Chapter Text
Kakashi mused that a day like this was one deserving of rest and relaxation. The sky was clear and the breeze was pleasant. Work would tarnish such things, he figured. Especially in retirement.
Just his luck that the Hokage would call for him specifically, despite those factors.
“Thanks. I’ll meet up with him shortly,” he said. Shooing the ANBU messenger away.
And so he found himself making slow, but steady progress toward a recently demolished school building. It was time to build a larger one, or so it had been planned. The population boomed over the last couple decades, and Konohagakure became much less of a hidden village than it once was.
Though apparently, something strange was happening on-site. He wasn’t sure what, and he honestly didn’t care as long as the village wasn’t in any danger. But he had to check, just in case. He trusted the Hokage to only call him when it was necessary, and so he found himself unusually punctual.
He arrived without any ceremony. A subtle nod from Naruto and Shikamaru was the only greeting that he got. His attention quickly turned to the pile of rubble that once was the school.
A void of chakra. That’s the best way he could describe it. He was no sensor-type, but he could still feel the sheer unnaturalness of the shimmering cloud of darkness that hovered before the gathered crowd of foremen and construction workers. No chakra at all. Just empty air.
“We think it’s the result of some kind of space-time jutsu. Anything that enters is sucked up and sent somewhere else,” said Shikamaru.
Naruto frowned harder as he added, “I sent a clone through. It was supposed to disperse on the other side, but I haven’t felt anything. No memories either.”
Kakashi didn’t remove his gaze from the phenomenon. “Tricky. If it sucks up all the chakra used to form it, we can’t be certain what kind of seal might contain it. Are you certain that it was a jutsu?”
Shikamaru shook his head. “Hinata could see it. There’s a rim of chakra that surrounds it being continually swallowed up, so we know that it’s at least based on chakra in some way. Enough to radiate, but we cannot discern the source.
“Has anyone gone through?”
Naruto frowned. “No. I forbade it.”
Kakashi snorted.
“We know that there’s another side. We can hear sounds, including people talking, though it’s very faint. The only thing that can’t make it through is chakra. Which means even if someone can make it back, it would likely strip them of their chakra on the way through,” Shikamaru clarified. “At least, that’s our theory.”
“Why me, then?”
Naruto looked very uncomfortable and shot a glare at Shikamaru. There was a brief moment where Kakashi could see a conversation play out on their features before Naruto sighed and nodded.
Shikamaru turned back to Kakashi. “I called you here, technically,” he admitted. “You’re the only shinobi in the city with a decent understanding of space-time jutsu and a rank that can play an ambassador role.”
That made sense to Kakashi. “You want me to make peace with the other side.”
“We don’t want war.”
Kakashi hummed. Neither did he. “Alright. I’ll go.”
Naruto grimaces. “Thank you, sensei.”
“Maa, you shouldn’t call me that, Hokage-sama.” Kakashi said. “And let me grab my book collection from home, before I go. Can’t afford getting bored, hmm?”
“Are you certain, Kakashi? This isn’t an order yet.”
He waved Shikamaru off. “But it will have to be eventually. I’ve risked my life for the safety of this village hundreds of times before. And I’d do it again a thousand times more, without a second thought.” He looked toward the sky. “Let an old man do his duty.”
The rest went unsaid. Kakashi returned to his apartment and sealed up what minimal belongings he had into scrolls. He never had much of a taste for extravagance, so it only took a few minutes. He returned to see that Naruto had called for Sasuke and Sakura to see him off.
Gai was there too, for some reason.
Sakura gave him a brief hug, and Sasuke assured him that he’d make it back without any issue. He was only doing this as a formality because Naruto insisted.
They all wore stone faces.
At least until Gai decided to pipe up. “I can’t stand back and accept this! Such sorrow is unbecoming of my fated rival!” he said with tears trailing his cheeks. “I will not let you venture on alone into the unknown, Kakashi! I shall join you!”
Shikamaru put a palm to his forehead, already knowing that arguing wouldn’t change the eccentric shinobi’s mind. “How troublesome...”
Naruto groans, apparently reaching the same conclusion. “Fine then. Gai will join you as a bodyguard.” He pulled out a scroll. “Here is your mission briefing. Your duties are laid out in here. There’s no security seals on this scroll, so be sure to burn it once you’ve got it memorized.”
Kakashi accepts the scroll, glancing it over before adding it to his pack.
“If you can, try to send a clone through from the other side. I don’t expect it to work, but you never know.”
Kakashi salutes. “Yes, Hokage-sama.”
Gai salutes as well, though with much more enthusiasm and tears in his eyes. He then stands on his good leg and seals his wheelchair into a scroll, putting it into his bag and unsealing a pair of crutches.
Without looking back, they both jump into the void and disappear.
“If there’s no clone in a day, I’m calling Orochimaru.”
Shikamaru keeps a groan from escaping his throat, but only barely.
A dumpster was not what Kakashi was expecting to land in when he appeared from the void.
“At least we know that it’s not lethal to go through in this direction,” he said as he removed a rotting banana peel from his shoulder. “You good, Gai?”
Gai flashed a smile and a thumbs-up, uncaring of the garbage covering him.
After removing themselves from the dumpster, the two shinobi began taking in their surroundings. They stood in an alleyway that didn’t see much foot traffic. Or maintenance, for that matter. The unwashed brick walls and cracked concrete looked worn down to the point that Kakashi wasn’t sure it was safe to stand near it, lest it fall on top of them.
“Hmm. It seems that the portal is gone...” Gai said, looking up as he adjusted his crutch.
Kakashi pulls out the scroll with their orders. “Then our next course of action is gathering info. This city is enormous, but I’m not sure it’s a good idea to split up just yet. Let’s just wander for a bit.”
Gai agreed and they both set out to explore their new environment. It only took a minute of walking before the streets became crowded.
“And I thought Konoha was impressive! It feels like this city breaches the horizon!”
Kakashi couldn’t help but agree.
It was odd. The portal wasn’t random. It dropped them both into the same location: A dilapidated and overlooked part of a massive metropolis. With no guards. That meant that it wasn’t likely known to the people here that there was a rift opened in their city, and likely that there was no risk of invasion for Konoha.
Was there even a need for diplomacy?
Suddenly, an explosion rung out. To the two shinobi’s growing confusion, the people around began running toward the commotion, rather than away from it.
“Halt!” shouted a voice. “You will go no further, villain!”
Kakashi cringed at the cheesy declaration. Was this some kind of street performance? Something felt wrong about that assumption. That explosion sounded real...
As they turned the corner, the scene became more clear: A man in armor was fighting some manner of lobster-man hybrid, back-dropped by the crumbling wall of a nearby bank.
“Go fuck yourself, you self-entitled prick! You wouldn’t understand! I gotta earn a living somehow!” shouted the lobster-man as he pulled back an arm and released an explosive claw-punch toward the man in armor, who dodged it without issue.
“There are much better ways to do so! You did not have to hurt anyone!”
Kakashi watched, wondering why the armored man simply didn’t dispatch the obvious threat immediately. He clearly had the skill for it, judging by his agility and demeanor, and the bodies on the ground spoke loudly of this criminal’s intentions.
But then he looked around. The crowd was watching, many were smiling, and some even cheered the armored man on as the fight continued. Ingenium was his name. Or title, Kakashi wasn’t sure.
Bang. Another explosion. “Like any of those cowards would even give me the time of day! Move, hero, or I will move you!”
As bold as those words were, Ingenium dealt with the lobster-man swiftly when it was clear he couldn’t reason with this ‘villain’. Carriages with flashing lights approached not long after, carrying a small troop of uniformed individuals.
Kakashi recognized the telling traits of a police force when he saw it.
“This place must consider apprehending criminals a kind of entertainment...” said Gai.
“So it seems.” Kakashi listened to the crowd’s cheers and miscellaneous conversations as they dispersed. He caught a few interesting terms. Pro hero, villain, and quirk.
What could they mean? He knew the words separately, but the connotations seemed unique. The best he could decipher was that these pro-heroes were peacekeepers and celebrity entertainers combined into the same role. A clever way to fund the state, he supposed, but it felt a little tacky. And ripe for corruption... He didn’t even want to imagine the political navigation of that.
Thankfully, he didn’t have to. His duty was to Konoha and Konoha alone. “Let’s go, Gai. Maybe we can find a library.”
Tensei flexed his fingers as he watched the Police carry away his latest adversary. It was a sad reminder of how mutants were treated that some took to these extreme measures.
He looked to the crowd of onlookers, glad that they had the sense to give his work a wider berth than usual. Though what really caught his attention was something he noted while fighting: A man wearing a green jumpsuit, orange legwarmers, and a bowl-cut. He also was walking on crutches, his foot seemingly injured.
The man he was talking to was also strange, wearing a mask and headband. Were they heroes? Must be underground, if that was the case, because Tensei never heard of anyone like them. But who else would dress like that?
He wanted to walk over and ask them directly. Sometimes the best connections were made that way, but the strangest thing happened before he got the chance.
They disappeared.
One moment they were standing plainly in the crowd and the next... They were gone. Was that one of their quirks? How interesting. They could be worth recruiting to his agency!
...If he could find them again.
The library was easy to find. Had a big sign outside and everything. Hopefully, the information they sought would be just as forthcoming!
As soon as the pair of shinobi entered the library, Gai was made very aware of the vast difference in population between Musutafu and Konoha. The immense amount of people here was astounding! That was fine though. It was easier to blend into a crowd than a clique, and they would likely need that subtlety to gather information.
Kakashi suggested they split out to look for books that might be relevant before retreating to a secluded table in the corner. Hopefully, they wouldn’t draw too much attention with their conversations.
Gai agreed and boldly challenged his rival to see who could collect the most useful book, to which Kakashi just nodded and set out to find what he could.
He noted that the sorting systems in place were strangely similar to the ones used in the school he taught at. Were they still in the elemental nations, after all? Likely not, he reasoned. There was no way that a city this large would go unnoticed by Konoha and their allies.
After skimming the books for a while and finding nothing of real value, Kakashi found laptops that they could borrow. Gai considered that a forfeit of his challenge and declared himself the winner.
“That makes it 413 to 413, then,” Kakashi said, unbothered, and quickly returned to task.
A few dozen minutes of poking around had them confirm what they feared. This world’s technology was far further ahead of theirs than they thought initially. The internet was genuinely worldwide. There was live-feed footage of satellites circling the planet, mapping it. And there was zero mention of the elemental nations. Not even as a far-off land.
“This really is a different world.”
“So it would seem, but that just makes the similarities that much stranger...”
Kakashi sighed into his hand. “How are we going to find someone who can accept our offer of diplomacy? We can’t even prove Konoha’s existence...”
Gai accepted the sobering reality that this was going to be a very long mission. From hi friend’s tired sigh, he seemed to share that realization.
“We need a base of operations.” Kakashi grimaced. “And from what I’ve seen, the cost of getting any land to build on is about fifty times worse than in Konoha.”
Gai paled at the thought. How could anyone afford to live here? Would they have to live in vagrancy? He was a tough guy, but he’d miss having a nice bed to sleep in.
“We need money.” Kakashi continued, rubbing his temples. “And we probably need I.D. to find employment, if it’s anything like Konoha. Let’s just... focus on figuring that out for now.”
And so they got to work researching the various mundane objectives that littered their to-do list. It was a good thing that Kakashi was used to managing much larger laundry lists than this from his time as Hokage.
Before they knew it, a day had passed. They spent the entire night in the library researching and entered the new day with bags under their eyes and a hunger in their gut. It was time to find a place something to eat.
A quick search of local eateries and prices, and a trip to a local pawn shop to sell some odd belongings had them heading toward their next objective.
Lunch.
Izuku Midoriya wasn’t focused on the direction his mother led him in. She was taking him clothes shopping in preparation for the approaching school year, and he simply left her to route their path as he carried their bags of purchases.
Instead, he was preoccupied with the hero sighting he read about this morning. Team Idaten didn’t typically operate in this area, but yesterday was an exception. He wasn’t sure what cause for the exception may be, but it was certainly something that he wanted to figure out! Maybe there was a gang of villains suspected of hiding away somewhere nearby...
How exciting!
“Izuku, watch where you’re going!” His mother pulled him out of the way of a wave of oncoming foot-traffic.
Izuku re-balanced himself quickly and checked his hands to make sure he didn’t drop anything. Thankfully, everything was secure. He sighed in relief. “Sorry, Mom.”
Inko gave a worried sigh. “I guess it’s almost lunch time. Are you feeling hungry?”
Izuku hadn’t noticed the growling of his gut until she mentioned it. He gave an embarrassed nod. Breakfast was pretty light this morning.
Inko smiled and pulled out her phone. “Let’s see what’s nearby.”
---
Kakashi was pleased to see that the small cafe they found wasn’t encumbered too much by the lunch-rush. At least, he assumed that this was when the lunch-rush would be. He and Gai found a small table in the back of the room without much trouble and the waitress was quick to grab them a pair of menus.
He went over the expected prices in his head again. He managed to get ten-thousand yen from the pawn shop earlier by passing faded and faulty seal scrolls as some kind of antique. It was somewhat silly to see how excited the shopkeeper was about receiving them, but mostly, Kakashi was glad that he found a way to get some cash without resorting to underhanded methods.
Let’s see. A meal is going to be about... three-thousand yen each. Which would use over half of what I have... Do they tip here?
Gai seemed enthused by the selection, at least. Not that it meant much. Gai followed the philosophy of ‘any food is good food’. He wasn’t picky.
Kakashi, on the other hand, was. He settled for a simple sandwich.
The waitress returned with their drinks and took their orders, writing quickly and cheerfully with practiced ease, as she had done with the other tables she waited.
“-maybe it’s for his quirk?” a small voice muttered from an adjacent table.
Kakashi didn’t turn his head, opting to watch in his peripheral instead. A young boy, sitting with a woman who was most likely his mother, if the matching green hair was something to go by, was talking to himself while staring at the pair of shinobi. He held a notebook that he wrote in occasionally.
Gai offered no such subtlety and began to chuckle at the commentary.
The mother looked exasperated, but entirely unsurprised. “Oh, Izuku...”
The boy broke out into a nervous apology when he realized he’d been caught, which Gai merely waved it off with a blinding smile.
“There’s no shame in a bit of youthful curiosity!”
Kakashi knew that the pair would be wholly unfamiliar with Gai’s eccentric demeanor, but their reaction was far more bewildered than he expected. Perhaps he should spare them from the enthusiastic green shinobi. “No need to apologize, I’m sure we look a bit strange. We aren’t from around here.”
The mother breathed a relieved sigh. “Thank you. Izuku can get carried away sometimes trying to guess peoples quirks.”
There was that word again. Kakashi did a little bit of reading up on the subject in the library, but it was hard to pin down exactly what it meant. Quirks were, as he understood, a unique biological trait that showed up in humans of this world. Something like bloodline limits, he supposed, but more common and much wilder in application. It made sense that someone would make a game of guessing them. “Oh? What quirks have you seen lately?”
Gai gave him a look and he shrugged. Just trying to dispel the atmosphere. And hey, maybe we’ll learn something? Kids tended not to have the same biases that adults did.
The boy was a bit off-put by the question at first, but soon began regaling the shinobi with a list of quirks that seemed far too detailed to be borne of a simple observation game. After finding his stride, the boy started wearing a sunny smile.
It reminded Kakashi of Naruto.
The mother seemed torn between silencing her son, and letting him talk up a storm. He likely didn’t get the chance to talk someone’s ear off very often.
“A fire quirk, huh? Seems pretty dangerous.”
“That’s normally true, but its wielder is one of the top heroes in Japan! If anyone can use it safely, it would be someone like him!”
Kakashi hummed in amusement. Haphazard delivery aside, the kid seemed very knowledgeable about the different types of quirks and the heroes that wielded them.
“Do you know a hero called Ingenium?” Kakashi asked.
Of course he did. The kid described the associated feats of the ‘turbo’ hero with vigor to spare and Kakashi learned a new term: Hero agency. A team of heroes and sidekicks working together. Ingenium had one of the the largest, apparently. Fascinating.
The passion this kid had for heroes and quirks further reminded him of Naruto. They had the same kind of charisma, he noticed. How nostalgic.
The revelation came unbidden. I probably won’t see Naruto again.
It must have shown in his eyes, because the mother seemed to notice something. “Sir? Are you okay? “
The boy stopped talking, wearing a worried expression.
“Ah, I'm fine. Sorry, your son just reminded me of one of my students.”
She jumped on that quickly, probably hoping to make things less awkward. “Your student? You were a teacher, then?”
How much of his past was he really going to share with a couple of strangers in a cafe? Was it really necessary, or helpful to the mission? He felt compelled for some reason. “Something like that. Though not anymore. I’m retired.”
“At such a young age? You must have had quite the retirement package.”
“I’m older than I look.”
It was true. He was old, considering his profession. Most shinobi didn’t make it past their thirties.
The boy chimed in, carried by his earlier boldness. “How old are you then? Does your quirk make you look younger or something?”
The mother looked mortified. “Izuku! That’s not a question you should ask people!”
Gai laughs again. “There’s nothing to worry about, ma’am! Us old dogs can still show our youth just fine, even in retirement! As for your question, Izuku, we don’t have any quirks.”
Kakashi nearly put a palm to his head, because as soon as Gai spoke, it became awkward again. He wasn’t sure what social boundary they crossed, but it was clear that there was something wrong when he saw the boy visibly cringe.
What could cause that reaction? Was it really that strange that they didn’t have quirks? According to his earlier research at the library, there was still a decent contingent of the population that was quirkless. Around twenty percent, if he was remembering correctly. What made this awkward? Was there some manner of politic at play?
No, the boy was young. People don’t obsess over political talking points at that age, and he lacked the tact of an adult, considering his earlier questions. Despite that, he looked the most uncomfortable.
“I’m sorry, i didn’t know... I’m... I’m quirkless, too.” The boy fidgeted with his silverware and kept his head down.
Ah, the kid had some kind of complex about his quirklessness. And his mother seemed to not have any idea how to comfort her son about it, judging by her forlorn and guilty expression.
”is that supposed to be important?” Kakashi winced. Ah, that came out rude, didn’t it?
Izuku looks startled, while his mother wore a menagerie of different expressions. Shock, fear, anger... among others.
”Sorry if that’s harsh, but I don’t see why a quirk is important. Half of the ones I’ve seen look like they come with their own problems. You’re probably seeing greener grass.”
”There is nothing wrong with green Kakashi! It is a very youthful color!”
“Not the point, Gai.”
The boy mulled that over in his head, donning older eyes than he should possess. It was only after seemingly rehearsing it in his head a dozen times did he speak. ”Well... I wanna be a hero. I can’t fight villains without a quirk, right?”
Kakashi was good at reading people. He had to be, to survive the life he had lived so far. He could see that this kid didn’t fully believe what he was saying.
”Maa, that sounds like an excuse to not try.”
He had seen many shinobi die. Many of which were geniuses. Many of which had some kind of biological advantage. Many stronger than him. All dead because they put too much stock in their bloodline limits, their ‘special powers’.
They all bled the same red.
“Quirk or otherwise, a hero is going to be put into a situation where they are at a disadvantage. Complaining that your quirk doesn’t work for one scenario or another isn’t going to save anyone, is it?”
“Um, sir, this seems a little...” The mother paused when she saw her son.
He didn’t look insulted at all. Nor did he look scared.
He looked determined. There was a fire in his eyes that finally shone through, once again reminding Kakashi of the past. This may have been the first time in his life that someone didn’t speak ill of quirklessness.
Kakashi sobers, knowing he over-spoke. “Ah, sorry. I ended up speaking my mind. I hope I didn’t offend...”
The boy clenches his fist in front of him. ”Then that just means I have to work harder than anyone else, right?”
Gai smiles broadly and kakashi grimaces internally, trying to not look at the green-clad shinobi, because he could almost see the boy wearing a green jumpsuit with orange legwarmers after saying something like that...
Suddenly, there’s a commotion.
“Get down!” A voice shouted. “I don’t wanna see any of you try to play hero!”
Another robbery? Kakashi idly wondered why a cafe would be the target of a robbery, but then he remembered the bank robbery he saw yesterday. The security systems of a bank would be harder to break through, where a cafe allowed anyone in. Low-hanging fruit.
Still, it seemed like a lot of risk for very little payout.
He looked back to the mother, who had pulled her son into a terrified bear-hug as soon as the shouting started. The boy was trying to watch the commotion while being smothered, to little success.
Kakashi moved without much thought. He was a peacekeeper of sorts in Konoha for most of his life, and responded the same way he always would have. He quickly shunshinned behind the robber. With a flick of the wrist, he easily disarmed him of his... odd weapon and threw him to the ground. It was definitely a weapon, with the way he was pointing it at people and their easy capitulation.
I’ll have to look into this world’s weaponry at some point.
Kakashi suppressed that thought as he hog-tied the robber with wire from his pocket. This guy had no muscle to him, did he think he could rely entirely on that weapon? ”Are you stupid? You’re gonna risk your freedom for a few thousand yen?”
The restrained man angrily ranted and cussed at Kakashi as the rest of the cafe stared in silence.
Well, mostly silence. He could hear the muttering of onlookers and a few sighs of relief.
“-but I don’t recognize him...”
“-he must be underground then...”
“-must be! Only a hero would wear something like that!”
Kakashi mentally filed away those comments to dissect later, and then knocked out the robber with a prod to a pressure point. He looked to the waiter behind the counter. “So, what should we do with him?”
“Um, well, the police should be on the way...”
Kakashi nodded and walked back to his seat.
Everyone in the cafe was staring at him. Something he had experience with, but this was different in a very strange way. These weren’t the respectful stares aimed at a Hokage, nor were they the wary and hate-filled stares from his enemies. It felt like he was some kind of spectacle.
Should I not have done that?
The boy vibrated in his seat as he stared at the shinobi. There were stars in his eyes and that made Kakashi realize something.
This kid had never seen a quirkless person win a fight. At all. Or do anything of value, apparently. It painted a sad picture, really. Was there really such a difference between the quirked and quirkless? He couldn’t imagine how.
It’s with a perplexing relief that the kid just started mumbling to himself instead of barraging him with questions.
”Hatake-san, was it? Are you a hero?” the mother asks, trying to gain some semblance of composure.
Kakashi shook his head. ”Not really. We don’t have heroes where we’re from. It’s been a bit of a culture shock, actually...”
“That explains the accent...”
Kakashi was briefly amused by how similar the mother and son looked with their thumbs on their chins in thoughtful expression.
Before he could follow up with anything, a troop of uniformed men stepped into the cafe. The police, Kakashi recognizes. After talking with the waitress at the front counter, one of them approached. A man with the head of a cat and a tone of authority.
”Excuse me sir, you were the one who subdued the criminal over there, is that correct?”
“I am.”
”My name is officer Tamakawa Sansa. Would you mind following me for a minute? I would like to ask some questions.”
Kakashi held back a groan. He hadn’t even eaten yet and he could already tell where the day was going. He handed the money for lunch to Gai. “I’ll meet you at the library after this.”
Gai nodded with a strange glint in his eye.
He stood up and turned to the officer. “Lead the way.”