Chapter Text
"Good morning, Molly-san. Lord 6th and Lord 7th are waiting for you. Right this way."
"Thank you, Shikamaru-san."
Shikamaru always smiled so sweetly at Molly. Unlike most people, Shikamaru was never cold to her. He never failed to give her the warm fuzzies whenever they met. They've known each other since she settled in Konoha from Takigakure, long before he met Temari. In fact, she remembered nothing of her life before being discovered as the orphaned child of a fallen spy. "Honestly, who brings a baby on a mission?" people would say. Molly didn't know which Leaf ninja killed her parents, but she didn't really care. This is all she ever knew.
That's not to say her life in Konoha was all sunshine and dango. Molly suffered prejudice as any other outsider would back in those days, but she managed to make friends at the Academy and found some sense of happiness. Shikamaru was her best friend, and Naruto acted like a surrogate big brother. Now he was the Hokage and everyone seems to be fairly happy and stable, despite the average doldrums and ho-hums of being responsible adults.
Molly is a proud member of the ANBU Black Ops. Her unique kekkei genkai ability to sense and identify any individual by their chakra, even if she's never met them before, makes her a valuable sensory ninja. In this time of peace and prosperity, her work is mostly reduced to hunting difficult criminal organizations and escorting high-risk VIPs. It's a far cry from the danger and excitement of catching shinobi spies. Everyone is content in Konoha, and it's been a couple of years since she'd caught a rogue ninja. However, she does every mission with the pride and fervor expected from a member of the Konoha ANBU and (almost) never complains.
Shikamaru opens the door to the Hokage's office.
"Molly-san is here, sirs."
"Thank you, Shikamaru. Hey, Molly!" Naruto speaks informally.
"Good morning, Lord Hokage," Molly replies.
"Yo, Molly-chan!" Kakashi lifts his hand in greeting without lifting his nose out of his favorite smut book.
Molly scowls. "Ugh, Kakashi-sama, please don't call me that. I'm not a kid anymore."
Kakashi lets out a fond sigh. "Ahhh, it seems like only yesterday you were running around in a tiny pink bathing suit, kicking sand at all the boys on the beach."
Shikamaru grins. "That WAS only yesterday, Kakashi-sensei. Remember all the sake she drank at Temari's birthday party?"
The room erupts into laughter at Molly's expense, which is often the case. Molly's an easy target and a true victim. She's quick to fluster and usually chooses to take her patented high-shouldered stance and blush when she feels embarrassed. A move designed to make her look inconspicuous.
"Yeah, great, guys. Am I gonna get a mission today or were y'all just bored?" Molly grumbled.
"Oh yeah..." Kakashi snaps his fingers as though he just remembered why they were all there. "Show him in, Shikamaru! Molly, today you'll have the pleasure of working closely with a very special man. His existence is highly classified and only a handful of people know about him." Kakashi's voice was hushed and reverent.
Molly is intrigued. Who could this mystery man be? she wondered.
Her excitement only grows as a muscular stranger enters the room wearing a unique ANBU mask. She's never seen one like this before. Instead of resembling the face of an animal, this mask is shaped like a waning moon, consisting of an embossed white crescent with three red lines etched along the outer edge. The rest of the mask is a simple dark gray. His disheveled chestnut brown hair is loosely secured with a Leaf-shielded bandana.
Molly's heart stops for a moment when the silence of the room is broken by a moist cough coming from the man in front of her. The sound sends a ripple of familiarity through her body. The air around her holds an unmistakable sensation of déjà vu. It's almost as if she's standing face to face with a ghost from the past.
"Wait! I know that chakra!" Molly exclaims.
At that moment, the mysterious stranger removes his mask.
"Hayate... Gekko..."
"You're Hayate Gekko! The Exams Proctor who was killed when Orochimaru attacked the village! Why the hell are you alive? Yugao found your corpse just before the invasion! Yugao FOUGHT your corpse during the war! Why didn't anyone tell her you were still alive?! She suffered so much emotional torment after you died! She couldn't even pick up a sword after that!"
"Yes, it did appear to my distraught girlfriend that I'd been killed. However, since I'm standing right in front of you, it's clear to see that I'm still very much alive. Nobody told her because nobody knew. Since romance in the ANBU was forbidden at the time, very few people knew about our relationship. Fewer still knew that I had survived my fight with Baki. With little hope of recovery and the chaos of the situation being the way it was, I fell through the cracks. I was simply packed away in the hospital's coma ward as another "John Doe" and forgotten. My loved ones had assumed I was gone and had my name added to the KIA Memorial Stone."
Hayate paused introspectively.
"To tell you the truth, I'm glad Yugao was able to move forward with her life, instead of sitting by my bedside for years, wondering if I would ever recover. You see, by the time I woke up, she was already married. She lives with her husband and children now, far away from here. She's happy, and she's left the violence and pain of the past behind her. It makes me happy to know she's safe, and I'd never want her to live with regrets. That's why I volunteered for special ANBU "Body Double" training. That way, I could just disappear forever. Nobody would even know I existed. That's what I wanted for Yugao's sake. The Hayate corpse she fought during the war was a deceased cousin who knew my jutsu. His face was altered using special medical ninjutsu, then he was buried in my place."
Hayate glances at Molly. Her eyes are wide, and she stares at her former Chunin Exams Proctor in silent dumbfoundedness. He covers a short coughing fit with a loosely clenched fist, indicating his readiness to talk about something else.
Kakashi takes the hint and continues. "Which leads us to today's mission. Molly, you and Hayate will be leading two teams to guard the Hokage during a special Five Kage summit. Your destination is a really swanky hot springs resort and hotel. I'm supposed to attend as well, but I prefer to work like Jiraiya once did, gathering intel out in the field. Bobbing around in a warm puddle for two days, entertaining a bunch of boujee dignitaries, isn't really my thing. So Hayate here will be my body double."
"Oh, this again," Hayate groaned. "Lord 6th, when you retired as Hokage, I really thought my days of being you were over."
"But Hayate, nobody can mask their chakra like you can! And being able to do it in your sleep while maintaining a perfect transformation is, to say the least, incredible."
Kakashi gives Hayate a sideways glance, and Molly is certain she saw a glimmer of light in Kakashi's eye directed toward Hayate.
She turns to Shikamaru.
"Hey, Shikamaru, was that Genjutsu?"
Shikamaru grins and shakes his head.
"Nope, that's just Kakashi's jonin-level sweet talk."