Konoha Military Police Headquarters.
"Yoru, if Kakashi stays like this, he's going to get himself killed in ANBU."
Might Guy sat formally in the office, his posture straight, his voice tight with urgency. He lowered himself into a deep bow, forehead nearly touching the floor.
"I'm begging you. His ANBU post has already been revoked, but with his mental state, even field missions are dangerous. Please help us."
Guy raised his head, eyes burning with resolve.
"The patrol units and prison guard duty in the Military Police are the only assignments light enough for him to recover. Yoru-kun, please."
Uchiha Yoru exhaled quietly.
"Guy, I understand why you're worried," he said. "Kakashi is my classmate too. But I'm not sure he'll agree."
"I'll bring him myself," Guy replied without hesitation. "I won't let him destroy himself."
For Guy, this wasn't sentiment. Shinobi lived with death. If someone fell because they were weaker, that was fate. But letting a comrade break apart from untreated trauma was something he couldn't accept.
Yoru nodded, wearing the expression of someone equally concerned.
Inside, his thoughts were far less simple.
That night's conversation with Kakashi had been a probe, nothing more. A chance to keep contact with someone standing at the lowest point of his life. Once Kakashi stabilized, truly hardened himself, it would be far harder to reach him.
Now Kakashi had been removed from ANBU.
Guy came personally.
Too clean. Too convenient.
After Guy left, Yoru rubbed his temple.
"So now the Military Police are a dumping ground for informants," he muttered. "Everyone wants to plant someone here."
If he didn't know the broader situation, he might have believed this was nothing more than classmates helping a broken friend. Petition the Hokage. Discover the problem. Remove Kakashi from ANBU. Find him a safe post with low risk and light duty.
Perfectly reasonable.
Which was exactly why it bothered him.
Konoha Memorial Stone.
The sun was sinking, casting long shadows over rows of engraved names. Kakashi stood before the stone, his visible eye unfocused, lost in memories he didn't invite.
Footsteps approached.
Kakashi surfaced from his thoughts instantly, turning to face the newcomer.
The man wore bandages around his head, one eye hidden, the other calm and unreadable. Loose green robes hung from his frame as he stopped beside the stone.
"You're Hatake Kakashi," the man said evenly.
"Yes, Danzō-sama," Kakashi replied at once.
As a former ANBU operative, there was no way he wouldn't recognize Shimura Danzō, the shadowed head of Root, a figure whose authority stood just beneath the Hokage's.
Danzō studied him for a moment.
"I hear you've been removed from ANBU," he said. "Would you like to work under me?"
Kakashi stiffened. Root?
"The Fourth Hokage who placed you in ANBU is gone," Danzō continued calmly. "You now serve directly under the Third. A man whose obsession with peace prolonged the war and cost Obito and Rin their lives."
The words were spoken flatly, without emotion.
Kakashi's expression finally changed.
"And during the Nine Tails attack," Danzō went on, "you were ordered not to engage. The Fourth died that night. Do you really think that decision was unavoidable?"
Each sentence landed with deliberate precision.
The Third Hokage's wartime failures. His resignation. His return to power. The order that kept younger shinobi from the battlefield. The deaths that followed.
Danzō lacked Sarutobi's warmth, but he understood pressure. He watched closely as emotion flickered in Kakashi's eye.
"I don't want to believe this was all a calculation to reclaim the Hokage's seat," Danzō said. "But Konoha's future can't be entrusted to someone like that."
He stepped forward and placed a single white chrysanthemum before the stone.
Without another word, he turned and left.
Behind the bandages, Danzō smiled.
A blade like Kakashi was meant to be drawn, not locked away. Sarutobi's mistake was mistaking restraint for mercy.
Kakashi was only fifteen. Hardened by loss, yes, but not yet unbreakable.
As Danzō disappeared, Kakashi remained frozen.
The Nine Tails incident. The order not to fight. The deaths of Minato and Kushina. Naruto's fate as a jinchūriki.
Questions spiraled, one after another.
If the Third Hokage had stepped down, why did his orders still stand that night?
Why did the Fourth die?
Why did everything feel wrong?
The gentle smile Kakashi once associated with the Third Hokage twisted into something cold in his memory. Sweat slid down his back as fear crept into his eye.
Before the memorial stone, Hatake Kakashi stood alone, caught between loyalty and doubt, staring into a darkness he could no longer push away.