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Kakashi's not sure what happened. One moment he's talking with Sakura in the relative safety of his office and the next he's standing in a concrete room staring down an unfamiliar bright green-haired man whose face is hidden behind a tacky beaked mask.
"What the hell?" the man says. He looks down at his hands like they've somehow betrayed him.
Kakashi takes a moment to catalogue his surroundings while the man's still distracted. He's in a concrete room of some kind with only one entrance, the door broken off at the hinges and cracks stretching through the concrete in irregular patterns. Two brightly costumed people are blocking the doorway, fists up and eyeing him warily.
Is this a genjutsu? If so, it's an incredibly realistic one. He reaches up to slide up his hitai-ate to expose his sharingan. The movement seems to spur the others into action. One of the neon-clothed men punches forward and launches a barrage of icy shards at Kakashi.
He sidesteps it and opens his sharingan. There's no change in his surroundings - not a genjutsu, then. The second man's fists suddenly sprout metal spikes as he leaps forward at Kakashi, who steps to the side and knocks both out with a couple well-placed hits using the handle of his kunai.
"Don't move," the bird-masked man says in a trembling voice.
Kakashi turns to see some sort of projectile weapon trained on him. He raises an eyebrow. "Mind telling me where exactly we are?"
"Shut up," the man snarls. "Who are you? How did you get here?! I summon weapons, not people!"
Well, that's a pretty limited idea of what constitutes a weapon. Kakashi's known plenty of human weapons in his time and counts himself amongst them. He almost says as much, but he's interrupted by a loud bang. The floor trembles, fissures cracking the stone apart and grinding harshly against each other. One of the walls buckles in on itself and dust rains from the ceiling.
He catches the man in a genjutsu and shunshins out of the room, wrapping a length of wire around the man's limbs just in case he get jostled out of the illusion. The hall out here isn't much better. The walls are unnaturally warped and twisted, broken up by pitch black holes that look like they were created by an explosive force. The colors and design look a little like Konoha's intelligence division, but he knows without a doubt that this is not Konoha.
The faint sounds of fighting mix with screams further down the hall. Kakashi readjusts his hold on the man and makes the signs to create a lightning clone. It nods before heading off towards the sound of fighting while he takes off in the opposite direction.
There's no one else in the halls - he can hear yelling and banging, but they must be too preoccupied to be moving around out here. The hall twists in sharp curves, entire sections blocked off by weirdly warped tile and rock. He briefly considers breaking through one and heading off that way, but he's not sure it would be much better than his current path anyway.
Instead of fading, the sound of the fight is getting louder. The maze-like layout of this place is messing with his senses, though he knows he hasn't been down this path yet. He keeps a sharp eye out for any sign of movement and takes a sharp right into a new hallway.
A fresh blood trail leads in this direction, tiny footprints smearing the edges. Whoever this is must be close to death, if they aren't already.
A voice blasts down the hall. It's too loud to be fully natural, tinted with malice and rage and death. It echoes off the walls and disguises its source; he's not sure if he's getting closer or further from it.
"Someone else is about to die because of you!"
There's a stench of death and decay in the air that not even his mask can fully block out.
"Is that what you want?!"
He palms a kunai.
"Eri!"
Kakashi rounds a corner. A little girl stumbles past him with a shell-shocked expression, matted white hair tinged red and leaking bandages encasing her arms and legs. She doesn't even seem to register he's there.
There's a boy further down the hall, crumpled on the ground with an arm outstretched towards the girl. His clothes are wrecked, blood dripping freely down from multiple serious injuries, eyes unfocused and looking seconds away from passing out completely. "Stop," he gasps. "Eri, stop! Don't listen to him! You have to hide!"
The girl pauses at a hole in the wall, staring through it like her worst nightmare is on the other side. "I... I don't... want that," she sobs.
Kakashi looks at this civilian child who can't be older than six or seven years old about to sacrifice herself to save lives, at this boy ignoring severe blood loss to try to get her to safety, at the man drooling on Kakashi's shoulder who'd presumably gotten him into this mess in the first place, and sighs.
He's going to have to prioritize.
--
It all happens so fast.
One second Izuku's watching as Eri steps haltingly into the room, stomach dropping as he realizes she's going to go back to Overhaul and Togata isn't there to stop her (is he dead? He was losing so much blood, and he can't even hear him, what if he's out there dying in the hall and no one's there to help?). His body isn't cooperating with him anymore. It's all he can do to stand there and watch, helplessly, as she takes a step forward, and another step -
And the next second a man appears next to her, grabs her around the waist, and vanishes.
Izuku stares where Eri had been standing.
Overhaul stares.
Sir Nighteye stares.
"What the fuck," Overhaul says.
"Emotionally manipulating a civilian child," an unfamiliar voice says in a conversational tone. "That's a pretty low thing to do. Is it fair to guess you're the one who hurt her badly enough to make her look like a test dummy for medical students?"
Izuku jerks around, gasping as the movement jostles the spikes impaling his limbs. There's a silver-haired man standing next to Overhaul, holding a blade of some kind to the villain's throat. His other hand is in his pocket, weirdly casual as he stands in the middle of a battlefield. He's wearing a black mask and a headband with an unfamiliar symbol, clothing resembling a soldier's more than a hero's. His eyes are heterochromatic, the red one bisected by a deep vertical scar.
He looks kind of like the one who'd grabbed Eri, though he's not sure - that person had moved so quickly Izuku hadn't gotten a good look at him. Regardless, he isn't one of the heroes part of the rescue operation. Actually, Izuku doesn't recognize him at all. If he's a hero, he's not a well-known one.
"Who the hell are you?!" Overhaul snarls, fingers twitching at his sides.
The man raises an eyebrow, looking weirdly surprised by the question. "Hatake Kakashi. You don't recognize me?"
Izuku watches the pair uncertainly, torn between watching this play out or using this time to try to get the upper hand.
"How arrogant do you have to be to think I'd recognize a nobody like you?" Overhaul swings his hand back without warning. His fingers touch the man's side, eyes gleaming in triumph as Hatake explodes.
White electricity bursts out, arching in every direction and spiderwebbing around Overhaul, who lets out a choked scream.
The electrical discharge fizzles out. Overhaul drops to his knees, clothes charred and arm blackened where he'd made contact with Hatake. There's no sign of the strange man at all, not even a trace of remains left behind.
Behind him, Izuku can hear a group of heroes burst into the room.
And it's over.
--
Medical teams are dispatched throughout the building to recover the heroes too injured to leave on their own. One team follows the crimson trail Togata left during his escape with Eri, though they don't expect to find her with him.
The trail ends in a small pool of drying blood with no sign of where he'd gone. No body. No indication he kept moving on from this point. He's gone, like he'd simply vanished into thin air. Around the corner they find an unconscious Shie Hassaikai member bound in wire restraints, but he's unresponsive to their attempts to wake him up for interrogation.
They're still searching nearby rooms for any sign of where they might have gone when the reports from above come in. A couple of heroes had spotted a blond and a young girl being carried off the premises by a white-haired man in a mask. They had been moving too quickly to catch - when the heroes approached the group they'd disappeared without a trace.
--
Kakashi doesn't stop moving until he hits a forest several kilometers away. The buildings are all wrong, pockets of destruction surrounded by steel and glass and stretching high enough to brush the clouds. He'd spotted at least twenty different people with animalistic features eerily reminiscent of Kisame walking about like ordinary civilians, no one around them batting an eye at their strange appearances. When he finally reaches the trees, he's thrown by how small they are. He doesn't recognize the tree species here - they're nothing like the giants he's used to. The branches are thin enough that only the lower ones would support his weight, much less that of himself and his two carry-alongs all at once.
The boy slung over his shoulder is worryingly still. Kakashi carefully lowers him to the ground to get a better look at the type of injuries he's dealing with. The little girl - Eri, if he'd heard correctly - clings harder to his neck at the movement. He doesn't waste time trying to extricate himself from her hold and lets her curl up on his knee instead to free up his hands.
Medical jutsu isn't his strong suit, but he's amassed a few techniques over the years to be able to handle basic medical care. He forms the hand signs to draw chakra into his palms and carefully applies it to the wounds that haven't stopped bleeding. The skin knits together enough to prevent any further blood loss. The boy's pulse is still weaker than it should be, skin pale and clammy, but he should recover with time. Preferably with some medical treatment from more experienced parties to verify there's no organ damage.
But that's the crux of the issue. Kakashi has no idea where he is, and he definitely has no idea where he could safely bring this kid for treatment. He doesn't know the dynamics of the fight he'd landed himself in the middle of, if these kids were only wanted by those weird bird-masked people or if they're wanted everywhere. He could drop them off at a hospital and find out later that they'd been killed on the spot for reasons he's not aware of.
"It's all my fault," she whimpers, fingers digging into the fabric of his mask where it connects to his undershirt. "He got hurt because of me. I shouldn't have tried to run away!"
Oh, Sage. Kakashi has no clue how to handle small children. The members of Team 7 were twelve when they were given to him, and look how that turned out. He should find somewhere to drop her off quickly or she'll probably go fall off a cliff somewhere while he's not looking. He scrambles for something to say, carefully pulling her hands away from his mask. He's uncomfortably aware of the wet spot her tears and snot have left all over his vest and shirt. "Were you the one who stabbed him?"
She pulls back, eyes watery and almost scandalized. "I wouldn't stab him!"
"Then it's not your fault. You're not the one who hurt him. Someone else did that." There. Simple and logical. She'll be hard-pressed to argue with that.
She shakes her head, breath hitching. "But they wouldn't have hurt him if he didn't try to save me," she protests. Great. He'd forgotten how unreasonable kids can be in the face of logic sometimes. Her eyes fill with tears again. "Is he going to die?"
"Probably not, as long as his organs weren't punctured," Kakashi reassures.
Eri does not look comforted. He scrambles for a distraction.
"So why were you two in the middle of that fight, anyway?" he asks her.
"Lemillion was trying to save me from... from him... that man wants me because of my quirk," she says, voice wobbly. She pushes away from him and crouches next to the boy's head, reaching out to touch his hair. Before she actually makes contact, though, she pulls her hand back to her chest like she'd been burned. "He says that if I get hurt, no one else has to. I have to go back."
"Your quirk," Kakashi repeats. She nods without elaborating, and he bites back a sigh. "...And that is?"
She eyes him uncertainly, glancing between him and the boy like she's determining how much she can trust him. "I can rewind people's bodies. Like, to before they were hurt, or to when they were younger."
Interesting. He's never heard of a jutsu quite like that, and the way she'd phrased it suggests it's more of a kekkei genkai than a learnable technique. Actually, now that he thinks about it, none of the people he'd encountered here so far have been using hand signs at all. He's starting to suspect he's further away from the Shinobi Countries than he'd originally assumed. "Is that common?"
She looks confused. "Is what common?"
"Your quirk."
"Almost everyone has a quirk. I don't know anyone else with mine though." Definitely a kekkei genkai of some sort, then, though the idea of almost everyone having one is weird. Are there that many bloodline limits around here?
"Is there someone you trust that I can leave you with?" Kakashi asks.
Eri shrugs dejectedly, voice hiccupping and wobbly. "I don't know... I - I - I don't think my mom wants me anymore, not after Dad... after I..."
Great, she's dangerously close to tears again. He's the worst at this. Kakashi awkwardly pats her head like he would a distressed ninken. "Any friends? Other caretakers? Uh... teachers?"
She sniffles and - thank goodness - doesn't actually start to cry. "The heroes were there to save me... I don't know what's gonna happen next. I just don't want to be hurt anymore."
He grimaces. At least his brief excursion into the city had let him know the people responsible for the destruction he'd inadvertently found himself in the middle of had been apprehended, so she should be safe from them at this point. He regrets not letting his clone kill that man immediately, though. "Do you know where these... heroes... would be?"
She blinks. "Aren't you a hero too?"
"Ah... no. I'm not a hero." People like Naruto are heroes, not people with pasts like Kakashi's. He's failed way too many people to ever be considered a hero.
"Are you... are you a villain?"
He can almost taste the fear starting to build up around her. "No. I'm not a villain either."
"Oh." The palpable fear dissipates and her nose scrunches up in confusion. "Then why are you wearing a mask?"
"I have buck teeth," he says in a dead serious voice.
She's instantly fascinated, eyeing his mask like she wants nothing more than to pull it down to see his alleged buck teeth. It doesn't seem she's quite brave enough to ask to see, though, and he's certainly not offering.
--
Shouta isn't sure whether to consider this sting operation a partial success or a resounding failure. He's pragmatic enough to recognize that in terms of overall damage, this was one of the better outcomes they could have asked for.
Overhaul and most of his followers are in custody. Damage was limited to the Shie Hassaikai headquarters, and all but one of the known manufactured quirk erasing bullets have been recovered. The Yakuza syndicate has, for all intents and purposes, been neutralized.
But the operation's main target is missing. There's been no sign of Eri since an unknown man kidnapped her in full sight of several heroes and Overhaul, and he hadn't been on the Shie Hassaikai's side given his subsequent attack on Overhaul. He clearly wasn't on the hero's side either - a couple heroes who'd been located unconscious reported he'd attacked them after teleporting to their location. Togata is presumed captured after he'd disappeared with serious injuries that should have prevented him from leaving under his own power and being spotted shortly after with that same mystery man, several minutes after he'd exploded into lightning at Overhaul's hands.
Half the other heroes who'd been involved in the operation are in no state to keep fighting. Sir Nighteye is in critical condition. And unless this "Hatake Kakashi" is kind enough to offer Togata medical treatment, there's a good chance they'll be recovering his body rather than staging a rescue if the amount of blood he'd left behind is any indication.
They may have taken down the Shie Hassaikai, but in the process they'd lost a pro and at least two kids, one of whom was one of the most promising heroes in training at UA. Though if the reports are accurate, that career had already ended by the time Hatake got involved.
Shouta seriously doubts that's his real name. It hadn't returned any results in any databases. There's no criminal record associated with someone matching Hatake's description and searching the quirk database for any teleportation quirks also failed to give any matches. Shouta had even tried entering the name in a search browser and all he'd gotten was random results for scarecrows and farming.
Midoriya is sitting on a bench outside Sir Nighteye's hospital room, a blanket draped over his shoulders. Gauze is visible on almost every patch of skin showing. He gives Shouta a weak smile as he approaches, shifting over slightly to make room for Shouta to sit if he wants. He silently accepts the invitation, grimacing as the movement pulls on torn muscles. "Aren't you supposed to be in a hospital bed?"
"She was right there," Midoriya says, voice hollow. He clenches a fist. "She was right there, and I let her get taken. Again. I promised her we'd rescue her and I failed. And Togata-senpai... he..."
Shouta sighs. "You did what you could. Even Sir Nighteye says he hadn't foreseen Hatake's interference." And that was the big mystery right there. Sir Nighteye's Foresight had always been accurate in the past, and no one has been able to come up with a reasonable explanation for the drastic shift in events. "There's no way you could have predicted what was going to happen, and with your injuries and Overhaul in the room there's a good chance you would have died if you'd engaged him in a fight."
"Did you recognize him?"
"No, I didn't. We don't know who he was, though there's a possibility he's affiliated with the League of Villains," Shouta admits. "Two other League members were spotted on the premises fighting against Shie Hassaikai members shortly before his appearance, and they've disappeared too. That's just conjecture, though."
Midoriya furrows his brow in thought, then suddenly jolts in realization. "Wait, Sir Nighteye's Foresight didn't see him coming? Are you sure?"
Shouta frowns. "He was in pretty bad shape when we talked with him so I can't guarantee what he said was completely accurate, but he seemed pretty stuck on that fact."
"What if this guy's quirk is related to the manipulation of time?" Midoriya says. "I thought he had a quirk that augments his speed or possibly a form of teleportation, but maybe that's not it at all. Actually, now that I think about it... didn't he kind of look like Eri too?"
"I wasn't there, kid. You're one of only a couple people who actually saw him close-up."
"They both have silver hair. One of his eyes was red like hers. If I'm right about his quirk, then they've both got quirks that let them alter time - in a broad sense, at least. The very first thing he did was get her out of the room, like his first priority was to keep her out of the line of fire just in case anything went wrong. I don't know why he would take Togata-senpai too, though..."
"It's not a bad theory," Shouta says slowly. "If he really is Eri's father, our odds of finding them both alive go up, too. If he went to the trouble of rescuing her it's doubtful he'd kill her right afterwards. It's already all over the news, so if he's not a villain, hopefully he'll come forward to straighten things out."
The news reporters had leapt on this story like a bunch of vultures the moment a UA student's apparent kidnapping had leaked. Nezu and Togata's homeroom teacher are currently holding a press conference on it, partially to help with the search and to try to tamp down some of the hysteria over this being the second UA student to disappear this year. It doesn't matter that Togata was operating under a provisional hero license, not as a student - his capture will be blamed on their school.
Regardless of Hatake's true identity, he's managed to cause a whole lot of trouble in a very short amount of time. Shouta just hopes it doesn't end in the death of a student.
--
"So," Pakkun says, "when did you change your mind about having kids?"
Kakashi gives him a withering look. "What about this situation is making you jump to the conclusion that I procreated?"
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe the girl sitting in front of us that looks suspiciously like you? Just a thought." Pakkun holds up a paw. "Hey, kid. Want to touch my paw?"
Eri glances at Kakashi like she's seeking permission, and when he doesn't say anything she reaches out and lightly touches the offered paw pad. Her eyes widen, enamored. "It's really soft..."
"Oh good, she likes you. Watch over her for a bit for me," Kakashi says. He jabs a finger back towards Lemillion. "Keep an eye on that kid over there, too. Don't let him leave if he wakes up, he'll open his wounds again if he starts moving around too much."
Pakkun narrows his eyes. "Oi, brat. Did you summon me here just to play babysitter for you? Where even are we? This doesn't smell like Konoha. Or any of the other places we've been before, actually."
"I'll let you know when I figure it out," Kakashi says. "We're pretty far from home, in any case. I'm looking for a way back and for a place to drop these two off where I don't think they'll end up dead or worse."
Pakkun looks Eri up and down, gaze zeroing on the bandages wrapped around most of her body, before leaning towards Kakashi. "Is this another Tenzou situation?"
Kakashi considers what Tenzou's told him of his early childhood in Orochimaru's hands and compares it to the little he knows about Eri. He waves his hand in a sort-of gesture.
Pakkun accepts this and drapes himself across her lap. Eri doesn't smile, but her eyes shine as she carefully pets him like she's afraid he'll leave if she's too rough. She looks up at Kakashi. "Are you guys lost?"
"Yeah, we are," Kakashi says. "I'm leaving for a couple hours, but I'll be back soon. Stay here with Pakkun. He'll keep you safe if anything happens."
--
It's been no more than three hours and Kakashi's name and a blurry shot of his face are already plastered everywhere across the city.
Unknown Villain Abducts UA Student
Who Is Hatake Kakashi? What We Know So Far
Hero Rescue Goes Wrong: Villain Hatake Kakashi Kidnaps Child & UA Student
Well. That's a bit offensive. Kakashi's no hero and he's certainly not a good guy, but a villain? All he's done so far in this world was remove two injured people from the scene of a fight, which is one of the least morally gray things he could have done.
For that matter, what's with the "hero" title being thrown around everywhere? It seems almost superfluous - entire storefronts are filled with self-proclaimed hero merchandise. Half the news articles not focused on Kakashi himself are talking about various hero's actions and battles, often with dramatic imagery of brightly outfitted people smiling or landing a hit against people he presumes are villains. Instead of a highly respected and rarely used title, it looks more like a profession here. Perhaps they're this city's equivalent of shinobi forces, though they're clearly more in the spotlight than shinobi usually were.
It doesn't appear anyone here has ever heard of Kakashi before, which is unusual even in civilian districts now that he's Hokage. Either he's so far away from the Shinobi Countries that he might as well be on the other side of the earth, or he's in another world entirely.
A few years ago he wouldn't have believed it possible for other worlds to exist. The Kamui dimension had dramatically altered that perception, even if he hadn't pictured anything quite like this.
"Excuse me," he says politely to the most normal-looking person he can see passing by, "could you point me in the direction of Konohagakure?"
She smiles apologetically. "I'm sorry, I don't know where that is."
"Right, of course," he says with a casual laugh. "What about the Land of Fire?"
"I'm not familiar with that place, either," she says, giving him an odd look. "Have you tried looking up the address online?"
"I'll try that," he says, as if he understands what 'looking it up online' means. She continues on her way and he leaves with his theory all but confirmed.
This has turned into a much bigger mess than he'd expected. As it stands, he won't be able to go around in public without a henge if he doesn't want this place's equivalent of shinobi forces descending on him. He doesn't know enough about this hero society or the people in their organization to go out and test his luck under the assumption he'd be stronger than all of them. That masked man who'd destroyed Kakashi's clone had had a nasty trick up his sleeve - that clone had been destroyed instantly at the barest touch of his fingers. If that had been Kakashi in the flesh, there's a chance he actually could have died.
It would have been much easier if he could have worked things out with this world, or at least stayed under the radar enough to leave his movements freer. Instead he's got two injured kids he's still not quite sure what to do with and an entire city on high alert looking for him, and he'd left the man he suspects brought him here in the first place behind. Hopefully they didn't kill him, or Kakashi really might be permanently stuck.
He rubs the back of his neck and starts heading back to where he'd left the kids and Pakkun. There are a few things he needs to test.
--
"Tonight, we'll be talking about the abduction of a six-year-old girl and the second UA student this year alone, as well as UA's emergency press conference on the situation," a young news host says, folding her hands gravely in front of her. "We're also asking the question: who is Hatake Kakashi, and what does the newest villain on the scene want? All this and more tonight, I'm Fujioka Maki and you're watching Musutafu News."
--
"The real question is, how could UA let this happen not once, but twice? Hero-in-training Lemillion was reportedly badly injured at the time of his kidnapping, and some believe it's unlikely he'll be found alive. And what does this mean for the unknown child taken along with him?"
--
"An inside source has told us the Hero Commission is looking into the possibility Hatake Kakashi is associated with the League of Villains. So far, no demands have been made by Hatake or by the League to arrange for the return of Lemillion and Eri."
--
"If anyone has any tips on this situation or on the identities of either Hatake Kakashi or Eri, please call the number listed below. We believe he may be using a pseudonym. Citizens are urged to report any sighting of Hatake, Lemillion, or Eri to emergency services. If you encounter Hatake, do not engage. Leave the premises and call for help as soon as it is safe to do so. He is considered extremely dangerous and approaching him may lead to serious injury or death. We repeat, do not engage."
--
Kakashi activates his Mangekyo, letting out a slow breath as his chakra starts draining. Kamui envelops his body and steadies himself against the disorienting shift of switching into the barren landscape of Kamui's pocket dimension. It's just as barren and depressing as the last time he'd been here during his fight with Obito; a space untouched by the passage of time and still carrying the lingering scent of smoke and dust. He ignores the dried blood staining the ground black and reactivates Kamui, tamping down memories best left forgotten.
He warps right back where he started. Eri's fallen asleep curled up next to Lemillion with Pakkun acting as a pillow, dark bruises under her eyes highlighting just how exhausted she must have been.
Pakkun watches him impassively. "Didn't work, huh?"
"Doesn't seem like it," Kakashi says with a sigh. He'd hoped travelling to the Kamui dimension and back would open a door back into his own universe, but it appears he's stuck in this one for the foreseeable future.
"It was worth a try. So what's the plan now?"
Kakashi sits next to them. "I need to let my chakra stores rejuvenate a bit before I move out again. If I can find the man who brought me here to begin with maybe I can convince him to reverse his technique, but I don't know where they're holding him and right now this world is under the impression I'm evil. The last thing I need is to pass out from chakra exhaustion in the middle of a fight."
He'll make his move tomorrow.
--
Several kilometers away, deep in the recesses of a high security prison, a green-haired inmate wakes up with a strangled gasp.
"A demon," he babbles, jerking uselessly against his restraints and seemingly unaware of the officers shouting around him. "Oh fuck, I summoned a demon. He's coming for me! He's going to kill us all!"
--
Kakashi's facing a bit of a dilemma.
It wouldn't be a miserable experience to stick around here for a while and cause a bit of havoc just because he can. He's already stirred up this world's police force in a way that promises to be pretty entertaining, and anyone who knows Kakashi knows he enjoys putting people on edge and flaunting his disrespect for etiquette and unimportant rules if they aren't direct orders.
But he also quite literally has a nation of his own to run. His subordinates and students will do a great job holding down the fort during his absence - he levies half his paperwork off onto them most of the time anyway - but the tentative peace established between the Shinobi Countries won't hold forever if news gets out that Konoha's Hokage is missing without a trace. It's only been three months since the Fourth Shinobi War, not nearly long enough for alliances to solidify enough to weather this sort of disrupt. He was supposed to have a meeting with the Tsuchikage in two days, and if he fails to show up things could start spiraling faster than he could fix. Kakashi's a terrible diplomat.
If he had more time, he'd search for the man who'd brought him here on his own. As it stands, though, it would take way too long. He has no idea what the layout of this city is or where they might put their prisoners, whether this is the sort of culture who'd keep them underground or in a clearly labelled prison or execute them as soon as their interrogations are through. He can't afford to waste time and risk them killing that man before he can get some answers or find a way back home.
The "heroes" Eri mentioned aren't going to be very happy to cooperate with him right now, not while they think he's a child-kidnapping villain out for blood. If he returns the kids like he'd originally intended without asking for anything in return, they'll either dismiss him or continue to try to arrest him.
It's a bit of a low blow to act like they're hostages when that's not why he took them in the first place, but it's not like he has any intention of dragging this out any longer than it has to. He'll make it a last resort. If all goes well, the boy will wake up in a hospital before knowing he'd spent close to 24 hours sprawled out in a forest, and all Eri will remember is a night spent camping and playing with a dog. Easy, painless and trauma-free.
--
Naomasa breathes out a tired sigh of relief as he finally excuses himself from the Shie Hassaikai base to head home for the night. He slips through the crowd of reporters and curious bystanders still lingering around the cordoned-off crime scene and into the cool evening night.
Don't they have anything better to do? It's been more than a full day since the sting operation ended and they're still there as if there's anything more of interest to be seen.
"Are you a hero?" an unfamiliar voice asks. Naomasa turns and almost immediately wishes he hadn't.
Hatake Kakashi is standing right next to him.
Naomasa knows he'll never be able to reach his gun in time. Ice floods his veins as he realizes distantly that he's about to die. But just as quickly as the sense of impending doom washed over him it's gone again, and he's left standing there blinking and wondering what the hell just happened.
Naomasa finds his voice. "No, I'm not. Are you Hatake Kakashi?"
Hatake rubs the back of his neck. Here in the flesh, he seems way less intimidating than the descriptions of him had come across, though Naomasa's not fooled by his casual posture and apparent openness. Naomasa's worked with enough heroes to spot some of the tells - while Hatake's very good at making it look like he's not paying much attention and like it would be easy to get the drop on him, he's keeping a close eye on his surroundings. He'd be able to retaliate in a fight within a moment's notice. "It seems I've caused a bit of a disturbance around here. I guess I should probably apologize for that."
It's hard to tell if he's being genuine or not in saying that - it's too vague of a statement for Naomasa's quirk to activate. He doesn't miss the way Hatake had dodged the question about his name, either. "Where are Lemillion and Eri?" Naomasa asks. He slides his hand into his pocket.
Hatake's eyes track the movement. His slouched posture doesn't change, but there's danger rolling off this man in waves. He'd be dead in a moment if Hatake wanted him to be. "Don't bother pulling out a weapon. I just want to talk; there's no need to get hostile."
Naomasa presses the button to turn on his recorder and pulls his hand back out of his pocket where Hatake can see it. Hatake's telling the truth about wanting to talk, but he's not naive. He knows he might die at the end of this. But even if Hatake kills him, he can still help out the investigation by getting this on tape. They might not get another chance to get answers. "Are Lemillion and Eri alive?"
"Of course. I don't make a habit of killing for no reason," Hatake says with a wave of his hand. Truth, though his phrasing isn't very encouraging. He has no issues with killing if he has a reason to, then. "They're with a friend of mine."
"Why did you take them?"
"Let's say... they reminded me of some people I know. Call it a whim if you'd like. I don't like seeing kids getting caught up in fights like that." Truth. He's surprisingly honest and amicable, at least so far. Naomasa's seen the way people like this can turn in the blink of an eye, friendly and hostile in the same breath.
"Then you wouldn't have any problem returning them to us, right? Their families are very worried."
Hatake hums. "Sure, you can have them back. I have something I want in return, though."
"And what's that?"
"I need to talk to one of the men you arrested yesterday."
"What?" Naomasa's brow furrows. He would have expected a hostage trade, not something as simple as a conversation. "Just talk to him? About what?"
Hatake laughs awkwardly. "Well, you see, he did something to me and I need him to undo it. This might sound a bit unbelievable to you, but I'm not actually from this dimension."
Truth.
--
Sakamoto Takumi. Twenty-four years old. Found during the Shie Hassaikai raid restrained in metal wire and in a comatose state, and was arrested as one of Overhaul's followers. Quirk: Weapon Summon, allowing its user to summon a randomized weapon from another location. He'd had several documented cases of summoning weapons that clearly did not belong to any known civilization on earth, but as far as they were aware this was the first time he'd summoned something living.
Sakamoto been sedated after waking up in a panic in the middle of the night, rambling about demons, spinning eyes and death. Apparently he'd been convinced Hatake was going to track him down to kill him.
What a headache.
Shouta watches as the paramedics load Togata up into an ambulance. The kid had been groggy and disoriented when Hatake reappeared with him in tow, his wounds superficially healed and wrapped with fresh but slightly dirt-smudged gauze. Apparently he'd lost consciousness during his transport out of the Shie Hassaikai base and had no memories of any events afterwards. He was in better shape than they'd expected to find him, at least - Hatake had clearly made an effort to keep him from bleeding out.
The little girl, Eri, appears completely unharmed from her time with Hatake. In fact, she seems to have gotten attached to the man - when he tries to set her down, she refuses to let go and buries her face in his neck. He stands there stiffly like he has no idea what to do about it, awkwardly giving her a few pats on the head.
"Can you come visit me?" Eri asks in a small voice.
Hatake makes eye contact with Tsukauchi like he's pleading for help. Shouta takes pity on him and motions for one of the officers to pull her away. She lets go reluctantly, but keeps her eyes fixed on Hatake.
"I can't. I'm sorry," he says. "My home's very far away. I won't be able to come back once I leave."
"Oh," she whispers. Her lower lip wobbles. "Can't you stay?"
"I have students waiting for me that I can't let down," he says. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a... is that a kunai? His gaze is neutral, seemingly unfazed by the group of heroes on high alert surrounding him. He turns it around, handle facing out, and holds it out for Eri to take. She takes it, and stares reverently at it. "You can have this. I have plenty more at home."
"Uh, I don't think that's appropriate for a child," a hero Shouta's not familiar with says.
Hatake raises an eyebrow. "I learned how to use one when I was three. She'll be fine."
Every word out of this guy's mouth is making it worse.
"Let's just get this over with," Shouta says. "I'm going to use my quirk, and theoretically it should send you back to wherever you came from. Anything else you want to add?"
"Thanks for letting me play with your dog," Eri says.
"It was nice to meet you all," Hatake says with a smile. "This was fun."
Shouta looks over at the unconscious Shie Hassaikai idiot who'd started this whole mess and activates Erasure. Hatake gives them a two-fingered salute and disappears.
"Well," Tsukauchi says into the silence. "That was... something."
Yeah. That's one way to put it.