a little distant- pleasant and perfectly polite, but as if they put on a mask. Kagami doesn’t like it. Hiruzen comes by, but. It’s not the same anymore.

Danzo hasn’t visited at all. 

It’s like a punch to the gut entering Tobirama’s office for the first time, finding it just like he left it, papers askew everywhere, messy notes scribbled and then forgotten, day-old tea left standing in a far corner of his desk and scrolls upon scrolls filling the cabinets. Part of Kagami doesn’t want to ever touch what Toborama left behind, wants to preserve it all forever, but he knowns that isn’t  possible. Now, only the photographic memory of the sharingan remains. 

They stack the papers, sort the scrolls, leave unfinished business on the desk for Kagami to deal with, half- filled out documents with Tiborama‘s handwriting that will now be continued by Kagami.

Tobirama-sensei had a will- of course he did, he wasn’t stupid- and they all read it together, crammed into his office, their sensei‘s absence marked though an empty chair.

He left the clan compound and fortune to Hashirama‘s children, obviously, and later his grandchildren when they‘re old enough. His research he leaves to the entirety of konoha, and tasks Hiruzen to deal with the documents and samples. It makes sense, since he was always the most invested in their teacher‘s experiments.

He leaves Torifu old recipes, passed down through his mother‘s line for generations, and the small garden Tobirama managed to care to when he found the time. Many of the plants were first grown by Hashirama himself. Tobirama always allowed Torifu access to his plants, even let him plant his own when he started crafting soldier pills specialized to his clan. Kagami knows the garden means a lot to him.

Koharu inherits a few pieces of jewelry, Homura most of Tobirama‘s books. To Danzo the niidaime Hokage leaves old Jutsu and kata scrolls, as well as a ceremonial knife of his family.

And to Kagami- 

Kagami, the letter reads, and the slant of Tobirama‘s familiar handwriting takes his breath away for a moment. He swallows, forcing himself to keep reading.

Kagami,

If you are reading this, then I am dead. I hope this happens in the far, far future, after many more years spent with you and your team, but I know very well that fate is rarely so kind. 

I ask of you to not grieve much for me- keep living your life to the fullest, even if I’m not in it anymore. 

There are a lot of things I would like to say to you, but most you already know, and this would be pages long if I wrote down every single thought I have.

Kagami, since I first became your sensei, you have become much more to me than just an Uchiha, tied to your clan and its expectations. You know of my doubts about the Uchiha clan, and I want to ask you to make sure they never become reality.  

Take care of my family, Mito and the rest of the team- you‘ll need each other now.

In my house, the second door on the left side past my office, is a room with a katana hanging on the wall. I want you to have it. I haven‘t used it since I was your age, so it should suit you. You have already surpassed my skill in kenjutsu.

Additionally, there‘s a scroll in my personal belongings, blue with silver lining- you‘ll know which one I mean when you see it. You don‘t have to use it if you don‘t want to, you can pass it on to whoever you like. Or don’t. It’s yours now to decide with.

That is all. This letter s coming to an end, and as last words, I want you to know that I love you, Kagami, as if you were my own flesh and blood, you and every one of your teammates. You are my family, and nothing is ever going to change that. 

But, most importantly, I want you to live. Live a good, long life, with as few regrets as possible. Maybe find someone to settle down with, once the war is over, start a family. Or don‘t- I never did either.

You and the other five gremlins are one of the best things that have ever happened to me. Never forget that.

With you, always,

Tobirama

The house is empty when Kagami steps foot in it. It has always been empty, with Tobirama the only inhabitant. Kagami remembers countless of days spent here with his team, eating, laughing, training.

The ghost of childish laughter seems to echo in his ears as he walks down the hallways.

The others have been here already, picking up the things sensei left for them, and Kagami is the last. Mito said they could take more of his things, since they were closest to him besides her and her children, but to Kagami‘s knowledge no one did.

It‘s a wonderful summer morning, and it feels bizarre to to this on such a wonderful day. It would be more fitting if Kagami came at night- but then he would feel like a thief.

The birds chirp as Kagami walks, past Tobirama‘s office, the second door, like he wrote.

Kagami has been in every room in this house, he knew of the sword Tobirsms was speaking oflong before it was in his will. A long, sturdy Katana made out of black steel, with a matching sheath. 

the Senju clan symbol is inked in red on the sheath right under the hilt, and with a bitter smile Kagami thinks of his ancestors rolling in their graves at an Uchiha wielding a Senju blade.

Years and years he has spent in this room, passing though, admiring and wondering about the sword from afar, and now he finally steps up to it, lifting it up from the hooks in the wall. It feels forbidden to even touch it, but Kagami ignores the feeling. The sword is lighter than he guessed, and the leather-wrapped hilt looks well worn. Kagami wraps a hand around it, imagining Tobirama‘s hand doing the same countless times before him. Kagami exhales, and moves on.

Stifling through Tobirsma‘s personal belongings feels just as forbidden and out of place, but Kagami ignores the sense of unease and works faster. He curses his sensei silently, and hopes he stumbles over a rock, wherever he is now. There are hundreds of scrolls how does he expect him to find-? Oh.

Kagami crouched down, removing a stack of paper from an object stashed right between a desk and shelf.

It‘s a scroll, as long as Kagami‘s arm and wider than his head. It‘s blue, with silver lining, just as Tobirama described. 

Kagami heaves it up, curiously. What could be hidden in a scroll like this? 

He settles it down on the floor, in the empty space in front of Tobirams‘s bed, and carefully unclamps the latch. The scroll unrolls, heavy, yellowed paper unfurling over the floor, and- 

Kagami takes a sharp breath. He feels tears prickling at his eyes again, blurring his vision as he takes in the rows of different names and fingerprints, written in blood.

Damn you, Tobirama-sensei, Kagami thinks as he curls over the floor, tears falling onto the wood as his forehead touches the ground, and sobs wrack his frame as he truly starts to grieve his teacher, letting himself feel in a way he had forbidden himself since he came back from that one disastrous mission.

It feels like hours until the tears and the crying stops, and Kagami gathers himself, wiping his tears as he takes in the ancient scroll still spread out before him.

A summoning contract. Tobirama left him his summoning contract. 

his name is all the way at the bottom, a handful of characters in a writing that Kagami would recognize everywhere. 

There‘s an empty space right beneath it, fitting for a name and fingerprints, and Kagami- 

Kagami hesitates. 

He sits there for a long time, staring at the scroll, at the space fitting for his name, until he sighs and rolls it together again. That is something he can think of another day.

The war is still raging on, and Kagami barely has time to breathe, much less wallow in self-misery.

There’s much to learn and too little time, and after a few days crammed in the office Kagami feels ready to die of stress and boredom.

Mito is a constant presence in those few days, on a personal mission to cram as much knowledge in his head as possible. Not that Kagsmk‘s ungrateful- looking back, he would have been much more lost without her guiding his every step. It was incredibly useful to have one of Konoha‘s founders as his right hand, with all the information needed about Konoha and its laws because she helped create them.

Of course, the Jonin and ANBU commanders also take away at Kagami‘s workload, probably more than they should given his age and inexperience, and Kagmi does his best to express his gratitude. 

Nara Shikari, the Jonin commander, has been in that position since that position existed, and even though he keeps complaining about it, Kagami knows he is one of the best minds suited for the job. He appreciates the knowledge the Nara clan head is willing to share with him, even if he announces time and time again that he‘ll retire once the war is over and finally let his son take over the position.

The Anbu commander, while the polar opposite of Shikari personality wise, quickly becomes a steady presence at the edge of Kagami‘s awareness. Senju Yusaku, or otherwise known as ANBU Fox, is a familiar presence to Kagami, and he‘s glad Tobirama‘s niece is working with him. 

His team also integrated in the new lifestyle revolving around the Hokage‘s office, and Kagami is incredibly glad that his appointment as Hokage hasn‘t distanced him from his teammates much. Most are even part of his guard, and all are his personal advisors. He can‘t imagine doing all this without them.

All except Torifu have their own responsibilities to fulfil, since they are all heirs of their respective clans. Since his father died, Hiruzen especially has his hands full with administration and clan ceremonies, and understandably not much time for Kagami left. Most of his time only Torifu stays to keep him company, and he‘s one more person that supports him that Kagami knows he can rely on without second thoughts.

Since Kagami became Hokage, things have… changed between him and his old team. 

Where once they were a tightly-knit unit, Kagami can’t seem to stop them from drifting apart. 

He knows he wasn‘t the best choice of successor, alright, he knows that Hiruzen or Danzo would have been the more obvious choice- but Tobirama didn‘t chose them. He chose Kagami. And they‘ll have to live with that. 

Danzo especially seems more cold and distant than he ever was. Since the very beginning, he had been more angry and bitter than any of them, but Kagami has thought that changed. They were a team, weren‘t they? They grew up together, Kagami was there when Danzo‘s family died, when his clan dwindled down to alarmingly low numbers, and he thought they were at least friends. Maybe Danzo didn’t consider Kagami family like he did, but at least…

Well, seems like Danzo thinks otherwise.

Whenever they meet, he seemed absent, his eyes colder than usual when they look at Kagami. His suggestions and advices are insensitive at best and outright harmful at worst, and Kagami doesn’t understand why. Why is he so set on prolonging the war rather than end it? Why is he so persistent on sending more and more troups to the front lines, even though it will bring next to nothing? He yelled at Kagami when he suggested retreating from suna, as if the very thought was unimaginable. Danzo yells, yes, and it‘s not something he has never done before, but- something is changing, and Kagami can’t stop it.

Homura and Koharu still smile at him, still joke, but he knows by their glances and the twists of their lips that they agree with Danzo. The way they look at him sometimes, like a hungry vulture, makes Kagami‘s hair rise. 

Hiruzen though, Hiruzen hasn‘t changed, and much less Torifu. Kagami finds it hard to believe that Hiruzen doesn’t hold at least a little bit of resentment against him- from the beginning, it had been clear that he was the best candidate for Hokage. He was strong, stronger than any of them, charming, responsible, kind. He was always the team leader, always the one to get them out of tricky situations, and now Kagami was supposed to fill that role. Not for the first time, Kagami asks himself what the hell Tobirama was thinking.

But still, if Hiruzen is bitter, he doesn’t show it. He’s been a shoulder for Kagami to lean on when everything else failed, even with his duties as clan head, even as a newly wed husband. Kagami thinks he understands something about sensei’s decision that he has yet to grasp, but that’s fine. Kagami doesn’t know what he would have done if Hiruzen changed too. 

But out of his entire team, Torifu is the one who sticks with Kagami the most, always has. Kagami was aware of the Akimichi’s crush on him when they were younger, it was hard to miss, but it’s been a long time since then, and Torifu has shown himself to be a true friend. He’s not the clan head or heir like everyone else in their team, and he doesn’t have many other obligations apart from Kagami. In the weeks after sensei’s death, he has become a presence in Kagami’s life that he can’t imagine gone.

Kagami’s hands shake minimally as he unfurls the summoning scroll, painstakingly aware of the eyes of his teammates in him.

When the first feet of paper unroll, there’s a sharp intake from Koharu, and a narrowing of eyes from Danzo, but nothing else. They’re trained too well to show much of a reaction when they don’t want to.

“Kagami, why-“, Homura begins to ask before he snaps his mouth shut. Kagami grimaces. He knows what he wanted to ask. Why him? Why Kagami? And why not one of them? Kagami wishes he knew the answer. 

Hiruzen already has his monkeys, and everyone except Torifu are clan heirs, with potential contracts passed down through generations. And Torifu’s fighting style would adapt poorly to Tobirama’s agile snow leopards. Kagami though, Kagami is fast, and deadly, and he admits that his sensei’s summons would suit him well. Not that he says this in front of his teammates.

“Are you going to sign it?”, Koharu asks, and Kagami only hesitates a moment before he nods. 

“The crows have consented to the additional contract- I can only hope that the leopards will too.”

Danzo’s upper lip curls in something Kagami can’t quite recognize. Disdain, probably- even if Kagami would have never accepted idea that Danzo could harbor any of such feelings for him a few months ago.

Well- things change. Kagami ignores Danzo. Two can play that game. 

Kagami almost cries again when he flips through the summoning signs and Tobirama’s primary summon appears in a puff of smoke.

“Kitten”, Toyotama purrs sadly, curling her massive black-and-white body around him. 

Kagami blinks back tears, burying his hands in her fur. “Toyotama-sama”, he mutters as greeting. He remembers the days that Tobirama would sick his summons after them as training, testing their evasion skills, remembers Toyotama dragging them back to Tobirama like unruly kittens.

“So he left the contract to you”, Toyotama says after he calmed down, her big blue eyes blinking down at him. “Unsurprisingly. You were always his favorite.”

Kagami stares at her blankly, and choses to ignore what she just said. He won’t- he can’t deal with that at the moment. 

“I know the snow leopards are prideful summons”, Kagami says, “but I’m already co reacted to the crows. If that’s a problem-“

Toyotama huffs, flicking her tail. “We can live with the crows. At least it’s not dogs.”

Kagami smiles faintly. Some things never change.

“How are the others?”, he asks, remembering all the other leopards that followed his sensei around. 

Toyotama averts her gaze, tail flicking from left to right in unease. “As well as can be, given the circumstances. Tobirama-chan wasn’t our first summoner, but he was with us longer than most.”

She sighs, her ears twitching as she lays her head on her paws. “You know that most of Tobirama-chan’s summons won’t want to be contracted to you right? The wound is still fresh, and summons live longer than humans. They will feel that loss forever.”

“I understand”, Kagami says. He hadn’t really expected it from them. 

“Well, you’ll have to talk to Kogyoku-sama first before signing the contract. She’ll want to test you herself- though I doubt it will actually be difficult for you.”

Kagami smiles, brushing a hand over Toyotama’s soft fur. “I’m not worried. Besides, I have you, don’t I?”

Toyotama answers with a soft purr.

Kogyoku-sama let’s Kagami sign the contract ithout much fanfare. She tells him he’s fared the best in a fight against her, besides Tobirama of course. Kagami knows his sensei signed the contract when his age hadn’t even reached double digits, a stark contrast to Kagami’s twenty-something years, but he still takes the compliment for what it is. Not many have come close to Tobirama, and Kagami doesn’t know f he’ll ever be one of them.

Still, by the end of the day Kagami’s name and fingerprints are signed at the end of the scroll in blood, right below Tobirama’s neat signature. Kagami tries not to let his gaze linger too much on it, the blood faded to almost black with time. He misses his sensei.

Toyotama quickly becomes a silent pillar in Kagami’s life, she and the other gaggle of leopards contracted under Kagami. Out of them, she is the only one of Tobirama’s summons who chose to stay with him. Kagami doesn’t resent the others for it- it would be quite hypocritical of him.

“You know, you should get an apprentice”, Hiruzen tells him one day, sitting on his windowsill and trying to distract Kagami from his paperwork. 

Kagami doesn’t hear him at first, squinting down at the paper. His eyesight has been deteriorating, the more he used his mangekyo. He quickly stopped once he realized, but the damage is there. (And no, he won’t get glasses no matter what Torifu says. He’s an Uchiha. Uchiha don’t need glasses.)

“Sorry, what?”, he says, looking up at his friend. 

Hiruzen rolls his eyes, repeating the question.

Kagami blinks, sitting back in his chair. “An apprentice”, he echoes. “Why?”

Hiruzen smiles. Kagami bets he’s probably thinking of the little hellions he’s been teaching for a while. Tsunade-chan, the last member of the once reknown Yamata clan and an orphan- quite the team. Despite their young age, they have already gathered quite the reputation on the battlefield. 

“Well, you’re the Hokage now, Kagami.”, Hiruzen smiles, looking out the window over konoha. 

“It’s your duty to pass down your knowledge to the new generation, maybe even find someone to take your place some day.” He looks back at Kagami. “It could do you good.”

Kagami leans back in his chair, setting the ink brush down carefully. A student of his own? Kagami didn’t really see himself as the teaching type. That was Hiruzen’s job, and he did it pretty well, if the three new entrances in the bingo book are any indication. He was the patient and nurturing type, perfect for teaching, but Kagami? He might actually kill the child by accident. 

But still, Hiruzen had a point. The elders were already nagging at him to pick an Uchiha apprentice to pass his genjutsu skills down to, and Kagami had been avoiding them as much as possible. 

As the Hokage, he had a duty, to teach that which he had been thaught by his teacher, to continue his legacy. Someone to leave his summoning contracts to when he passed, someone to pick and place the Hokage hat on their head. 

“I’ll think about it”, he tells Hiruzen.

The thought follows Kagami over the past few days, up until Kagami leads a team against the suna front.

It’s kind of weird how the shinobi change in his presence, how they look up to him in awe and fear. How they cheer when he appears, how hope flares up like a wildfire whenever the shinobi notice him on the battlefield. He isn’t used to being regarded so highly, and it feels kind of awkward when his shinobi call him ‘Hokage-sama’ or ‘Sandaime-sama’.

But he can’t deny that the moment he steps foot on the battlefield the stakes rise for konoha. There are few who have been able to escape his genjutsu, and suna’s run-of-the-mill shinobi aren’t part of them.

Under the gaze of his sharingan, shinobi turn on each other, turning traitor to their own village, they stab their blades onto their own stomachs, they scream and cry at things only they can see. No one escapes the grasp of his illusions, and the tide quickly turns in Konoha’s favor. 

It is then that Kagami stumbles- literally- over a small child in the middle of battle.

Huh, Kagami thinks as he looks down, taking in the child’s silver hair matted with blood and more of it seeping out under his flak jacket. But they’re in the middle of battle, of enemy territory, and Kagami can’t allow himself to hesitate.

He scoops the kid up, mindful of his injuries, ignoring his protests as he continues decimating suna shinobi with a child tucked under his arm. He stops struggling after a few minutes, and Kagami doesn’t know if it’s the blood loss or if he’s just given up trying to escape Kagami.

“Kid, you alright?”, he asks once there aren’t persons everywhere trying to take his head off his shoulders.

He lifts the child up in front of him like one would hold a kitten, checking for anything lethal he could have missed. 

The child squirms in his grip, snarling at him with sharp canine teeth. “Put me down!”

“That’s not very nice”, Kagami says, sidestepping an attack. He turns, his eyes swirling red, and the offending shinobi’s eyes roll to the back of his head before he collapses, foaming at the mouth.

He eyes the child again, memorizing his face, cataloguing all his microexpressions in a split second, seeing the way blood still spills out sluggishly put of his wound. he frowns, lifting the flak jacket out of the way.

kagami grimaces. the wound is deep.

“you’re staying with me”, he says, holding him under his arm like a sack of potatoes. “You’re not dying on my watch, kid.”

“not a kid”, the kid grumbles, but doesn’t squirm much in Kagami’s hold. And Kagami doesn’t have much of a chance to reply, because war waits for no one, and soon he finds himself blocking kunai and jutsu left and right. Fighting with a child in thow isn’t something Kagami is used to, but once he gets used to it it’s not that difficult. It’s rather fun actually to see the confusion on the suna nin’s faces once they come close enough to see. None of them live long enough to tell the tale, however. The kid isn’t idle either- throwing kunai and shuriken in enemies’ blind spots and cutting their ankles when they think they’re safe sneaking up at Kagami’s back. Not bad.

Eventually though suna retreats, met with the overwhelming force of the Hokage, and Kagami shunshins to the med nin healing the injured. 

“Here”, he says, placing the kid down, and flickers away as she nods at him, not even looking at him, elbow deep into someone’s guts.

The kid may have protested vaguely, but Kagami has obligations, and he can’t stay long enough to make sure he’s all right no matter how much he wants to.

Next time he sees him, is on the battlefield again, a few weeks later, and in a different one, but a battlefield nonetheless.

“Hey, it’s you!”, Kagami grins, dancing around the child to decapitate two iwa nin.

The kid whips around, blinking up at him in surprise and recognition. There are two wolves circling him, one white and one silver, snapping at everyone who comes too close. 

“Ugh, it’s you”, the child says, and Kagami pouts. “Hey, what’s with that tone? It’s thanks to me you’re still alive, brat!”

“As if”, the child honest to god rolls his eyes at him, slashing his tanto down at an unfortunate shinobi. “I can handle myself.” He ducks, stabbing his blade towards the enemie’s ankles while his wolf uses his back as a springboard and locks his jaw around his neck.

“Sure”, Kagami says, a little impressed it he’s honest- the child has skill. A Hatake, probably, if the wolves and the prickly white chakra are any indication. There haven’t been many around in the past years, they were a small clan to begin with, neutral but fiercely loyal of those they deemed family. Kagami has never seen this particular Hatake before, though. 

“A battlefield is no place for a child, no matter how skilled.”, Kagami says, sidestepping a handful of kunai. That’s why the village was established in the first place- to give children a place to grow up in. 

Kagami is part of the last generation born outside Konoha, into the warring clans period, and he still remembers. Remembers all his siblings and cousins getting sent out and never returning. Remembers graves and armor too small, faces engraved in his memory that would never reach adulthood. 

Konoha was supposed to protect the children- or so he though. Still somehow, there was a child in the middle of a battlefield. 

“I’m not a child”, the boy responded. “And I’m strong.”

Kagami doesn’t answer, too busy making sure they both don’t die. You shouldn’t have to be, he thinks, remembering everything Tobirama thaught him and wondering when the ideals that built the village in the first place were starting to be forgotten by the very people living in it.

He sees the child again and again, on nearly every battlefield, somehow still not having found the time to look up his file or ask his teammates about him, and by now it’s starting to become a routine somehow, and Kagami is even starting to anticipate meeting him, looking out for those familiar wolves and the silver glint of his hair. He tells himself that he’ll stay and talk to him this time, but there’s always something to be done, somewhere else to be.

Until, after a particular grueling battle, Kagami rushes to the medical tents, the boy barely conscious in his arms. It was probably fine, he had a concussion and he lost a lot of blood, nothing the med nin couldn’t fix, but- 

Fear grips Kagami’s heart, and he clutches the boy tightly, the wolves following at his heel.

He flickers through the tents until a familiar shock of blonde hair catches his eyes. 

“Tsunade-chan!”, he calls, dropping down in front of her. “Kagami-ji”, she says, blinking at him in surprise. She looks tired, her eyes sunken in and her skin pale. It’s to be expected- Nawaki’s funeral was barely a month ago. It had been a shock to lose him, to come home to the news that the happy child Kagami saw running around the Senju compound was gone. Kagami hadn’t been overly close to him, not the way he is close to Tsunade, the time Nawaki was growing having been spent fighting the first and second war. Still, Kagami grieved for the boy.

“Can you look him over?”, he says, placing the boy down in front of her. She furrows her brows in confusion, placing her glowing green hands on his body. Under Kagami’s watchful gaze, the wounds start to stitch themselves together, and not much after the boy opens his stormy grey eyes. 

“You!”, Tsunade exclaims in recognition. “What were you doing on the frontlines again?! You know damn well that you’re meant to stay at the base.”

The boy huffs, sitting up as his wolves come greet him. “I’m fine. The old man won’t leave me alone.”

Kagami gales in offense, because, old? He’s in his twenties! 

Tsunade claps the boy on the back of his head. “Show come respect! That old man is still the Hokage, you know?!”

The boy’s head swivels around so fast Kagami thinks he pulled something, eyes fixating on him.

“You’re the Hokage?”, he asks, eyes widening in growing horror. But before Kagami can say anything, he’s called away again, and the weird encounter is showed to the back of his mind for now.

The next time he sees the boy, is oddly enough, not on the battlefield for once. 

Kagami almost doesn’t believe his eyes when he spots him as he steps out of the Hokage tower, clean and blood-free.

“Hey!”, he calls as he jogs over. “Kid!”

The boy turns around, his eyes narrowing in annoyance once he spots him. Still, he bows, uncharacteristically. “Hokage-sama”

Kagami blinks in shock, before he laughs. “Just Kagami is fine, you know! I think we’ve known each other long enough.”

The boy shrugs, turning around again, but Kagami falls into step with him. 

“What’s your name then?”

The boy scowls up at him. It was probably meant to be a menacing glare, but with his youthful face and the baby fat still filing out his cheeks the effect is lessened.

“Sakumo”, he mumbles eventually, averting his gaze. 

Hatake Sakumo, Kagami says the name in his head. 

“Do you often find yourself on the battlefield by accident, Sakumo-chan?” 

Sakumo scowls harder in response, ignoring him. 

“Come on, I won’t be mad! I think you’ve already heard I enough from Tsunade-chan, right? Not that I think it’s not dangerous- you’re tiny, after all- but I mean, you’re capable, more or less, especially with me looking out for you right?”

Sakumo sighs. “Do you ever shut up?”, he grumbles and Kagami laughs.

“Hmm”, he says once he’s calmed down. “I think I’ve decided.” 

“Decides what?”, Sakumo answers skeptically. 

“You’re going to be my apprentice!”, Kagami smiles, lifting him up and carrying him away under his arm like he’s done so many times before. 

“Hey, wait-!”, Sakumo tries to protest, but it’s futile. Once Kagami has decided on something, it’s hard to make him change his mind.

It’s quite difficult to find enough time for an apprentice as the Hokage in war, but Kagami still tries to meet up with Sakumo as often as he can.

Sometimes he struggles and insists Kagami lets him go, so Kagami turns it into an evasion training session. He’s such a great sensei, isn’t he? Too bad Sakumo won’t call him sensei. Eh, they’ll get there.

It turns out Kagami and Sakumo don’t actually have a lot in common fighting style-wise- where Kagami relies on speed and stealth, Sakumo prefers to brute-force his way through his enemies, fighting together with his wolves. And he absolutely refuses to learn genjutsu. He probably could do it, the Hatake’s white chakra is very adaptable, he just doesn’t want to, no matter how much Kagami tries to convince him. 

Well, since Sakumo is more the force and speed-oriented type, Kagami will show him speed. 

His shunshin improves in leaps, and when they spar they often only appear as a blur to the untrained eye. Where Kagami has his Sharingan to anticipate his movements, Sakumo acts on pure instinct. 

He’s also not bad with a tanto, even if he refuses to learn how to wield a katana, the weapon Kagami prefers. Additionally, his affinity for Raiton makes him the perfect person for Kagami to dump all his half-finished jutsu ideas on. Kagami’s primary nature is fire, like most Uchiha, but Raiton is much more interesting to shape and mold. Sakumo’s input has proven itself very valuable on that topic at least, and they have already developed many new Raiton jutsu. 

All in all, Kagami has grown fond of his little grumpy apprentice. Sakumo can pretend to hate him all he wants, but Kagami sees the way he melts when he ruffles the boy’s hair and the way he flushes whenever Kagami praises him. 

It’s not really the ideal student the uchiha elders had envisioned, but it’s someone Kagami chose, not one of the countless potential uchiha students the elders tried to saddle him with, and Kagami is grateful to have him in his life. He begins to understand what Hiruzen meant when he said an apprentice could be good for him, and also why Tobirama did what he did. He knows he would lay down his life for Sakumo in a heartbeat.

Kagami smiles nervously, trying not to let his discomfort show. 

The woman sitting opposite him fixes him with an unimpressed stare. 

Man, Sakumo’s aunt is scary. 

With her wild mane of silver, seemingly gravity-defying hair and haunting yellow eyes Hatake Utsushiyo is exactly as terrifying as the bingo book entry makes her out to be.

Her mouth pulls into a smile, revealing sharp canine teeth. 

“At ease, Uchiha”, she laughs rumblingly. “I’m not going to eat you.”

Kagami doubts that. Not that he says so. “I know”, he says, trying to relax his tense muscles. Well, it’s probably no use- as a Hatake, Kagami is sure she can probably smell his fear. 

After teaching Sakumo for about a month now, Kagami thought it time to make him his official apprentice- which meant speaking with his official guardian or clan head. Since Sakumo was already a chunin (or even Jonin, judging by his skill level) he was an adult in the eyes of the law, which still unfortunately meant that Kagami had to visit the Hatake compound.

The Hatake were never a big clan like the Uchiha or Senju, but two wars had taken their toll on them. Most of the buildings Kagami passed were empty, and it seemed that there were barely more than a dozen people carrying the Hatake name. It made Kagami sad- joining Konoha was supposed to protect them. Instead, the decades of war had reduced the clan to a shadow of their former self.

While Sakumo was the clan heir, his aunt was the actual clan head- had been since Sakumo’s parents died. And to start officially training Sakumo, Kagami needed her approval. 

After a very tense talk, in which Kagami had to fight the instinct to draw his katana any time the woman moved, Kagami was allowed to leave the compound with all his limbs intact and the approval of the clan head, however reluctantly it was given.

“Oh, you’re still in one piece”, Kagami hears, and turns around to see his (now official!) apprentice standing behind him. 

“Don’t sound so disappointed”, Kagami pouts. “I’m sure your aunt will bite my head off if I breathe in your direction wrongly.” 

“Of course she will”, Sakumo huffs. That little shit.

Chapter Text

The sos message from Uzushio reaches Kagami almost too late.

In an instant, he flies out of his seat, barking orders at his Anbu and gathering his weapons- there is no time to be wasted.

It barely takes minutes for a huge chunk of Konoha’s forces to be dispatched, Kagami at the front, running in the direction of Uzushio.

Kagami barely even notices it when Mito falls into step beside him, wearing her ceremonial Uzumaki battle gear. Her face is masked with an Uzushio Anbu mask, depicting the face of a snarling Oni, and Kagami feels as clear as day the chakra of the Kyuubi leaking through the air. He almost protests- almost, because Mito is old for a shinobi, older than any of them here. But this is her village, her home country, he can’t order her to stand down, and she probably wouldn’t even listen if he did.

So he says nothing. 

Uzushio is already in the midst of battle as the Konoha delegation jumps over the crumbled stone walls. The once beautiful streets are soaked in blood, and the usually oh-so clear skies are dark with stormy clouds.

Kagami doesn’t pause in his stride, doesn’t allow himself to acknowledge the countless red-haired bodies strown over the stone tiles.

Iwa and kiri shinobi alike fall alarmingly fast to his blade, Kagami is like a storm of steal and sharingan-red eyes as he mows his way through the attacker’s ranks.

But- he knows there are too many. Uzushio is swarming with them, and any Uzushio shinobi is outnumbered twenty to one, not to mention the civilians.

“Evacuate as much as possible!”, Kagami barks at his subordinates, not pausing to see if they follow his command. 

A wave of chakra passes over them, and the Uzukage tower explodes into ash and debris.

The Uzukage is dead, Along  with a good chunk of the shinobi force. A part of Kagami’s mind wonders how the hell they were able to bypass Uzushio’s seal defenses, but this is not the right moment for speculations. 

His eyes spin, and two iwa shinobi turn on each other. He picks up the young kunoichi they were targeting, sprinting away from the half-destroyed street crawling with enemy nin.

He doesn’t stop until he reaches the borders of the village, jumping over the wall that is now little more than rubble.

“Is this everyone?”, he asks grim-faced as he hands the girl over to a medic. Before him is a small group of people, a wild mix of shinobi and civilians.

“Everyone we could gather”, Yusaku grimaces.

“Set out for Konoha”, Kagami orders. “Team beta and gamma, go with them. Everyone else stays here. Our primal goal is evacuation of the civilians and shinobi to Konoha.”

Then, he’s off, two shadow clones splitting off from his frame in separate directions. If they’re lucky, Konoha reinforcements are already on the way. If not, Kagami is still ready to protect konoha’s sister village as much as he can.

In the middle of Uzushio, a howl echoes, and the Kyuubi chakra floods the village.

It’s the middle of the night when Kagami finally orders to retreat.

Their meager attack force has nothing compared to the combined force of Iwa and kiri.

When he turns his back to the burning city, it’s only one other squad along him, Mito, Yusaku and Sakumo, along with every other Uzushio nin they could scrape off the streets.

It stings, the failure to fully save Uzushio, but Kagami knows they did what they could. 

The roaring of the waves and the blaze of the fire still echoes in Kagami’s ears as he turns his back to the burning city and heads back to Konoha.

Kagami has been awake for far too long, making sure the Uzushio citizens are cared for in konoha, monitoring the situation with Iwa and kiri, taking reports from everyone stationed at the frontlines…

It’s only almost two full days after Uzushio’s invasion that he drags himself back into his office- and freezes.

His chair is not, as he had assumed, empty.

“Danzo”, he says, voice devoid of emotion. His former friend barely looks up from the document in hand.

“What are you doing?”

Only then, he looks up. One of his eyes is bandaged shut, the wrappings extending over his head until only tufts of his hair are visible. How did I miss that?, Kagami asks himself, but the thought is quickly shaken away.

“What does it look like, Kagami?”, Danzo answers in his heavy voice, the same distainful glare as ever on his face. He shuffles the stack of documents- of signed documents- and sets them to the side. “Someone had to do the dirty work while you were away, running out of the village on a whim.”

Kagami doesn’t even know where to start. “Did you forge my signature?”, he asks, dangerously calm. In that moment, any memory he had with Danzo from their childhood, any fondness he still held for him doesn’t exist. Right now, Danzo is an enemy.

“Of course not”, Danzo says, rolling his eyes at Kagami as if he is little more than a petulant child. “I’m stepping in as your advisor.”

“And who”, Kagami says, his face a blank mask as he steps forward, “appointed this advisor?”

Danzo’s eye narrow, as he stands up from Kagami’s chair. 

“You should really learn to show some restraint”, Danzo comments. “It is unbecoming of a Hokage to act like… this.“

Kagami is tired. Uzushio is destroyed and Konoha has to deal with dozens of refugees along with the literal war still going on. 

His eyes bleeds into red as he steps forward, face to face with Danzo. He’s never used the sharingan against his friends, and his past self would be more than shocked seeing him now, but Kagami doesn’t care. 

“Get out of my office”, he orders.

Danzo just turns his head away, walking out the door past Kagami. 

Only later, much, much later, would Kagami realize that there were supposed to be no Anbu stationed in this room, but there were still presences hidden in the walls that left with Danzo. 

Kagami doesn’t have much time to think about his former teammate after.

The war wages on, and Kagami has found himself making decisions he would have never considered otherwise. 

Sending Anbu squads on suicide missions, deploying 

freshly made chunin at the border, not knowing weather he is sending his shinobi to their deaths. 

Sacrifice is necessary in war, Kagami knows, but he’s still reluctant to put the shinobi under his protection at risk. 

And, since he’s become Hokage, the death toll has lessened. He’s focusing his forces on protecting rather than attacking, and despite many who have voiced their protests, it’s working. 

Kagami may not be as smart as Tobirama, but he’s a genius in his own right. Together with Shikari, the plans they design are almost foolproof. 

For months, Konoha hasn’t sent a single squad last the frontlines, halving the death toll.

The other villages call Konoha weak, call him a coward, too scared to step in the footsteps of his predecessor, destroying any process Tobirama has made. Kagami ignores the voices, the accusations.

And then, on a silent night after months of fighting, Kagami leaves Konoha with a carefully put together squad, running past the land of fire’s borders deep into enemy territory. 

That night, kiri’s troups, that had been steadily mowing their way into wave country and decimating the konoha shinobi holding the line there, are razed to the ground.

Not a single shinobi remains standing, the resulting massacre is done so throughly that Kiri doesn’t even notice until konoha is practically knocking on their door.

The rumors of konoha being cowardly disappear from one day to the next, and Kagami’s moniker in the bingo book becomes shitsui- despair.

Just a few weeks after the Kiri massacre, the fighting seems to come to a stillstand. 

No one dares to attack Konoha after what Kagami and his squad did to Kiri, and the ongoing war between the other nations quickly dies down into insignificant squabbles. Eventually, a ceasefire is announced, and then-

“Peace”, Kagami breathes, hand shaking around the newly arrived letter from suna. A peace treaty. Years and years of fighting, and now, it’s over. 

Kiri and iwa relinquished their chokehold of the small nations between them and konoha, kumo has been quiet ever since the Raikage died. Suna is the only one of them that sent a request for a peace treaty, but they’re a small nation, and have suffered a lot. They need all the help they can get.

Kagami travels to suna personally to sign it, even if many of his advisors protest at him leaving konoha for such a prolonged time. But Kagami isn’t worried. He left Hiruzen and his two commanders to manage the place while he’s gone, and trust them to not get run over by one nation or the other in his absence.

The peace talks go… surprisingly well for two villages that have been at each other’s throats for the past almost-decade, and Kagami leaves suna a week later with a tentative ally secured and no attempts on his life.

(The same can’t be said for the return home once they’ve left suna, but the small squad that was sent to ambush them was dealt with quickly. They didn’t account for half a dozen snow leopards the size of horses.)

“Hey.”

Tsunade startles, dropping the armful of clothing she had been carrying.

She whirls around, a kunai in her hand, only to stop as she saw the figure perched atop her windowsill.

“Kagami-ji”, she says, lowering her blade. “What are you doing here?”

Kagami smiles. “A little bird told me you were in quite the conundrum.”

Tsunade bites her lip. One look around the room and anyone would know what she was planning to do. A storage scroll was opened on the floor, and clothing, books and weapons were strown all around.

It may seem childish, but Tsunade had made her decision. This village had taken everything she loved from her. Her parents, her brother, her lover- all gone. Tsunade couldn’t stand it, living in the near-empty compound and seeing them in every corner. If she didn’t leave, this village would kill her too.

“Are you going to stop me?”, she says, lifting her chin as she stares at her pseudo-uncle. She loves Kagami, has known him since she was a baby, but she isn’t going to let anyone stand in her way. Not even the Hokage. Especially not the Hokage. 

“No.”, Kagami says, and she stops, surprised.

“I-I’m not joking you know”, she says, cursing silently at how broken her voice sounds. She’s not a child anymore. “I’m really leaving.”

“I know, and I’m not stopping you.” Kagami smiles, a bitter smile, so unlike the happy, carefree Kagami Tsunade remembers from her childhood. It seems the war has taken a toll on them all.

“You’ve lost a lot of people. That can break even the best shinobi. I understand the need to just leave it all behind.”

Suddenly Tsunade remembers that Kagami had been born during the warring clans era. Death and despair were probably as common to him as breathing. Suddenly, Tsunade feels silly. In comparison to him, it doesn’t seem like Tsunade has suffered enough to abandon her village, her duty.

As if reading her mind, Kagami speaks up. “Your grief is valid, Tsunade.”, he says, and there’s so much genuine understanding in his eyes that Tsunade feels a bit teary-eyed. “I can’t and I won’t stop you- I just want you to remember that there will always be someone here for you, alright?”

Tsunade sniffs, a hand coming up to rub at her eyes. 

“Your aunt, your sensei, the rest of the Senju and your teammates. We’ll all be waiting for you here.”

Kagami extends his arm, and Tsunade accepts the object in his hands with wide eyes.

“I know it isn’t anything special, but I still wanted to give you something- as a reminder.”

Tsunade only hesitates a second, before carefully tying the necklace around her neck. The red pendant in the shape of a flame rests just above her grandfather’s necklace. It’s not the konoha symbol, thank god, because Tsunade wouldn’t have been able to stand seeing the sign of the village around her neck every day, but it symbolizes her home all the same.

“Thank you, Kagami-Ji.”

Tsunade leaves at dawn, sneaking past the half-asleep guards with Shizune clinging to her side. She doesn’t know where she wants to go or what her goal is apart from away from here, but she doesn’t really care.

The first week, she spends drunk out of her mind in some city, wallowing in self-pity and self-hatred.

Eventually they have to leave after someone said the wrong thing and Tsunade punched them through several walls. 

The second week Tsunade gambles away almost all the money she packed, and again had to leave in disguise after she amassed more and more debt. (The debt was paid off shortly after she left, not that Tsunade was aware- she probably would have felt guilty towards Kagami if she was.)

After the first month, Tsunade starts getting used to constantly being on the run, used to trying not to draw attention towards herself, and used to the pain and grief that still threatens to rip her apart.

After two months, she stops running. 

She settles down into an abandoned house on the outskirts of a small town, surrounded by a large, unkept garden. 

The part of her that is Senju, that has seen her grandfather cultivate hundreds of different kinds of plants with the utmost care, scoffs.

She shouldn’t be staying for long- the debt collectors and bounty hunters and whoever else wants her head are still hot on her heels- but it would be such a shame to leave the once beautiful garden like this, wouldn’t it?

And, Shizune likes it here, not in an overcrowded inn or in the middle of the woods for once.

So Tsunade gets to work.

A third month passes without he even realizing it, and the abandoned house and garden has transformed into something Tsunade could almost call a home. 

She’s still terrified of blood, she still gets jittery without alcohol for too long- but she likes to believe it’s getting better.

Half a year has passed.

Tsunade finds herself speaking with Shizune about her uncle more often, even through the pang in her heart. That, she thinks, will never pass. 

Then, out of the blue, Jiraiya stands in front of her door, pleading, demanding she came back.

Tsunade punches him so hard he leaves a trail of broken trees. She screams at him to leave her alone, to never come back, or else she might really kill him.

And he does.

Tsunade tells herself that it would be best if she moves, if she covers her tracks so that he can’t find her anymore.

But she doesn’t.

After a year, Tsunade goes home.

Kagami doesn’t even blink as she stands before him in the office. He just smiles, and offers her the position as head of the Konoha hospital. Tsunade accepts.

A father. Kagami is going to be a father. 

It had been quite the shock, to step foot into the Uchiha compound for the first time in a while, after everything had calmed down, desperate for a shower and a full night’s sleep, only to have a very nervous and sheepish Uchiha Megumi knock on his door.

Kagami wasn’t really… in love with her, so to speak, he knows that the elders had been contemplating arranging a marriage for them once war was over. But then, the Hokage died and Kagami took his place.

It wasn’t that he disliked Megumi- on the contrary. She was a capable shinobi, and pleasant to chat with. He hadn’t thought much of it to let their relationship develop into something more passionate. 

But Kagami wouldn’t have minded marrying her, even if it wasn’t out of love. And now, well. Megumi was pregnant and Kagami was going to be a father.

The wedding proceeded fast, for the sake of Megumi’s dignity and their unborn child,  and Kagami’s team didn’t hesitate to tease him for it. Hiruzen, who was already a father himself, didn’t hesitate to answer any and all questions Kagami had and offer much-needed advice. Even Biwako, Hiruzen’s wife, didn’t mind Kagami knocking frantically on her door every now and then, asking about one thing or another.

Actually, during the entire pregnancy Kagami was pretty much an anxious mess, and only Megumi snapping and telling him she wasn’t made out of glass stopped him fretting over her. Well, she was right- Megumi was a Jonin, had been for a long time, and handled the pregnancy far more skillfully than Kagami did. 

(“Honestly, with how nervous he is, you’d think he was the pregnant one, not me”, she often complained to Biwako when the two women met up from time to time. 

Biwako only smiles around her tea cup. “Well, I for one can only wish Hiruzen would have been that attentive.”)

“You’re going to be a father? You?”

Kagami pouts, slumping dramatically over the kitchen table. “Stop saying it that way! I’m already doubting myself enough as it is!”

Sakumo snorts, rolling his eyes at his teacher’s antics. “Poor kid”, he says, pouring himself a cup of tea. He doesn’t offer Kagami any, the bastard. 

“Don’t be like that, Sakumo!”, Kagami whines. “One day, when you have children yourself, you’re going to be crawling to me for advice.”

“What, like you’re pestering poor Sarutobi-san?”, he snorts. “No thank you. Besides, that’s never going to happen.”, Sakumo says. “Having a child would require me being in a fulfilling relationship with a woman who meets oba-san’s standards, which is a nigh impossible thing to achieve.”

Kagami shudders at the mention of Sakumo’s aunt. He can’t argue against that.

Torifu, bless his kind soul, honest to god cries a little when Kagami tells him he’s going to be his child’s godfather. 

“Holy shit, are you crying?”, Kagami laughs.

Torifu shakes his head, hiding his red face and misty eyes behind his arm. “No I’m not! Shut up!”

As Kagami continues to laugh, he hits him on the back, and Kagami winces as he stumbles a little. He forgot how hard Torifu can hit. Then, the Akimichi hugs him so hard the air leaves Kagami’s lungs.

“You bastard”, Torifu mutters. 

“Yeah yeah”, Kagami wheezes. “Can you let me down now?”

Torifu does, and Kagami takes a deep breath. Damn. 

“And Megumi is okay with this?”, Torifu asks.

Kagami nods. “Yeah, I talked it over with her already. One of her friends is going to be the godmother, so you’ll have to share a little.”

“That’s fine. The child is going to need all the help they can get if we’re dealing with you as a father.”

“Hey!”

At the beginnings of spring, Uchiha Takami is born healthy and strong. The elders are delighted at the birth of a son, but Kagami doesn’t much care about the gender of his child, he is just happy that he and Megumi were unharmed after the birth.

Kagami is immediately smitten with his son- who wouldn’t be? Takami is perfect, with black eyes and hair that is just as curly as his own.

Megumi grumbles a little that her son hasn’t inherited her pin straight hair, but Takami is cute enough that even that doubt quickly dissipates. 

Torifu and Takami’s godmother are both present at the official inauguration of Kagami’s heir, as is tradition with the Uchiha, and Kagami is pleasantly surprised to find a familiar red haired kunoichi standing beside Torifu.

“I didn’t know you were friends”, Kagami pouts. Yusaku just smiles. 

Hiruzen and Biwake visit, their toddler in tow, cooing over Takami and congratulating the couple in their son. Even Homura and Koharu visit, though it feels more formal than a gathering between old friends.

Danzo doesn’t visit at all.

The years pass and Konoha is slowly healing from the past two wars.

The Uzumaki have slowly integrated in the village, their own compound now being part of it. 

Their numbers are a faint shadow of what they used to be, but at least they weren’t entirely wiped out.

Kagami isn’t one to brag, but he thinks he did pretty well with this whole Hokage thing.

Takami is growing every day, and soon the happy-go-lucky toddler is a far cry from the baby Kagami first put his eyes on. He’s growing up so fast, and there is nothing Kagami can do about it.

Megumi makes a show of bemoaning the fact that Takami took after his father not only in looks but also in personality, but Kagami can see her smiling every time Takami rambles in excitement about one thing or the other.

By the time he is five, Takami has already surpassed many Uchiha children twice his age in terms of skill. Kagami is proud, obviously, but he can’t help but worry about his son’s apparent genius. If they were at war, it would be exploited without hesitation.

But they aren’t at war, and if Kagami has anything to say about it, they won’t be for a long, long time.

A few years later, Mito invites Kagami into the Senju compound.

She is old, one of the last founders of Konoha still alive, and she has found another jinchuuriki for the kyuubi. They both know what that means, and even if Kagami’s very being protests against her decision, he at least he understands it. 

Kushina, the girl Mito has taken under her wing, is a stubborn and headstrong girl full of life. She attempted to punch Kagami the first time she saw him and he made an unthoughtful comment about her hair.

On a hot summer day, the seal masters of Konoha seal the kyuubi from Mito to Kushina. Kagami is present, as the Hokage and Uchiha with the mangekyo sharingan, in case anything goes wrong. Fortunately, it doesn’t. 

Mito lives for one more day, just long enough for everyone to say their goodbyes, and then she passes on peacefully in her sleep.

Kagami mourns her, along with everyone in the village, even those that barely knew her.

She is buried in the Senju compound, next to the graves of Hashirama and Tobirama.

Then, years later, Kagami gets a genin Team. 

He’s more or less forced into it, since the Uchiha elders want him to finally take on a proper Uchiha apprentice, 

And then, when he sees familiar red hair in the files of the current graduation class, he makes up his mind.

The children at least almost fall out of their seats as Kagami sneaks through the academy doors, a little late- paperwork waits for no one- so late in fact, that the only children still there are his genin team.

Uchiha Mikoto, from what her file indicated, is a sweet but shy girl, with relatively high grades, placing her in the top half of this year’s graduation batch. 

Then there’s Kushina, the kyuubi jinchuuriki and Uzumaki princess, just as hot-headed as any other of her clanmates and twice as fierce. And then-

“Dad?”, Takami asks befuddled, straightening up from his slouch. “What are you doing here? Where’s our Jonin-sensei?”

Kagami grins, reaching out to ruffle his son’s hair.

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m your Jonin-sensei!”

Mikoto perks up at the announcement, while her other two teammates groan. “We’re going to be taugh by the Hokage?”, she asks tentatively.

“Why?”, Kushina protests, glaring at Kagami with the sort of anger unique to pre-pubescent children. Seems like she still hasn’t forgiven him for their first disastrous meeting. Yikes.

Kagami just shrugs in response to Mikoto’s question. “There’s a shortage of Jonin sensei at the moment- and as the Hokage, it was kind of required of me to take on more students sooner or later.“

“Isn’t this favoritism?”, Takami complains. Kagami just laughs. “I was going to train you one way or another, Takami. This way I’m beating two birds with one stone, don’t you think?” Takami grumbles.

“Anyway”, Kagami continues. “Meet me at the training ground behind the academy, okay?”, and then he’s off in a shunshin.

“I hate it when he does that”, Takami sighs.

Team 12- Kagami’s team- does pretty well in the first few weeks, if he can say so himself. 

A lot of the training falls also on Kagami’s summon’s shoulders- he is still the Hokage after all, and has responsibilities to uphold. But he really tries to spend as much time as possible with his team. 

Kushina hasn’t quite gotten over her dislike for him, but she at least respects him, and comes over to him for advice regarding jutsu or training. Even Takami, at the start of his rebellious teenage phase, has to submit to Kagami, as much as he really doesn’t want to.

Mikoto however, quickly becomes Kagami’s favorite, not that he would ever admit it. 

The first impression of the shy kunoichi Kagami got when he first met her is shattered to pieces after their first mission together. That girl is vicious- she hides it well behind gentle smiles and her unassuming appearance, but Kagami has seen her decapitate a man without hesitation and while still keeping that smile on her face.

Undoubtedly, she is the team leader, and neither the hot-headed Kushina nor Takami in his emo phase have the guts to say anything against her.

Kagami is again reminded of the fact that Mikoto is currently the clan heir- daughter of Uchiha Ryuma, the current clan head of the Uchiha, and also Kagami’s clan head.

In the history of Kage, there hasn’t been one that wasn’t head of its own clan, Kagami just wasn’t born into the main line. It’s a precarious position he is in, as both the kage and member of a clan, but he managed until now. As the Hokage, Kagami’s word is law anyways. No clan head can hold power over his head now.

But, all in all, Mikoto will make a fine clan head one day. Kagami also didn’t place her into his team by accident- if he chooses to pass on his skills with the sharingan and genjutsu to someone other than his children, then he wants it to be her. 

“Genjutsu requires a lot of precision and focus”, Kagami tells his students one day, sitting atop the still surface if the lake. He had started them on water walking early, and was testing their concentration by teaching them atop the water. 

Eyes closed, he can still feel the chakra of his students in front of him, Mikoto’s calm presence, Takami’s signature that closely resembles his own, and Kushina’s ocean of dense fiery chakra, coiling around a carefully sealed away core.

Kushina wobbled occasionally on the water, and Takami risked sinking in a few inches, contrary to Mikoto and her pin-point chakra control. 

“You have to conjure a picture or scenario in your mind, and project it into the consciousness of someone else”, he continues. He only really expected the two Uchiha children to grasp the concept of genjutsu completely, but as his student, he wanted Kushina to at least learn the basics.

“What would you think is most important while crafting genjutsu?”

“Realism?”, Takami guesses.

“Not necessarily”, Kagami answers, eyes still closed. “A too realistic image can clue the victim in on something being wrong, unlike an imperfect one- remember, it is highly likely that genjutsu will come to use in the heat of battle, and perfection isn’t something present a lot in the human mind. Other suggestions?”

“Maybe a good grip on someone else’s mind?”, Kushina asks tentatively. The gap in concentration causes her to sink in a little in the lake. Kagami has to suppress a grin. “Yes, but that is a condition to cast genjutsu in the first place. The better the claws of the genjutsu sink into the consciousness, the harder it will be to remove them, but even a sloppily cast genjutsu can do its job. But to cast a convincing genjutsu, what is needed?”

“The five senses”, Mikoto answers calmly, and Kagami smiles. “Yes. Sight is our primary sense, followed by hearing, touch, smell and taste. For sharingan users sight is even more important, while members of the Hatake or Inuzuka clans would value smell more. But all in all, a good genjutsu doesn’t rely on visual alone- the sound of people talking, the feeling of the wind, the smell of grass or sea salt or pine needles- to really capture someone in an illusion you have to account for all of this. Now, what would be a sing that a genjutsu isn’t working?”

“Differences between one’s own experience and the illusion.”, Mikoto answers again.

Kagami nods. “Exactly. That is usually the best, and only, way to figure out you are caught in a genjutsu to begin with. People that don’t act how you expect them to, things that taste or smell slightly off, things that aren’t supposed to be there at all. Skills that you know you don’t posses, for example-“

“Oh”, Kushina wilts slightly, opening her eyes. “And I thought I was getting better.” 

She jolts her chakra, and Kagami’s genjutsu breaks. Immediately, the chakra beneath her feet fluctuates and she falls straight through the surface.

Kagami’s laughter is the loudest as she is pulled back up by Mikoto, beet red and fuming. She punches Takami in the arm and the boy winces, the teasing grin disappearing from his face.

“Before you can start casting your own genjutsu, you need to learn how to identify one first”, Kagami grins, hands already folded into a sign. “You’ve got an hour- the last one to still be stuck inside a genjutsu loses!”

Immediately, his adorable venom pale, fleeing in all directions. Kagami laughs- as if that could save them from him!

“Torturing the kiddies, sensei?”

Kagami looks up, winking at the man in anbu gear crouched on a branch above him.

“It’s funny watching them struggle.”

Sakumo snorts, removing his painted wolf mask and hanging it on his belt.

It’s been quite a few years since Kagami trained Sakumo the way he does now his new students, but the relationship between student and teacher hasn’t declined- Kagami will always consider Sakumo part of his family, and he knows Sakumo does too.

“I kind of pity them”, Sakumo sighs, shifting on the branch until one leg dangles down. “I sure remember how you used to put me through your genjutsu training from hell.”

Kagami smirks, closing his eyes as the memory of a much younger, much poutier Sakumo resurfaces in his mind. “You were so cute back then”, he teases, “so innocent, believing everything I said… now you don’t even visit your poor sensei anymore!”, Kagami wipes away an imaginary tear from under his eye while Sakumo rolls his eyes. “I was over for lunch last week”, he says. “You’re the one that hasn’t even introduced me to his new students.”

Kagami shrugs. “There’s time.”

I’m front of them, Kushina walks into a tree. She blinks, flaring her chakra, before smiling in apparent triumph and walks into another tree. Sakumo winces sympathetically.

“She has to find a way to stop that.”, he gestures at her. Kagami knows that he doesn’t mean her inability to break out of his genjutsu- not many can if he doesn’t want them to. 

Kushina is an Uzumaki, and a jinchuuriki, shooting her naturally huge chakra reserves through the roof. Her chakra is so dense and compact, that it’s pretty hard to catch her in a genjutsu- but also nearly impossible for her to get out on her own. The force necessary to ripple her chakra enough to break the hold of the illusion is more than double that of her peers, and it alerts every more or less adept sensor in a ten-mile radius of her presence. Not really suited for stealth.

Takami has made it a little further than her, his sharingan flickering on and off every now and then. Uchihas have an unfair advantage when it comes to breaking genjutsu, but what Takami hasn’t accounted for is that Kagami, as a sharingan user himself, knows perfectly well what it’s like to see the world through the Dojutsu, and can mimic it. Sometimes he even makes Takami believe it’s active when it really isn’t.

Mikoto is making the most progress out of all of them, frowning into the distance somewhere on the training field, rooted stubbornly to the ground. Her sharingan practically whirls in her eyes, and she is breaking nearly every standard genjutsu Kagami is putting on her at record speeds, no matter how layered they are. 

Kagami smirks, flickering through hand seals. If she wants a bigger challenge, he’ll give it to her.

“I‘lol introduce you when they’re done. In the meantime, how’s it going with your little girlfriend?”, Kagami teases mischievously, eyebrows waggling as Sakumo rolls his eyes.

“Good”, he answers thruthfully. “Oba-san likes her.”

Kagami shudders at the mention of his aunt. Any woman who earns her approval is worthy of being his student’s partner. As far as Kagami knows, Hatake Shigezane is a force to be reckoned with.

“Am I gonna meet her?”, Kagami asks. Sakumo hums in response. “Maybe. If you behave.”

“I always behave. I’ll be on my best behavior!”

“Sure, sensei.”

”Who’s that?”, Kushina asks, pointing a finger at Sakumo. She must be really out of it, if she didn’t notice the man until they were eating at Ichiraku’s already. (Kagami took pity on her- it was obvious from the start that she would be the worst at genjutsu. And every Uzumaki loves Ramen)

Mikoto and Takami look up in surprise, having evidently not noticed Sakumo as well.

The man just raises a hand, slurping his noodles without a care in the world.

“Sakumo-nii!”, Takami grins, almost tackling him out of his stool with a hug. 

“Hey squirt”, Sakumo grins, ruffling Takami’s hair.

“You know him, Takami-baka?”, Kushina asks through a mouthful of ramen, glaring at Mikoto after the girl shoves her elbow into her ribs.

“Yeah!”, Takami grins, not even noticing the insult. “Dad was his sensei before he became ours! He always comes for dinner!” 

Sakumo pats Takami’s hair, setting his chopstick down as he smiles in Kushina and Mikoto’s direction.

“Hello. I’m Sakumo. I was Kagami’s first student.”

“You still are!”, Kagami protests. 

“Ah”, Mikoto blinks as her eyes flicker between the two men. “My condolences”, she offers to Sakumo.

“Thanks”, Sakumo nods seriously while Kagami squeaks in offense.

“Was he always this stupid?”, Kushina asks.

“You should have seen him when I was your age. It was a nightmare.”

“Stop making it seem like I’m an idiot!”

Team twelve’s first chuunin exam goes simultaneously exactly how Kagami predicted and also not at all.

First, Sakumo accompanied them to suna as their Jonin-sensei instead of Kagami- since he was the Hokage, it was standard procedure to only arrive in the village at the third stage- no matter if his students were in the exam or not. Another kage in the village during the exam would just cause unnecessary conflict and tension. Already Kagami kept the fact that the Konoha jinchuuriki was attending a tightly knit secret- there was no need to put an unnecessary target on Kushina’s back.

However much Kagami disliked sending his team and his son into a foreign country without him, Sakumo was probably the best choice in replacement, and also one of the people that Kagami trusted the most. He could handle it.

However that didn’t keep Kagami from worrying the entire journey to suna and to cause his team so much anxiety that Megumi, who was in his anbu guard, had to put her foot down. Kagami pouted the rest of the way, mich to the amusement of his newer anbu recruits. The older ones were already much too used to his bullshit.

“Dad!”, greeted Takami the moment Kagami stepped foot through the door.

“I caught an entire suna team in a genjutsu! And then Mikoto knocked them out but then Kushina fell into a sinkhole and we had to drag her out and a Kiri team ambushed us but Mikoto stabbed one of them and I kicked someone in the nuts and then I got poisoned by a desert mushroom and Kushina dragged me through the sand-!”

Whatever he was saying got cut off as Kagami dragged his son into a fierce hug. “I am so glad you’re alright”, he says, relishing in the feeling of hugging his son for the first time in weeks. “I missed you little shits.”

“I missed you too, dad.”, Takami admits quietly.

Kagami steps back, just enough to run a careful eye over his son’s form. “Any injuries?”

Takami shakes his head. “Nothing major, apart the poison. The medics say I have chakra exhaustion and a concussion.”

Kagami ruffles his son’s hair. “Rest up, I’ll check on everyone else.”

His team made it through the first two stages of the chuunin exam relatively unscathed. 

Mikoto had a nasty stab wound in her abdomen, that thankfully missed everything important, and had some issues with her right eye after someone threw sand in it. A hyuuga in Kagami’s guard worked with the medics on making sure there were no lasting issues.

Kushina was missing a chunk of her hair and had some serious burns spreading over her right arm and side, but they were already pretty much healed thanks to her Uzumaki vitality and the bijuu sealed inside her.

All in all, it could have been worse. 

No genin from Konoha had actually died, though the Inuzuka heir had been stuck in surgery for the better part of a day- the medics weren’t sure if she would make it, or if she would carry away any lasting damage. Kagami made sure to speak with her team and Jonin sensei, arranging for their departure back as soon as possible.

Out of five Konoha teams, only two made it to the third stage, Kagami’s own team and the current ino-shika-cho generation, unsurprisingly. Everyone else was preparing to leave suna after they healed up, as was required of them.

Apart from konoha, three suna teams and one team from kiri and kumo respectively passed the second stage- no teams from minor nations, but that was to be expected- they often lacked the resources and overall strength to match any of the major nations.

All in all, seven teams and twenty-nine genin- a very large number, much too big for the third stage. Kagami knew that the proctor would call for a preliminary match soon, as soon as everyone had more or less recovered. Kagami won’t be there to see it- only the genin and Jonin sensei were permitted to attend. That didn’t stop Kagami from sneaking one of his crows into the arena, however.

Despite stab wound and one eye carefully bandaged, Mikoto still managed to win her match against a kiri nin twice her age and size- using a genjutsu Kagami himself had thaught her with such mastery that the poor guy was left shaking and emptying the contents of his stomach on the arena floor.

Mikoto limped away, glaring so hard that people practically jumped out of her way. 

Takami won his match as well, paired against a young kid from suna he managed to overpower fairly easily. He was left clutching his ribs by the end of it, however, and was rushed to the medic with a punctured lung.

Kushina sadly lost her match against a suna kunoichi that targeted her injured side and ended up breaking her arm. Kushina would have powered through it, but the kunoichi forced her to yield with a kunai to her throat. 

The loss hit her pretty hard, and Kagami felt a pang of sympathy for her. She was forced to give up and wasn’t even granted the decency of a knock-out- probably because her opponent knew that wouldn’t have worked anyways.

Logically, maybe it was a good thing that she didn’t advance to the finals- Kagami didn’t want to risk revealing her status as a jinchuuriki, and from what he knew about Kushina and her stubbornness, that was pretty likely. At least she could watch her other teammates in the finals.

The genin had one month to prepare, and Kagami intended to use it well. While he worked with Mikoto on genjutsu, Sakumo had Takami trained on speed and pushed him to improve his Kenjutsu skills. 

Suna isn’t really the best place to put his students at ease, but it’s good practice and also a good experience. If Kagami wanted to, he could easily spy on his students incoming opponents, but he doesn’t. This is something they have to do alone.

One month of training sadly wasn’t enough for Takami to proceed further than his first fight- his opponent is fast, and merciless, and it’s clear that he has practiced with a tanto far more than Takami has. It’s a clean knock-out in the end. 

Kagami winces- Takami’s going to need a lot of time to recover from that loss. It’s fair to say that from what little he was able to show, he won’t be making chuunin this year.

“Don’t beat yourself up about your student’s loss”, the kazekage says calmly to his right. “Yashamaru is one of our most promising talents.”

Kagami just hums. The boy is very clearly strong- he’ll go far.

Kagami has to grin as Mikoto absolutely plummets her opponent in the first round, and it’s his turn to offer the kazekage empty words of assurance as the suna kunoichi falls face first into the sand with two broken kneecaps. And Mikoto didn’t even use genjutsu.

The raikage smirks proudly as his genin wins over a suna nin- damn. Kagami had been rooting for that one. But since there were no other kumo nin in the finals, he supposes he could give the raikage that one win. Besides, the kumo nin will be up against Mikoto in the next round, and Kagami is confident that she will win.

Akimichi choza and Nara shikaku almost fight to a stillstand in the arena, before the Nara yields. It was an impressive fight- Kagami doesn’t doubt that they will both make impressive chunin, along with their third team member, Inoichi, who beat one of the kazekage’s shinobi as well.

The yamanaka doesn’t make it past the first round either, losing to the same girl Kushina lost to in the preliminaries. It’s clear now that Kushina never stood a chance- that girl is already almost Jonin-level.

Mikoto triumphs over the kumo nin, to no one’s surprise but the raikage’s, flashing her sharingan for the whole world to see. The kumo nin never stood a chance.

Yashamaru and the suna kunoichi, Karura, end up facing each other in the next round. Kagami observes the same shade of sandy blonde hair, their almost identical facial features- siblings, maybe?

The fight is truly spectacular, a show of speed and enough wind jutsu to turn the arena into a sandstorm. In the end, Karura advances.

The final round has Kagami and the kazekage on the edge of their seats, each hoping their own genin will win, but ultimately Karura bypasses Mikoto’s defenses and puts her in a headlock. No amount of genjutsu or ninjutsu can help her now.

Mikoto falls unconscious, and Karura is celebrated as the winner- a shame that Konoha didn’t win, but Kagami didn’t really expect that on their home turf. Still, Mikoto’s shown skills will probably earn her her deserved promotion.

There’s a big celebration once Kagami announces it officially, thrown by the Yamanaka, Akimichi and Nara to celebrate the new chuunin. 

Mikoto looks a little out of place among the older new chuunin, but still happy. Even Takami and Kushina put their own disappointment aside to congratulate her.

“Does this mean we won’t do missions any more?”, Kushina pouts. 

“Of course we will!”, Mikoto beams, one arm around each of her team mates. “Don’t be silly! We’re still a team, right?”

She grins. “Right!”

Later that day, Kagami gifts her his and Tobirama-sensei’s summoning contract, and Mikoto cries a little as she tackles him into a hug forceful enough to fling them both to the floor.

Not much really changes after that. They still run missions together, still eat lunch together almost every day, and Mikoto still drags Takami and Kushina to sleepovers at Kagami’s home.

Occasionally, Mikoto is called away on a mission, and Takami and Kushina sulk until she comes back. 

“Next time we’ll definitely make chuunin!”, Kushina says every time, and bugs Kagami for more training. She’s taken a liking to Tsunade as well, sometimes following the woman around the hospital. She isn’t really interested in Iryojutsu, but she has heard of Tsunade’s strength, and has been practically begging her to teach her a few things. Eventually Tsunade gives in, and joins them for a training session.

Then she zeroes in on Takami like a lioness about to jump an unsuspecting Antilope and starts to teach him the basics of medical ninjutsu. Takami doesn’t really get why, but he obeys with a constant look of bafflement on his face.

After a few months, Kushina has learned how to manifest her chakra chains, and Takami has taken to healing like a fish to water. Kagami is terribly proud.

Takami is never going to be the kind of healer Tsunade is, but he’s capable of closing simple wounds at least. He seems more interested in the more practical applications of iryojutsu- chakra scalpels, how to attack the nervous system, how to stop a heart with only a touch. Tsunade sends him straight to Orochimaru, and the sannin takes one look at him before ushering him to his laboratory. Kagami doesn’t know weather to be happy or scared, but Takami’s befuddled look is certainly funny.

Then, Kushina gets kidnapped.

The moment an anbu agent comes to him with the news, Kagami is out of his office faster than he can blink. He barely pauses to summon Toyotama and the other summons, passing the wall of Konoha as nothing more than a blur. His sharingan is spinning, eyes flickering in all direction as he desperately tries to expand his senses. He was never much of a sensor and he curses himself for it. If he wasn’t so focused on finding Kushina, a million thoughts and worries would have overtaken his mind.

Having the jinchuuriki of the village kidnapped was one thing, but Kushina was also the Uzumaki princess- and she was Kagami’s student. Even if she’d been a nobody, without clan or name, Kagami would stop at nothing to get her back.

“Kagami!”

Toyotama alerts him, but Kagami already saw. Strands of vibrant red hair, strown in a clear path through the forest. Kagami thanked the gods and Kushina’s ability to remain calm in precarious situations, and follows the trail.

He doesn’t have to search for long.

Kushina’s face appears before him, eyes wide with terror and bruises forming on her skin. And beside her-

Kagami almost kills the kid befre Kushina steps in, believing him to be one of her kidnappers.

“Stop! Kagami-sensei, he saved me!”, Kushina shouts, placing herself in front of the boy before he can slit his throat.

Kagami freezes, sharingan red eyes scanning the surprises face of the boy. Now that he sees him, Kagami easily identifies him as Jiraiya’s student- the genius orphan.

He relaxes, straightening from his crouch and exhaling.

“Sorry about that”, he says to the boy with a forced smile. He nods slowly, face pale. 

“Kushina, are you alright?”, he faces his student, placing a hand on her shoulder and scanning for injuries. Thankfully, beside a few bruises, nothing seems to be amiss. Kagami’s relief quickly turns into bloodlust as his hand tightens in her shoulder. 

“Who was it?”, Who dared to try and take his student away from right under his nose?

“Kumo”, the boy says, seemingly undisturbed by Kagami’s leaking killing intent, although Kagami notices him become a few shades paler. “They’re knocked out further down the path.”

Knocked out, but not dead- but Kagami can’t really fault a kid for not going for the kill. It might even come in their favor once Kagami sends them to T&I.

Kagami sighs. He can feel his anbu guard arriving and settling into the trees around them, ready for his orders. 

“I’ll take you two back”, Kagami says to the two children. “Everyone’s worried sick about you.” Simultaneously, he sings at the anbu to go ahead.

Kushina nods, tears building up in her eyes. It must be hitting her all at once now.

“Let’s go”, Kagami sighs and picks her up, feeling the way he clings to her like a lifeline.

“Keep up”, he says to the boy, not waiting to see his response as he takes to the trees.

“I couldn’t even do anything”, Kushina whispers. Kagami grimaces. Kushina is a capable kunoichi, but against an ambush from a trained Jonin squad, even she would have difficulties.

“They sealed my chakra”, she sobs and alarm bells go off in Kagami’s mind. He’d have to notify Jiraiya or another seals master to take a look at her. But for now, his priority is to get them back to the village.

The chakra suppression seal placed on her is removed easily, and thankfully no damage was done to the seal holding the Kyuubi. The kumo squad ended up in T&I, and Kagami gave the interrogators a few days before he would send their heads back. 

In the meantime, village security was increased tenfold and Kushina was staying at his home in the Uchiha compound at least for the time being. The Uzumaki, didn’t protest, and after everything calmed down Kagami sent a summon for Mikoto. It would do Kushina good to be surrounded by her team now.

What Kagami surprised however, was Jiraiya’s boy knocking on his door the following day, asking shily if Kushina was alright.

Kagami watches with amusement as Kushina gets as red as her hair as she stutters out a thanks, ignoring her glare as he invites Minato to stay for lunch.

The following meal is maybe the most awkward one he’s ever had, between Kushina’s stuttering, Mikoto’s glare hidden behind a pleasant smile, Takami’s obliviousness to it all and Minato’s polite confusion. 

Kagami makes a note to ask Jiraiya for joint training the future- if only to push and prod at Kushina’s boundaries some more.

“I want to learn how to access the kyuubi chakra”, Kushina says one day after the incident, looking Kagami straight in the eyes.

Kagami agrees.

He insists on having Jiraiya at hand, if only as a capable seals master, and Tsunade as well in case anything happens. Kagami is fairly confident that he can control the kyuubi with his mangekyo if it really comes down to it, but he’d rather not result to that.

“We’re ready”, Kagami calls over at Kushina. The girl is immersed in deep meditation, only her furrowed brows betraying how hard she must be concentrating. Kushina doesn’t answer, but after a few seconds, her chakra slowly but surely starts to change.

The warm, dense chakra unique to the Uzumaki starts to shift, bleeding more and more into anger, hatred, bloodlust.

Images of a snarling fox flash before Kagami’s eyes, of teeth sinking into flesh, of blood red eyes. He swallows. In all his years as a shinobi, he has rarely felt anything like this.

The red, corrosive chakra starts to appear in the air around the girl, like a flame. It moves her hair like invisible wind, and Kagami watches as Kushina’s nails turn to claws, and sharp teeth poke out beneath her upper lip. Kushina’s eyes shoot open, no trace of the usual violet color, just red and red and red, with black slits instead of pupils.

“Kushina?”, Kagami asks tentatively. “Are you there?”

Kushina snarks, her lips pulling back to reveal long, thin fangs. The chakra heavy feeling in the air continues to intensify, and the orange, bubbling chakra starts to form the outline of a fox. Kagami counts three tails swishing through the air at her back. 

Kushina doesn’t answer. A low growl starts to vibrate through the air, a sound only an animal could make. 

Kagami swallows. “…Kushina?”

Her red eyes shift in his direction, zeroing in on him. Kagami’s eyes widen.

In an instant, fast enough that he’s taken aback, Kushina lunges in his direction, claws swiping for his throat. Kagami’s eyes flash red, morphing into the mangekyo, and he dives deep into Kushina’s mind.

He finds her frozen to a statue, standing waist deep in murky red water. The sky is dark above them, and gusts of wind from somewhere slam into them, whirling up waves of red. It smelts of salt.

“Kushina?”

There’s an island in front of them, rising out of the water. Giant golden chains are anchored to it, pulled taunt and coiling around-

Kagami pales. 

In front of him, snarling and struggling and angry, is the kyuubi, in all its glory.

Nine red tails fly through the air, crashing down on the water. A chain coils around its maw, and one around each of his limbs. As Kagami watches, mouth agape, the fox flings himself back. One of the chains break, and with a howl the fox digs its newly free leg into the ground.

The wind picks up, and Kagami hears a scream.

“Kushina!”

He wades through the water, pulling the girl back by her shoulders. She doesn’t even seem to notice him, her wide eyes glued into the fox. It howls, its head tugging and pulling at the chain, the free paw coming up to tear at it. 

Kagami places himself before his student, sharingan morphing into the mangekyo again. Immediately, the world rearranges itself as his eyes start to burn. 

A blood-curdling howl cuts through the air as the kyuubi spots Kagami’s eyes, but it’s already too late for him. Kagami takes hold of its mind, forcing one thought into it with all his mind:

OBEY

The howls disappear. The mind scape stops shaking around them, and the wind stops blowing.

Kagami blinks, falling to his knees as fresh red tears fall from his eyes, forming red drops in the now clear blue water.

A scream echoes behind him, and he feels more than sees golden chakra chains shoot out of the ground and water. They wrap around the kyuubi’s head, legs and tails, forcing it low to the ground. It struggles, but it is futile. Soon, he can’t move a muscle.

“…sensei?”

Kagami whips around. 

Kushina stands before him, face pale and terrified, but otherwise alright. 

Kagami takes a shuddering breath. “Let’s not try that again any time soon.”

It’s summer, Kushina has more or less found a way to draw onto the kyuubi’s chakra (“he’s not so bad”, she said and Kagami is not touching that with a ten-foot-pole), and this year’s chuunin exams are barely a week away.

“You’re going to nominate us, right sensei?”, Kushina asks, and damn Kagami simply cannot resist those puppy dog eyes. “Of course”, he sighs. “I already did.”

Kushina and Takami cheer, and Mikoto smiles, crossing her arms in front of her chuunin vest.

“Wait”, Takami says, once he’a calmed down somewhat. “If Mikoto’s not going with us, who will? We still need a three-member team, right?”

Kagami grins. “Yes, but fortunately for you, Jiraiya’s student is also attending this year’s chuunin exams, and since you have an empty spot, I kindly offered him to go with you!”

It takes a moment to sink in, but then-

“Wait”, Kushina says. “Jiraiya’s student- you don’t mean-“

“Minato?!”, Takami gasps, whooping in joy. The two boys had become decent friends after that whole kidnapping desaster, unlike Kushina, who still blushed and stuttered and insulted him whenever they met. (“You’ll figure out how to talk to him one day”, Mikoto pays her in the back. Kushina, head in her hands, just sighs.)

“Sensei!”, Kushina hisses, hands closing into fists, but whatever fit of rage was about to unleash was interrupted when the door to the Hokage’s office opens and Minato’s blond head pokes through the doorframe.

“Am I interrupting something?”

“Not at all!”, Kagami grins. “We were just getting started.”

Thankfully, the chuunin exams were in Konoha this time, which made a lot of things easier- for the genin, not really for Kagami. There were allocations for the visitors it be prepared, village security to be heightened, applications to consider… but Kagami was confident that this time around his last two students would make chunin as well. They had really gotten far since the last one- Kagami was terribly proud.

This time there were applications from much more hidden villages than last time- every passing year, the great nations inched out of their defensive walls left by the war a little bit more.

Iwa hadnt sent any genin, unsurprisingly- iwa and Konoha never really got along. But apart from that, there were applicants from suna, kiri, kumo, taki, yu, kusa- but none from ame. It seems like Hanzo the salamander is keeping his cards close to his chest. 

It seems like this year’s exams will be a grand affair, with so many contestants- Kagami made a note to tell the proctors to thin the crowd out as much as possible. He trusted his own shinobi to target specifically genin from other major hidden villages- if even one genin from every major nation advanced to the third round, Konoha would have to host three more kage, and that was just a political disaster waiting to happen. 

The weeks passed in a blur, and before Kagami knew it he was sending his students off into their second chunin exam. Logically, he knew that this one was a much smaller risk to them than the first one, seeing as it was in their home turf and they had an additional year of training and growth behind them, but still…

But in the end, Kagami really didn’t have to worry.

His students plus Minato bulldozed their way through the first stage and the second in the forest of death, leaving behind a trail of destruction and unconscious genin. Minato easily filled the void as team leader that Mikoto left behind, even convincing Kushina to fight as a team. Kagami wasn’t surprised when they were among the first to reach the tower at the center, a little worse for wear but otherwise right as rain.

During the preliminaries, Kushina punched her opponent hard enough in the jaw that he didn’t get back up again, earning herself a win in the first minute. Takami severed the ankle tendons of the kumo boy he was against, forcing him to yield with a kunai at his throat.

And even Minato advanced to the third stage, overwhelming his opponent with a powerful wind jutsu.

The battles for the third stage were established, with a majority of Konoha nin, two from kiri, one from suna and a few particularly stubborn genin from the minor hidden villages. (No kumo genin- thank god. Kagami really didn’t want to deal with the raikage)

The month-long break in between stages passed in the blink of an eye, and soon Kagami could watch his students plummet foreign nin into the dirt.

Kushina single-handedly beat the two suna nin she was up against back-to back, causing the kazekage to sulk in his seat for the rest of the exam. Takami and Minato duke it out in an impressive showcase of their individual abilities while Kushina faces the remaining kiri nin.

In the end, Minato yielded to Takami after he managed to break out of the carefully designed seal trap, much to the uchiha’s surprise and chagrin, leaving him and Kushina as the final match in the exams- and what a match it was.

It ended with cracked walls of the arena, multiple craters and a blaze of fire hot enough to make the front-row spectators sweat. Kushina and Takami battled for almost an hour before Kushina unleashed the kyuubi chakra with a yell, binding him in place with red-tinged golden chains.

Kushina emerged as the victor, flushed and almost dead on her feet, but still happy as the proctor raised her hand and the stadium exploded into cheers.

Takami, Minato and Kushina earn their promotion on the same day, deciding to throw a party at the Uzumaki compound.

The party escalates, because hello, uzumaki, and once Kagami shows up he’s pretty sure all three of his students plus Minato are drunk out of their minds. He even notices an Uzumaki hiding a suspiciously sake-colored bottle behind her back.

But well, it’s not like Kagami didn’t drink himself wasted when he was their age and Hiruzen found some of Tobirama-sensei’s alcohol stash, so he leaves them alone- he trusts some of the older teenagers present to alert him if something goes really wrong.

The chunin exams are over, everything seems like it’s going alright, and then Sakumo breaks in through Kagami’s window at 3 am in the morning to tell him that Shigezane is pregnant.

“Wha-?”, Kagami asks, barely awake. 

“Pregnant Kagami!”, Sakumo repeats, shaking him by the shoulders and grinning madly. “I‘m gonna be a dad!”

“That’s nice…”, Kagami mumbles, entirely too tired for this bullshit. Sakumo rolls his eyes, dropping his sensei back into his bed. “Fine, I’ll come back tomorrow.”

“Hey Sakumo, I had this weird dream that you woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me you’re going to be a father…”

“I am. That wasn’t a dream.”

“…what?”

A few months later, Hatake Kakashi is born in early autumn. He has his father’s silver hair and eyes the color of a midnight storm. Kagami thinks he’s the cutest baby in the world- apart from baby Takami, obviously.

“He’s so cute”, Kagami grins, rocking the baby in his arms. 

“Of course he is”, Sakumo agrees, grinning from ear to ear. Kagami passes Kakashi back to his mother, exhausted and pale after hours of labor. Kagami pities her a little- this birth wasn’t an easy one.

“Anyone in mind for the godfather yet?”, Kagami asks.

Sakumo throws him a dry look. “As if it wasn’t clear that it’s going to be you.”

Kagami grins. “But Auntie is going to be the godmother, so you’ll have to share a little.” Kagami’s grins wilts.

Little Kakashi is only one year old when Shigezane dies due to a disease attacking her weak immune system after her birth.

Kagami stands next to Sakumo at the funeral, holding a crying Kakashi while Sakumo stares off into the distance.

“I don’t know what to do anymore, sensei”, he tells him, empty eyes trained on the grave of his partner.

Kagami squeezes his shoulder, a grimace on his face. Nothing Kagami could say would make him feel better.

Chapter Text

Minato makes Jonin barely two years after the chuunin exams, and Kagami congratulated him as if he had been his own student from the start. Jiraiya will always be the boy’s first sensei, but Kagami supposed having more students won’t hurt. ( god knows he needs the support- Kagami never asked, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out what happened to Minato’s original teammates.)

“I’m going on a training trip for a while”, Minato informs him later that evening. “Jiraiya-sensei is taking me to mount myoboku.”

Kagami didn’t really expect Minato to chose toads of all animals to summon, but maybe that was also Jiraiya’s fault. All in all, Kagami doesn’t really see a reason to keep him in Konoha, so he sends him away with words of good luck and knowing that he’ll come back stronger for it.

Kushina, who finally got over her animosity towards the boy, decided that she wasn’t going to be one-upped by him that easily, and promptly disappeared for a few days. Kagami was just about to send for a search party, when Kushina re-appeared before him on the training grounds, dirty, slightly singed and with twigs in her hair, announcing that she had fox summons now with a sly grin. Kagami just sighed.

When Minato came back after a few months, Kushina challenged him to a sparring match with summons, and Kagami cackled at his pale face as Kushina summoned a giant seven tailed black fox.

Needless to say, Kushina won, and Minato was left rethinking all his life choices.

A short while later, Kagami hands two files to Yusaku for recruitment.

He doesn’t know if he’s making the right decision, to be honest- he doesn’t want either of the persons in his file in anbu, if he thinks about it- but there’s no denying that they have talent, talent better suited in anbu than on the standard Jonin rotation. And if they’d both dropped subtle and not-so-subtle hints at him to recommend them both for recruitment, well. That’s their little secret, then.

A week later, anbu panther and raven join the anbu corps. They can try to act professional all they want, but Kagami sees right through their masks as if they weren’t even there. They are his students, after all.

Kushina is a little bitter about the fact that she’s the only one out of the team to not be in anbu, but she knows she doesn’t have the necessary skillset. Oh she’s strong, alright, but even she can admit that subtlety has never really been her strong suit. And the fox mask was taken anyways, so there really was no choice in that matter.

“Kushina is dating Minato!”, Takami said one day out of the blue at a family dinner, slamming a hand down on the table.

Kagami, who had known for a week, just started to feign surprise when Kushina retaliates. 

“Yeah?”, she said, a challenging glare in her eyes as she stares Takami down. “Well, Takami has a girlfriend!”

Kagami watches his son turn very pale and then very red at alarming rates. “No I don’t! How do you even know about that-!”

“Really, Takami-kun?”, Megumi asks, her eyes locking onto her son. “Why didn’t you say anything? We have to invite her to dinner, of course. What’s her name?”

Takami is busy sputtering and looking anywhere but his mother’s face, so Mikoto, who had been minding her own business until then, answered for him.

“It’s Takei-chan, Jiu-oji’s daughter.”

“Uchiha Jiu?”, Megumi asked while Takami gaped at Mikoto in betrayal, “the head of the Konoha police force? She must be a very talented girl.”

“We could do another big family dinner”, Kagami contemplated while Takami whispered Mikoto, how could you. “With Minato and Takei-chan.”

“In that case we should invite Mikoto’s fiancé too”, Kushina teases, and Mikoto blushes slightly.

As the future clan head, Mikoto had been engaged to another Uchiha since she was six- they have begun talking to each other only recently. “He’s nice”, Mikoto smiles.

“Then it’s decided!”, Takami laughs, rubbing his hands together. He is very excited, alright. Time to see how much he can embarrass his students in front of their crushes.

The family dinner… well. It goes alright, all in all. 

Kagami invited not only Takei, Minato and Mikoto’s fiancé Fugaku, but also Torifu, Yusaku, Sakumo and Kakashi- just so that the kiddies know exactly what they are getting into (they should be thankful Kagami didn’t ask Utsushiyo to come).

Minato already knows pretty much everyone at the table, and he doesn’t even flinch when Kagami teases him about his relationship. A pity- where did the shy, easily impressed genin Kagami first met go? But at least Kagami can admit that he’ll be truly terrifying one day.

Takei is alright- she seems much more at ease during the whole ordeal than Takami, who sulks in his seat and tries to ignore the waggling eyebrows sent to him by Sakumo and pretty much everyone at the table.

Takei easily ropes Yusaku and Megumi into a conversation, unbothered by the various curious eyes as she chats. She’s been a Jonin since she was fourteen, and would undoubtedly already be in anbu if she wasn’t aiming for captain of the police force.

And by the end of the day, Kagami has to admit that he likes her. She has double the backbone Takami has, with a temper honestly more suited to the Inuzuka than the Uchiha, but she’s alright. Takami chose well. (Or, more likely, she chose Takami.)

Fugaku is a different story- where Takei seems unbothered by the presence of the Hokage and several high-ranking nin, Fugaku seems like an anxious mess the entire dinner. Oh he’s completely smitten with Mikoto, that’s for sure, but he also can’t seem to look Kagami in the eyes and freezes up whenever he asks him a question. Kagami’s highlight was however when Sakumo shoved Kakashi into his arms to help out in the kitchen and poor Fugaku didn’t dare to move. 

Eventually, Mikoto took pity on him, taking Kakashi and patting him on the shoulder in consolation.

Another year passes, Mikoto reaches her eighteenth birthday shortly after her Jonin promotion, and her wedding is scheduled a month after.

Kagami had his doubts, especially about her arranged marriage, but Mikoto assures him that it’s alright. As the future clan head, such things were expected of her, and with Fugaku she at least had someone she liked instead of a stranger.

Uchiha Ryuma is sick, and old, and Mikoto would probably have to step up as clan head soon. 

Mikoto chooses Kushina as her maid of honor, surprising absolutely no one, and Kagami has to admit  the wedding is really beautiful. It’s a pretty formal affair, as is normal for the Uchiha, but Mikoto looks happy, and that’s all that matters to Kagami.

Ryuma dies a few month after, and the funeral is a private affair almost exclusively attended by Uchiha.

Ryuma was a crafty bastard, and Kagami never really liked him and his too traditional values left over from the warring clans era, but he was a good clan head, and Kagami bows in respect. 

Mikoto seems a lot worse for wear- the man was her father, after all. Still, she steps into the position left to her by her father with a grace unique to her. Kagami knows that she will make a great clan head.

“Kagami-ji, can you teach me your lightning arrow jutsu?”

Kagami smiles down at Kakashi, ruffling his spiky hair. “Sure, Kakashi-kun!”

The boy had shown himself to be quite the genius, even in his toddler stages, maybe even more than Sakumo. The man insists that Kakashi’s talent is all from his mother.

At four years old, Kakashi pressed to be enrolled in the academy early, and has already mastered skills genin thrice his age struggle with. Kagami was reluctant to allow him into the academy- it’s peacetime, and there is really no need to push for early graduation, but Kakashi’s has talent is so big that it would be a waste to hold him back for years.

As long as there is no war, it’s fine, Kagami tells himself as Kakashi breezes through the academy in less than a year. It’s fine.

He apprentices his godson to Minato, if only to keep him under control a little- that little shit is unstoppable. He’s already started developing his own jutsu, and under any circumstance Kagami would be proud, but-

Kagami worries.

It’s been almost twenty years since the last war, and everything feels too quiet. Like the calm before a storm.

Kagami spends more and more nights in his office, sitting through reports and clues from Jiraiya’s spy network. He feels restless, anxious for something that has yet to happen.

It’s fine, he tells himself. But the nagging suspicion won’t leave him alone.

“Hey Kakashi-kun”, Kagami grins at the child as he lets himself into the Hatake compound through the window. “Where’s your dad?”

“On a mission?”, Kakashi says, tilting his head questioningly at Kagami. “I thought you knew.”

Kagami frowns. He doesn’t remember sanctioning such a mission. Maybe it was the new Jonin commander? But he would have remembered singing a mission request with Sakumo in it. The worry at the back of his head grows into a buzz.

“Auntie is in the other room if you need something”, Kakashi says, but Kagami doesn’t notice.

“I need to check something”, he says to Kakashi with a forced smile, turning away from the window in the direction of the Hokage tower, ignoring Kakashi’s questioning voice calling after him.

“Shikaku?”, Kakashi asks once in his office, eyeing the nara reclining in the chair behind the desk next to his.

The young man’s eyes snap up to find his, his posture straightening as he senses the change in tone.

“Yes, Hokage-sama?”

“Do you remember handing out a mission scroll to Hatake Sakumo?”

“Yes”, Shikaku says, starting to rummage in his drawers. “is there something wrong?”

“Did anything seem out of the ordinary?”, Kagami asks.

Shikaku’s eyes jump between his own, his brow creasing in worry. “No”, he says slowly. “It seemed like a normal mission. It was signed with the stamp of the Hokage.”

Kagami’s heart beats faster. “Who signed it?”

Shikaku pulls a scroll out from underneath his desk, and Kagami snatches it out of his hand. His hands almost shake as he unrolls it. Please please please…

There it is, the stamp, just like always, beneath the signature- 

Shimura Danzo, advisor to the Hokage

Kagami’s breath hitches, and his eyes fly up to the mission parameters. 

Fuck, Kagami thinks as he skims the paragraph. He practically flies out of his office, scroll falling forgotten to the floor, ignoring Shikaku’s alarmed gaze as he runs over the roofs and past Konoha’s walls.

Danzo has sanctioned that mission, without Kagami’s approval, sending his student to complete an impossible mission. The spy they were sent to retrieve has been dead for weeks. When Sakumo and his team arrive there they’ll probably only find a trap. Kagami runs faster.  

It’s a long way to iwa, and would take any average shinobi multiple days, but Kagami crosses the border barely a day after leaving Konoha. 

He calms down to tightly in his chakra that not even a skilled sensor would be able to find him, much less the tired border patrols, following Toyotama as she picks up Sakumo’s scent.

He prays to every god out there that he’ll reach him before they attempt to break into the earth daimyo’s residence, because if they do not even Kagami will be able to help them. 

Sakumo didn’t really think much about his mission- sure, it was s-rank, deep into enemy territory and the consequences of failure would be terrifying, but he’s confident that he and his team will succeed. It’s not the most difficult thing he’s ever done after all- if they’re lucky, they won’t encounter any enemy nin at all.

They wanted to set out for the capital at dawn the following day, and had barely set up camp when the Yamanaka in their team snaps her head up in alarm.

Sakumo barely has time to reach for his tanto when someone crashes through the trees into the clearing.

He lunges for them, aiming for the neck when sharingan red eyes flicker in his direction. Sakumo freezes. “Kagami-sensei?”

“You need to leave”, Kagami says, eyes running over the members of his team. Sakumo opens his mouth, but Kagami cuts him off. “This is a trap, we need to leave.”

Sakumo’s mouth snaps shut. He can question Kagami later- if it’s true what he says, then all their lives might be in danger.

He barks out orders at his team, satisfied when they barely hesitate before scrambling to get their things together. Sakumo watches Kagami gasp for breath with his hands on his knees- how much did he push himself to reach them in time? Sakumo shakes his head. He can worry about that later.

Ten minutes after Kagami crashed into their camp, Sakumo’s team sets out for Konoha, on extreme alert as they sneak through earth country.

They make it to the border unscathed, but while on the outside everything seems calm, a million thoughts are whirring through Sakumo’s head.

How did Kagami realize the mission was faulty? Why did he not realize earlier? Why did he seem so jumpy and anxious?

Only when they stepped foot onto fire country ground, did Kagami relax a little. One issue resolved, time to tackle the next one.

“Sensei?”, Sakumo asks tentatively. “What’s going on?”

“Something I should’ve put an end to long ago”, Kagami grimaces. 

It’s not easy to find Danzo. Kagami is almost surprised- they haven’t talked in years, but he didn’t realize he had completely lost touch with his former teammate. The Shimura compound is largely empty- Danzo’s clan was one of the firsts to join Konoha, but over the years their numbers dwindled. Danzo isn’t part of the clan members that still live in the compound- or at least, Kagami doesn’t sense him there.

Toyotama leads him far away from the compound, through the woods until they end up on top of the Hokage mountain. At first Kagami is confused, but- there’s an entrance there.

Kagami slips through, getting more uncomfortable by the second. The corridor in front of him slowly morphs from stone to blank steel, illuminated by clinical lights.

Kagami has never seen this place before- what had Danzo done in all these years?

Kagami feels presences flutter at the edge of his awareness, dipping in and out of his range. They all have the same blank signature, almost like an empty puppet.

Kagami stops in front of a closed door. Toyotama huffs, looking up at her summoner in worry. Kagami doesn’t know what will await him behind that door.

Kagami grits his teeth, pushing the door open.

Danzo doesn’t even look up at him, seemingly engrossed in the scroll he’s reading.

It all seems so surreal. This hidden base, the weird signatures, the signature in the reports- what more did Danzo do behind his back?

Kagami tosses the scroll on the desk, watching as it falls open. Danzo’s eyes flicker in its direction, catching on his signature at the bottom.

“Explain yourself”, Kagami simply says.

Danzo looks up, blinking at the sight of Kagami’s activated mangekyo sharingan.

“I don’t remember giving you permission to sign off mission reports, or to use the official Hokage stamp to do so.”, Kagami says, voice a cutting blade.

Danzo sighs, standing up. Kagami’s eyes catch onto the cane in his hand and his bandaged arm. He doesn’t remember that being there last time he saw him.

“It seems”, Danzo begins, “that you still don’t understand many things Tobirama was trying to teach you.”

Kagami’s anger surges at the mention of his sensei, but he keeps quiet.

“Who are the people in this building?”, he asks instead.

“I call them root”, Danzo answers calmly, shuffling a stack of papers and setting it to the side. “They do the kinds of missions you are to weak to pass out, but that Konoha still needs done.”

At the wink of his hand, an anbu agent slides into the room. No, not anbu- the mask is as blank as their chakra. “They are the perfect soldiers, don’t you think?”

Kagami doesn’t move. He thinks if he does, the combined force of the anger, betrayal and hatred in his heart will bleed over into his actions.

“Shimura Danzo”, he begins, “As the Hokage, I arrest you for treason against Konohagakure. If you do not resist, I will not harm you. 

Danzo quirks a bemused smile. “I was always stronger than you, Kagami.”

He tears off the cover on his arm, and Kagami sees red.

He doesn’t really remember what happened after. 

Kagami comes to himself standing in a pool of blood, red on his clothes and face and hands and dripping from his sword. 

He’s not inside Danzo’s sewers anymore, and the ground around him is cracked with craters and holes. 

A few feet before him, lies Danzo. Still breathing, still alive, if barely.

His severed abomination of an arm lies a few feet away, the sharingan eyes open and unmoving.

Kagami blinks. The blood continues to drip to the ground.

“Kagami?”

Only then Kagami registers everyone else.

It feels like half of Konoha’s Jonin force is surrounding the battlefield, the sannin, Sakumo and his team, the anbu and Jonin commanders- and at his back, taking a tentative step towards him, is Hiruzen, Torifu, Homura and Koharu right behind him.

Kagami turns around slowly.

“Did you know?”

Hiruzen blinks. “…What?”

“I said”, Kagami looks him straight in the eyes chakra flaring his killing intent in a way he hasn’t done in a long time.

“DID YOU KNOW?”, he roars, stressing each word, turning to face Hiruzen fully.

The man takes a step back, fear and worry on his face. “No”, he whispers, “Kagami, I swear I didn’t know, I would have told you, I promise, Kagami-“

Kagami believes him. Hiruzen didn’t know that Danzo had been killing Konoha from the inside out. And he can’t imagine Torifu did either. But-

“But you knew”, Kagami says quietly, locking eyes with Homers and Koharu. The matter shrinks back at his murderous glare, looking Kagami as if he was a stranger. “Kagami…”

“You knew what Danzo was doing. You knew and you never even thought to tell me. You knew about him stealing children and eyes and you. said. nothing!”

Homura and Koharu don’t answer. But Kagami can see it in their eyes. He doesn’t know what he would’ve done to them, but before he could even twitch, Yusaku is beside him, face as white as a ghost.

“The police force will take care of it”, she says, inching slowly closer to Kagami. He only holds the eyes of his former teammates for another moment before turning away.

“Take them to a secure cell”, he nods over at the anbu still standing around frozen. “Search the sewers. I want every one of Danzo’s… of his agents arrested and questioned. Tsunade, heal Danzo from what is necessary and move him to T&I. And no one”, Kagami emphasizes, sharingan whirring in his eyes, “no one touches the sharingan eyes.”

Only when everyone has left, when Danzo’s body has been removed and taken away, does Kagami react.

He sinks into a crouch, face in his hands as the events of the past days catch up to him.

“It’s my fault”, he whispers. “It’s my fault…”

“Kagami, stop”, Torifu’s slightly distorted voice says from above. “It’s not your fault.” A large, slightly trembling hand comes down on his shoulder. “Let’s get you checked by a medic, alright? C’mon Kagami, get up…”

Kagami doesn’t listen. It is his fault, no matter what Torifu says. He is the Hokage, he should have dealt with problems like that before they had the chance to become this big. He should have questioned Danzo the first time when he found him in his office during the war, when he didn’t seem to care at all that an entire village Konoha had been allied with for years had just been destroyed. But Kagami thought Danzo just wanted to help, that he cared, in his own weird way-

He should have realized when they were still a team and Danzo was always the more cruel one, he should have realized when Tobirama-sensei died and he spent the funeral glaring in Kagami’s direction.

All the signs were there, staring Kagami in the face, and he had done nothing to stop it. Who knows how many reports Danzo falsified, how many shinobi he sent to their deaths with Kagami none the wiser, how many of his clan members he murdered for their eyes in cold blood. 

Kagami can still see the severed, pale arm in the corner of his eye and it makes him want to throw up.

Danzo has manipulated him and all of Konoha for years and no one noticed. What kind of Hokage was Kagami when he couldn’t even do his fucking job?

The aftermath of Danzo’s treason coming to light is worse than Kagami anticipated.

Fifty root agents, half of them under the age of fifteen. Most of them are orphans, snatched out of the orphanage without anyone even noticing. But there are clan kids among them as well, an aburame girl that had been missing for two years, two Senju presumed dead on a mission, an Inuzuka that had supposedly died shortly after her birth ten years ago.

And out of fifty root agents, there are five Uchiha members.

The first one is even older than Takami, almost twenty-five, probably one of the first children Danzo ‘recruited’. She refuses to tell them her true name, or she simply forgot after two decades, calling herself ‘Gisei’- sacrifice- the name Danzo had given her. She only has one eye- the other one is stuck into Danzo’s arm. In fact, three out of the five Uchiha root members only have one eye. The other two are two boys of eleven and thirteen years, having supposedly died of illness or accidents at the hospital.

The last two are twins, a boy and a girl, six years old. They don’t have the usual blankness Kagami has come to associate with root, but they have been very clearly manipulated for years already. Records show that they were marked KIA along with their sensei and third teammate. Their names are ingraved on the memorial stone. 

Kagami… almost cant believe it. So many children, so many futures cut away because of the selfish desires of one man.

But it gets worse. Much, much worse.

An older anbu agent tells them about Danzo’s very own ‘graduation exam’ a cruel copy from kiri.

To officially become part of Danzo’s root, the children had to kill an opponent in combat- often their own siblings or friends.

The thing is, it worked just like Danzo intended to- anyone who survived the exam became numb, devoid of any and all emotions. For some children the exam was easier- for example those with a powerful clan or Kekkei genkai Danzo wanted to have. Especially the Uchiha children were often pitted against weak opponents- with the exception of one child that had unexpectedly died. But Danzo still found use for them after death- their eyes were embedded into his arm.

Kagami feels bile rise in his throat as he thinks about the twins, how in a few years they would have been expected to kill each other.

The reports Danzo carefully stacked and documented however, is what really almost makes Kagami break down again.

A root spy, planted into Uzushio to dismantle the protective barrier seal from the inside out. And why? Because Danzo thought the Uzumaki had become too much of a threat. A clan almost  as old as chakra itself, allied with the Senju for centuries, and it fell only because Danzo wanted it to.

Reports of human experimentation- trying to recreate the mokuton in infants.

And the falsification of countless missions- including the one that would have driven Sakumo to his death.

Interrogations prove that while Homura and Koharu knew about Danzo falsifying reports and creating his own small army, the true extend of his actions had been hidden from them. Well, less hidden and more that they hadn’t even cared what Danzo had been doing with all the children he kidnapped. They had just… not cared enough to ask.

The council can decide what to do with them later. For now Kagami thinks it’s appropriate to let them rot in a prison cell.

But Danzo… Danzo will not get that luxury.

On the first day spring, Danzo is publicly executed for his crimes against the village.

His execution is announced a week beforehand, and it is advised for all children and civilians to stay home.

Danzo is dragged onto a wooden platform by two anbu guards, where Kagami, Hiruzen and Torifu already stand.

“Shimura Danzo”, Kagami begins, eyes cold. “For your crimes against Konohagakure, including treason, murder and kidnapping of children, human experimentation, bloodline theft, and massacre of the Uzumaki clan, I, Uchiha Kagami, the sandaime Hokage, and the council of Konoha sentence you to execution.”

The shinobi gathered on the square are silent. The place is packed, many shinobi wanting to witness the death of a criminal like Danzo themselves. Even the roofs and walls are covered, and all eyes are trained on Danzo. The Uzumaki are a united front, red hair sticking out like a sore thumb amidst the Konoha shinobi. Kagami can feel their glares from here.

He ignores the spectators, eyes trained on Danzo.

“Do you have any last words?”

Danzo stares at him, and even kneeling as he is Kagami has the impression that he’s looking down in him.

“You will see”, he says, closing his eyes. “When Konoha rots from the inside out because of its weakness, you all will understand.”

Kagami’s eyes harden, and he lifts Tobirama’s katana towards the sky.

“The only rot in Konoha is you.” And the blade swings down.

Hiruzen closes his eyes as the blade sinks into the neck of his former best friend. Torifu looks on, apathetically, not crying for once.

Kagami watches Danzo’s head roll with a spray of blood until it stops right at the edge of the platform. He cleans his sword and slides it back into its sheath, without batting an eye, face still cold, and blank.

Kagami raises his fingers to his mouth, and whistles, a sharp sound, spreading through the silence.

Like a black cloud, Kagami’s crows descend onto the platform, the echo of their caws soon accompanied by the sound of flesh tearing and being ripped from bone.

Kagami watches on as his crows devour Danzo‘s flesh. The Shimura clan buried their dead, like the Senju, and the Uchiha burnt them.

Being eaten by animals is a fitting funeral, in Kagami‘s opinion.

One after the other, the gathered shinobi disperse. They return home, going about their way, without a word. But Kagami sees their understanding gazes, their appreciative nods, and knows that he at least has the support of konoha’s people. 

The Uzumaki thank him personally, a gratitude in their eyes Kagami isn’t used to seeing. 

“Not everyone would have acted the way you did”, the clan head tells him, placing a hand on his shoulder. It burns.

Kagami leaves Danzo‘s cadaver as it is, trusting his crows to finish the process. He‘ll give it another day, before he‘ll lift the barrier around the square and bury Danzo‘s bones somewhere where he can‘t ever reach the pure lands.

Orochimaru regards him with a mix of suspicion and wariness as Kagami enters his lab. They haven’t really been close, but since he started occasionally teaching Takami, they at least have a professional relationship.

Which is why Kagami went to him and not one of the staff at the hospital- he needs someone he can trust.

“I want you to take a look at this.”, Kagami tells him, forgoing the greeting and smalltalk and dropping a wrapped object on the Sannin’s cluttered desk.

Orochimaru raises an eyebrow, his curiosity quickly waning as he unwraps the bandages, revealing white misshapen flesh and a handful of eyeballs.

He takes a deep breath, tearing his eyes away and looking at Kagami.

“What do you want to know?”

“Please make a dna test on the eyes and skin- we already know who three if the eyes belong to, but not the other two. And the arm- tell me what exactly it is.

Orochimaru hesitates. His eyes flicker between Kagami and the arm.

“I don’t think I’m the best person for this, Hokage-sama.”

Kagami frowns at the uncharacteristic behaviour of the man. “Orochimaru?”

Orochimaru’s mouth falls open, as if he wants to say something, but no sound comes out. He closes his mouth, averting his eyes.

Kagami is about to start asking more questions, as Orochimaru turns to face him, jaw dropping open to let an inhumanly long tongue roll out. And at the back of that tongue-

“It’s a crafty bastard of a seal”, Jiraiya mutters, frowning at the ink embedded in the tongue of his teammate. 

“Like the one who made it, then”, Kagami says humorlessly behind him.

“I just can’t believe how we never noticed”, Tsunade speaks up, slumped over a chair in the back. Orochimaru throws her a glance. But can’t really speak with Jiraiya’s fingers in his mouth. 

Kagami smiles bitterly. “I never noticed either.”

Tsunade winces, looking at Kagami apologetically, but before she can speak up, Jiraiya straightens. 

“It’s annoying, but not impossible to crack”, he says. Wiping his wet fingers on his trousers. “We should get an Uzumaki or two on it though- my experience is limited.”

”So it was you who used grandpa’s genes to make that arm?”, Tsunade asks, a hand rubbing tiredly at her brow. 

Orochimaru opens his mouth, but nothing comes out. Frustrated, he closes it, glaring at the ground. “The seal prevents him from talking about it”, Jiraiya says. “Danzo probably forced him into it.”

“That may be, but you’ll still have to make a trip to T&I once the seal comes off.”, Kagami’s aus sternly.

Orochimaru grimaces, but nods.

It takes Jiraiya and the Uzumaki sealsmasters a week to crack Danzo’s seal, and another to figure out a counter-seal. Eventually, they work their way through the root operatives, starting with Orochimaru.

“Alright”, Kagami says once Orochimaru has spat out the ink residue. “Everyone but the interrogators out.”

Jiraiya frowns, turning to Kagami in protest. “But-“

“No”, Kagami interrupts him. “Orochimaru is your teammate and you are therefore compromised. We can’t allow mistakes in this investigation.”

Jiraiya grits his teeth, but snaps his mouth shut and leaves, Tsunade and the Uzumaki seals master in tow.

The door shuts, and the Yamanaka interrogator discreetly activates the privacy seals.

“Alright”, Kagami starts, sitting down in front of Orochimaru. “Let’s start this.”

It turns out, Orochimaru has been part of root since the second war, when he was fifteen years old. 

Danzo lured him with promise of research materials and support, only to force him to conduct his inhuman research for him.

“So you made all of Danzo’s… bodily modifications?”, Kagami asks.

Orochimaru looks to the side. Even in an interrogation cell, he somehow manages to look graceful, like the snake that is his namesake. Kagami faintly remembers all the other members of his clan- they were the same.

“Yes”, he answers softly. “I was cultivating the Hashirama cells to potentially regrow limbs, and Danzo took an interest in its capabilities of adapting and healing nearly every other organism they come in contact with.” Orochimaru swallows. “One day he came with five Sharingan eyes, and he wanted me to find a way to connect them to the arm. He didn’t tell me where they came from, and I didn’t ask.”

“If you could have, would you have told me?”, Kagami asks.

“Yes”, Orochimaru answers, and the Yamanaka behind him nods. It’s the truth. Kagami leans back in his chair with a sigh. “What about the mokuton experiments?”

Orochimaru hesitates. His golden eyes flicker from one corner of the room to the next. Kagami narrows his eyes.

“There were sixty infants Danzo procured for the experiment”, he says softly. “I don’t know where they came from.”

Kagami swallows. “Did you have the chance to not proceed with the experiment on them?”

“No. I tried, but they were already too dependent on the Hashirama cells. They would have died anyways.”

Orochimaru’s eyes stare off somewhere far away.

“The ones that didn’t develop the mokuton were killed by him, even if they would’ve had a chance to survive. To my knowledge, only in one of them did the experiment actually succeed.”

Kagami straightens. “It actually worked?” That meant that there was someone capable of mokuton amidst the root agents.

“Yes”, Orochimaru answers. “I believe his name is kinoe.”

It makes sense- Danzo only gave proper names to the most important root soldiers.

“Thank you for telling me”, Kagami says. Orochimaru just nods.

It’s been a month since Danzo’s execution, and everything has more or less calmed down.

Kagami introduced a new division in T&I, led by the Yamanaka, to hopefully heal the mind of the root agents of Danzo’s manipulation. So far, it seems like it was working.

The families of the children that still had any have also been trying to reconnect with them- but it’s been hard on everyone. Kagami couldn’t even imagine what it must be like to find out that a family member you have grieved for years is suddenly confirmed to have come back to life.

In autumn of the same year, Takami and Takei hold their wedding, truly something to lift the spirits again after this much death and despair.

This time, Mikoto is Takei’s woman of honor, while Kushina, Fugaku and Minato act as the groomsmen/-women respectively. In return, Takami had to promise Kushina that he would be her man of honor, closing the cycle of the team.

Kagami has to admit that he cries a little, it’s not every day his only child is getting married- but he doesn’t cry as much as Torifu. Hiruzen comes by briefly to offer congratulations, but he doesn’t stay long. Kagami expected it- Danzo’s betrayal and death has hit him harder than anyone else. 

During the celebrations, Kagami even exchanges a few words with grumpy old Jiu, Takei’s father. He was always a pretty stern member of the Uchiha clan, and Takami especially practically quivered in his presence.

Thankfully, he didn’t have any kind of protest against his daughter’s chosen partner, seeing as it was the son of the Hokage, and even when he grumbled a bit about it Takei told him to “shut it, old man!”, gaming a few laughs from the bystanders. Takei had taken over as captain of the police force swiftly and with an iron fist, and now Jiu could enjoy his retirement in relative peace. Kagami caught word that Takei threatened to chain him to his bed when he tried to lecture her on her job one more time, and then Jiu responded that just because she was married now didn’t mean that she could boss him around. After that, a very nervous and apologetic Takami had to hold his new wife back from pouncing his father-in-law while Kagami doubled over from laughter at their backs.

“Here”, Kagami handed his son and daughter-in-law each a full sake cup. “It’s sake from the capital.”

Takei glanced down at the cup as if it was full of poison, while Takami suddenly looked very nervous.

“Is something wrong?”, Kagami asks, oblivious. “I can get you something else if you don’t like it?”

“No!”, Takei blurts out, “No, it’s fine, I just-“

“Oh dear!”, Megumi says while she knocks into the bride ‘accidentally’. “I’m so sorry! Takei-chan, let me help you clean that up.” With that, Megumi rushes her away, leaving behind a befuddled Kagami and her furiously blushing husband.

“What was that about?”, Kagami asks once his wife returns, only for her to smile at him innocently. “Nothing, don’t worry about it, Kagami.”

Kagami just shrugs. “Alright.” It’s late, he is definitely more than a little bit drunk, and he decides he can worry about that later.

Hours later, Kagami shoots up in his bed in the middle of the night. “Holy shit!”

He struggles out of the bed, getting tangled in the covers and eventually going down in a heap of blankets. Megumi beside him groans.

“Go back to sleep, Kagami.”

“Holy shit”, Kagami repeats. “Takei’s pregnant!”

“Yes, now shut up!”

Kagami hugs the couple the next time he sees them, practically vibrating with joy. 

“I’m gonna be a grandfather!”, he cheers, still squeezing his son to almost-suffocation.

“You can let go now”, Takami wheezes, to no avail.

“Do you have a name already? Do Kushina and Mikoto know? Did everyone know except me?”

“We haven’t told anyone yet…”

“So we’re the firsts!”

“That’s not an accomplishment…”

Once everyone (Kagami) has calmed down, Takei tells them that they were planning on waiting at least another week- but they kind of already suspected that there wasn’t much they could keep secret in a household full of shinobi. 

As expected, Kushina and Mikoto are overjoyed at the news, promising each other that their children will be best of friends. Out of all of them, Kagami didn’t really expect Takami to be the first one to start a family of his own, but he can’t really judge- back then, he and Megumi had been much the same, after all.

“Kagami.”

Megumi enters his office, hands crossed behind her back in worry. Kagami looks up, immediately on alert. 

“What happened?”

“Do you remember Yiruma-san?”

Kagami straightens, a grimace spreading over his face. “Yes, I remember.”

Uchiha Yiruma was a capable kunoichi in anbu- she was a casualty on a mission a month ago. It always weighted in Kagami when shinobi died in a mission he sent them on. But, he knows that accidents always happen- he can’t prevent everything.

“She had a son”, Megumi continues, “About Kakashi’s age. He’s staying with his grandmother now, but…”

Kagami didn’t know Yiruma had children. “No father?”

Megumi shakes his head. 

Kagami thinks for a moment. “We’ll take care of him”, he decides. “Since Takami moved out, the house has been too empty anyways.”

Uchiha Obito is a cute kid- A little angry, a little dumb, but that’s how most kids are, right? Well, except Kakashi- he takes one look at Obito and scrunches his nose.

“Who is that?”

“Huhh? What’s it with you? You wanna fight?”

Obito puffs out his cheeks and clenches his fists, while Kakashi looks to Kagami in confusion.

“Kakashi, this is Obito”, Kagami introduces, trying not to laugh. “He’ll be staying with us for a while.”

Kakashi frowns, looking Obito up and down. “Be nice, Kakashi”, Sakumo says behind him. Kakshi crosses his arms and looks away, making Obito’s face very red in anger.

“Okay, how about we all calm down”, Kagami intervenes before Obito actually decides to tackle the other boy. “Go sit down at the table while the adults make dinner, okay?”

“Since when did Kakashi become such a little shit?”, Kagami asks Sakumo later while they’re washing the dishes. 

“He always was”, Sakumo smiles. 

“Now that I think about it, he’s just like you when you were his age.”, Kagami grins, remembering how adorable baby Sakumo had been, and also how absolutely ruthless.

“You didn’t even know me when I was that age”, Sakumo argues. “Auntie always says it was worse.”

“Ah, now it all makes sense: it’s because of your aunt that you and Kakashi behave like feral dogs. Why didn’t I think of that?”

“You know, one day she’s going to hear you talking shit behind her back and you’ll regret this, sensei.”

Eventually, Kakashi and Obito learn to get along, through the power of friendship and puppies.

No, seriously.

For some reason, Kakashi has taken the habit of carrying around the grumpiest, most bored and pathetic looking pug puppy around with him at all times. Kakashi isn’t really tall, and the puppy is also pretty big, so when Kakashi carries him around the pig’s hind legs scrape over the ground.

The conversation between him and Obito when Kakashi first dragged the dog (his name is Pakkun, apparently. Really? Pug-kun? Really, Kakashi?) with him into Kagami’s home went more or less like this:

“What is that, Bakashi?”

“It’s a puppy. His name is Pakkun.”

“…Hn.”

“Do you want to pet him?”

“…Hn.”

“He has really soft toe beans.”

“…Oh. He does.”

And from that day on they were friends. More or less.

Soon after, Obito enrolled in the academy and Kakashi was assigned as an apprentice to Minato of all people. The boy had seen him around from time to time at Kagami’s house (that had become some sort of meeting place for everyone in Kagami’s very extended family at this point) so he didn’t really protest the fact that he was now his sensei, even though he eyed Minato suspiciously for the first few weeks.

And then, it came how it had to come and Kakashi was allowed to attend his first chum in exams at the age of six, when Minato caved in to his begging. 

Kagami didn’t like it at all, but he had to admit that it was cruel towards Kakashi to hold him back with no apparent reason.

Kakashi aced the exams, to no one’s surprise, making chunin, and another big celebration was held at Kagami’s house. Obito was a bit bitter, as anyone would be, that Kakashi had already risen up in ranks when Obito had just started attending the academy, and only Kakashi’s promise that they would still be friends no matter what managed to calm him down.

Then, a few months later, Kagami’s grandson is born- Uchiha Shisui.

Kagami froze, at first, hearing a name so similar to his moniker in the bingo book, but his hesitation melted away when he met Shisui for the first time.

He looked a lot like Takami, and therefore Kagami too, but where Takami was almost an exact copy of him, many of Shisui’s features were clearly his mother’s. The tilted, cat-like eyes and high cheekbones were a carbon copy of Takei’s, so different from Kagami’s own droopy eyes. Only the tufts of curly hair were the same as his father and grandfather.

Shisui was born a bit premature, but he was still as healthy as he could be- and loud, if Takami’s constant exhaustion was anything to go by. Kagami took pleasure in seeing his son trying to navigate first-time parenthood, and it reminded him a lot of when Kagami himself was his age, in the same situation.

It’s been one year since Danzo died, since Kagami ripped out the rotten roots beneath the tree of Konoha with bloody fingers. 

Some of the root agents have just started reintegrating into society- going on missions, talking to their families again. The younger ones, who were barely a few years old, soon began to forget what it was like being Danzo’s puppets. But the damage remained- they were never going it be the same.

Kagami visited the Uchiha that has been under Danzo. Tsunade had tried to reconnect their eyes to the severed optic nerve, but the damage was too old- they probably will have only one eye forever. 

Kagami still finds Gisei around the Uchiha compound- she was one of the only root agents who couldn’t be redeemed. Her immediate family had died while she was away, and she rejected the name she had previously.

“It’s not who I am”, she told Kagami once, staring over the still surface of the lake they had all practices the fireball jutsu over. “Danzo made me this. There is only Gisei now.”

She wandered around the compound, aimless, like a ghost. Kagami had contemplated what to do with her for a long time, before deciding to just let her be. That was maybe the only thing he could do for her.

The child with the Mokuton was placed under the care of the Senju. He was just three years old, so young, and already had such a difficult life behind him. Kagami hoped he could manage to forget.

Kagami knows that Hiruzen often haunts the square where Danzo was executed like a ghost.

They were always close, inseparable, like fire and water. Hiruzen had still considered Danzo his best friend right up until his death. Kagami knows, that if Hiruzen had been in his shoes, he would have let Danzo go. 

He doesn’t know if he can forgive his friend for that.

“Here again?”, Kagami asks, sitting down in front of the other man. Hiruzen glances at him, smiling in greeting and puffing his pipe. Kagami still remembers how Hiruzen dragged him and the rest of the team under the porch of his house in the Sarurobi compound, his father’s pipe in hand and a grin on his face that Kagami hasn’t seen in a long time.

He remembers how the tobacco had tasted and clogged his lungs at his first inhale, and how his coughing had almost been loud enough to alert the adults in the house.

The tobacco still smells the same when Kagami breathes in.

Hiruzen hums, his eyes fixed on the place in the square where the wooden podium had stood. If Kagami concentrates enough, he can still see the blood dripping onto the stone and the caws of his crows. The image of Danzo’s corpse will forever be ingrained in his memories, thanks to the sharingan. In that way, his Dojutsu can be a blessing and a curse.

“Don’t you think you’ve brooded here for long enough?”, Kagami asks, placing his chin in his hand.

Hiruzen throws him a glance, exhaling a lungful of smoke. He’s gotten older, Kagami thinks as he takes stock of the wrinkles and crow’s feet around the man’s eyes. The both have.

“You just can’t leave me alone, can’t you, Kagami?”, Hiruzen says with a sad smile. “In this way you haven’t changed.”

Kagami smiles back. “It’s been a year.”

Hiruzen shrugs. “You never stopped grieving for Tobirama-sensei either.”

Kagami’s shoulders tense. “This is different.”

Hiruzen doesn’t respond, but Kagami can read his thoughts on his face.

“I made the right decision.”, Kagami says. “Maybe it was cruel, maybe there could have been another way. I could have let Danzo walk away without a scratch. But I didn’t. I killed him and exposed him for everything he did. Was that so wrong?”

“I never said that it was”, Hiruzen responds. 

“But you’re thinking it.”

“Am I?” Hiruzen quirks a brow. “Or are you just interpreting my emotions based on your own suspicious?”

Despite the situation, Kagami smiles. “You sound like sensei.”

Hiruzen shrugs, raising his pipe to his lips. “He was right.”

He takes a long drag, letting the smoke disperse in the cool morning air. 

“I don’t think you made the wrong decision.”

He looks towards the blue sky, as clear as any other day in Konoha. It’s a peaceful morning. The vendors haggle as usual, the shinobi run over the roofs, the children play in the square, unknowing of the grueling things that have happened there.

“But you wouldn’t have done the same.”, Kagami says. It’s not an accusation- it’s a fact.

Hiruzen closes his eyes for a moment. “There is a reason Tobirama chose you as the Hokage and not me.”

Birds chirp in the distance, like every morning, since the first day Konoha was founded. 

“I didn’t understand at first- it made no sense to me. I was always the more promising student. Even during the first few months after you took the hat, I thought Tobirama had made a mistake. But then- your interest was not in winning the war as fast as possible, but rather that no more of our shinobi would die because of it. During your reign, there were much less deaths than in the previous years, even when Tobirama was Hokage. And I understood.”

Hiruzen meets eyes with Kagami again. He has aged, just like himself, but his eyes remain as lively and bright as when Hiruzen first met him. “You embodied an ideal that Tobirama had begun to lose- the will to protect Konoha and the people in it as much as possible no matter the cost. I think, in that way you are more like him than any of us.”

Hiruzen pauses, looking out to the middle of the square again. “You understand now, right?”

It’s a peaceful day. Hiruzen thinks that would Danzo still be alive, he might not be sitting here like this, puffing his pipe and simply letting time pass.

“Yes”, Kagami says softly. “I do.”

Hiruzen smiles. Tobirama-sensei would be proud.

“You’ve been Hokage for twenty years now, you know?”

Kagami looks up from his paperwork. An Anbu is crouched on the ledge of a chair, red hair carefully tied up. He smiles, setting his brush down. 

“What brought this on?” He doesn’t get the chance to talk to Yusaku often- the woman is elusive at best and downright antisocial at worst- but he always enjoys their talks. She’s been Anbu captain for a very, very long time- and even though Kagami tells her to find a possible replacement, she ignores him. 

Yusaku might not have been his teammate, but as the godmother of his child she’s just as much family as anyone else.

“I was just thinking”, she says. The smiling fox mask tilting to the right. “None of the Hokage before you have ever held the position that long.” 

Kagami hesitates- has it really been that long already? It seemed just yesterday that he stepped into the Hokage’s office, Tobirama’s day old tea still standing in the middle of half-finished paperwork.

“I suppose”, he says. He turns around, eyeing the portraits of the past Kage hung behind him on the wall. Kagami insisted that his own picture was only hung up once he was either dead or retired- it felt too egoistical to have a picture of himself in his office. However, he couldn’t do much in regards of the giant stone face on the Hokage mountain. Every time he saw his own stoic face carved in the rock, he cursed Hashirama for his stupid idea.

“Do you have anyone in mind to take over for you, when you’re retiring?”

Kagami blinks in surprise, turning fully towards his anbu commander. He hasn’t really thought about it- but of course, Kagami is only human. He bleeds and dies just like anyone else. He doubts that he’ll actually retire- a shinobi rests in death or not at all. But it would be good to have someone in mind to take over the hat if he does unexpectedly.

“I suppose… If I can chose, one of my students.”, Kagami says. It only makes sense- Kagami is a student of the second Hokage, so the next Hokage should be a student of himself. And his students aren’t exactly weak either. 

“But I’m not that old yet!”, he protests. “I’m gonna keep the hat for another few years if I have any say on it- you should worry about your own successor!”

“As if, brat. These old bones can still do the job a little bit longer. Besides, they’re all brats in anbu nowadays.”

Raven on Kagami’s guard twitches outside the window, and panther claps him on the back of his head in retaliation.

Kagami’s feet make no sound as they step through the damp stone walls of konoha’s prison.

The guards now at him as he passes, and Kagami nods back. Most prisoners don’t even register he’s there- but the eyes of those that do follow him from behind bars.

Most prisoners are civilians- common thieves, unlucky bastards who were sitting out their sentence for one reason or another. Their crimes weren’t really anything major- murderers were executed, traitors kept alive a little longer, in T&I until they had nothing left to give in their brains. Sometimes they were exiled from Konoha, thrown out like rotten fruit.

Most shinobi were immediately executed upon discovering their crimes. They were to dangerous to keep alive as an enemy of the village. But there were instances where the culprit was given the chance to sit out their sentence, if it was relatively minor or they were too useful to Konoha to kill.

Kagami’s feet stop in front of a particular cell. Keys rattle, and the door swings open.

The woman inside raises tired eyes, widening as she catches sight of him.

“Kagami…”

“Koharu.”, Kagami responds, folding his hands behind his back. “It’s been five years.”

“Has it?”, she asks, lips pulling into a brittle smile.

“After Danzo’s execution, the council decided long on what to do with you and Homura.”, Kagami explains. “Most, myself included, votes for your execution, but in the end it was decided against it. After five years in this prison, the council decided to lighten your punishment.”

Kagami stares straight ahead, almost as if looking through Koharu. “You are going to live in a house at the edge of the Uchiha compound, with seals in place ensuring you cannot leave or use your chakra. There will be someone bringing food and water, as well anything you might need. There will be no guards stationed around you, and you are forbidden from communicating with anyone else. Do you understand?”

Koharu’s eyes close in defeat. “I understand.”

Chapter Text

For once, Kagami is invited over for dinner, and not the other way around. 

Minato and Kushina moved into a house of their own in the Uzumaki compound, and now it was their turn to host their ridiculously large family. 

Takami was already there when Kagami arrived, as well as Mikoto with two-year old Itachi. Kagami spotted Torifu and even Yusaku around, who had finally caved in and handed the position as anbu commander over to Mikoto after she recovered from the birth of her son.

Kagami could see Sakumo loitering around in the kitchen, which meant Utsushiyo and Kakashi were also there. 

“Shisui, go bother someone else, I’m cooking!”, Kagami heard Obito shout from the kitchen, the sound accompanied by a dejected “Aw, come on Obito-nii!”, from Shisui. 

“Already busy?”, Kagami asks as he steps through the doorframe.

“Jiji!”, Shisui cheers, practically tackling Kagami’s legs.

“Hi, sensei”, Minato greets, stirring something in a pan, wearing a frankly ridiculous pink apron. Obito echoes the greeting absently, tongue sticking out in concentration as he pulls something out of the oven.

“You know how it is”, Minato explains as Shisui tries his best to climb Kagami like a tree. “Kushina is helpless in the kitchen with everything that isn’t ramen.” Oh, Kagami knows. He remembers the burnt kitchen and something that was more ash than something resembling food.

“Is everyone already out?”, Kagami asks. 

“Oh, yeah. Jiraiya-sensei brought Tsunade and Orochimaru, and then Shizune and Anko joined, and everything escalated from there.”

Kagami whistles. “Damn. We’re really going all out, huh?”

As Kagami steps out in the courtyard, he is greeted by pure chaos. There are a bunch of fresh genin chasing each other around, and Kagami even spots some of Kakashi’s Ninken joining the fray. Obito had just recently graduated from the academy, and he, Kakashi and another girl Kagami didn’t know were invited, along with Kushina’s genin team, Two girls and a boy sitting in a corner and watching the events unfurl with varying degrees of wariness.

“Kagami!”, Sakumo waves over and Kagami grins, slotting himself on a bench beside his former student.

“It sure is lively around here”, he comments, eyes sweeping over the chattering crowd. A few genin gape in his direction, quickly turning away as they notice him looking. Kagami grins. How cute.

“I think Kushina and Minato didn’t anticipate this many people to come”, Sakumo says, eyeing his son getting dragged around by his third teammate with a smile.

Kagami shrugs in response. “It always escalates, doesn’t it?”

Soon food is brought out, and pretty much all shyness and boundaries are forgotten in the presence of a meal.

There’s plenty of ramen, the only food that Kushina could cook without disaster, as well as pretty much everything one could wish for. The cooks and whoever helped him really outdid themselves this time.

Kagami learns the names of Kakashi and Obito’s teammate, Rin, and the ones of Kushina’s genin team, Hayate, Yugao and Kurenai. He even exchanges genjutsu advice with the latter, promising her to teach her something when he finds the time.

Somehow there is some kind of altercation in which Obito tries to fight a very green and very loud child in a spandex, because apparently he called Kakashi his Eternal Rival of Youth! And Obito takes offense to that, because he was Kakashi’s best friend first! And the kid- Gai- honest to god bursts into tears because Kakashi is so hip and cool and has such a Youthful friend!, which Obito is kind of freaked out by and decides to stay away from Gai from there on.

After a few hours, when everyone except Kushina and her bottomless stomach are so full they could roll back home, a few of Kushina’s cousins step by, and soon half the Uzumaki compound is mingling among Kagami’s family. Alcohol gets involved, and the family dinner quickly escalates into a full-blown party.

Tsunade is roping everyone into an arm-wrestling contest, including the poor drunk Uzumaki who Kagami is convinced phisically can’t back down from a challenge. Then, after Tsunade beat everyone willing and broke a table, she challenges them to a drinking contest, that the Uzumaki happily participate in. Kagami honestly can’t decide weather to place his bets on Tsunade or the Uzumaki, one with exceptional chakra control and a liver made of steel, and the other with the vitality of a dozen elephants. In the end, Kushina wins, if only because of the kyuubi, as Kagami suspects.

The Uzumaki and Tsunade end up passed out in the garden or slumped over the not-broken tables, and no one really sees anything wrong with letting them wallow in their misery. Kagami is pretty sure the children got their fingers in the sake, but he’s too drunk himself to care. Then Jiraiya says something that Kagami can’t really remember and Tsunade punches him in the face, starting a free-for-all brawl that ends up in Mikoto throwing everyone out. In the end, the sun has already long set when Kagami wobbles back home.

-

Another year passes and Kagami watches proudly as Kushina and Minato stand before the altar, speaking their vows to each other.

They were his last students to marry, and Kagami is really proud of what they became since that first day Kagami took Kushina on as his student. 

She looks amazing in her red Kimono, the same shade as her hair, grinning from ear to ear, Minato at her side.

Takami, who functioned as man of honor and best man both for the bride and the groom, stands sheepishly beside them, Shisui clinging to his leg.

In the time passed, Shisui has shown himself to be just as much of a prodigy as Kagami was- even more than Takami. Takei, who made genin at eight, insists it’s all her genes, and Kagami finds it hard to disagree. Were it wartime, Shisui would be swallowed up by the war and broken mercilessly. But it isn’t, and it won’t be for a very long time, if Kagami has anything to say about it. At the rate he is going, Shisui will graduate early but in peace from the academy, and that’s what matters in the end. 

Kagami’s eyes flicker to Jiraiya, his hulking figure and shaggy white hair standing out from the masses. Minato had asked him if he wanted to attend the wedding as his surrogate father, and the man had accepted with misty eyes. Minato was an orphan, with no clan or family, so Kagami was glad for every one that could now call themselves his family.

In typical Uzumaki fashion, the wedding celebrations are absolutely wild. 

There’s music and dancing and literal mountains of food, and Kagami feels himself get pulled into the carefree mood of Kushina’s clan, laughing and swaying along to the captivating melodies.

Kakashi sits next to the newlyweds, disgruntled, who insisted to celebrate his recent promotion to Jonin as well. He blushes every time the pair exchanges lovey-dovey glances, even attempting to escape from their side more than once, without success. Obito made fun of him for that, eventually ending up in him being captured by Kushina and sat down forcefully next to him. Kagami watches him go through all five stages of grief before slumping over in his seat next to Kakashi, who smiles smugly in victory.

A few of Kushina’s clan mates have taken it upon themselves to needle and tease Minato as much as possible, and he even blushes as red as his wife’s hair as one of them gifts him a red talisman carved out of wood, telling him it’s a fertility symbol with a leer. Kushina ends up chasing her cousin through the tables as another Uzumaki takes pity on the still stuttering Minato and explains that it was a lie.

Obito and Kakashi have taken that opportunity to escape and scurried of to god knows where, probably with the rest of theirs and Kushina’s genin teams.

“You enjoying the party, old friend?”, Kagami says, sliding in the seat next to Hiruzen.

He only quirks a brow, hands holding his half-ful sake cup Kagami knows he’s been nursing for the better part of an hour.

“Ah, I’m mostly here for my Jiraiya and my son.”

Kagami follows his gaze, watching Hiruzen’s youngest son run around with the other genin.

Kagami hums, taking a swig from his bottle, and Hiruzen eyes him mirthfully. “My god Kagami, straight from the bottle? How much did you have to drink already?”

“Enough”, Torifu says, snatching Kagami’s bottle from his hands and sitting down next to him. He ignores Kagami’s protests, dragging him upright by the shoulder when he leans from the bench at a dangerous angle.

“Just because I can handle more alcohol than you”, he pouts, directed at Hiruzen. Kagami grew up with that man- he knows it barely takes him a glass to get piss-drunk.

Torifu sighs, pinching his brow. “I’m getting too old for this…” As if Kagami didn’t see him glued to his cup earlier. 

“We’ve all aged”, Hiruzen hums, placing his cup on the table. 

Kagami blinks, suddenly feeling more sober than he likes. He looks around, trying to will away the memories where they were seven and not three. The echo of their shared laughter still sounds in his ears, Homura’s high-pitched giggles, Koharu’s bellowing laughter, Danzo’s sharp intakes of air and Tobirama-sense’s low guffaw.

He misses them, misses how it was, when everything was easier.

Hiruzen seems to notice his somber mood, placing three empty cups on the table.

“For good time’s sake?”, he asks with a smile, and Kagami smiles back. 

“For good time’s sake”, he agrees, gripping the sake bottle. 

The three remaining members of team Tobirama nock their cups together in a toast, downing the alcohol in one go.

Torifu grimaces, shuddering. “I forgot how this tasted”, he mutters, sticking his tongue out.

“What, too used to your weird sweet wine?”, Hiruzen smirks and Torifu glowers at him.

Meanwhile, Kagami laughs. He laughs like he hasn’t in a good while, as free and unworried as when he was a child. Hiruzen and Torifu join in, and when he concentrates, Kagami believes to hear other missing voices as well.

-

“What’s wrong, Kagami-sensei?”, Mikoto asks him.

Kagami hums, tearing his eyes away from paperwork for a moment to look at his student crouched atop the windowsill.

“What makes you think there’s anything wrong?”, he hums.

The almost entirely black panther mask tilts, and Kagami feels Mikoto’s amusement even through her anbu disguise. “You’ve stared at that paper for half an hour now, sensei. And you’re holding it upside down.” 

She’s right, Kagami realizes, turning the sheet the right way with an embarrassed curse.

“Stop laughing”, he snaps at his anbu without heat, feeling the amused spikes in their chakra.

“So? What’s on your mind?”, Mikoto repeats.

Kagami sighs, leaning back in his chair. “It’s nothing, just…” he rubs his hands over his tired eyes. Fuck, he really is getting older. “Team seven’s mission, I just have a bad feeling about it.”

“The one to kusa?”, Mikoto asks.

“Yeah.”

She shrugs. “It’s just a simple supply mission. What could go wrong? Minato’s with them, and Kakashi is already a Jonin.

“I guess”, Kagami sighs, worrying his lower lip between his teeth. “But I still have a bad feeling about it”, he repeats.

He knows Mikoto wants to retort something, but he’s interrupted by one of his anbu appearing on the windowsill behind her. 

“Team seven is at the gates”, he says and Kagami is immediately on alert. He takes one look at the anbu’s white-knuckled hand clenching around the wood, terror streaked in his body language, and bolts.

When he reaches the gates, it’s to a pale Minato, a shaking Rin and a scarily still Kakashi, one eye covered in bloody bandages.

“What happened”, Kagami demands. His eyes flicker over the group as dread starts to set in.

“Where’s Obito?”

Minato looks up, eyes blown wide as he opens his mouth, but nothing comes out.

“Where is he?”, Kagami repeats, his chakra rising with each word. 

Minato’s mouth opens and closes. 

“I’m sorry…”

Kagami is past him and out on the village before he finishes that sentence.

-

Kannabi bridge is completely destroyed when he gets there, but Kagami barely spares it a glance, leaping past the crater.

Toyotama is ahead of him, deadly still and muscles taunt as she tracks team seven’s path through the forest.

Soon she stops, but Kagami doesn’t need his summon to tell him where they are.

Rocks upturned, the ground torn and trees lying in splinters around them. The scent of blood is so heavy in the air even Kagami can smell it.

“Here”, Toyotama says, placing a paw on the remains of a collapsed cave.

Doton was never his strong suit, but Kagami’s chakra flows like a stream through his pathways, fueled by nothing but rage. 

The stone ripples and turns to dust beneath his fingers, and Kagami blows it away with a gale of wind. 

Silence stretches. The cave is empty, sans puddles of blood and a few stray weapons.

Obito isn’t here.

“Where is he?”, Kagami snarls, chakra glaring until the rock beneath his feet cracks.

“He was here”, Toyotama says hurriedly. “I can smell his blood.”

Kagami breathes hard, eyes stuck in the red spread at the center of the cave. “Somebody took him”, he snarls. It’s not unheard of someone trying to get their hands on a Sharingan pair- or even just one.

“I can’t smell him”, Toyotama hisses with a hint of despair. “It’s as if he disappeared completely.”

Kagami howls with fury, his fist meeting the solid rock of the cave. 

“Kagami-sensei?” He whirls around, sharingan glowing through the darkness, ready to capture whoever thought it was smart enough to try and sneak up on him.

“It’s me”, Minato’s pale face looks up at him. Minato? What was he- oh. Hiraishin.

An idea clicks into Kagami’s head. “Is Kakashi with you?”, he asks. “Yes. But-“

Kagami stalks past him, towards his godson, deathly pale still. Blood leaks from the bandage beneath his eye, dripping down his cloth mask.

“Don’t try to fight this”, Kagami warns and  the boy only has a second to feel confused before Kagami’s genjutsu catches him and his face falls slack.

“Sensei..?”, Minato’s voice sounds behind him. “What are you-?”

“Quiet”, Kagami says and Minato obeys. He tugs at the bandages in Kakashi’s face, peeling the eye- Obito’s eye no don’t think about it dontthinkaboutit- open. The sharingan stares up at him, bloody tears falling free.

Kagami looks deep into the eye and falls.

An ambush, blood and steel and pain and Kakashi, Kakashi’s eye oh his it’s bleeding so much, Rin is gone they have to find her, iwa nin, more blood and flesh that gives way to steel, a cave, rocks, Kakashi Kakashi Kakashi, pain, the eye, sadness, the cave gives in, goodbye, eternal darkness.

No- not eternal.

A cave-different. A statue. A bed. An old man. PainpainPAINPAIN-

Kagami cuts off the connection, retreating out of Kakashi’s (and Obito’s?) mind hastily.

“I know where he is”, he says. “Don’t follow me if you can’t keep up.”

Kagami knows that cave. He couldn’t really explain how, but he knows that cave.

Minato and Kakashi haven’t followed him- and Kagami doesn’t wait for them. It takes him several days to reach mountain’s graveyard, and he doesn’t pause, not even when Toyotama begs him to.

“Stubborn, all of you”, she growls but Kagami does not listen.

Eventually, the entrance of the cave yawns before them.  

It’s not really an entrance- there is no opening, no tunnel. Just smooth rock. But Kagami knows it’s there.

He places a hand on the rock, flaring his chakra so blindingly that every shinobi in a ten mile radius must have noticed him.

A crack forms on the rock, then another, and another, before it collapses in itself.

The glow of Kagami’s chakra recedes as he coils it tightly, vibrating under his skin in anticipation as he steps inside.

“Kagami-ji…?” Kagami’s eyes snap to the side, catching a bare glimpse of Obito before something dark, and slimy and deformed blocks his path. He dodges a strike on instinct, recoiling at the half-smile on the creature’s face. 

“We should’ve known you would make a cross through our plans, Shitsui.”, it-they?- says.

Kagami jumps back, his sharingan whirling as he tries to process the thing in front of him.

It looks like someone fished out a corpse dunked in tar, a vaguely humanoid shape of it wasn’t for the black sludge clinging to it. One arm was too big, too bulky and had strange clumps of mass bulging out at certain places. The other arm was ghostly thin, more stick than limb, and the hand at the end only had three sharp fingers, like a claw. 

One sharingan eye stares back at Kagami through the darkness, the other is a glowing yellow dot. Half of a grin pulls at the face, black lines running through it like threads.

Kagami has never seen anything like it before, and it scares him.

“What do you want with Obito?”, he forces out.

“Oh”, the creature coos, the grin widening. “We have a lot of plans form him”

Kagami attacks.

He can’t even comprehend against what he’s fighting, dodging strikes by a hair where the black mass moves like it has a mind of its own. A new arm sprouts from its midsection, tearing a hole in Kagami’s clothing, the flesh bulges and ripples to cover up the damage he has already made.

And that grin- 

Kagami shivers. That thing cannot be human. Whatever it is (and Kagami doesn’t even want to find out) he’ll end it for even thinking about putting a hand on Obito.

“You can’t win over us”, it says, the voice overlaying until Kagami almost thinks there are a hundred people speaking. “You are weak.”

Kagami bares his teeth in a dangerous smile. His chakra swirls and surges and sharpens, pouring into his sharingan until the pattern changes.

He’s never used it, never even activated it since sensei died. But for Obito, he would do anything.

There’s a name on his lips, as ancient as the sharingan itself. Kagami knows that he can speak it, that he can use it. It’s there, within reach.

Kotoamatsu-

The creature recoils, its limbs twitching away from Kagami.

“No no no!”, it hisses, eyes blown wide open. “You aren’t suppose to have it! You can’t have it!”

Kagami stalks forward, and the creature scrambles back. Kagami opens his mouth- 

The thing slinks back into the shadows, and then-

It’s gone.

Kagami stills. There’s no way it could have escaped, there’s nothing there- but it’s gone.

Kagami exhales.

“Kagami-ji?”

His head snaps up, and within an instant he’s at Obito’s side.

The boy looks… horrible. One eye is sunken in, missing the eyeball beneath the lid: half of his face is scarred horribly, and half of his limbs are crushed beyond recognition. Kagami has to look away- even he has never seen such horrible wounds.

“Don’t worry, Obito”, Kagami mutters as he places a genjutsu on the boy and watches his eyes slip shut. “I’m going to get you out of here.”

-

Kagami doesn’t even pause as he reaches konoha’s walls, barging into the hospital with his chakra flaring in alarm.

“Someone get me Tsunade!”, he shouts at the nearby med nin. He glances down, at Obito in his arms, and goes green before hurrying away. 

“And Orochimaru too!”, Kagami adds. God knows Obito needs all the help he can get. Right now he’s barely alive, Kagami’s genjutsu the only reason he hasn’t gone into shock yet. But Kagami knows their time is limited.

Tsunade storms into the room, stripping on gloves, followed closely by Orochimaru and a group of hospital staff. 

Minato, Rin and Kakashi watch from the entrance as Tsunade starts barking orders, matching looks of horror on their faces.

“Everyone out!”, Tsunade orders, pointing a finger in their direction. “That goes for you too, Kagami!”

Kagami hesitates, throwing an unsure glare towards Obito, before he presses his lips together and nods. It almost physically pains him to step away from Obito’s bed, he barely notices Minato dragging him out of the room. 

The hours pass in a blur. Kagami is exhausted, having practically run nonstop through the elemental countries for the past days, but he still can’t sleep. His mind refuses to rest, replaying the past events over and over again. What was that… thing? It had a sharingan, and it seemed to know Kagami. What did it want with Obito? Was he just at the wrong place at the wrong time or was the ambush planned somehow?

Kagami doesn’t know how much time has passed when someone steps out of the room, barely noticing how Kakashi jerks up from where he was resting against him.

Tsunade stands before them, coat and gloves hands speckled with blood. For a moment everything stills. The reminder of team seven holds their breath, caught in between hoping for Obito’s survival and knowing that he’s dead. Tsunade sighs.

“He’ll live.”

Kagami exhales, his shoulders slumping. Rin sniffles as tears of relief run down her face, and Minato covers his eyes with his shaking hands. “He’ll live”, he repeats chokedly, as if he can’t really believe it himself.

Kagami looks up, locking eyes with Tsunade.

“How bad is it?”, he asks silently.

Tsunade grimaces. “His left side… there’s almost nothing left. It’s a wonder we managed to save all his vital organs. But his arms and legs…”

She sighs, leaning against the wall. “Orochimaru says he has an idea that might work, but for now you should get used to the idea that Obito might never even walk properly again.”

Kagami closes his eyes. Obito is alive. Obito is alive, and that’s all that matters.

-

Kagami opens the door silently, slipping into the room.

“Hey Kagami-ji”, Obito greets, propped up on the bed.

“Hey Obito”, Kagami smiles back.

Obito looks… terrible. Still miles better than when Kagami found him, but strikingly different from the boy Kagami remembers.

Half his face now bears circular scars from the rock fall, the damage and crushed bones healed as far as Tsunade could. His left side is wrapped tightly, hooked with all kinds of tubes and wires. His skin is ghostly pale, and his face is gaunt and thin. Still, he smiles when Kagami enters the room.

“How are you doing?”, Kagami asks, trying not to let his eyes linger on his scarred face too much.

Obito smiles shakily. “Fine. Better.”

He gestures to his wrapped limbs. “Orochimaru-sensei said we’ll have to see if the transplant was a success, but it’s looking good so far.”

Ah, right. The snake sannin had started developing Hashirama cells specifically for healing and regrowing limbs, and even though the research wasn’t completed, Obito agreed to try it out at least. 

“Does it still hurt?”, Kagami asks tentatively.

“I mean… not as much as before.”, Obito says, looking down at his hand twisting in the bedsheets. “And Tsunade gave me something for the pain- but… it’s still there.” He swallows, his buckles turning white from his grip. “It hurts when I move, it hurts when I do nothing.” Obito exhales shakily.  “Kagami-ji…?” His voice breaks as tears start to gather in his eyes. “Am I… am I ever going to be normal again?”

Kagami sighs, gathering the boy in his arms carefully. “Let’s hope for the best”, he says as the boy sobs, trying to ignore the pang in his heart.

-

“I don’t think Obito would want you sulking outside his hospital room”, Kagami comments.

Kakashi twitches in the treebranch next to him, but his eye doesn’t waver from Obito’s sleeping form.

“Why don’t you go visit him?”, Kagami asks, chin in one hand and elbow placed on his knee.

Kakashi hunches further into himself. He’s lost weight, Kagami notices, and the little bit of skin visible over his mask and bandages is ghastly pale.

“He wouldn’t want to see me”, the boy says. His fingers tremble around the grip on his arms. “It’s my fault, after all. He hates me.”

Kagami tilts his head. “From what I heard, he doesn’t see it that way.”

“I’m the reason he almost died”, Kakashi snaps. “He would still be healthy if it wasn’t for me. If I’d just been faster-“

“Obito saved your life”, Kagami says. “It was his decision. Wouldn’t you have done the same?”

“Yes!”, Kakashi snaps, turning to look at him. “Of course, of course I would have.”

“And would you hate Obito then?”

Kakashi averts his eye. “…no.”

Kagami smiles. “Go talk to him. He thinks you hate him too.”

Kakashi stares straight ahead, completely still for a moment, before he nods. Kagami smiles, and fades away in a swirl of leaves.

-

Kakashi stands before a door. It’s a normal door, white with chips in the paint and a notch in the wood where someone threw a kunai or shuriken.

It’s a door. A fucking door. And yet, Kakashi feels dread just thinking about opening it. 

He turns away, walking a few steps down the hall before turning around again. He sighs, frustrated, turning to stare at the damn door again. 

This is the fifth time he’s done this now.

Obito doesn’t even want to see him. He hates him, he should because Kakashi hates himself too because it’s Kakashi’s fault after all, that he almost died, that he’s missing half his body and an eye, that he probably won’t ever be a shinobi again, probably won’t ever walk again.

“Bakashi”, he hears a muffled voice from the room, and freezes. “are you going to come in or not?”

Kakashi exhales shakily, pressing down the door handle.

Obito looks at him, from his hospital bed, just as Kakashi remembers him when Kagami-ji hauled him into the hospital. Only he’s awake, and his limbs aren’t missing anymore. Weird bandaged lumps replaced his missing arm and leg, and Kakashi’s eyes wander up, past his shoulder to look into the single black eye staring at him from a scarred face.

Obito grins, or tries to, and it sits crookedly in his face like a grimace. “You sure took your time.”

Kakashi takes a deep breath. He blinks, and Obito’s buried under rocks, his sharingan eye staring at him as he begs Rin to transplant it.

“Obito, I- I’m sorry about… about everything- a-and I understand if you don’t ever want to see me, or talk to me- I- I already spoke with Mikoto-sama about the sharingan- she said she’ll transplant it back when you’re doing better- and-“

“Bakashi”, Obito says. “Shut up.”

Kakashi’s mouth snaps shut. 

“Come here”, Obito says, patting the bed next to him.

Kakashi moves, limbs moving almost automatically as he sits. 

“I don’t hate you”, Obito starts. “And I’m not angry at you.”

“But-“

“Let me talk!”, Obito says. “I would do the same a thousand times over. If I woke up tomorrow, the day we set out for that mission, I would do it all over again. And the eye- I don’t want it back. It was a gift, it’s yours now.”

Kakashi just stares at him. 

“…Why?”, he chokes out, lowering his head to hide the tears gathering in his remaining eyes.

“Because you’re my friend”, Obito smiles. 

Kakashi laughs wetly. “You’re such an idiot.”

“Yeah, maybe”, Obito shrugs.

“Shut up”, Kakashi snaps, and leans over the bed to close his arms around him. Obito tenses, but hugs him back as Kakashi buried his face in Obito’s neck.

“Don’t ever do that again, you hear me?”

-

Obito heals. 

Slowly, very slowly, but he heals, every day a little more.

Orochimaru’s transplant of the Hashirama cells was a success, and Obito successfully regrows half of his limbs, even if he moans and laments most of the way.

(“It’s so weird, I can feel my fingers grow, how would you react if you could feel your hands grow-)

After a few months, he can successfully walk again- more or less, he’s still a little wobbly. The medics explained that he practically had to learn moving all over again with his new limbs, and that wasn’t really an easy feat. But, he was making progress, stubborn to get to the level he was before the incident. Kagami sees the way the nurses throw him pitying looks, but Obito is nothing if not stubborn. Kagami trusts that he’ll pull through.

After a year, Obito is almost back to normal- at least, excluding his training. He’s maybe at the level of a genin, if Kagami is generous, but definitely not ready to go on regular missions again, much to his displeasure.

Kagami has taken it upon himself to spend as much time with Obito as possible, even training him in his sharingan and genjutsu- one of the only things not requiring much movement.

Obito is, to say it frankly, shit at genjutsu, but that doesn’t stop him. He doesn’t really have anything else to do. He spends a lot of time with his team, when possible- especially helping Kushina around the house, now that she’s pregnant.

(“I’m pregnant, not crippled!”, she often snaps at him when he orders her to sit down and relax.

“Yeah, I know!”, Obito shouts back, “but you still can’t cook for shit, so let me do this because otherwise I’ll die from boredom!”)

Mikoto also visits, partly so Obito can babysit Itachi and his new cousin, Sasuke, and partly because even Obito would go insane trapped in a house with Kushina full of pregnancy hormones.

It’s funny watching Itachi follow Obito around like a lost puppy, watching everything he does with an adorably serious expression on his toddler face.

Obito at least fully enjoys his role as older cousin, teaching Itachi how to cook and how to do complicated tricks with a kunai and shuriken. Little Itachi seems very invested, cracking an egg open with the same focus as he handles weapons. It’s cute.

Obito doesn’t even mind (much) that Itachi grasps things much quicker than he did at his age- Itachi is still in the academy, but with the rate he is breezing through his classes they all know he won’t be there for long.

Kakashi entered Anbu soon after The Incident, even though Sakumo was against the idea. Even Kagami hesitates to submit him to the corps, but team seven got disbanded after Obito’s near-death, and having a consistent team could really help Kakashi. 

Rin started working shifts at the hospital under Tsunade, and the sannin even commented she was the brightest prodigy she had seen since Shizune. Recently, the girl had started showing interest in poisons as well- Kagami thinks she’s getting a little tired of always only being the support. 

No member of team seven is really happy with the way things are- with Kakashi and Rin busy and Obito stuck home, they don’t really see each other much anymore. 

So Kagami takes it upon himself to change that.

“Bodyguard duty?”, Kakashi asks, voice monotonous and face hidden behind his hound mask. 

Kagami nods, folding his hand in front of his face to hide his smile. “As you know, Kushina is pregnant, and especially her status as Jinchuuriki makes this dangerous. I’d rather not someone takes advantage of her vulnerable state.”

Of course, it’s not like Kushina isn’t practically surrounded by Jonin twenty-four-seven, in between Mikoto, Takami and their spouses, Minato, Kagami himself, the Uzumaki… if someone tries anything, they’ll be torn to pieces before even catching a glimpse of her. Kakashi knows this too- but he doesn’t protest as he rolls the mission scroll shut.

“Thank you”, he says, for a moment Kakashi instead of hound. “Hokage-sama”, he adds with a bow, and disappears in a shunshin.

“Rin?”, Obito asks surprises as he opens the door of Kushina and Minato’s home. 

The girl is just as surprised as him, but smiles in greeting nonetheless. “Hi, Obito! I’m here for Kushina-nee.”

“I told Tsunade not to bother”, Kushina scowls, appearing in the doorway. She’s quite far along in her pregnancy, her belly showing under her shirt.

“Someone needs to check up on you, Kushina-nee”, Rin chastises as she moves inside. “And shishou is busy at the hospital.”

Kushina narrows her eyes, briefly glancing in the direction of the window. “This is Kagami-sensei’s doing”, she mutters before stalking off.

Rin blinks. “Do you know what she’s talking about?”, she asks Obito. He shakes his head. “No idea.”

“Why don’t you stay for dinner?”, Minato asks after Rin is done with her check up. 

Rin hesitates- she should be getting back to the hospital, but- it’s been so long since they all had dinner together…

“Alright”, she smiles. “Thank you for having me.”

Minato smiles back, opening the window. “Kakashi, do you want something too?”

Obito and Rin blink in bafflement, even more so when an anbu appears on the windowsill, shoving his mask to the side. “Sensei, you do know my identity is supposed to be a secret, right?”, he says drily.

“Kakashi!”, Obito grins, coming up to hug him before his expression changes into a frown. “Hey! How long were you sitting there stalking me?!”

Kakashi rolls his eyes. He’s without bandages or hitai ate for once- the scar over his eye is on full display. Obito swallows before looking away.

“The world doesn’t evolve around you, Obito. I’m guarding Kushina.”

“I don’t need guarding!”, Kushina shouts from the kitchen, and Kakashi winces. “Of course not”, Minato intervenes. “I don’t think Kagami forgot the time you punched him in the balls.”

Obito chokes at the words, Kakashi’s head flies around and Rin’s eyebrows disappear in her hairline. “…what?”

Kushina rolls her eyes. “He better not”, she mutters.

It’s nice to eat together again for once. Rin’s eyes still linger on Obito’s scars from time to time, and one the way his new hand sometimes cramps around his chopsticks. Obito sometimes frowns off into the distance, mind in some place far away, especially when he looks at Kakashi’s scar. 

Kakashi especially looks out of place, one eye closed and the white porcelain mask hooked to the side of his head.

They have all changed, and the damage they have suffered will maybe never go fully away. But- that’s fine. They’re all here, all alive, and that’s what matters.

“We should train together again sometime”, Obito suggests once it’s only the three of them, Kushina having dragged Minato away to go grocery shopping.

Kakashi throws him a glance, and Obito doesn’t miss the way his eyes immediately find his scarred side.

“I’m making progress”, Obito says with an eye roll. “Sensei says I can maybe even go on missions soon.”

“That’s a great idea!”, Rin is quick to agree with a bright smile on her face. “Shizune has shown me so many new poisons! I still have to practice before using them in battle, though.”

Kakashi still looks skeptic, and Rin nudges him. “Come on, you can still spar with us even if you are in anbu. Don’t act all high and mighty now!”

“That’s not it”, Kakashi deflects. “Just-“

“I’m not a made of glass, you know”, Obito says, guessing what Kakashi’s objections are. “I’ll get on your level some day, you’ll see! Come on, Bakashi, don’t be a stranger!”

Kakashi smiles. “Whatever you say, dead last.”

-

Uzumaki Naruto is born on the tenth of October, on a day that would go down in konoha’s history as one of its darkest ones.

Kagami has made absolutely sure that everything was prepared for the birth- the location was kept absolutely secret, known only to those present. 

Tsunade and her medical staff were there, including Rin, as well as a few Uzumaki, closest to Kushina. Only Kagami’s most trusted anbu were stationed around the cave, including Mikoto, Takami, Yusaku, Sakumo and Kakashi.

No one, absolutely no one would be able to infiltrate with them there.

Or so they thought.

It’s almost soundless when it appears in the cave, after Naruto is already born and wailing in the arms of his mother. 

The only reason Kagami notices it is luck- none of them even knew until it was practically standing right behind him. Kagami sees it, slinking out of the shadows, just as malformed and terrifying as he remembers, and he moves.

He cuts its head clean off, but he knows it won’t hold for long.

“Get out of here!”, he orders towards Tsunade and Kushina. “Move!”

The thing laughs, warbled and distorted, swiping its clawed fingers after Kagami.

“Did you really think you’d gotten rid of us?”, it hisses, and regrows its head. The mismatching eyes stare down at Kagami, one sharingan eye spinning dangerously.

Kagami grins, wide and feral. “You think we weren’t prepared for this?”, he asks, unsheathing his katana in one fluid motion. He hears scuffling behind him, and hopes desperately that everyone made it out alright.

The thing grins, and Kagami’s attempt at Genjutsu shatter like glass. “Your flimsy illusions aren’t going to work on me.” Then it lunges.

Kagami had a long time to think about the events when he rescued Obito, about what he fought, about what he could do should they meet again.

Fire blooms from his lips, spreading through the cave and tinting the rock red. The creature hisses, but seems otherwise unharmed at his attempt. Kagami grits his teeth.

It seems almost clumsy as they fight, stumbling and aiming for Kagami like a fresh genin- but there’s also an underlying strength and agility that puzzles Kagami.

One second it fails to dodge his strike, the other it ducks under Kagami’s defense and sinks its claws deep into his stomach almost faster than he can react.

It giggles as Kagami grunts, pressing deeper. In a flash, Kagami jumps back, the hand still stuck in his stomach from where he cut it off cleanly. With a grimace, he pulls it out, while the creature frowns down at the stump of its arm. The black mass bubbles, overlaying over the wound until a new hand forms. But that’s not what Kagami finds interesting- it was the red, bleeding flesh beneath the black cover.

It bleeds- and if it can bleed, it can die.

Kagami doesn’t know how much the fight drags out, just that at some point something shifts in the creature.

“I’m tired of playing around”, it says, and the sharingan eye shifts. A burning pain erupts on Kagami’s neck, hot and intense and all consuming, and Kagami reacts on instinct as he sees the black flames out of the corner of his eye. 

Blood splashes on the ground, too much for Kagami’s liking, and he raises a hand over the wound. 

The patch of skin he cut off burns in front of him, the black flames devouring it until it is nothing more than ash.

Kagami breathes out. That was too close.

The creature hisses in displeasure. 

“How did you get that eye?”, Kagami asks. It’s a mangekyo, no doubt.

It grins. “You don’t know who this eye belongs to, do you?”

Kagami narrows his eyes, and throws himself into the fight again.

He gets faster, narrowing his senses down on his opponent. Whatever it is, and whatever secrets it has, it’s better if Kagami ends this now.

With a single strike, he slices clean through the creature’s stomach, catching a glimpse of bone and red flesh before black covers it again. Black blood splatters over the ground. Kagami turns, intent on finishing this once and for all, but even bisected the creature crawls away and Kagami’s katana strikes rock.

The black sludge bubbles and two lumps resembling legs grow out of its lower body.

“Why are you here?”, Kagami growls. “First Obito, now the Kyuubi? What are you really after?”

The creature grins. The black lumps of sludge bubble and flow like mud as it rises, its shoulders uneven and spine crooked. “As always, you humans fail to see the bigger picture”, it says. “It was never only about the boy.”

Kagami hears shifting behind him, and whirls around. He barely just sees a second grinning face melt into the rock. Fuck, if it could regrow legs then it could regrow an entire torso and head as well. Kagami lunges, an aborted movement, because he knows where it is heading and he can do nothing to stop it.

Pain explodes in his chest, and he looks down to see a single black rod protruding from his chest. He hears laughter behind him as the rod splits into five, forming a hand. Kagami cuts it off, hissing as it exits the wound.

“Your opponent is me”, the creature laughs. “Oh really?” Kagami asks, turning around. There was no need to draw this out, then.

His eye shifts into the mangekyo. Time to use the creature’s own weapons against it.

Amaterasu

-

Outside the cave, Kurama opens his eyes for the first time in years outside captivity. 

He is confused at first- if he is outside, what happened to Kushina? (He’s grown to like that little Uzumaki hellion, damnit. It would be a shame for her to die so soon.)

But he doesn’t really get much time to act. His eye meets the red of a sharingan, and the world fades to black.

-

The cave explodes. Rubble flies everywhere, and Kagami barely has time enough to shunshin out of the way. A horrifying howl echoes outside, accompanied by burning chakra Kagami has last felt when he entered Kushina’s mind and stood face to face with the kyuubi.

He‘s too late, Kagami thinks as dread sets in.

The cave opens up and Kagami stumbles outside. 

The kyuubi… is far more terrifying than he remembers.

Towering over Konoha, with teeth bared and nine tails lashing out behind him, hackles raised and red eyes wide open. He howls again, and Kagami shudders. 

“Kagami!”

Kagami’s head snaps to the side, meeting the eyes of Tsunade. In an instant, he’s at her side, staring down at a very pale and bloody Kushina. For one, agonizing moment, Kagami thinks she’s dead. Then her chest rises, irregularly with her breathing, and Kagami relaxes.

“What happened?”

“That thing ambushed us”, Rin says, shuddering. “He touched Kushina-nee-san, and then…” her eyes flick towards the raging kyuubi.

“We need to reseal it”, Tsunade says, hands glowing green over Kushina’s stomach. “The only reason she’s still alive is because she’s an Uzumaki- she’ll die without the kyuubi.”

Kagami nods, grimacing. “Where is the creature?”

“We don’t know- it just… disappeared.”

Kagami sighs, sheathing his katana. As much as he wants to stay with Kushina, he knows he has to track down the source of this problem before it’s too late. Minato is handling the sealing of the kyuubi, presumably, which means that the creature falls into Kagami’s hands. If only he could track him down.

Kagami turns, swiping blood from his injury and crouching down.

“Kuchiyose no jutsu.”

Kagami has never summoned Kogyoku-sama before- the boss summon of the snow leopards is just as likely to bite Kagami’s own head off than to fight for him.

She towers over them, tall and imposing, but still not as gigantic as the kyuubi.

“You have a lot of balls, child”, she hums, lowering her giant head to peer at Kagami with clear blue eyes.

“Yeah”, Kagami grimaces.

“No one has summoned me since Tobirama-chan. What makes you think I’ll dance to your whims?”

Kagami shrugs. “Well, the village sensei worked so hard to protect is being razed to the ground right now. I thinks that’s incentive enough.”

Kogyoku raises her head, tail swishing as she regards Kagami. “Hmmm”, she says, approval in her voice. “Tobirama raised you right. Hop on.”

Kagami obeys, climbing over Kogyoku’s leg and shoulder until he reaches her head right behind her ears. “Hold on tight”, she says as her only warning before Kagami feels her muscles tense and she leaps into the air. Cold night wind whooshes through Kagami’s hair as Konoha turns incredibly small beneath him.

“Can you sense it?”, Kagami asks.

Kogyoku huffs. “Usually j would reprimand you for asking me that. But there’s a presence foul enough that I might actually know what you’re referring to.”

A howl cuts through the night, and Kagami’s head snaps to the side.

The kyuubi’s silhouette is enourmus against the night sky, tails blocking out the moon as they whirl around and smash into the surrounding buildings. Faintly, Kagami can see Gamabunta facing the demon fox head on. He shudders, turning away. That is Minato’s fight. Kagami has other worries.

Kogyoku runs, gliding over Konoha’s forests like a shadow molded from the night, unnoticed and unheard by most under the cover of the howling kyuubi. Kagami doesn’t sense the malicious creature the way she does, but the dread building in his gut seems to get heavier the further they get. 

Kogyoku brings him past the inner city, over the forest of death to the outskirts of the naka river. Kagami knows the Uzumaki have a shrine there.

The red spiral stares up at him like the kyuubi’s eye as Kogyoku stops in front of the wooden shrine with a growl. Kagami glides off her back, drawing his katana soundlessly. “Kogyoku-sama”, he says lowly. “Thank you very much for your assistance. I already asked much of you, but if possible please work together with the toads to restrain the kyuubi.”

Kogyoku huffs. “Only because it’s you, Kagami.”

Then she disappears. Kagami sighs, feeling the freezing nightly air pass through his lungs. In another puff of smoke, Toyotama appears before him, accompanied by two of his personal summons- Arakiri and Kagara.

Slowly, Kagami inches towards the shrine. It looks normal- the cicadas chirp in the distance, the chimes emit soft sounds as they move in the wind.

Without a sound, Kagami steps through the shrine doors. The masks stacked on the walls cast dark shadows on the pavement. The torches are lit. There’s blood on the ground. Someone was here.

Kagami stalks forward slowly, Toyotama at his back and Arakiri and Kagara at his sides. 

Something whistles through the air, and Kagami moves on instinct, batting the kunai aside. He ducks into a roll, avoiding two more that thud against the opposing wall, and the swing of his katana is met with the unrelenting steel of a tanto.

Kagami blinks, lowering his sword. “Mikoto.”, he breathes out.

The woman exhales shakily, blinking as her sharingan red eyes fade to black. “Kagami-sensei…”

“You’re not safe here”, Kagami starts. “Why are you even here? Shouldn’t you be with-“

A wail disrupts the silence, coming from behind Mikoto, quickly followed by hurried shushing noises.

Kagami moves his head, spying behind Mikoto.

There, crouched behind a table, is Obito, holding a small baby wrapped in blankets. Naruto.

Kagami exhales. In the confusion, he hadn’t thought about Kushina and Minato’s newborn child, but it would make sense for Kushina to trust her best friend to bring him to safety.

“How did you get in without alerting the Uzumaki?”, Mikoto whispers, eyes flitting through the room even as she lowers her weapon. “They’re supposed to be stationed all around the shrine.”

Kagami stills. “I didn’t sense anyone outside.”

He and Mikoto make eye contact for a tense second.

Through an unspoken agreement, Mikoto positions herself before Obito and Naruto as Kagami slowly turns to look through the shrine. 

Kagara and Arakiri sniff carefully, their tails twitching in distress and anticipation.

A tense second passes. 

Kagami’s eyes slowly wander over the ceremonial Uzumaki masks. One shadow is just slightly darker than the others. Kagami barely twitches, but the leopards follow his command as if they were born for it, jumping towards the creature hiding in the shadows without hesitation. 

The mask moves, splitting up from the others as two mismatched eyes glow through the darkness.

“Run!”, Kagami hisses at Mikoto, not waiting to see whether she follows his command as he launches himself forward. She should know that she would be more of a hindrance than a help in this fight, especially with Obito and Naruto to protect.

“Why won’t you just die”, Kagami hisses at the creature, who just grins widely. It seems thinner than before, but since Kagami burned one half of it, that was to be expected.

“Do you want the kyuubi? Is that why you’re here?”, Kagami asks again, aiming his katana at its midsection. The creature giggles. “In a way.”

Kagami grunts as his injured ribs rub together. His wounds are starting to slow him down. “Then what do you want here? The kyuubi is currently going rampant in Konoha, I don’t know if you noticed.”

Kagami receives no straight answer. “You’ll see”, it says, and for a second the grueling overlay on its voice is gone. Kagami hesitates. He knows that voice.

His moment of inattention costs him. The creature’s claws rake over his biceps, leaving burning gashes in his muscle. Kagami hisses, but his attention lies elsewhere. Lightning fast, he stabs his katana in the creature’s shoulder, kicking it down and pinning it to the ground. His summons lock their teeth around its body parts, rending it immobile.

Kagami peers at its eyes, one yellow and the other whirling in a familiar sharingan pattern. Now that Kagami is looking- he knows that mangekyo. He knows that eye.

Kagami doesn’t want to believe it- doesn’t even know what it is that he’s looking at.

Kagami takes a shuddering breath.

“…Madara?” The creature freezes, eyes going wide. 

“Madara?”, Kagami presses. “Is that you?”

The sharingan stops spinning, the pupils widen before shrinking rapidly. The sludge covering the creature’s face bubbles and moves and pulls in multiple directions simultaneously. An inhuman hiss escapes from its throat as for a single moment, the black mass pulls back to reveal ashen skin.

“Kagami?”

Kagami sucks in a sharp breath. “Madara… what happened to you?”

Kagami remembers Uchiha Madara, even if he was just a child when he left.

He remembers the man coming home from the battlefield when Konoha did not yet exist, Izuna like an ever-present shadow at his side, covered in blood and dirt, more often than not carrying the injuried to safety. He remembers sneaking behind the ancestral hall with his cousins and siblings to hear him talk with the elders and the council, his low voice cutting off any disrespectful commentaries the stuck-up Uchiha elders would make. He remembers him walking through the compound, ruffling Kagami’s hair and showing him the grand fireball jutsu after his parents died before they could show him. 

Kagami remembers him standing at Izuna’s pire, unmoving for days and nights, staring into the flames and looking so broken that Kagami pitied him. He remembers when peace with the Senju was finally established, how he hoped that now everything would be alright.

He remembers how Madara seemed to fade day by day, closing himself into his house and watching everyone pass by with an empty gaze. He remembers how people talked about him, about his brashness, about the angry glint in his eyes.

Kagami remembers the night he left, the night he died.

Kagami remembers Uchiha Madara.

Madara’s eye looks at him with sadness and grief. “You’ve grown up”, he says.

Kagami’s gaze softens. “Yeah.”

“Kagami”, Madara says again. He skin around his eye twitches, and the sludge slowly creeps back over his skin. “Free me.”

Kagami stills, blinking down at the thing that had once been his clan head. 

“You know what to do”, Madara’s shadow says. “Kagami. Please.”

Kagami swallows. His sharingan spins and spins and spins, pain surging in him along with the memories of Tobirama and Danzo and blood and betrayal and pain.

He looks at Madara’s sharingan, and like diving headfirst into the naka river, his consciousness intermingles with Madara’s mind.

Kotoamatsukami.

Kagami wakes up in the Uchiha compound.

The old one- how it used to be, before the Uchiha moved to Konoha. 

Kagami recognizes it. Over there, that’s the house of the old woman who would give him treats. Behind it runs the naka river, closer than it is now in Konoha, at the outskirts of the Uchiha district. He hears the water run from here.

But on second look, the compound looks very different.

There’s a corrosion spreading over every building, black spiderweb-like sludge infestating every nook and cranny. Many houses are burnt and crumbling, and the grass turns yellow beneath Kagami’s feet as he walks.

A smell of decay is in the air, and it sits heavy in Kagami’s lungs, like smoke.

There’s a black scorch mark in the ground where Izuna’s funeral pyre was built. Kagami hesitates, before continuing.

The rushing of water is familiar to his ears, but the appearance of the river as he rounds the corner is not.

The water is pitch black, fathomlessly deep. The more he looks at it, the more Kagami feels caught in its spell. The black surface becomes bigger and bigger, closer and closer, and Kagami feels like a fly in a spider’s net.

He can’t move. He’ll fall in and once he does he knows he won’t be able to crawl out again.

“Kagami.”

Kagami jerks up. The spell is broken.

It’s Madara- but not the Madara Kagami remembers.

The old Uchiha clan head was tall and proud, as stubborn as a mule and as intimidating as a lion. Always scowling, always glaring, with a stare that could see right through you into your soul. 

This Madara wasn’t as he appears in Kagami‘s memories.

His once black hair is as white as snow, brittle and thin just like his pale, almost translucent skin withered with wrinkles and age marks. His once immaculate posture is slumped, as if his spine was too brittle to hold his weight. And one of his eyesockets was an open, gaping red wound.

“Madara”, Kagami says, without honorifics. That man may have been his clan head once, but that time was long gone.

Madara’s Eye flickers in his direction as his lips twitch faintly. “I would stand up, but as you see…”

Only now Kagami notices that Madara is half submerged in the black naka river. The water clings at his waist, tearing at the clothes that seem to hang off him like from a clothes rack, festering into the fabric and sticking to his skin like sludge. The white tips of Madara’s hair barely brush the surface, and the water laps at them greedily, eager to swallow him whole.

“What happened to you?”

The question escapes Kagami without warning, and it’s too late to take it back now. Madara trains his eyes to the river’s black surface. 

“I lost”, Madara simply says, a phrase that says a thousand things.

Lost the fight against Hashirama, lost against his own overwhelming rage and grief, lost the title as Hokage, lost the support of his clan, lost his brother, lost himself.

“That thing…”, Kagami asks instead. “What is it really?”

Madara looks up at him, his remaining eye still as black as Kagami remembers. “Sit”, he motions to the riverbank next to him. “It’s a long story.”

-

By the time Madara finished, the tips of his hair have become heavy with water.

Kagami blinks, head pillowed on his arms, legs carefully drawn to his chest, away from the devouring river.

“So after Zetsu realized you wouldn’t follow his plans any longer, he took control of your body?”

Madara nods slowly. “He is inexperienced in moving with a body of flesh and bone, but as you probably noticed that didn’t stop him from doing as he pleases.”

That at least explained the sludge and the core of flesh. “The sharingan”, Kagami realizes. “It’s yours as well.”

Madara just answers with a sigh. “So how do I kill him?”, Kagami asks. Madara snorts. “It’s not that easy. But…”

He shifts, seemingly ignoring the water clinging to him with ease. “At this point, he depends on my body like a parasite. He has latched not only to my flesh but my mind as well, as you can see.” He lifts an arm, gesturing to the river and the sludge covering the surrounding houses. “Separate him from me and he’ll be helpless. But”, Madara’s eye flickers up again. “He cannot be killed by common means. He needs to be sealed.”

Kagami nods in understanding. With the kotoamatsukami, separating Madara’s and Zetsu’s consciousness might not be as hard as it sounds. But Kagami has no plan for what comes after.

As he thinks, the water in the naka river lurches, and Madara sinks in another few inches. The water now almost comes up to his chest.

Madara grits his teeth. “As you see, I don’t have much time left until my mindscape erodes completely. So if you would be so kind…”

Kagami nods slowly. “What do I need to do?”

Madara just shrugs. “How should I know? It’s your eyes.”

Kagami narrows his eyes in slight annoyance. It seems the decades Madara spent in hiding haven’t softened his personality at all.

Still, he tilts his head, looking at Madara’s remaining eye and willing his mangekyo to life.

Kagami is no Yamanaka, but even he sees the way Madara’s mind is warped and deteriorated from its original state. The sharingan and its genjutsu targets the mind, so it isn’t that much of a surprise that the mangekyo does as well. 

It comes natural to Kagami, to grasp at the strings of the foreign being attaching itself to Madara’s mind and pry them off with nothing but sheer willpower.

Time passes differently in the mind scape, but by now Zetsu must have caught of what Kagami and Madara were doing. His mind revolts, fighting against Kagami like a living being. Kagami grits his teeth under the onslaught, but he doesn’t losen the claws he has sunk deep into Zetsu’s mind.

Like a burning wildfire, Madara’s consciousness layers itself over Kagami’s own. While his body may have rotted and fallen apart, his mind remains as sharp as the day he left Konoha. Like a weight was lifted from his shoulders, Kagami continues his work.

With Madara’s chakra as support, kotoamatsukami works much faster in dividing Madara’s and Zetsu’s consciousnesses- and as much as Zetsu hisses and tries to fight it, Kagami is the one in control here.

Just a little bit more, Kagami reminds himself as he grips the last stubborn tendrils attached to Madara’s consciousness. Just a little bit-

Pain fills every fiber of Kagami’s burning in a red flash so violent it takes his breath away. His control slips and Zetsu’s mind rips itself free from his grasp. It seems that while Kagami’s mind is still immersed in his genjutsu, Zetsu has found a way to fight back in the physical world as well. And Kagami is as defenseless as a fresh academy student right now. 

Kagami!, he hears Madara’s voice as if through water. With every passing second, Kagami’s consciousness sinks further into despair and terror.

No, he thinks desperately as all his work is undone. This can’t be it.

Fight back!, he hears Madara’s roaring voice, burning with hatred and desperation. But Kagami doesn’t know how.

Am I going to die?, he thinks to himself. 

Flashes of memories past drift before his eyes. Tobirama-sensei. Torifu, Hiruzen. Homura and Koharu. Danzo. Megumi, Takami, Shisui. Kushina, Minato, Mikoto, Sakumo, Kakashi… he couldn’t just leave them all behind.

In a desperate last attempt, Kagami pushes against the lethargy laying itself over his mind. He pushes against the pain, against the wrongness of Zetsu’s mind. With one last surge of energy, he steals control over Zetsu’s mind back.

It doesn’t matter that this much chakra is taking a dangerous toll on Kagami’s injured body. It doesn’t matter that he might not recover from it. What matters is the safety of his family- and if Zetsu lives, his family is in danger.

One last push, one last flare of his chakra-

Cruel satisfaction rises in Kagami as Zetsu’s mind is violently ripped away from Madara. He did it. He did it!

Everything goes very fast after that.

Like a glass mirror shattering, kotoamatsukami breaks once its primary objective has been achieved and Kagami’s consciousness is shoved violently into his body.

Something- Zetsu- is cursing and hissing and screeching in front of him as the black sludge holding Madara’s body captive melts like hot wax. But Kagami doesn’t really pay it much attention- he’s too busy trying to breathe around the claws stuck in his flesh around his heart. 

One moment more, one second longer Kagami spent in kotoamatsukami and Zetsu’s hand would have crushed his heart like an overripe grape.

Kagami breathes. He has to do this.

Zetsu hisses as Kagami somehow manages to stab his shoulder to the ground with his sword. He doesn’t know much about sealing- that was always Tobirama’s vice- but there has to be something, right-?

“Kagami!”

Kagami twitches, but can’t turn around as Minato’s voice echoes through the room behind him along with his hurried footsteps. Kagami exhales. If Minato is here, then the kyuubi is sealed.

“Kushina?”, Kagami asks the moment Minato reaches him. 

“Safe”, Minato breathes as he kneels carefully in front of him. “But- Kagami, what-?”

“No time”, Kagami squeezes out. Zetsu’s hand in his chest twitches and he bites back a scream, squeezing his eyes shut. “A seal”, he forces out. “We have to seal it.”

Minato is quiet, his eyes flickering between Kagami, Zetsu, the hand around his heart and Kagami’s sword in his shoulder.

He takes a deep breath, hand coming together to form hand seals. Hand seals Kagami is much too familiar with.

“Tell Kushina I love her”, Minato says as his hands go through the signs for the shiki fuuin. “And that I’m sorry for not being there to see our son grow up.” Tears gather in his eyes, but still, he smiles. “And Kakashi, Rin and Obito- I was truly lucky to have them as my students. And Jiraiya-sensei-“

He never finishes that sentence. Kagami doesn’t have the time or the patience to snap at the younger man, to tell him how absolutely stupid his plan is, to tell him to stop because surely, surely there is a better option. 

No, Kagami is a much too impatient man for that. His eyes flash red and he pries the information about the shiki fuuin right out of Minato’s brain while he is too busy being stuck in Kagami’s genjutsu.

With his injuries, Kagami is going to die anyways- he might as well go out with a bang, right?

“I have already written out my will”, Kagami says, and now it’s his turn to flip through hand seals. Already he feels cold creep up his spine, along with the feeling of something otherworldly watching him.

“But- please let Kushina know that I’m passing the hat onto her, alright? She deserves to be Hokage and I think she would be a great one.” Already Kagami can see it- white robes and the red sign for fire the same shade as her hair in her head, with a grin so bright it seems to outshine the sun. Between her, Takami, Minato and Mikoto, Kagami thinks he made a great choice. Konoha needed someone like her- someone to light the will of fire in their hearts again.

Kagami’s hand rests on the bird seal, and he feels the cold hands of death settle on his soul. He doesn’t have to turn to see the image of the shinigami emerge behind him, mouth contorted into a cruel smile.

Ghostly hands reach through him to Zetsu, and the little fucker tries to squirm away, snarling curses at Kagami. But a cold clarity has set over Kagami’s mind- the pain fades into the background. Only the task before him counts.

The shinigami closes its hands around Zetsu’s and Madara’s souls, and Kagami furrows his eyes and tugs.

But by bit, piece by piece the souls are separated from their body, gathered up in the shinigami’s greedy hand and cut off like fresh fruit from a tree.

“Sorry about this, Madara”, Kagami whispers as he watches the uchiha’s soul enter the shikigami’s belly. Kagami’s sword clatters to the ground.

The black sludge melts off Madara’s body like water, revealing empty eyes and a frail figure.

The shinigami appears before Kagami, yellow eyes trained on him as his hand reaches for his head.

“You’ve come for me too, huh”, Kagami says, but he doesn’t fight it as the shikigami’s fingers touch his forehead. His heart pumps one desperate last time, and the Shinigami reaped his soul just as it starts to detach from his body.

Maybe Kagami should be sad, as his body falls forward, lifeless. Maybe he should be angry. But Kagami is content to die like this. He did what he could. Now, he can rest.

-

Minato feels it when Kagami dies. He feels it, because the moment his chakra fades out the genjutsu he put him in was broken and Minato could finally move.

He lurches forward immediately, cradling Kagami’s head as he frantically checks for a heartbeat, even though he already knows he won’t fight one.

“No no no no…”, he mutters as his hands soak with the blood of his Hokage and his frantic breaths turn to sobs. “Kagami please, please! Kagami!”

The door to the Uzumaki shrine burts open and Toyotama burst through, followed by most of Kagami’s and Kushina’s guard.

Minato’s head snaps up, and whatever expression was on his face makes them freeze in their tracks.

“Tsunade!”, Minato shouts, and the sannin shoulders her way to the front. She drops to her knees next to Kagami’s lifeless body without a word, shoving Minato away as Rin hurries behind her.

Tsunade starts to bark out orders as Mikoto tugs Minato upright and away, but he can’t tear his eyes away from Kagami. He looks still, and empty. In the years Minato has known him, Kagami has never seemed empty.

“It’s my fault…”, he whispers. “It’s not”, Mikoto argues even as her trembling lips press together. “Kagami-sensei probably just did something stupid again, he knew that-“ she cuts off, taking a few deep breaths. “Tsunade will save him. Right?”

Minato doesn’t answer. Kagami is dead. Kagami is dead.

-

Kagami wakes up.

That is not supposed to happen.

He stills, keeping his eyes closed as he listens.

Nothing. 

No wind, no sounds of fighting, no heartbeat breaks the silence around him.

Kagami shifts, trying to open his eyes.

“I’d rather you not do that.”

Kagami stills.

Soft, warm hands press over his eyes, keeping them firmly shut. Tears well up beneath them, dripping out from under Kagami’s eyelids.

“Once you do, you won’t be able to leave”, says Tobirama softly.

Kagami raises a trembling hand, closing his fingers around Tobirama’s still over his eyes.

“Am I dead?”, he chokes out, voice wavering.

“Yes”, Tobirama answers. “For now.”

“Where am I?”, Kagami asks.

“Well”, Tobirama says. “The pure lands are still a bit further from here. I suppose you could call this the space in between.”

Kagami chuckles weakly. “It doesn’t surprise me that you still can’t put down your research even in death.”

Tobirama chuckles, and god Kagami misses him.

“You’ve grown up, Kagami.”, he sighs, wiping away Kagami’s tears.

Kagami smiles bitterly. “I’ve lived a long life.”

Tobirama hums. “Well, I don’t think you are quite ready to join the pure lands yet, don’t you think?”

Kagami’s smile dims into something sadder. As much as he wants to stay here, and see his sensei and his parents and siblings again- Tobirama is right. It’s not time for him to reunite with them yet.

“I miss you”, Kagami says, longing in his voice.

“I know”, Tobirama whispers. “I do, too.”

Kagami squeezes his fingers in one last goodbye.

Izanagi.

-

Kagami’s eyes open.

Chapter Text

Tsunade presses her hand desperately over Kagami’s chest, willing her chakra into his pathways, cramping over his heart, desperate to do something- 

But she has to admit herself that there isn’t anything she can do. Kagami is dead. His heart is still, his chakra has left his body.

She can’t stop the tears from falling from her eyes and dripping onto his ashen skin.

Yet another person she had let down, yet another member of her family she couldn’t save. 

“Tsunade-shishou…?”, Rin asks beside her, looking at her with so much hope that it hurts.

Slowly, Tsunade removes her hands from her Hokage’s chest. The green glow of the mystical palm dims, before flickering out of existence. 

She looks up, into the wide eyes of her friends and family. Of Kagami’s family.

Sakumo’s eyes are wide and the grip around his sword white-knuckled and trembling. Mikoto is still holding onto Minato, his hands red with Kagami’s blood. Obito sits next to them, mouth open in shock and hands full of Naruto, who wouldn’t stop crying. It’s the only sound that disrupts the silence.

“Dad…?”, asks Takami, a hand slowly coming up to shake his father’s shoulder. “Dad!”

Mikoto slowly extends her arm, pulling away from his father’s corpse. Helpless, Tsunade watches as he dissolves into sobs on his teammate’s shoulder.

The third Hokage, Uchiha Kagami, is dead.

Except, he isn’t.

-

Kagami gasps, his lungs filling with air as his eyes snap open. He shoots upright, hand clawing at the wound on his heart as his chest rises and falls with every breath.

He’s alive he’s alive he’s alive-

Shouts erupt all around him, frantic hands coax him into lying down. Kagami can only stare at the ceiling, breathless. He had really thought that was it. He had been ready to leave this world and join his loved ones in the afterlife… 

But Kagami is nothing if not stubborn.

The price of this move becomes glaringly obvious after a few seconds of blinking up, and a hand comes up to cover his now blind eye. But it’s a small thing compared to what he could have lost instead.

Kagami clawed his way out of the shinigami’s stomach with nothing but stubborn desperation and clinging to the hope that his family was waiting for him on the other side.

“Kagami you absolute bastard!”, he hears someone yell over him. “I hate you so goddamn much, you hear me?!”

Kagami blinks up, his gaze sharpening and focusing on the blob of yellow above him.

“Sorry, Tsunade-chan”, he apologizes with a crooked smile. “I swear I didn’t mean to.”

“Sensei”, and this is Mikoto, eyes red and puffy as she peers down at him with her signature murderous smile. “If you hadn’t died already I would have killed you.”

Kagami snickers, and his snickering transforms into full laughter. It seems nothing has changed at all.

-

“If you ever do something like that again I’m going to make you wish you were dead.”, Tsunade says coldly to him as she inspects the scar on his torso.

Izanagi is truly a power of the gods- Kagami’s wounds are healed as if they were never there. Just the faint scarring remains where Zetsu’s arm pierced his skin.

Kagami chuckles, wincing a little as his bruised ribs flare in pain. 

“Tsunade-chan, with all these death threats I’m not sure if your happy I’m alive or not.” 

Tsunade glares at him, and claps him on the back of his head before he can react. Kagami pouts, rubbing the spot as he slumps in fake-sadness.

“You’re lucky Kushina is still to weak to stand, otherwise you’d be little more than dirt on the pavement right now”, Tsunade continues. “She’s been screaming since she woke up and heard about you.”

Kagami winces. He really doesn’t want to deal with an angry Kushina.

From what he heard, Minato managed to seal half the kyuubi in Kushina and half into Naruto- a full resealing would have killed Kushina, Uzumaki vitality or not. Naruto’s new status as jinchuuriki was kept a strict secret however, known only to a select few. The damage the kyuubi caused was still a tragedy, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, and the casualties were kept to a minimum.

That didn’t stop someone coming to his room every day, always with another excuse to chew him out. At first, Kagami was sheepishly sorry, but by now he just sighs and lets them talk. Minato particularly had been a blubbering mess, but Kagami supposes maybe putting him in a genjutsu and then dying in front of him hasn’t been the best way he could have handled that situation. Still, he still remembers that technically Minato wanted to kill himself first. Kagami is not in the wrong here!

After three days of endless boredom and playing cards with Megumi, the door opens and Minato and Kushina step through. The former looks sheepish while the latter is glaring with such fury Kagami instinctively scoots back on the bed.

“Kagami-sensei”, Kushina growls, her chakra rising dangerously. 

“Kushina, hello!”, Kagami laughs nervously. “I see you’ve recovered, that’s nice-!”

Kushina’s hands shoot out to wrap around his neck, shaking him back forth. “What do you mean you made me Hokage?? What does it mean?!”

“Uh…”, says Kagami, hands raised in confusion and hovering awkwardly around her forearms.

“Let the poor man breathe, Kushina”, Megumi says amusedly next to them. “He did just die, after all.”

Kushina snarls furiously, but lets herself fall onto the bed, still fuming. Minato comes to stand beside her with a nervous smile.

Kagami shrugs, rubbing his neck. “I wasn’t sure if… I would survive, you know. And I had to pick a successor- so I picked you.”

Kushina’s angry mask seems to break, and exhaustion and pain take its place. “Why? Why me?”, she croaks out, her voice breaking. Suddenly, Kagami is transported back in time, where he was the one asking that exact question, only there hadn’t been anyone anymore to answer it for him.

“Because I chose you”, he says with a small smile. “Isn’t that reason enough?”

Kushina keeps quiet, but Kagami sighs, choosing his next words carefully. “Konoha has been through a lot in the past years.”, he explains. “The wars have left their marks. When Tobirama chose me as his successor, it was in the middle of a war. Konoha needed someone to end the fighting, someone to put an end to the death and pain. But now, the last war is long past. Konoha doesn’t need a fighter as Kage anymore- Konoha doesn’t need me anymore.” He smiles bitterly. “Konoha needs someone with a strong will and a strong mind, a fresh start after the whole Danzo disaster- and who would be more suited to the job that you?”

“But- you’re not dead! You can keep being Hokage now, Kagami-sensei!”, Kushina insists, her hands fisting in the white bedsheets. But Kagami just shakes his head vehemently. “Absolutely not! I’ve been Hokage for twenty years, it’s about time I let someone else take the hat. I think I deserve a peaceful retirement, don’t I?”

Kushina’s face flushes with rage again, and she points an accusatory finger in Kagami’s direction. “Just you wait, stupid sensei! I’m going to change so many things! Everything! I’m going to change everything! You hear me?!”

Kagami just laughs. “I sure hope so!”

-

“Alright. Try to open your eye.”

Kagami blinks, trying to ignore the bloody tears gathering in his left eye. His vision swims, overlaps, before settling on a vague blurry shape. It’s disorienting, being practically blind on one eye while the other is in perfect condition.

Tsunade clicks her tongue as she inspects the eye transplant. “It’ll get better with time, don’t worry.”

Kagami grunts in affirmation, fastening the medical eyepatch over Madara’s eye again. Since no one else was going to use it and it was his fault anyways that Kagami lost his eye, he thinks the old man owes it to him. 

It’s been a couple of weeks since the kyuubi incident, as it was named by konoha’s citizens, and while the recovery is not nearly finished, everything has more or less gone back to normal. Shinobi are sent out on missions again, civilians are reopening their shops and merchants slowly trickle back through the gates with their wares. All in all, konoha’s wounds are starting to heal. 

No one except a select few really know what happened on the night of the attack, the official story is that someone took advantage of Kushina and caused the kyuubi to go on a rampage. No one knows about Madara, Zetsu, and what went down in the Uzumaki shrine. Speaking of, the Uzumaki were mostly fine. Zetsu hadn’t actually managed to kill the guards, even though their injuries would have ended the life of literally anyone else.

And, after a few days, Kagami officially steps down as Hokage and throws the hat at Kushina. 

It’s a grand ceremony, most of the village gathered before the Hokage tower as Kagami gives his speech. His retirement doesn’t come as a surprise to most- it was long since anticipated that Kagami would step down sooner or later. The policy that a Hokage had to die to pass the position into someone else was long since outdated, since the last war ended twenty years back. 

Kagami places the Hokage’s hat on Kushina’s head with a smile, and she is welcomed as the yondaime Hokage with boisterous applause and cheers from Konoha while Minato stands to the side, baby Naruto in arms and smiling at his wife with an expression of utter besottedness.

Kagami knows he made the right decision. Kushina will bring a new era of prosperity to Konoha, of that he is sure.

-

Kagami has to admit that retirement is a pretty pleasant way of life, all things considered. 

For the first time since, well, forever, he actually has all the time in the world to do whatever he pleases. Of course, the occasional visit at the Hokage tower to help Kushina manage the ungodly amounts of paperwork still happen from time to time, but nowadays he mostly just comes for advice since Kushina’s shadow clones and her new secretary, Minato, are doing quick work of the paperwork that Kagami used to despair over.

Mikoto and Takami are now part of her personal guard, and Kagami can almost see her mood lift after not being able to spend time with her team on the regular again for such a long time.

Kagami is quite content to leave her in such capable hands, seeing as the new Jonin commander, Shikaku, is one of their close friends as well.

And, well- time flies, as it always does when Kagami feels at his most happiest.

A year passes in the blink of an eye, and Obito finally joins Kakashi in anbu after he has recovered from his injuries fully. Kagami had his doubts about yet another young child being shoved into the black ops, but Obito’s presence did wonders on Kakashi’s mental state and performance. The two go down in the bingo books as a duo, ruthless and terrifyingly capable, especially now that they’re playing around with their mangekyo sharingan. Obito’s newfound intangibility boosts his strength so much that the lingering weakness from the incident becomes practically invisible. 

Obito smiles more again, now that he doesn’t feel like a crutch anymore, and Kakashi probably won’t ever admit it but he too appreacaites having Obito by his side again. 

Kagami once asked Rin if she felt left out now that she was the only teammate not in anbu, but she just smiles at him, explaining that she feels no desire to join them and is quite content as Tsunade’s second in command at the Konoha hospital. Despite their different career choices, Minato’s team seven remains a close unit.

One day, Kakashi and Obito drag a new face to the family dinners, one that Kagami recognizes but hasn’t met formally before.

Tenzo, formerly Kinoe, is shy but nothing if not perfectly polite. Kagami still recognizes traces of Danzo’s conditioning in his behavior, but apart from his introverted personality he seems like a normal child- as normal as one can be in a ninja village. 

Naruto however, is growing into a little hellion.

While he has taken after Minato in appearance, his personality is all his mother- Kagami has babysittef quite a lot for the couple, and the lungs on this child- Kagami is happy that Naruto isn’t his son.

The Uzumaki are absolutely smitten with their new clan heir, and Kagami finds himself more often than not at their compound when it’s his turn on babysitting duty. The Uzumaki don’t mind Naruto’s loud (god, so loud) screams and wails one bit (“don’t worry, we’re used to it- you should’ve seen Kushina as a baby”) and Kagami despairs for any of his siblings that might be born in the future. To no one’s surprise, Naruto has also immediately taken a liking to Sasuke, Mikoto’s youngest son. The two get along like a house on fire, and even though Mikoto and Kushina are happy that their children are getting along well, Kagami can only despair at the destruction the two of them will cause once they are a little bit older.

Kagami’s fiftieth birthday comes and passes, a grand celebration joined by what feels like half the village. Seriously, Kagami doesn’t even know half the people attending! 

Since the celebrations are in the Uchiha compound, and practically the entire clan attended, some brought friends and those friends brought friends and it all escalated from there. Especially the older Uchiha seem scandalized by all the non-clan members running around and causing mayhem. 

It’s Kagami’s first birthday since Kushina took on the hat, but the citizens of Konoha still treat him with the same respect and honor as if it was still him sitting in the office, bowing to him and calling him Sandaime-sama. It embarrasses Kagami a little, just like it always has, but he’s had years of practice on how to act as a proper Hokage.

And, as much as Konoha seems to rever him still, the admiration in their eyes is nothing compared to when they look at Kushina. Kagami was right: Konoha desperately needed a fresh start.

Kushina started reforming the hospital first with Tsunade’s help, then the academy curriculum, T&I, administration… nothing was safe from her plans. Within weeks, an entirely new section was opened in the hospital, run by the yamanaka, about mental health and general trauma handling of shinobi, especially those that had served in the war. Inspiration for that had been the root agents, and the program Kagami hastily installed for them.

Kushina also achieved what Tsunade been fighting for for years: the one-med-nin-per-team policy. 

With Kushina as Hokage and the backing of nearly every single clan, the council didn’t dare make demands or objections like they did with Kagami. And Kagami hopes desperately that something like Danzo would never happen again, especially not during Kushina’s time as Hokage.

-

Kagami’s feet are silent on the damp grass as he crosses through the Uchiha compound.

It’s almost deserted at night, especially this section close to the naka river, where their ancestral shrine is.

Madara never had a proper grave, as a deserter to the village, but every deceased Uchiha is documented meticulously in their ancestral halls. Madara’s name is written righth next to Izuna’s.

Kagami crouches down before the river, just as the bells ring. It’s midnight, which means the day shifts from the 23rd December, Kagami’s birthday, to the 24th- Madara’s birthday.

Kagami sighs, taking out a small bottle of sake and two cups. 

The river flows before him, and when he peers down he sees his reflection, with two eyes instead of one.

It’s silent, only the rushing water and the sound of the bells disrupting the night.

“Thanks, I guess”, Kagami says. “For the eye. And… for everything else.”

He pours the contents of the first sake cup in the river, downing the second. 

“I hope you’re finally at peace, wherever you are.”

-

Surprising absolutely no one except Kakashi and Obito, apparently, Rin is the first out of the three of them to somehow get into a serious relationship.

Her girlfriend, Anko, is the opposite of her in maybe every possible way, but Kagami can clearly see the way the two of them adore each other.

Anko doesn’t waste a second picking a fight with Obito, and after a few minutes their argument escalates into a full-out screaming match.

“Alright”, Kakashi says with a forced smile. “How about we all calm down-“

“Shut your trap, Bakashi”, Anko grins up at him. “Or do you always come to his rescue like a little lap-dog?”

Kakashi’s expression doesn’t change outwardly, but his eye narrows dangerously in Anko’s direction. 

The evening ends with Kakashi holding a snarling Anko in a headlock while Obito pins her arms to her body. Rin just watches it all go down with a smile and a cup of tea, offered graciously by Kagami.

Kagami can only snicker at them. Teenagers and their weird mating rituals. 

Anko shouts in triumph as Kakashi slumps over, bitten by one of her poisonous snake summons, and aims a senbon at Obito. He yelps and activates Kamui, and Anko faceplants through him and to the ground.

Rin hides her smile in her teacup. “They’ll get over it eventually”, she says wisely. 

Obito and Kakashi do get over it, kind of, but only since they’re too busy making heart eyes at each other to notice, at least if what Rin says is to be believed. 

“I‘ll give them another month”, Asuma says one day while playing cards, watching the two bicker over the correct way to use ninja wire a table over.

“Hah!”, Anko says and slams a card down on the table. “No way. I say they’ll dance around each other for another year at least.”

Genma in the corner snorts, but writes her bet down anyways. “It’s your money. I say six months. What about you, Kurenai?”

Kurenai shuffles the cards, a mischievous smile on her lips. “Five years.”

Genma raises an eyebrow. “You sure? Five years seems a bit much.”

Kurenai just shrugs. “You haven’t been victim of Rin bemoaning the stupidity of her teammates to you every other Tuesday. They live together, literally. If they haven’t gotten together until now, it’ll take them another few years, I say.”

“Rin says two years, by the way”, Anko throws in, flipping her cards around. “And I win.”

The table groans in unison while Anko cackles like a madwoman.

-

It does take Kakashi and Obito an embarrassing long time to get together, and it happens in the most stupid and anticlimatic way possible.

“Kakashi!”, Obito says one day, storming into their shared training ground. He fists Kakashi by the collar, yanks down his mask and kisses him stupid. Poor Kakashi drops his tanto in shock.

“We’re dating now.”, Obito announces after a few minutes, flushed red.

Kakashi blinks. 

“Maa, alright.”

-

Surprising literally no one, Rin ends up winning the bet and pocketing several thousand yen with a sly smile.

“Damnit”, Anko sighs, one arm around her girlfriend. “Who are we supposed to bet on now?”

“I say Genma and Raidou. Those two have way too much repressed sexual tension going on.”, Ebisu proposes.

Genma, who was literally sitting next to him, gapes, his ever-present senbon falling out. “what?”, he asks weakly. Everyone ignores him.

“Nah, Yugao and Hayate are obviously going to get together next.”

“Hayate? It’s obviously Yugao and Kurenai. Have you seen the way they look at each other??”

-

A month before Naruto turns four, he becomes the big brother of twin baby girls.

Tsuriya and Tamayori are the exact copy of their mother, this time not only personality-wise. Kagami wonders if Minato and Kushina are every going to get a break from over-boisterous children, but at least they seem happy, if a little tired. Naruto at least seems to love his new role as big brother, holding it over Sasuke’s head that he now has two little sisters and Sasuke doesn’t. Sasuke retorts that he has Itachi and Naruto doesn’t, and then Naruto says that Yachan and Richan are much cuter than Itachi anyways. Itachi only manages to calm Sasuke down by telling him that he’s cuter than everyone else, in his opinion.

Regardless, some of Naruto’s words must have stuck with Sasuke, because he comes home a week later covered in dirt and dragging an equally dirty small pink-haired girl behind him.

“This is my little sister now”, he announces with a pout. Mikoto and Fugaku exchange befuddled glances as the girl smiles in greeting.

-

Unluckily for Sasuke, the girl- Sakura- already has a family and a home, which is why he couldn’t adopt her into the clan, much to his (and Mikoto’s) chagrin.

The girl’s parents however quickly arranged a play date for the two of them, on the condition that it didn’t mean that Sakura was somehow betrothed to Sasuke, as Sakura’s father asked nervously. Kagami was too busy laughing to answer him.

“Who’s that?”, Naruto asks as he spots the blob of pink next to Sasuke.

“This is my sister. Get your own”, Sasuke scowls at him.

“Wha- I have my own!”, Naruto protests. 

Sakura is oblivious to it all, drawing with chalk on the ground as the boys duke it out next to her.

After a few days, a very sheepish Yamanaka Inoochi knocks at Mikoto’s door, his daughter in tow that demands that you give Sakura back! She was mine first! And if someone is going to marry Sakura it’s going to be me!

Sasuke doesn’t really understand the whole married thing, and also why would he marry his sister? That’s gross, but Mikoto eventually explains to the small yamanaka heir that Sakura wasn’t actually engaged to Sasuke and that she could marry whoever she wanted.

“So I can still marry Sakura?”, Ino asks and even Mikoto fails to hide the amused twitch of her lips.

A year later, Sasuke does get a ‘real’ little sister in the form of little Kizuki, even though at this point Sakura is practically part of the family. Itachi especially has latched onto her like a leech with his weird protective older brother instincts, even though Sakura keeps dragging Sasuke into trouble. 

Kagami almost drops Kizuki the first time he holds her because he swears she looks just like Madara. Mikoto tells him he’s stupid, but then Kizuki opens her eyes and Kagami just knows. Gingerly, he places her back into her mother’s arms and vows to never get on her bad side.

“Does this mean I have two little sisters now?”, Sasuke asks as he peers down at the newest addition to his family.

“Actually, I’m older than you, Sasuke”, Sakura throws in. “So that would make you my little brother.”

And she’s right- her birthday is in spring, while Sasuke’s is in July. 

Sasuke’s face scrunches up as he processes the news. “That’s not fair!”

Sakura just laughs and sticks her tongue out at him.

-

Kagami was right. Kizuki is a little hellion.

Where Itachi, Sasuke and Sakura are relatively well-mannered (Sasuke is a little brat, but oh well) Mikoto and Fugaku really got unlucky with Kizuki. 

Her screams can be heard even on the other side of the Uchiha compound, and according to Mikoto it’s nearly impossible to get her to sleep.

(“It’s Madara’s influence! I tell you!”

“Shut up Kagami!”)

Kushina is immensely gleeful that Mikoto gets to suffer as well after two perfectly peaceful children, and Kagami is sure that if Kushina wasn’t holding little Kizuki right now, finally asleep, Mikoto would have punched her.

Especially now that Sakura and Sasuke have started the academy, Kizuki is nearly inconsolable, and only one of her siblings holding her will calm her down. And as much as she loves her siblings, she absolutely loathes Shisui. She won’t let herself be held by him, snaps immediately awake when he just enters a room and threw up on him on three different occasions. Shisui is absolutely devastated by this, and at family gatherings and dinners he ends up sulking in a corner more often than not with Itachi patting his shoulder in consolation.

To make things a little better, the Uzumaki twins clearly adore him. Well, they adore everyone, but Kushina or Minato must have told them to spend more time with Shisui, and since then they hang off of him like two little red haired monkeys. Even Kizuki doesn’t hate the twins, surprisingly- but then, every one of the Uzumaki children have a smile brighter than the sun and a heart made out of gold. Kagami doesn’t think anyone would be able to hate them.

-

Those three are going to be unbearable when they’re older, Kagami thinks as he watches the children play in his garden. 

Somehow, Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura have managed to befriend just about every heir of every major clan in their generation, and somehow Kagami’s house has become their headquarters. Kagami doesn’t mind- after Takami and now Obito moved out, the house has been much too quiet. 

Kagami sips his tea, watching Naruto tackle Sasuke to the ground. Tsuriya runs up to them, throwing herself on top of her brother. Sasuke, at the bottom, turns alarmingly pale.

“They’re going to be such hellions when they’re older”, Megumi comments opposite him.

“You mean more than they are now?”, Kagami quirks a brow.

Megumi nods slowly. “I’m so glad I’m retired already- I can’t imagine having to deal with that.”

Sasuke and Naruto are wrestling in the dirt, the former trying to kick him off and the latter with his teeth lodged into Sasuke’s forearm. The other children just watch with various degrees of interest, except Sakura who is much too used to their antics by now.

“Hey Richan, wanna see a magic trick?”, Sakura asks, a mischievous smile on her face. The Uzumaki girl nods eagerly, and Sakura presses her palms to the ground.

The earth ripples with a surge of chakra, and a small tree grows promptly out of the ground.

Kagami drops his teacup.

-

“I don’t get it”, Sakura says, wriggling around the hold Kagami has on her midsection. “Did I do something wrong?”

Kagami sighs, patting her head with his free hand. “No, of course not. There’s just… things… that I have to discuss with the Hokage, that’s all.”

“Is this about my magic powers?”, Sakura asks, somehow turning upside down in his arms and wriggling her fingers up at him. Kagami smiles crookedly down at her.

“Kagami-sensei?”, he hears, and looks up to see Kushina’s head sticking out of the door. “What are you doing outside my office?”

“Hi auntie!”, Sakura says, waving her hands.

“Hello Sakura-chan”, Kushina smiles brightly. “Did Kagami kidnap you from your playdate?”

“Mm!”, Sakura says. “I don’t know why, though.”

Kagami steps through the door, hand already flashing through the signs of the privacy seals. 

Kushina’s posture straightens, and her eyes narrow as a hand inches towards her weapon’s pouch. “Has something happened?”, she asks cautiously.

“What’s going on?”, echoes a voice behind her.

“Ah, Tsunade”, Kagami smiles in greeting. “This makes things easier.”

Kagami places Sakura on the ground, patting her head in reassurance again. “Can you show me your… magic trick again, Sakura-chan?”

“Mm!”, Sakura says again, crouching down until her hands touch the wooden floor. After a moment of concentration and a surge of chakra, a tree burst out of the ground in the middle of the Hokage’s office.

-

After the initial panic calmed down, someone called for Tenzo while Tsunade examined Sakura’s pathways.

“Do you feel any different? Dizziness, exhaustion, anything?”, she asks as she passes her glowing green hand over the girl’s forehead.

“Nope!”, Sakura responds. Then, a little more serious: “Tsunade-san, am I in trouble?”

Tsunade just sighs. “Of course not, little hellion. There’s just some things that we have to clear up. Are here parents here yet?”, she asks one of the anbu.

“We’ve sent someone”, they answer, and Tsunade hums.

“What happened here?”, says new voice and Tsunade looks up. In the doorway, accompanied by anbu raven, is Orochimaru, wide eyes fixated on the tree growing in the middle of the room. “Did something happen to Tenzo?”

“That wasn’t Tenzo”, Kagami answers from the window, idly staring at the mokuton-grown tree. He nods over to Sakura, and Orochimaru’s eyes narrow in understanding. “That is… curious.”

“You don’t recognize her, right?”, Tsunade asks.

“She wasn’t part of the initial sixty children, if that’s what you’re asking”, Orochimaru responds drily. He places a hand in the wood of Sakura’s tree, humming in thought. 

“This doesn’t feel like Tenzo’s trees.” He removes his hand, stepping back to look at the girl. Sakura blinks up at him. “There’s quite a high chance that this girl has the mokuton naturally.”

Tsunade hums. “So she could be a Senju? We’ll have to make a dna test… but it’s better if we wait for the parents to arrive.”

A quick test and a little bit of research later reveals that one of Sakura’s mother’s distant ancestors was a part of the Senju’s branch line, which made her very, very distant cousins with Tsunade. Somehow, the mokuton had surfaced in her even though there was probably less than a drop of Senju blood running through her veins. 

Kagami promised to Sakura’s parents to keep her new-found powers a tightly knit secret, and Sakura swore that she wouldn’t use the mokuton carelessly anymore. Danzo and his army of stolen children wasn’t around anymore, but that didn’t mean that it was safe to reveal the existence of a child with the shodaime’s kekkei genkai to the world.

Sakura obviously didn’t understand all the fuss, and she was sad that she couldn’t do ‘magic’ in public anymore, but Kagami knows that she’ll be a strong kunoichi one day, capable of protecting herself and growing as many trees as she wants.

The tree in the Hokage’s office stayed as decoration, easily explained away with Tenzo’s existence, even though it bloomed with pink Sakura blossoms every spring.

-

“How come you don’t come over more often for tea?”, Utsushiyo asks, hiding her sharp-fanged smile in her teacup. Kagami narrows his eyes back at her, slurping his own tea (he still isn’t quite sure it isn’t poisoned- even though he has known Sakumo’s aunt for more than thirty years by now).

“Because you’re such a great conversation partner”, Kagami grumbles back. Utsushiyo smiles widely.

Before he can say anything else, the door slides open and a familiar silver-haired child steps through. 

“Baa-san!”, he greets Utsushiyo and runs up to her, followed by a small wolf puppy. Well, small for Kagami’s standards- the summon reaches the child’s chest by now.

“Shin-kun”, Utsushiyo smiles, patting him on the head. “Did you have fun?”

Shin nods eagerly, starting a grand tale of what he did and who he met.

Shin and his brother Sai were once part of root, and an analysis of their dna, as was done with every member, revealed that Shin had Hatake blood. How Danzo got his hands on a Hatake, Kagami will probably never know, but Utsushiyo agreed to take in Shin and his brother Sai, who he didn’t want to part with. 

Since Kakashi moved out, the compound has been rather empty, even though he splits the days of the week in living at his own house in the Hatake compound and at the Uchiha compound.

Sai follows his brother silently, his notebook and ink brush in hand. In Kagami’s opinion, Sai looks much more like an Uchiha than Shin, with his dark hair and eyes and pale skin.

“Hello Sai”, Kagami greets politely, and the boy blinks up at him owlishly. “Hello.”

“Did you draw something?”, Kagami nods over to the notebook.

“Yes.”, Sai answers. 

“Do you want to show me?”

“…No.”

Kagami sighs. “Alright then.” He’s really not great with kids.

-

“Hokage-sama”, Kakashi bows politely at Kushina, under the mask of hound.

Kushina rolls her eyes and waves her hand. “Just Kushina is fine, Kakashi.”

Ah, so it’s that kind of meeting then. Kakashi takes off his mask and rises to his feet, his posture slouching.

“Maa, what is it then? A new mission?”

Kushina grins widely, and oh he does not like that grin. “something like that”, Kushina answer and slides a file over the table. Curiously, Kakashi flicks it open.

He freezes, his grey eye widening comically.

“No”, he squeezes out in terror.

“Yes”, Kushina hisses back.

Behind her, Obito laughs so hard he almost falls off his tree branch.

“Ah, this is for you, Obito”, Kushina says brightly and waves another almost identical file around.

Obito freezes. “No.”

-

“I’m boredddd”, Naruto whines as he kicks his feet under the table. It’s been hours and their Jonin sensei still hasn’t shown up! It’s not fair! Kiba and Shikamaru and the others are already gone and going on super cool missions and adventures!

“Hn”, says Sasuke, arms crossed before his chest as he stares ahead stoically. 

Sakura hums next to him, playing around with a small tree branch. “Maybe our sensei is on an important mission, and that’s why they’re so late!”

“I don’t believe it”, Naruto huffs. He fidgets for a moment, tongue between his teeth as he thinks. 

“I’m gonna prank him!”, he decides, already starting to rummage in his pouch. 

“Yes!”, Sakura agrees, eyes sparkling as she and Naruto put their heads together. Sasuke just hns and shifts closer.

An hour later, Kakashi sighs, stepping through the door. His form blurs in a shunshin as he evades the bucket of water, the dusty eraser and the mokuton vines grabbing at his feet. His feet touch the ceiling and immediately jump away as a glitter bomb splatters to the roof. 

Kakashi touches down, snagging a handful of Naruto’s orange jacket as he uses him as a shield against a bucket of paint headed in his direction.

“I knew you would do that you little shits”, he says.

“Kaka-nii!”, Naruto shouts, wriggling in his grasp, uncaring of the loads of orange paint splattered all over his front.

“Kakashi!”, Sakura smiles, hiding the bottle of glue behind her back. “You’re going to be our sensei?”

“Unfortunately”, Kakashi sighs, setting Naruto on his feet carefully.

“Does that mean I can’t call you Kaka-nii anymore?”, Naruto pouts.

“It does, Naruto. It’s Kakashi-sensei now.”

Naruto blinks at him innocently. “Kaka-sensei?”

Kakshi sighs, closing his eyes in defeat. “Close enough.” 

“What are we going to do now. Kakashi-sensei?”, Sasuke asks, and Kakashi smiles. “Meet me on the roof.”

A short while later, Kakashi sits in the railing of the academy’s roof while his new three genin are sprawled over the stairs in front of him.

“Well, we already know each other well enough, so introductions are a bit unnecessary.”, Kakshi starts. “So tell me what you want to specialize in in the future instead.”

Honestly, Kushina’s nerve to give him a genin team, one containing her son as well. This could only end in disaster. Not to mention that Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto were already a tightly-knit unit- there was no doub they would pass as a genin team- and Kakashi was the unfortunate bastard that had to teach them.

“Me first!”, Naruto says, hand stretched high in the air. Kakashi nods over to him and Naruto starts.

“I want to learn more sealing!! Tou-chan and Kaa-chan are seals masters so I am gonna be too! And lots of cool jutsu! Lots!! So that I can kick Sasuke’s ass!”

Sasuke elbows Naruto in the ribs. “Kenjutsu”, he says after a while. “And… Iryojutsu.”

Kakashi raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t comment further. Since Itachi started working at the hospital, it was only natural that Sasuke wanted to imitate his brother in that as well. Well, Itachi’s illness could be another deciding factor as well- thank god Tsunade caught it early and he would likely make a full recovery.

“I want to work on the Mokuton!”, Sakura says decisively. Tenzo already met weekly with her to teach her what he could, but so far Sakura hasn’t really learned how to use her kekkei genkai offensively yet. “And poisons! Anko-nee showed me and I want to do that too! And I want an axe”, Sakura nods seriously. “A big axe.”

Kakashi sighs, bemourning the last easy, child-free ears. This was not going to be easy.

A few hours and a destroyed training ground later, Kakashi drags his new genin team to Ichiraku’s. At least he didn’t have to worry about teamwork with these three hellions. 

Sakura overgrew the clearing with trees and plants, Sasuke set them on fire, and in the confusion Kakashi failed to notice Naruto’s seal trap. Needless to say, Kakashi dunked all three genin in the nearby river in retaliation.

“Done already?”, Obito’s voice drifts over. Kakashi lets himself fall into the empty seat next to him with a heavy sigh as his genin notice the three preteens seated behind him and run over in excitement.

Kakashi thinks that Obito drew the lucky straw with his team, Sai and two of Naruto’s cousins, Karin and Matsuyu, but Obito had despaired at having a team with not one but two Uzumaki, and emotionally stunted Sai as well.

Kakashi still thinks it’s easier than whatever mess he was saddled with.

“Yeah”, Kakashi answers, waving at old man Teuchi in greeting. 

“And?”

Kakashi sighs again, because the alternative would be to bury his head in his hands and scream.

“That bad, huh?”, Obito chuckles.

“You have no idea”, Kakashi says. “And you?”

“They’re not that bad!”, Obito grins and Kakashi glowers.

“Karin is bossy and Sai is weird, but Matsuyu is polite, for an Uzumaki. She has her work cut out because Karin and Sai are going to murder each other without supervision.”

Obito continues his story, describing how Sai had apparently called her a ‘mad harpy’ and how Matsuyu had to hold her cousin back before Sai lost his head. Kakashi can only sigh and ask himself what the hell Kushina was thinking making him and Obito Jonin-sensei.

-

Well, this is awkward, Kakashi thinks as he wakes up, body heavy with the familiar feeling of chakra exhaustion.

“You know, Obito-sensei is going to tease you forever that you fainted on our first c-rank, Kakashi-sensei.”

Kakashi raises his head, looking at Sakura perched on his windowsill. The girl smiles mischievously, swinging her legs.

“Ugh”, Kakashi says, closing his eyes again. Maybe if he’ll ignore her she’ll go away.

“Senseiiii. No more sleeping! I haven’t even told you how we started a revolution yet!”

Kakashi’s eyes snap open. Wait. What?

Apparently, his genin had been busy in the day or so he had been sleeping. 

Naruto had found and befriended the Kiri hunter nin, because, why not, while Sakura gathered information in the village and Sasuke stayed guard.

Then, once they got to know about Gato and the state if the people here, Sasuke and Sakura infiltrated Gato’s headquarters, put him in a coma and robbed him blind. Part of the money went to Zabuza, who needed it to overthrow the Mizukage in Kiri, and the rest was given to the citizens of wave.

Kakashi, still in a daze, barely reacted when he came down into the living room and found Zabuza glowering at the table as Haku happily chatted with his genin. 

“Kids, huh”, Kakashi said. Zabuza just glared at him in silence and Kakashi wisely decided to shut up.

A week later, Zabuza and Haku were ready to fuck off back to Kiri, and team 7 saw them off on the brand new bridge they helped build.

“Hatake”, Zabuza grunts.

“Momochi”, Kakashi says back just as drily.

“Bye Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura!”, Haku waves with a bright smile on his face.

“Bye Haku!”, his genin wave back. Something tells Kakashi that won’t be the last time he sees the duo from Kiri, however.

The moment Kakashi gets back, delivers the genin to their respective doorsteps and drags himself home, he collapses onto the couch and Obito, who was already waiting for him.

“How was your mission?”, Obito asks, a hand coming up to pat Kakashi’s head that buried itself in his shoulder.

Kakashi whines, slumping further into his unwilling matress.

“That bad, huh?”, Obito chuckles, setting his book down. Kakshi grunts. 

“It’s alright, you can tell me later.”

“What do you mean you started a revolution???”

-

It’s not long after they came back, but the preparations for the yearly chuunin exams are already in full swing. Kakashi doesn’t even think about not letting his genin attend- he doesn’t even want to imagine their faces if he doesn’t. 

And, predictably, team seven practically destroys the chunin exams.

Kakashi is pretty sure they didn’t even bother trying with the first stage, and left a path of destruction and unconscious genin on the second stage in their way to the tower.

Apart from a team from suna (and Kakashi is pretty sure one of them is a jinchuuriki) they were first at the tower and spent the other three days lying around. Oh and Naruto befriended the crazy jinchuuriki kid, because again, why not? 

Naruto drags Gaara with him to his family dinner, his nervous siblings and nearly-murderous Jonin-sensei in tow and spends a solid hour talking to him without pause or seemingly taking a breath, and Gaara surprisingly doesn’t kill him for it. Sasuke might do though, if his jealous glances in Naruto’s direction are any indication.

A month passes and team seven mows their way through the third stage of the exam. The new Mizukage attended, along with Zabuza and Haku as her personal guards, which Kakashi’s genin were absolutely overjoyed over.

Sakura ends up winning the exam after burying Naruto underground with her mokuton, however all three of Kakashi’s students end up making chunin, along with Shikamaru and Matsuyu. 

“Here”, Kakashi says, dropping something very huge and very heavy into Sakura’s arms. The girl however doesn’t even struggle as she stares down at the giant metal axe with big eyes.

“You got me an axe??”, she asks in awe. Looking up at him as if he hung the moon and the stars.

“Congratulations on your promotion”, Kakashi just shrugs, stuffing his hands in his pockets awkwardly.

 “How come we don’t get anything, Kaka-sensei?”, Naruto protests, eyeing Sakura’s axe with open jealousy. “Hn”, says Sasuke with an accusing stare.

“Isn’t it gift enough that I still put up with you after all the shit you put me through?”, Kakashi asks and only receives glares in return. He sighs.

“Just kidding”, he says, taking out a storage scroll. “Although these aren’t quite as big as Sakura’s, sorry.”

For making chunin, Sasuke receives a brand new katana made of black Uchiha steel, while Naruto gets a set of high-quality fuuinjutsu ink and needles, since he wanted to start tattooing seals on his skin.

“You’re the best, Kaka-sensei!”, he grins up at him, followed by his teammates, even Sasuke.

“Maa”, Kakashi says awkwardly. “It’s not every day my cute little genin make chunin after all.”

-

Shortly after his promotion, Sasuke formally requested an apprenticeship under Tsunade, who accepted him begrudgingly, and Naruto and Sakura, who didn’t want to be left behind, bugged the other two sannin until they caved in. Naruto predictably pestered his godfather (“teach me sealing, ero-sennin!”) while Sakura just showed up at Orochimaru’s laboratory one day and never left (Orochimaru didn’t have the heart to kick her out).

Jiraiya tried to get Naruto to sign the toad contract, who declined saying he was already contracted to the foxes since he was four, much to Jiraiya’s despair (The toad contract would end up with Tsuriya a few years down the line, to his relief).

Sakura was very happy with her brand new snake contract however, and Sasuke chose to get his own summons- the hawks. (Tsunade grumbled about that for a few days, but with Rin and Shizune both as successors to the slug contract, she couldn’t really complain much.)

Unsurprisingly, Sakura is the first of them to make Jonin two years later, after she has become absolutely terrifying with her axe and mokuton, and Naruto and Sasuke practically fall over themselves in their scramble to catch up, which takes them another year.

By then, Sakura has already taken the shinobi force by storm, and Kagami is pretty sure Kushina is eyeing her as her possible successor down the line. 

Sasuke instead slipped quietly into anbu, not interested in the Uchiha police force (unlike Shisui, who was running it at this point) and Naruto, obviously, followed him. Kagami can tell that Naruto doesn’t belong into anbu the way Sasuke does, but he knows better than to separate the two. Additionally, Naruto seems to have found another passion outside of anbu, which is being a diplomat.

Kagami should have known, since Naruto and his ‘talk-no-jutsu’ saved team seven’s asses on multiple occasions, but he knows that relations with the other major villages have only improved since they started sending Naruto as ambassador. He is already close friends with the new Kazekage, Gaara, not to mention the Mizukage who is practically smitten with him after the help he gave Haku and Zabuza.

Somehow Naruto has also managed to become buddies with the Raikage’s brother and even the Tsuchikage didn’t throw him out of iwa right away (it took two weeks until the old man finally had enough, which is more than most people endure!).

Naruto even befriended the Taki jinchuuriki, a girl called Fu, who started becoming a regular guest in Konoha, and he reunited Jiraiya with his long-lost students from Ame.

Every time Naruto (and Sasuke, because as if he would let that idiot wander the world on his own) come back from another trip around the world they have the craziest story to tell, and Kagami is happy that he gets to hear about them even in his old age.

-

Kizuki, Tsuriya and Tamayori are apprenticed under Shisui after graduating from the academy, much to the former’s chagrin and the latter’s excitement. 

Kagami doesn’t believe that Shisui is that happy about the situation either, but that still doesn’t prevent Kizuki from glowering at him every single day.

She tries to trap him on the regular, something that they make some kind of game of. She hasn’t managed to get him once though (Kagami is still convinced she is Madara reincarnated, no matter what Mikoto says).

-

Another year passes and Naruto and Sasuke finally, finally get together after years of unbearable pining.

“They sure took their time”, Sakura says, sitting in the lap of her girlfriend of three years. 

“Can’t relate“, Ino agrees. “But I admit it was painful seeing them pine after each other.”

“At least they weren’t as bad as us”, Obito says, nudging Kakashi with his elbow. 

“No one is as bad as you”, Rin interjects drily. “I still don’t know how you managed to miss how infatuated Kakashi was with you for years.” Obito just blushes and grumbles in response.

-

Kagami is getting old, he thinks as he watches the red and golden rooftops of Konohagakure glow in the setting sun.

It’s funny, how much the village changed from the small pile of mokuton-grown houses haphazardly put together. Kagami has watched this village grow from a tree-overgrown valley to what it is today. He closes his eyes for a moment, letting the warmth of the sun and the sounds of the hustling and bustling village wash over him.

“…Jiji! Kagami-jiji! Are you even listening?!”

Kagami opens his eyes, smiling sheepishly at Shisui. “Yes, sorry. You were saying?”

Shisui huffs and launches straight again into complaining about his genin team, and Kagami can’t help but smile as he listens. 

Kagami is happily retired, Konoha is at peace and maybe Kagami can be too.

-

“I met your brat.”

Tobirama blinks up, holding a hand over his eyes to shield them from the sun. He sighs. Figures that the first time Madara would speak to him since his death was about Kagami.

“Hello to you too Madara.”

Madara just scowls harder. With stiff movements, he falls into a cross-legged seat next to Tobirama.

“I almost laughed, hearing about it for the first time”, Madara says, balancing his chin in his hand. “You? Teaching an Uchiha? Don’t make me laugh. And after my defection too.”

Tobirama doesn’t answer, staring straight ahead over the soft planes of grass of the pure lands.

Madara shifts, then sighs. “He’s a good kid. A good Hokage, too.” The corners of Tobirama’s mouth twitch upwards at Madara’s words. 

“I mean, he’s still as disgustingly happy as I remember, and I’m still not entirely convinced he isn’t half-clan with the way he behaves”, Madara continues. “But… you taught him well.”

This time, Tobirama smiles openly, if a little bitterly. Out of six students, three had turned traitor. He really doesn’t think he did that good of a job.

For a while, the two men sit in silence, watching children run over the grass in the valley below them.

In the pure lands, the sun doesn’t set, forever frozen in the golden glow of dusk.

Laughter drifts to their ears, and Tobirama watches Kawarama chase one of Madara’s equally young brothers around, uncaring that they’re Senju and Uchiha. Tobirama closes his eyes, letting the moment wash over him.

“I’m sorry”, he starts, and even though Madara doesn’t move, Tobirama knows he heard him. “About… what happened”, Tobirama swallows. “About Izuna.”

Madara doesn’t answer, but his posture shifts just slightly in Tobirama’s direction. And that’s answer enough.