Kakashi dragged himself into his apartment.

"Tadaima," he muttered into his eternally empty home.

He was exhausted after the Bell Test with Team Seven.

There was no way he could have anticipated an entire team of geniuses with skills that he could not even guess at. Though he did guess that the blond had been hiding his true capabilities, this was not to the extent where he would think any genin will be able to overpower a jōnin. Besides Naruto, there had been no hints that the others had such ability when they were still attending the academy.

Even for Naruto, it was due to his own previous experiences with the blond. They had trained together briefly, after all. His services had been requested early on, however, so it had indeed been a long time since they last met each other.

As soon as he closed his door, Kakashi realised that a redhead was lounging on his couch.

He recognised this person instantly.

How could he not?

"Sōjirō-san...?" Kakashi said, unsurely.

The person was sprawled over a midnight-blue couch, his fox mask fallen off and resting on the cushions by his head. He had gone to lengths to disarm himself - his favourite crimson-and-gold-hilted katana was leaned against the couch and sheathed in dark brown leather while his fūinjutsu and weapons pouches laid discarded on the coffee table. He donned the classic ANBU gear, albeit with various high-end additional fūinjutsu items equipped as well. His trademark scarlet hair had grown out since his arrival in Konohagakure and was now tied back in a messy ponytail.

Kakashi recognised the book that the intruder was reading as his journal. He had written in it ever since his sensei had given it to him. It was an extremely personal thing, one enclosing all the feelings he had felt through the years. This included his guilt, joy, rage and much more. Its cover was typically sealed shut with a fūinjutsu matrix, but this was not nearly enough to keep Naruto out.

Instead of fury, which typically surged when his journal was discovered by others, Kakashi only felt embarrassed. There were countless village secrets in there, but none that Sōjirō would not know of. Honestly, Sōjirō's information clearance level was higher than Kakashi's. Usually, he will be angered whenever someone found it. Every time, he will scowl at them and snatch it away despite their confusion.

Yet when it came to this kōhai, Hatake Kakashi merely felt flustered.

"Okaerinasai, Kakashi-senpai," greeted Naruto, currently in the form of Takamatsu Sōjirō.

Kakashi turned around and activated a remarkably well-hidden concealment array that not even Naruto would have noticed if not for his Tenseigan.

It was unorthodox and tricky. The skill of the one who had set it up was apparent in the quality and uniqueness of the fūinjutsu techniques used. Even Naruto, a genius in fūinjutsu, could not help but feel amazed by this detailed work.

"You never mentioned that you were so well-versed in fūinjutsu," Naruto remarked offhandedly.

Kakashi made a complicated expression.

Despite that, he admitted with a sigh, "I formulated these matrices myself. All the arrays in my home have been set up by me. However, my skill is insignificant in comparison with yours. I only know the basics."

Naruto knew that Kakashi was severely understating his abilities.

"You have passed the tier of a level seven Uzumaki Seal Master, a feat in and of itself. You are an expert in fūinjutsu, senpai," the disguised blond praised.

It was true. To the world, this was an accomplishment worthy of hailing Hatake Kakashi as one of the few fūinjutsu grandmasters to be born outside of the Uzumaki clan. Achieving the seventh level as an Uzumaki Seal Master was the only universal form of indication of fūinjutsu mastery. However, this was a task nearly impossible for those who were not a part of the fabled clan. They instead relied on the inferior system invented by other aspiring Seal Masters, in which one was said to have attained mastery in fūinjutsu after reaching level ten. Though this was an extremely time-consuming and arduous path, it was still easier than attaining the sixth level under true Uzumaki standards.

Kakashi levelled Naruto with an unimpressed look.

The now-redhead raised an eyebrow questioningly.

Kakashi exhaled slowly. "I take a week to decipher the simplest of your seal arrays."

Naruto made an inarticulate noise in the back of his throat.

It could not possibly be that bad!

Right...?

He had a sinking feeling that his friend was speaking the truth. There was no way for him to refute that statement. Even Sasuke could not make sense of his arrays without him taking the time to explain them first. Afterwards, Sasuke could merely recognise the properties based on what he was told before and analyse the layout for any errors in his calculations. As someone who had not been given a walk-through about Naruto's fūinjutsu methods, Kakashi's ability to make sense of it was incredibly admirable.

With a sigh at his kōhai's obliviousness to his own brilliance, Kakashi removed his mask.

He did it so naturally that Naruto almost gaped.

It had been nigh impossible to remove that mask.

Whether or not the silver-haired man was conscious, it was not possible to unmask him. Under his half-mask was just another mask. Naruto had tried to pull off Kakashi's mask many times in the previous timeline, but never succeeded no matter how hard he tried. Honestly, Kakashi did not hesitate to bare his face in front of Kitsune even when they had still been colleagues on the same ANBU team. Naruto wondered if this was because of the ripples in reality due to the time-travelling that he had done. Either way, the mystery of Kakashi's face had long since dissipated.

It was a handsome face, of course. Hatake Kakashi had a defined jawline, smooth skin and an elegantly pointed nose. His lips were often pulled into a smirk, a single beauty mark adorning his face off to the left below his mouth. Even so, the air of secrecy surrounding it had faded.

The silver-haired jōnin shoved the other male's legs out of the way and sat down on his couch.

Out of nowhere, Naruto stated, "You're listed as an A-rank in bingo books. All the hostile forces have given you a rating of A-plus."

Kakashi stared at the redhead for a moment.

Then, he snorted. "The entry listing Kitsune of Konoha has you as a likely SS-rank. They lack information on your abilities and background, not even being able to guess at your identity."

Naruto blinked several times in surprise.

He had yet to check his bingo book entry.

"Those that encounter you are advised to flee on sight regardless of affiliation, the shinobi of Konohagakure being the only exception to this. When forced to engage, if neither escape nor surrender is feasible, the next best option will be suicide. That was on the most recent lists," explained Kakashi.

Naruto felt his mouth fall open.

Sōjirō had begun seeing increasing numbers of those that killed themselves before him with a resolute expression. He had been clueless as to the reason for this - it was not as if he was that merciless or cruel. Moreover, this would occur a lot more frequently when he was alone. If there were others deployed alongside Kitsune, it was less likely for them to commit suicide. He never thought that this behaviour was related to that, of all things. Sōjirō did not often think about his bingo book entry, after all.

The disguised blond shook his head, dismissing those senseless ruminations.

"Anyway, I heard that you have a personal pack of ninken? I've only met Pakkun so far," Naruto changed the topic.

Kakashi smiled and ran through a series of hand seals.

In a poof of white smoke, eight ninken appeared in the living room of Kakashi's apartment.

"I'm very proud of them," Kakashi informed. "I have raised them since they were still puppies."

Naruto was surprised by the knowledge that the silver-haired jōnin had taken the time to raise dogs even before his canine obsession had set in.

"I'm Pakkun. So we meet again, Sōjirō-san." He was also Kakashi's favourite summon from the previous timeline. Pakkun was a miniature pug with brown fur and a dark brown snout.

The one next to Pakkun was a large and intimidating black bulldog who wore a spiked collar. He barked a greeting. "That's Bull," introduced Pakkun. "He doesn't speak much."

"It's Urushi," spoke the next ninken. He was wiry with white and light-brown fur. Urushi's distinguishing features included long spiky tufts of hair on his head and narrowed eyes, giving off the impression that he was angry.

"My name is Shiba!" He had light grey fur with a white underside and a black crest on his head reminiscent of a mohawk. His eyes were round, with dark markings above them.

"Bisuke," stated the next. He had tan-coloured fur with brown highlights on his long ears and legs. He also had the kanji for "shinobi" in the middle of his forehead and has dark, circular markings around his eyes.

"I am Akino," the other ninken said arrogantly. The only one wearing sunglasses, Akino had a "cool" vibe. He had tan fur, with one white strip that started from the top of his head and went down his muzzle.

"Guruko here," said the one with tan fur, a white snout, long ears that have a dark brown colour and more pronounced whiskers than the other ninken.

Last but not least was the ninken that Kakashi had started hugging in the meantime. "Ūhei is my name. Before you say anything, we were in the other room. Kakashi just did the Kuchiyose no Jutsu to look cool in front of Sojiro-san."

Naruto raised an eyebrow.

The only reason why they had not seen through him was simple. Naruto did not have a scent for them to distinguish him by. He had used one on occasions where he had to identify to others as Takamatsu Sōjirō and used another normally. It was not that he did not have body odour at first but that it had been eliminated after finding his dragon egg. He had used fūinjutsu to disguise it at first but now had to use the seals to imitate distinguishable scents.

Although lacking a scent trail helped in hiding his tracks, it also implied that his allies would not be able to identify him or find him. For the same reason, he would pretend to use seals to cancel out his scent although he was doing the very opposite. His blood clone would often do it before espionage and assassination missions.

Kakashi coughed and averted his gaze, cheeks reddening in embarrassment at being caught.

Naruto chuckled at this.

"You fare badly in prolonged battles," he said matter-of-factly.

The silver-haired man sighed heavily, only able to nod mutely in response.

He knew that well enough even without having his kōhai point it out.

"Your chakra reserve is insufficient to support constant activation of the Sharingan. Although you may not be capable of turning it off, it still drains your chakra when it's not being actively used," suggested Naruto.

Kakashi gaped at this revelation.

He knew about how taxing using the Sharingan was, but it never occurred to him that he would still have to expend chakra to support it when it was being covered.

"Moreover, the connections between the chakra pathways were not perfect. Nohara Rin had to operate without proper equipment, so the transmission of chakra towards your implanted eye is highly inefficient," Naruto explained briefly.

"So the Sharingan is the sole source of all of my problems?" Kakashi questioned, intrigued.

"It appears so," Naruto agreed.

Because of overuse, Obito's eye was already barely functional. As it has been activated all this time, the eye had begun to undergo wear and tear. After it was deactivated, other issues will appear. This included common symptoms like colour blindness and farsightedness. If he was going to fix Kakashi's chakra problem, he would fix all of the jōnin's predicaments.

Moreover, the constant chakra leech prevented Kakashi from expanding his reserves. Once that was solved, Kakashi would experience a rise in chakra levels as what suppressed his growth so far was eliminated. It would also act to improve his recovery rate and overall stamina, causing an overall increase in combat prowess.

"I take that Sōjirō-san has found a solution?" Kakashi queried, expectant.

With a smirk, Naruto nodded. "Naturally. Would you like to go through with it, Kakashi-senpai?"

Without pausing to contemplate this or even inquiring into the solution his kōhai had come up with, Kakashi replied, "Of course I would."

Naruto jumped to his feet, absolutely delighted by the response he had been given. "Fantastic."

Then he was gone, barely remembering to take his katana with him in his rush, to begin his preparations.

Kakashi was left alone once more, with only his ninken to accompany him.

Slightly dazed, the silver-haired man stared at the equipment pouches and mask that Naruto had left behind. He had never seen his kōhai so excited about anything besides his fūinjutsu. As such, he would never have anticipated that the procedure he was to undergo was barely even linked to Sōjirō's famed craft.

ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ

Naruto hummed to himself as he gleefully put things together in the lab in his secret hideout.

Sakura could only watch him work with a blank look on her face, puzzled about how blond was acting. What could have gotten into him which led him to be so eager about something related to medical techniques? Within her experiences, Naruto treated all work as a chore as long as it did not involve fūinjutsu. This was the first time she had seen him so carefully meticulous in his scientific work.

She identified a test tube as a sample of stem cells, albeit failing to recognise the unlabelled receptacles that Naruto retrieved.

When she saw him activating a complex device that functioned using a fūinjutsu system, she was completely flummoxed.

"What are you doing?" Sakura asked, baffled as a fleshy lump was submerged within the tank in the device.

Naruto only seemed to notice the pink-haired girl then. He blinked up at her for a moment as though sizing her up before shaking his head at her and sending her on her way using one of his new inventions. It was a transportation matrix. Without any explanation, she was ejected from Naruto's lab.

Just after his teammate's departure, the cluster of cells became more defined in shape as tissue formed a brand new eyeball. Just like Itachi's, it did not have optical nerves or blood vessels. He knew that no one would recognise it for what it was at first glance - it rather resembled a large marble. However, the next part required his full concentration and he could not risk having any form of interruption.

Another cluster of cells began to shape into an eyeball next to the first. Soon, a pair of identical fleshy spheres of white and black were floating within the tank. It would have been eerier if not for the fact that the grisly, disconnected nerve endings were missing. In this case, any clueless observer would not be able to guess what he was doing.

Naruto activated Sharingan in the disembodied pair of eyes with a small burst of chakra, having them mature rapidly through a specific pattern. Then he traced the specialised fūinjutsu matrix onto each eyeball with pure chakra, stimulating their evolution into the Mangekyō Sharingan. It proceeded so smoothly, even Uchiha Madara would be jealous.

He then emptied one of the receptacles that Sakura could not identify into a petri dish - which was just Itachi's DNA sample. He used another before, one which contained Obito's DNA sample. Naruto inserted the petri dish of dissolved genetic material into a slot on that machine, causing the colourless fluid to turn blue. Using Itachi's DNA as a catalyst, Naruto transformed the copy of Obito's eyes into the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. Naruto added cosmetic seals to change their colour next, making them look just like Kakashi's visible eye.

With that complete, Naruto stopped channelling his chakra into the eyes and carefully placed them into the last receptacle - which only contained isotonic solution. He sealed the container into his pocket dimension, which he took to deceptively calling the Inventory. Though it had a purpose far broader than an ordinary storage seal, Naruto still called it such for reasons unknown to Sasuke and Sakura.

He then started to gather the medical equipment necessary for the surgery as he used his telepathic connection with his blood clone to ask Sōjirō about the silver-haired scarecrow's schedule.

He eventually decided to kidnap Kakashi in three days to carry out the operation.

ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ

Kakashi did not know what he was getting into when Sōjirō appeared out of nowhere while he had been on the run from his self-proclaimed youthful rival Gai. He had almost cried in relief at the thought of being saved from undergoing the annoying and sometimes harrowing experience of sparring with the tanned, bowl-cut-haired man. However, he soon found himself passing out into the redhead's awaiting arms before being dragged off somewhere.

He did not know that Gai had spotted this and given his self-proclaimed rival that classic shiny smile and thumbs-up.

Of course, that also meant that Kakashi had not borne witness to the massive misunderstanding that Might Gai had at that moment.

Hatake Kakashi had not been prepared for the day to come so fast.

As such, when he awakened to perfect vision in both eyes, Kakashi was so stunned that he could not even be angry at Sōjirō for abducting him. He tentatively reached up to touch the eye that he had grown used to keeping covered over the years, almost crying when he found that he felt not a single twinge when he blinked. Usually, there would be a dull throb in his implanted eye which reminded Kakashi that the eye was not his own. He would always remember that he had failed a dear friend and lost his teammates.

Now, it was impossible to sense that it was any different from his own eye.

Kakashi carefully sent chakra into his eyes, hoping that it would work despite him not being an Uchiha.

When he learned that he saw that familiar brightness of chakra in the monochromatic world that accompanied the activation of Sharingan in both eyes, his brain short-circuited and he felt everything turn black around him.

Naruto snickered at the uncharacteristic fainting spell of the silver-haired jōnin, allowing the man to rest after the stress of the surgery. Naruto might have used his seals to minimise all short-term side-effects of switching out Kakashi's eyes, but that did not mean there was none. The construction of nervous and chakra pathways between the new eyes and the operatee was rather strenuous on the body, though Naruto might have improved the technology since last time.

Furthermore, he had put Kakashi through another procedure. Naruto had to externally broaden and reinforce the man's chakra circulatory channels to support the dōjutsu that he had not been born with. Naruto had also helped to temper the foundation of Kakashi's chakra and had, in the process, doubled the other shinobi's chakra capacity. Perhaps it might have been inconsiderate of him to do such things without alerting the one in question, but Naruto had only thought of these afterwards and never had the chance to tell him.

It took Kakashi less time than Naruto anticipated to regain consciousness.

"Channel a bit more chakra into your eyes," hinted Naruto as the silver-haired man started to stare at him in bewilderment.

He did not hesitate to do as he was told.

The blond, still disguised as Sōjirō, held up a mirror when Kakashi successfully activated his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.

"Those eyes of yours are unique. No two pairs of Mangekyō are the same, and I fiddled with yours a little more. Even if Obito were here, you would find that he would not have the same eyes as you," Naruto explained briefly.

Kakashi pinched himself in the arm, yelping in surprise at the pain he felt.

"So it's not a dream..." muttered the jōnin.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Also, you might have gathered that your reserves have approximately doubled. That was my work. In time, I suppose that your chakra pool will grow exponentially."

Kakashi could not help but wonder just where his kōhai might have gotten his medical knowledge from. It was not as if one could find such information from the Konoha Library, after all. He doubted this area was even within the Sannin Senju Tsunade's skillset, so there would not be any books about it. Even so, he was still grateful to the other for having helped him so.

Hatake Kakashi never doubted Takamatsu Sōjirō's loyalty, not even fleetingly.

"How did you unearth Obito's other eye? They never found his body," Kakashi could not resist the urge to ask.

Naruto met Kakashi's bright grey eyes and grinned.

"Why would they ever find his body?" he asked, almost sounding curious.

His tone did not throw Kakashi off in the least, but the physically older of the two decided to humour him by questioning, "Why not?"

"It walked away on its own, of course!" Naruto said cheerfully.

Kakashi flinched backwards as though struck.

He got the hint immediately.

Obito is alive.

With his piece said, Naruto departed from Kakashi's apartment.

"You should hurry to your meeting with your genin team," added the disguised blond.

This time, he remembered to bring Sōjirō's items along with him.

ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ

Sakura and Sasuke could not help but glance in Kakashi's direction every few minutes with twin looks of disbelief.

It was such that neither could concentrate on their missions. Although all they were doing was completing D-rank missions, the two had almost botched it on many occasions. Tora managed to strike Sakura while her guard was down and turned her face into a bloody mess, which she healed herself from easily using the Shōsen Jutsu. She had been so busy pondering over possible reasons why Kakashi would be able to deactivate his Sharingan that she did not realise that the subject of her thoughts was looking at her thoughtfully.

Since the Academy had removed it from the curriculum, not even the most studious students would be learned in medical ninjutsu.

Sasuke had fallen into a well while drawing water to irrigate the crops in a remote corner of the village. Naruto had burst into a peal of laughter while Kakashi shook his head in exasperation at the side. The blond had promised to come back with help, albeit with the intent to leave his raven-haired friend there for a few days just for kicks. Nevertheless, this plan had been foiled as the concerned civilian offered them a sturdy rope to pull the Uchiha back out.

He had been on the verge of propelling himself out using Shinra Tensei as Naruto had helpfully placed seals on it to prevent him from simply climbing out with or without chakra, so this help was indeed appreciated. Sasuke even offered the middle-aged man a free favour from him, but their client had politely declined. Even so, it did not seem that Sasuke had learned his lesson - just minutes later he fell to a common bear trap as they crossed a forest.

Kakashi rubbed his temples tiredly, wondering where the three monsters he had faced during the Bell Test had disappeared off to. Naruto was the only one who was still acting semi-normal. Even then, he had started picking up fox kits along the forest trail until his arms were filled with the fluffy vulpine creatures. He also chatted with Kakashi about dogs, which the jōnin honestly did not mind. The only thing was that Kakashi was left befuddled as to how the blond knew the contents of his orange book - he had only ever shown it to Sōjirō. He did not mind that Naruto knew, he just could not figure out why he was privy to that information.

Naruto was dropping hints about Sōjirō, or Kitsune, and was a little sad when that failed to get much of a reaction out of the silver-haired scarecrow. He had hoped that the genius would feel that something was up, at the very least. Naruto could not be certain that Kakashi did not know anything, but the fact that the man showed little change in his interactions with his blood clone only cemented this observation. Kakashi honestly did not seem to mind at all that his kōhai had taken to crashing at his place nearly every night now.

Finally, Sakura could not bear the suspense anymore.

It had been a week since Hatake Kakashi had started walking around without his hitai-ate over his left eye and her patience had been stretched to its limits.

"Kakashi-sensei, why don't you cover your eye anymore?" the pink-haired girl questioned.

The man startled and studied his student in wonder.

He had been confused about their behaviour but did not think that they were making a fuss over his eye.

He had underestimated their perceptiveness.

Then again, Haruno Sakura knew the classified information that was supposed to be within his files. It was not too far of a stretch to say that a kid like that would memorise the bingo book. It would not be strange even if they managed to determine that his covered eye was his Sharingan.

Kakashi then eye-smiled at her. "A dear friend of mine fixed my eyes for me. As for the details, well, that's a secret!"

Sakura ground her teeth in frustration at the unsatisfactory answer.

Sasuke just directed a harsh glare at their jōnin sensei.

Naruto looked knowing, causing Kakashi to wonder if the blond knew Sōjirō.

He did not know the extent to which this had been true. Naruto did not just know Sōjirō. He was, in a sense, Sōjirō himself.

Thereafter, Sakura and Sasuke recovered their wits and Team Seven became more productive than ever. They completed D-ranked missions in record speed, leaving the Hokage office to be in a deficit of such missions for the first time in history. It was to the degree that even Sarutobi Hiruzen had begun to seriously debate over the merits and demerits of sending the genin team away on a long-term C-rank mission.

Of the three, the only one with a mission above D-rank in his belt was Naruto. Even then, there was only one - an A-rank. It was because the Hokage decided to give Naruto due credit for preventing the loss of valuable village secrets to a traitor.

When Hatake Kakashi trudged in, looking dead on his feet after another day of being pestered by his genin team for more missions to build up their portfolio, it was just the last straw.

"I suppose your team's ready for an actual C-rank mission now. Wouldn't you agree, Kakashi-kun?" Hiruzen said sympathetically.

The jōnin almost cried in relief when the blessed phrase reached his ears. A C-rank mission. He had never been so glad to hear those words. Kakashi was so grateful to the Hokage for taking the initiative to propose a real mission for his team that he would have hugged Hiruzen.

If it was not for the intrusion of the genin team in question, he might have done so.

Nonetheless, the trio barged in without any warning with Naruto at the head.

"Jiji, we demand a proper mission!" yelled the blond.

Maybe Kakashi would not have been so happy to hear that if he knew that the three had been outside this whole time long and overheard the entire exchange between the former ANBU and the leader of the village.

With a long-suffering sigh, the man nodded at the Hokage.

"Bring him in."

With that authoritative command, the shinobi on duty hurried off to collect the client that had anxiously camped in the waiting room with four barrels of alcohol.

Tazuna.