Archive of Our Own ^beta

It's been 3 weeks since Hinata came into the shop, and 3 weeks since Kakashi left on a mission. Things weren't quite as boring as expected, Hinata came by every now and then, grabbing a stool for her to sit on as she quietly but excitedly talked about the mash up of stories in the book. Sometimes she'd ask questions on why something in the book happened as it is, and I'd explain it to her in good detail. From these little visits, Allen ended up burning through 2 notepads really quickly, which Hinata noticed. Allen couldn't see it, since he was wearing a blindfold, but Hinata most likely had a determined fire in her eyes as she asked if you could buy a sign language book. It was endearing and sweet, and he sold her one as requested.

Pretty soon, Hinata ended up bringing Shino with her to the shop, and it turns out Shino has been helping her learn sign. She's been making great progress too, and she's already done learning fingerspelling. Allen gave her a sign name, he thought Sun Princess would fit her, as a reference to one of the stories in the book he recommended her. Shino asked for more bug related books, Allen ended up giving him a story book called "An Ant's Life", and he came back along with Hinata on her following visits conferring with me about it's contents. Soon enough, the visits became so frequent, apparently Hinata and Shino come by everytime they were done with all their D-rank missions, and after they finish a C-rank mission if that's what they're given.

Kurenai dropped by around the end of the 2nd week, apparently Hinata barely has a stutter anymore, and only ever stuttered when she felt particularly nervous at something, and Kurenai thanked me for the great change that her student was having. They chatted a while, and Allen even asked if he could recommend a book to her, Kurenai declined, saying she didn't have much time for reading while being a Genin Instructor, but asked if the offer stands after her team gets promoted to Chunin. Allen heartily laughed saying it was fine and told her that, yes the offer will continue to stand.

Around the 3rd week, Team 8 in its entirety dropped by once during the week, Kiba pestering Allen for how he managed to tame the demon cat from when they met, with Hinata silencing him by grabbing him by the ear. Needless to say, Kiba got the shock of his life while Kurenai and Allen just watched the scene unfold in front of them amused. Shino, as usual, was his quiet reserved self occasionally sharing some things about his bugs, Allen asked if he could hold a couple, and when Shino had a couple of them land on his hand, and Allen beamed at the insects, Shino had pink dust his cheeks at someone being so enamored by his Clan's bug friends. After the visit, Team 8 bid their farewells for they were going on an escort mission, most probably one that wasn't gonna end up wrong like what happened with Team 7, and set off.

Allen walks through the streets of Konoha, grocery bag in hand having just finished buying his necessities. It's the end of the 3rd week now, and the sun is setting. Allen took his time to head back to home, white cane in his free hand, the one free from groceries, he took the long way back.

Pretty soon he found his way back home, leaning the white cane by the wall of his shop, he reaches into his pocket to feel around for his keys.

"Yo!" A familiar voice greets casually from his left, close by.

Allen startles a little, dropping his keys as he just managed to pull them out from his pocket, turning to the source of the voice he raises his hands, "Kakashi-san! Your back!."

"Maa, I just finished giving my report to Tsunade-sama, sorry for startling you." Kakashi gets up from his seat in front of the shop where he was waiting for Allen, he bends down picking up the dropped keys before plopping them directly into Allen's hands.

The feel of Kakashi's hand, though fingerless-gloves were worn, felt warm on Allen's hand along with the cool temperature of the metal keys. A small blush makes its way to Allen's face at that, before he shakes his head and throws Kakashi a smile. Allen feels the edges of the keys looking for the right one before slotting it into the keyhole and opening the shop. Allen turns his head to where he assumes Kakashi is still at and nods his head in gesture to follow him in.

"Ne, Hopefully you didn't forget our little plans?" Kakashi eye smiled, leaning over slightly to take some of the bags that Allen was now once again holding.

Allen shakes his head, trying to imply that, no, he didn't forget. He lets out a small puff of breath from his lips at Kakashi taking some of the groceries before pondering for a moment and gesturing with his other hand, the one that was holding the white cane, towards the back of the shop.

Kakashi follows Allen to the back of the shop entering a door and seeing what seemed to be a lot of books in packaging waiting to be sorted and placed out on display, then a little to the back was a spiral stair case that lead to the second floor.

"That's to where he lives probably.""

Kakashi felt a feeling of giddiness at being invited into Allen's apartment. Almost like the smaller man was putting trust in Kakashi, despite only having known him for a short amount of time. He vaguely remembers that Allen was a fairly new citizen of Konoha and that he wouldn't probably known about his reputation as "Kakashi the Friend Killer" or "Cold-Blooded Kakashi". Still, the notion made him smile genuinely under his mask.

Allen leads Kakashi into his apartment, it wasn't small, but it wasn't big either. The entirety of the second floor of his shop was his home. Allen walks over to the small kitchen, depositing the grocery bags on the countertop underneath the kitchen cabinets, he hears Kakashi plop down the ones he was carrying as well before he reaches out to feel where Kakashi was.

Kakashi watches as Allen reaches out a hand in his general direction as though trying to figure out where he was, "Probably trying to get my attention to say something…". Just as Kakashi was about to tell Allen he was already paying attention to him, Allen's hands make contact with Kakashi's chest, the contact startled him for a moment but he recovers pretty quickly. "Maa, I didn't know you were the type to cop a feel Allen-san."

Allen staggers back, his hand being reeled back as though he just got burned, his face was red as he then balances himself before bringing his hands up in front of him to sign aggressively, "You know that wasn't what I was trying to do Kakashi-san! Besides! You're a ninja! you could have dodged or maneuvered yourself so I'd be grasping your arm instead!"

Kakashi lets out a laugh, which halts Allen from his signing, Kakashi wipes the tear in his eye that formed from a good laugh. "I was just joking Allen-san, I don't mind." Kakashi looks upon Allen who had a small cute pout on his face still slightly flushed for being teased. Kakashi lets out a pleased sigh, it's been a long time since he'd had a good laugh. Sure things can get interesting around Konoha, and the antics that people get up to can be hilarious, but ninja shenanigans gets predictable after a while and Kakashi wasn't as close to other shinobi aside from Gai, Kurenai, Anko, and Asuma. Even then, he made sure to keep his distance lest they end up like his old team.

"Come on, since I'm here anyway we might as well catch up," Kakashi says, his eye crinkled in delight, using his height to his advantage. Kakashi pets Allen's hair before moving out the kitchen and into the living room.

Allen takes a seat on the couch, "Ne, since you're saying to catch up, that means we're friend right?" Allen cocks his head to the side, internally he winces, a voice tells him that he should really be keeping his distance, but for some reason those dark thoughts that whisper in his here about him intruding in this world grow quiet when around Kakashi.

Kakashi's eye widen for a moment, blinking a couple of times, he didn't really think much of what he said but he guess that's a valid question. Usually such a notion would scare him a little, the fear of losing precious people always weighing him down which caused him to distance himself from most.

"Kami-sama, please, just this once…"

"Hmm, yes, I suppose it does, I sure wouldn't be visiting just any booksellers that recommend good books."

Allen snorts at that but lets out a pleased hum, "Hmm, then please, just Allen, no need for any honorifics."

"Kakashi then," Kakashi added with a smile. "Hmmm, speaking off, what have you been up too while I was gone?"

Allen turns his head towards the ceiling to think for a moment, "Ah, I ran into Kurenai-san and her team, they were chasing Tora, and well next thing I know…"

Allen started recounting in detail his days from after Kakashi set off to his mission, his new found friendship with Team 8, how he interacted with Hinata and so on, on the other hand Kakashi would occasionally say some things in relation that he himself experienced, allowing Allen to learn more than what was shown in the anime. They continued exchanging stories till nightfall, eventually Kakashi had to go home as it was close to midnight but things were left off with the aforementioned promise to meet up the next day.

Allen wakes up to the darkness of his room, he took his blindfold off before sleeping as usual. His God's Eyes doujutsu inactive and his bright blue pupils hazy with sleep just stares blankly at the ceiling. After a couple of moments he got up from bed going into the bathroom, working on auto pilot he brushed his teeth and gets ready for the day, walking back over to his nightstand to grab his blindfold and put it on. He walks into his closet, channeling chakra into a seal engraved on the bottom of the closet, hidden under folded clothing, a scroll pops out of nowhere.

Allen established this way of receiving commissions on his 6th month in this world, learning sealing was very handy, he devised a system where he places his seal all across the shinobi nations for anyone that may want to partake in his Mercenary services. All they need to do is place their commission request into the seal and I'll link up to the seal in his closet. Allen chuckled to himself, he got the idea from the game "Minecraft" and it's ender chests. The seal was designed in a way similar to a storage scroll with added concepts that would allow the seal to be connected to other seals. Add a sealing matrix that would allow the seals to recognize specific chakra signatures and it provided a way for people to send their requests to his Mercenary identity without having to worry about other people gaining access to said commissions.

Allen pulls up his blindfold and opens the scroll then narrowing his eyes at who the commission was from.

Akatsuki

Allen rolls up the scroll looking at it with a plainly angered expression, he still remembers all the pain that the group has caused people. He wasn't gonna touch Akatsuki business even with a 10 feet pole. Allen snaps his fingers manipulating chakra into fire as he found out he could do and burns the commission, he quickly sweeps up the ashes and puts it inside a piece of paper with a seal before burning said seal. He wasn't about to take chances with anything related to that group.

Mood officially soured, he pulls his blindfold back over his eyes as he walks over to the kitchen, his lips pulled into a frown. Allen prepares the ingredients for a simple egg omelet before proceeding to make rice, cleaning it, and plopping it into a rice cooker. After he finished cooking his meal, Allen took his plate over to the table to eat. The morning was pretty peaceful aside from the irritating contact from Akatsuki, as he was about to eat another spoonful of rice and egg his hands paused midair right in front of his mouth.

Allen suddenly remembered he and Kakashi were gonna meet up that day to talk about the book he recommended and maybe even about the Icha Icha series. Suddenly in a good mood, Allen hurriedly eats the rest of his meal, drinking a whole glass of water to push the food down lest he choke on it. Quickly taking care of his dishes so he wouldn't have to do it later he wears a black t-shirt with a white hoodie adorned with black striped overtop, grabbing a pair of white sweatpants for his black and white ensemble, he takes out a pair of black sandals before he went downstairs to the shop.

Entering the bookshop he stretches a couple of times before flicking the open sign open and going back behind the counter. "Kakashi did say he'd pick me up for the meet up, I may as well get a couple customers in while waiting."

Kakashi walks into the streets of Konoha seeing its less busy nature since it was still fairly early. He had just come from the memorial stone and the cemetary to talk to Obito, Rin, Minato-sensei, and Kushina-san, as well as take care of their graves. Kakashi walks the now growing familiar path towards the bookshop he's come to frequent, mostly for the person, his new friend, who runs said bookshop. Getting really good recommendations and possibly an Icha Icha supplier is an added bonus.

Soon enough he could see the 2 story building that was Allen's shop and home. Kakashi entered the shop, smiling upon seeing the ever familiar mop of blue hair and the blindfold. "Good Morning Allen!" Kakashi says enthusiastically with a 2 finger mock salute as he enters the shop.

Allen perks up at the voice, throwing a smile in the direction of the voice as he waves at Kakashi, "Kakashi! Good Morning! So, where are we gonna have our little book meeting?" Silent laughter shows through Allen's body language as he rounds the counter and walks in front of it, grabbing his white cane which was leaning over the corner of the counter.

Kakashi approaches Allen giving his hair a small pat before laying his hand on Allen's shoulder, guiding him out the door to where he had planned to have their little book meet at. "Ano… Did you forget already? I'm hurt Allen, I told you last time ne? There's a really good dango shop that gives off a comfy homey vibe."

Allen rubs the back of his head sheepishly at forgetting, throwing Kakashi an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Things have been really hectic, or well…interesting to say the least, I already told you all about it yesterday." Kakashi shakes his head amused, "Maa, it's fine, I was joking actually, come on, it's just a little bit a ways from here, I've actually gotten to read quite a bit of the book while on the mission."

Kakashi and Allen chat all the way to the Dango Shop, going from one topic to another, Allen occasionally asking a question related to ninjas that wouldn't really be considered classified. He was more mercenary than ninja afterall, and even tho he once saw this world through a screen, being there in person was different and allowed him more opportunities to learn about the workings of society in the world.

When they do arrive at the Dango Shop Allen ordered a couple for himself to munch on while Kakashi just got one of the Cold beverages available to occasionally sip on, genjutsu in place to hide his face from everyone. Allen internally pouted at this, he already saw Kakashi's face from watching the show after all, but he kinda wanted to see it for himself. That being said, he can't exactly be revealing he wasn't actually blind randomly, and Allen didn't want to think about what Kakashi would think for him pretending to be blind and mute in the first place. At first, they went about talking about the book Allen recommended exchanging their thoughts, favorite scenes, least favorite moments, favorite characters, and so on. They went back and forth with the discussion, occasionally getting into a debate about certain parts of the story, at least the parts where Kakashi has already read. They took a break for lunch, moving over to a Curry shop nearby to eat lunch, where Allen decided to use his advantage in asking the foods Kakashi liked even though he already knew the main ones from his viewer experience. Still Allen wanted to get to know Kakashi, not relying on what he knows of him from the show, and taking the time to actually acquaint himself with him as a new friend.

In the dark corners of his mind, a traitorous voice tells Allen that he was nothing but a fake, using his knowledge of Kakashi from the show to get close to him. Allen couldn't deny the thought no matter what reason he tried to give himself.

After lunch they continued and moved to the park with their discussions, this time, they talked about the Icha Icha series, occasionally teasing each other on opinions on some of the more savory scenes, yet during this time, Allen's thoughts slowly became heavier shackles, weighing his mood down as he spent his time with Kakashi.

"Shouldn't you be ashamed? You're taking advantage of what you know to get closer to him."

"You'll only end up breaking him more than he already is, don't you feel any guilt at all?"

"Hypocrite, you said you wouldn't interfere, it's bad enough you've integrated yourself with Konoha, but you're even inserting yourself in important people's lives."

"You should stop now, distance yourself before it's too late, you'll only end up hurting the people around here more."

It was getting harder to smile, it was getting harder to move his hands as swift and fluid as they usually were. It was getting harder to hide the shaking of his hands as he continued to sign out replies to Kakashi's words, inquiries, and questions. It was soon nearing dinner time, and Allen's smile was fading, shaky, as though it could fall at any moment, he only hoped that Kakashi didn't notice.

"That's right, he shouldn't notice, he has no time to worry about an intruder like you."

A twitch in his smile. He pushes on. Kakashi laughs at something he Allen says. He can't remember what he signed out to make Kakashi laugh.

"You should stop now, Intruder. It'll help everyone if you stay away. Just watch, as you always have. This world is just for your entertainment afterall. "

His smile slips for a moment, he pulls it back straight away. Kakashi notices, he tilts his head to the side, his eyes show a flicker of worry hidden under his usual gaze off indifference, Allen couldn't see it though, not while he dons cloth over his eyes pretending to be blind. He brushed it off saying he was fine, Kakashi, being the perceptive ninja that he is, didn't fall for it but let it slide and continued talking.

"It's time to put some distance…don't you think?"

"...Right….it's time to leave."

Kakashi stood up, stretching, "Maa, today has been…fun, how bout dinner?" He asks with an eye smile.

Allen's head was bowed down for a moment, Kakashi was standing so he couldn't see Allen biting his lip, as though holding back from crying. Allen releases a breath, he looks up to Kakashi, a smile forced on his face as he stands up.

"Ah, no it's fine, I just realized I have an errand to do back at home…thanks for today thought, it was very fun, I haven't had a friend to talk with like this in a long time, it's been great!"

Kakashi enters the cold silence confines of his house, thoughts weighing his mind. Allen's face, obstructed by the piece of cloth though may be, flashed through his mind. His words, signed out with hands almost mechanical, monotone, devoid of the usual exuberance he somehow manages to convey through swift and graceful hand movements.

Kakashi tries replaying the day, from when he picked up the bright man he has grown to outwardly call his friend, to the time they parted ways at the park. Kakashi may have only one always functioning eye, but that didn't mean he was blind to the changes in the other man's demeanor. He was a shinobi afterall. One must be able to look underneath the underneath in order to be a good ninja, a ninja that doesn't die on the battlefield. Yet, Kakashi didn't see it, not until it may have been too late. When he asked Allen if he was okay, he tried not to look too worried, he didn't wanna encroach too much on the man's space. They were friends, but they've only actually interacted with each other a handful of times.

Allen said he was fine, Kakashi was tempted to push, he wishes he did push. Yet he didn't, he thought that it could have been that Allen was just getting tired, they've been out the entire day after all, and even if it was something more serious, he thought he couldn't ask. He didn't wanna force himself into whatever Allen was worrying about, as it could have possibly made Allen hide more, distance himself just as Kakashi once did with his team in his childhood.

Gawd, he really should have pushed…

The next day Kakashi woke up really early, he couldn't sleep, the words Allen spoke before they parted ways echoing in his head like something was wrong. He got up and went to the memorial stone. He talked about his worries, and what happened to the names on the stones, knowing he won't actually receive an answer. He spends a couple more hours just standing in front of the stone before he looks to the sky, noticing it was around 10 in the morning judging by the sun's position. He walks to the ever familiar bookstore his grown fond of.

As Kakashi grew closer, his brow furrowed at the sign he saw on the door. Closed.

"That's fine, I could always make my usual window entrance…"

Kakashi walked up the wall of the store before hopping into Allen's window, he frowns seeing the curtains of the window open but no sign of Allen inside. Kakashi jumped back down, deciding to look through the window of the book shop, finding no sign of Allen in there either.

"Kakashi?" a voice called out from behind him making him turn around.

It was Kurenai. "Ah, Kurenai, how are you?" Kakashi asked with an eye smile in place concealing what he felt.

"What are you doing here? Don't you know Allen-san is out of the village this week?" Kurenai says with an eyebrow raised, Kakashi's eye widens. "Out of the village? What for?"

Kurenai appraises Kakashi carefully, "He put in a request for an escort last night, I think it was to the Wind Country? I think it has something to do with more books for his store. Didn't he tell you? Pretty sure Anko saw you two yesterday as she went by her favorite dango place."

Kakashi internally frowns at that, "Maa, maybe it slipped his mind to tell me. I heard your team has grown quite attached to him?"

A small smile adorns Kurenai's face, "That's right, Hinata especially, I don't know what exactly he told her, and what is it with that book he recommended, but she's gotten a lot more confident these days. Even Lord Hyuuga asked me what it was I was teaching her that caused such a change in her."

Kakashi smiles at that genuine, "Maa, he does seem to have a way with words." Kurenai laughs at that.

"He does, I mean this is one of the longest times I've spoken to you without you deflecting my words somewhat, he does seem to have quite an effect on people despite being a civilian." Kurenai says in earnest, she was glad her friend Kakashi has found someone to be more expressive with.

Kakashi tenses a little at that before his posture goes back to it's usual lazy posture, "Maa, if you say so." He pulls out his book, falling back to old habits, Kurenai simply lets out a worried sigh.

"Well, I suppose I'll see you sometime," Kakashi says, nose buried in his book as he waves Kurenai bye, walking away from the desolate shop. Some part of him tells him to go get another mission, get his mind off of everything, distract him from the kind gentle smile, and firm yet petite hands that he has grown used to. He briefly remembers the feeling of running his hand through the fluffy blue hair the smaller man has.

It's been a week, and let's just say Kakashi has gone from worried to irritated very quickly. He spotted Allen, but as he greets the blue man, Allen immediately turns to the opposite direction from where he called out and walks the other way, like he hadn't heard Kakashi call out to thim. Now, usually Kakashi wouldn't mind such treatment, he would be a hypocrite otherwise, after all, he treats most of the people who care about him and might be friends with him that way as well. But to actually be treated like that, yeah it kinda annoyed him.

After a while, Kakashi calmed down and rationalized with himself that Allen probably needed space. He knew after all, that the bluenette was going through something, maybe he just needed space. He took a mission that lasted a week, and found that he was still being avoided by Allen. Not only that, he saw Allen act as he usually did towards Kurenai and her genin team. Kakashi tried to convince himself the painful feeling in his chest was because of an injury he got during his mission.

Let's not mention how he didnt even get any injuries near his chest on his mission, and that he was already fully healed after an hour at the hospital.

Kakashi walks into the Shinobi bar, his usual aloof self, he hears people call out to him, looking up from his book he sees Gai, Asuma, and Kurenai around a table. He hums, taking a seat next to Kurenai. Sitting down, his ninja friends notice the slight underlying tenseness Kakashi had in the way he held himself no matter how hard he tries to keep to his aloof persona. It's been a month since he talked to Allen.

"MY RIVAL! I CHALLENGE YOU TO A COMPETITION OF-"

"Maa, did you say something?" Kakashi bites out, tone trying to sound uncaring but a bit aggressive by accident. Gai loses his overly exuberant facade, seeing how it isn't the time for that.

"Damn Kakashi, you look like hell," Asuma commented, taking a swig of sake. Kakashi throws him an unimpressed look. "I just came back from reporting to Tsunade-sama," was the quick and short reply from the silver haired nin.

Kurenai frowns at the state of her friend, "Is it because of Allen-san?" She asked, she noticed of course, that Allen was avoiding Kakashi like the plague, but she also thought that she shouldn't intrude on whatever it was that was going on with the 2 friends. She knew she hit on point when Kakashi tenses further before visibly deflating.

Gai noticing the change in his friend frowned a rare frown, "Allen-san? Who's that?" Kurenai looks to Kakashi who seemed to be having no response to the question then back to Gai to answer, "Allen-san is the owner of the bookshop down in the Entertainment District, he's the guy who gave Kakashi a recommendation on a couple books he could read."

"What does he have to do with…" Asuma trails off gesturing at Kakashi who still seemed to be lost in a whirlwind of thoughts, staring blankly at the pages of his book as he did his best to ignore that conversation taking place about him, right in front of him.

"Allen-san started avoiding Kakashi, I don't know why, and although I know him too, I don't think it's my place to ask." Kurenai explains to Gai and Asuma with a small frown on her face, she takes a shot of sake afterwards.

"RIVAL…WHY NOT JUST FACE HIM FULL ON! SHOW HIM YOUR YOUTH AND ASK WHY HE IS AVOIDING YOU!" Gai suggests fiercely. Finally, Kakashi looks, face looking like he's given up on the particular subject, "As soon as I try to greet him, he avoids me, and when I try to sneak up on him, he's somehow a step ahead of me and have gone out the village, whether it's to go to nearby villages to do book trades, or sell out some book stocks that are unpopular in Konoha but popular in other places."

Asuma let's out a puff of smoke, "A civilian is avoiding you and he's succeeding? A civilian managing to avoid Sharingan Kakashi? Now, I've heard of everything." Kakashi let's out an annoyed huff, "If I actually tried to get serious about doing so I might just be forcing out whatever is wrong out of him, I don't want that."

Asuma frowns, "But if you just let him keep avoiding you nothing will be solved."

Kakashi looks down to the small glass of sake in front of him, "Maybe…maybe it's for the best."

Kurenai, Gai, and Asuma all frown harder at that, "Why is that for the best?" Gai asked, joyful remarks of youth and vigor suddenly gone.

"Maa, he would have eventually figured it best to stay away from me lest he end up dead as well," Kakashi says, voice flat, his grip on the glass tight, almost enough to shatter it.

Before anyone else can say something, Kakashi abruptly stands up, leaving some Ryo on the table to pay for what he drank, he wordlessly walks out the door. The 3 ninja left behind could only look as their silver-haired friend leaves the bar, mood worse than before.

Allen lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling. Today marks the end of the second month of staying away from Kakashi. He didn't expect Kakashi to still be trying to talk to after the first 3 weeks avoiding him. It was hard enough keeping his distance, even harder to blatantly avoid the man who he's grown to care for as a friend. One of his precious people. He wasn't blind, it was mostly a disguise to seem weaker than the average civilian after all, but even with his blindfold on he can hear the hurt in Kakashi's voice as time goes by with him ignoring the silver-haired nin.

Allen nearly gave up a couple of times, but then his doubts and insecurities creep up on him, reminding him how fake he was, how he was taking advantage of knowing a lot about the world. It doesn't help that he feels all of it to be true, he can't actually be Kakashi's friend when he kept so much from the man. So he persevered, hoping everyday Kakashi would eventually realize that their only budding friendship wasn't worth it and leave to continue on with his life. Continue on to the adventures, hardships, and victories he'll achieve in the future.

True to what he thought he wished for Kakashi stopped trying to talk to him, stopped trying to confront him half way through the second month. Allen can now go back to being in the background watching everything unfold like how it was when he was still just a normal college student watching "Naruto" as a pastime, reading fanfics and fanboying over his favorite character Kakashi, internally cheering the silver-haired nin on his endeavors.

He was growing tired now though, so very tired. He was starting to slip, even genin like Hinata, Kiba, and Shino were beginning to notice something. That wasn't allowed to happen. He didn't miss Kakashi. He didn't miss him at all, he only actually interacted with the man for a total of around 3 days at most if one were to calculate the hours, maybe even less. Allen sighs, rolls out of bed, does his routine, before picking up his blindolf. Going to the bathroom he sees himself in the mirror. Dark eye bags greet him as he stares at his miserable appearance, he puts the blindfold on.

"It's another day, I can do this."

Allen went through the motions of the day as usual, selling books in his shop, rereading Icha Icha Forbidden Love for what could be the 30th time since he got it and attending to his daily necessities, aka Food, Hygiene, Exercise, etc. Soon enough the sun sets and he gets up to close shop.

Allen was taking the sign that stood outside for advertisement for a new stock of books when he heard footsteps behind him, his heart started beating faster. Only one person would come here around this time but he hasn't seen him in half a month. He turned to run back to his shop and lock himself in when the voice spoke up, not who he thought it was.

"ALLEN-SAN!" A fierce voice calls out, Gai-san, his memory supplies him.

Turning around slowly to face the youthful ninja Allen nods his head apprehensively, this was after all, Kakashi's best friend. For all he knew, Gai came to beat the snot out of him. The logical part of his brain helpfully reminds him that Gai wasn't like that. "May I help you with something Shinobi-san?"

Gai goes silent for a moment, it was eerie in a way, the Gai I've grown used to when watching the show was loud, boisterous, very…youthful. "MY RIVAL…" Gai shakes his head. "My friend Kakashi, has reverted back to how he was when 2 of his other friends left him, the worst part is that unlike those 2 friends, the friend that causes his current lack of youthfulness is alive."

The words Gai uttered were one who was simply stating facts. Not blaming Allen, not blaming Allen for being the reason Kakashi is feeling sadness that never truly ended when he lost his precious people. Shaky hands, unable to hide anymore raised to sign, "We're not friends, barely were beginning to be, we only knew ever interacted with each other for a short amount of hours if brought together."

The dark thoughts in his mind told him he was doing the right thing. Saying the right thing. Gai frowned further, it was unnerving and uncharacteristic of the man. "The total time one spends with another isn't a determinant of one's closeness with another. Kakashi, my rival, found quick but meaningful and deep friendship with you, the short time you have known each other doesn't matter. If your feelings connect, then that's all that's necessary."

"Kakashi and I will lose that so-called connection, he lives the life of a ninja, I live the simple, spoiled, cushy, life of a civilian."

"I can see the Will of Fire burn youthfully within you, civilian or not you still hold the spark that most shinobis hold."

"I don't wanna be friends with a kille-," Allen's hands stutter to a stop, his breathing did so as well as he processed what he nearly signed out from his efforts to keep Kakashi away, to keep himself away from those heavily involved with the story. Efforts…that he himself didn't really wanna have or do.

Allen raises up his hands, Gai should see now, he doesn't deserve to be Kakashi's friend. Kakashi is truly better off with Allen keeping himself as far away from Kakashi as possible. "I don't deserve to be his friend."

"Only Kakashi himself can decide that." Gai replies, still firm.

"It's too late, he's given up on me, just as I had pushed him away." Allen rebutes.

"MY RIVAL IS ALWAYS LATE, I'M SURE HE WOULDN'T MIND IT!" Gai says, voice louder, as if trying to say that his words should not be challenged. He's beginning to sound like the Gai Allen was used to seeing and hearing on the screen.

"I wouldn't know what to say."

"THEN YOU MUST SPEAK FROM THE HEART! LET KAKASHI HEAR YOUR YOUTHFUL PASSIONS!"

"I wouldn't know how to face him."

"COURAGE WOULD NOT BE COURAGE IF ONE WASN'T FIRST AFRAID!"

"...I'm sorry Shinobi-san, I think, it's better to put things to rest," Allen let's a sad smile grace his face, he may not have truly wanted deep down, to sever his nurturing bond with Kakashi, but what's done is done. If Allen was so easily swayed by his own doubts and insecurities, who's to say even if he did make it up to Kakashi right now, he wouldn't do it again down the road?

"Very well, " Gai said, voice understanding and suddenly small once again. Allen hears the sound of footsteps leaving the vicinity.

"I've done it. I've severed all possible chances at getting close to him again…Perhaps it is best I leave now."

As Allen lowers his head slightly, a silent tremor runs through his body as the cloth of his blindfold darkens from growing damp with tears.

Unbeknownst to him, a red eye swirls, a witness to the conversation between shinobi and civilian.

Allen looked back at his now bare apartment from the stairs, he had already packed up everything that he needed to bring with him in a large backpack which now rested at the foot of the stairs. Earlier that day, Allen went to the Hokage Tower to put up a request for an escort to Amagakure, he paid quite the hefty sum in order to bump up the mission to B-rank that way he should get at least chunin level ninja.

After his conversation with Gai, Allen set about deciding his next course of action. After much thought he decided that he would leave his bookshop untouched, and that after it passes the time of paying any forms of taxes it may have, officials will shut down the shop and deal with any of the books and items left inside themselves. Allen felt sadness well in him at the thoughts of all the books just being discarded as though they were all just a bunch of pieces of paper. Books were after all made from that, but they were so much more than that too.

It was nearing 11:30 in the morning when he set out to the Hokage Tower. Hopefully, someone would have been assigned to the request by now. Taking one last look at the small shop filled with large memories, he took a step forward to his new path in life.

Kakashi never truly gave up, contrary to Allen's thoughts. Instead he would set himself up on a nearby but far enough roof where he could use his sharingan to clearly watch over Allen. Despite finally accepting that perhaps staying away and severing his ties with the blind civilian was the best course of action for all parties involved, Kakashi found himself still watching from afar. Allen still was, after all, dealing with something, at the very least Kakashi thought that after he was sure that Allen had resolved whatever it was that was weighing him down, he would leave the blue-haired civilian alone for good.

Kakashi spent half of the second month like this. He'd take the occasional mission here and there to get his own mind off of things. Not wanting to dwell on any feelings he might have of the situation, but most times, Kakashi would find himself perched on top one of the nearby roofs, concealing his chakra, not that Allen could have sensed him due to him being a civilian, in order to remain undetected.

So when it neared the beginning of the 3rd month where Allen and Kakashi's budding friendship was wilting unwillingly, imagine Kakashi's surprise when he sees Gai confront Allen. He knew of course, that his long time friend, though he may never admit it out loud, would have noticed the change in him, how he has regressed back to those times of seclusion and self-isolation back when his teammates left him. Even throughout the years he kept a sizable distance with all of those who considered him a friend, but even then he still joined them on occasion.

Kakashi didn't know what to feel as Allen started talking, his hands which were once graceful and fluid in their movement, now a shaky jittery mess. As if the civilian was forcing them to move with much difficulty. Kakashi watched the back and forth of two people who were probably the closest to him. One due to the long history, and the other due to the deep connection they seemed to have despite the difference in life with one of them being a shinobi, and the other a civilian.

"I don't want to be friends with a kille-"

Kakashi felt like he just got stabbed in the chest. He wondered if he should have left at that moment, but he was drawn in, stuck in place at the words that got cut off by the person who uttered them. Yet unlike most people who showed such disgust with him for his history, one that he didn't want nor had a choice to avoid. Allen cut himself off, reeling in with disgust and disappointment in himself.

"So he knew the whole time…

Allen knew the whole time about what people would often refer to him, especially in the past, but befriended him anyway. Kakashi, as emotionally constipated as he is, still understood that the words uttered were one of someone trying to maintain their distance, pushing people away, either to protect themselves or others from some nonexistent threat remains to be seen. Ironic because that's what Kakashi has been doing to other people for a long time.

"I don't deserve to be his friend"

Kakashi watches Allen continue, a back and forth of excuses and encouragement between the two before Allen put an end to the exchange. Kakashi watches Gai leave. Kakashi didn't miss the dampening of the cloth on top of Allen's eyes as he mourns for a lost friendship he severed himself. Kakashi watches as Allen enters the shop, tired resolution in his posture as though getting ready for the end.

"So that's it then…it's over for good…"

Kakashi pulls down his hitai-ate, giving one last look at the blue-haired civilian before taking off. He'll go home. Sleep for now, but he'll take another mission tomorrow. It's the only way he new to distract himself, book now heavy in his ninja pack.

Allen knocks softly at the Hokage's office, entering once hearing the voice inside give him permission too. "Has there been someone assigned to my mission request?"

Tsunade stands from his seat with a smile, "Ah Rue-san, yes, he should be here any moment now." Tsunade then sends the window to her office an annoyed glance before a figure lands on the window sill and enters a room with a thud.

"Maa, sorry for being late, I had to help an old lady cross the stre-'' Kakashi ends up cutting himself off when he sees Allen, eyes widening in surprise.

Allen's entire body tenses, recognizing the voice he has gotten accustomed to listening too. Allen tried to ignore the visible exhaustion and lack of playfulness in the voice, him being the reason why that is the case.

Tsunade looks appraisingly at the reaction of the 2 people in front of her. She's heard, of course, about Kakashi's unusual but pleasant friendship with the unusual but interesting bookseller. She herself found Allen intriguing especially when he bravely pointed out the improper ways of care that the Daimyo's wife showered on her pet.

Kakashi broke the silence, "Maa, Allen-san, I guess I'll be your escort for this trip of yours." An eye smile, thrown his way, again Allen couldn't see it through the fabric that adorned his face. Even if he could have, emotions that swirled behind Kakashi's eyelid would have remained unknown.

Kakashi watched Allen be so tense, he looked like he was a spring wound so tight he could burst out at any moment. "Perhaps it isn't the end afterall. I'm done losing my precious people, I'm not gonna let Allen get away without a fight."

As he eye smiled at Allen a spark of determination went unnoticed under his eyelids. Kakashi briefly muses if that's what Naruto felt as he incessantly insists on bringing Sasuke back.

Tsunade watches all this with mild amusement.

When Kakashi went to get a mission that morning, he was just expecting some run of the mill B or A-rank mission since Tsunade won't give him more than 2 S-ranks a week. He already did 2. Then as he accepted the mission scroll earlier that morning, he didn't even bother looking through the scroll, bad thing to do as a ninja honestly, but he had been quite out of it. Besides, Tsunade already gave him a brief overview of what it was he was to do anyway, he just didn't know it was Allen that he was gonna be escorting.

Still Kakashi wasn't gonna look a gift horse in its mouth. A smirk forms under his lips as he looks at the unfurled scroll in front. Earlier he told Allen to just meet him at the gates before taking off once again out the window, leaving a still stunned Allen at the Hokage's office. Kakashi focuses on the words on the scroll.

"Maa, this mission might be a waste of money Allen, because you're gonna be coming back to Konoha in the end."

Kakashi's lone eye moves to the figure approaching from a distance, distraught in appearance and wrecked with conflicting thoughts and emotions.

As Kakashi leaves back out through the window, it took Allen a full minute to snap out of his shock. Looking at Tsunade Allen gives her a conflicted expression.

"I wasn't aware that you two had something going on right now Rue-san, but it sure is quite intriguing that one of our best shinobi seems to be more than acquainted with you. Especially since that so-called shinobi is Kakashi." Tsunade looms over Allen, forget about the fact that Allen was taller than her.

"It's alright Hokage-sama, Kakashi is an excellent shinobi, I'm sure he'll give me my money's worth for the mission." Allen signs unsure of what he was saying, nonetheless he bowed in respect before seeing himself out the door and to the Konoha Gates.

As Allen walked towards his destination he couldn't keep his mind silent, he knew that the time it takes around a day and a half if he were to go full speed as Shizuka, but being a civilian they would be walking the whole way and may take around 5 days maybe an entire week with breaks to get there. At this point he was debating whether he should just go back to the Hokage Tower and ask for someone else to escort him. The small part of him that cling onto small amount of memories of each interaction he had with Kakashi, untainted by his doubts, worries, and insecurities, somehow won battle for the first time in awhile and he continued on with his walk to where he was to meet with the silver-haired nin.

After Allen met with Kakashi at the gates of Konoha, they set off for Amagakure, the first few hours of travel was awkward, tense even. Allen felt like he was suffocating waiting for Kakashi to ask him questions, not even ask him questions but talk or say something to him in general, but to his surprise- and disappointment, Kakashi was silent as he walked beside Allen, orange book out. Allen didn't wanna acknowledge the twinge in his chest at Kakashi not reading the book he recommended to him. He doesn't even know if Kakashi finished the book either.

Kakashi on the other hand was very aware of Allen being uncomfortable with the atmosphere between the two of them, he wanted to see if given enough time in each other's presence, Allen may just crack and start talking to himself. Kakashi was aware how long the journey to Amagakure was gonna take, especially with the amount of luggage Allen was carrying, so he had already planned out how he was gonna try and get through to the civilian. Kakashi blatantly ignores the very obvious reason for the large amount of baggage Allen was carrying.

After about 5 hours of travel, with the sun having set and the cool breeze of the evening started to be noticable, Kakashi made the call of camping out for the night, Allen manages a nod despite his shock at the first uttered words between them.

"Maa, Allen-san, how have you been?" Kakashi said, throwing Allen an eye smile, he didn't bother to hide his slightly disheveled appearance. Kakashi may be trying to mend his relationship – Friendship – with Allen, but that's not gonna stop him from being petty. The rational non-petty side of his mind reminds him Allen wouldn't be able to see his disheveled appearance anyway, blind as the man was.

Allen tenses for a moment before his demeanor drops, now noticing the honorific attached to his name, as well as the less jovial tone of Kakashi's voice despite the attempted light hearted tone, Allen mentally kicks himself reminding himself that that's what he was going for anyway. The reminder only serves to make him feel worse, still he raises his hands to sign in reply, "Fine, the shop has been doing well."

Kakashi's eye narrow, Allen's signing has grown sluggish, as if it was a pain to even bother doing so, and he worded things in a way that left no room for further discussion or conversation.

"Alright, hard way it is, if he won't drop this first then I'll have to pull it out of him."

Kakashi nods, eye smile still present on his face, this unnerved Allen even more as it kind of seemed off. How right he was about that.

The next day Allen found himself subjected to Kakashi talking out loud. He knows Kakashi was directing it at him, he ignores kind of had a warm feeling surround him at seeing the familiar book recommendation in Kakashi's hand as Kakashi would speak out his thoughts, inquiries, and theories about the literature in his hands. Not that one could really make theories of a book of that genre. Allen found his hands twitching ever so often, having to visibly hold himself back from signing a reply.

When Kakashi dropped his book and Allen reached down to feel for where it could be in an attempt to pick it up for Kakashi, no one commented when Kakashi's hands brushed against Allen's despite the fact the book was not near Allen's hand.

On the third day Allen knows Kakashi is doing things on purpose when the silver-haired nin would wonder out loud what other books he could read that were similar to Icha Icha.

When he reached into his bag and pulled out a book called "Night Out" and handed it to Kakashi, he didn't see the look of triumph that graces Kakashi's masked face, they continue with their journey, stopping and taking a break in a clearing they found where Kakashi offers to cook. Allen was pleasantly surprised at Kakashi's cooking skills, he blatantly asks for seconds and thirds. Kakashi makes a teasing remark about Allen gaining a substantial amount of weight by the time they arrive at Amagakure.

Allen pointedly ignores him, and still asks for fourths. They continue on their way an hour later where Kakashi once again continues his weird actions that Allen is now truly deciding was severely out of character for the man. That evening, Kakashi cooks for them both again, Allen doing as he did so during lunch. Kakashi looks at Allen's more energetic appearance with a pleased expression as he continues to once again pull the man into conversation like the first night. He fails but he still takes it as progress when he at least made Allen sign more than 2 sentences at a remark Kakashi knew was something that heavily contradicted Allen's morals when it comes to stories.

On the fourth day, Kakashi and Allen found a lake where they both decided to take a dip in.

"Did I do something wrong that day?" Kakashi asks, a towel tied around his head forming a makeshift mask as he sat at a more shallow area of the lake with Allen, Allen for the first time in a while, froze in the water, blindfold still worn in the water as he processed Kakashi's words.

Kakashi observed what was visible on Allen's face, not obscured by the blindfold. He watches the way Allen bites his lip before parting his mouth open slightly to breath in more air than usual, he watches all the different movements and shuffles that Allen does before he finally got a reply from surprisingly steady hands.

"They still lack their usual energy" Kakashi notes thoughtfully as he pays attention.

"No." The reply came, short, blunt and factual, Allen stood up from the water, grabbing a towel on the branch, "Let's go, we should get there by tomorrow evening." Allen signs before he turns around and walks quickly back to their campsite. Kakashi frowned at the conflicting response, words not matching with actions.

He didn't see the confused, conflicted, and hesitant expression partially hidden by cloth on Allen's face as he turned to leave.

The last day of travel has come, Kakashi and Allen walk side by side in silence much like the first day of traveling they had, unlike the first day however, the atmosphere wasn't tense and awkward but rather fragile. Almost like if a word was uttered by either of the two, something may just break in the moment.

Lunch comes by, they continue with their silence, Kakashi not pulling any of his "plans" as he digested the moment at the lake the previous day, analyzing the moment and every second of it, how brief though it may be.

Kakashi opens his mouth to finally say something an hour after they stopped for lunch.

"Al-"

The sound of a blade passing through air and the immediate reaction of Kakashi's senses as an experienced ninja cuts him off from even finishing the first word as he grabs Allen and body flickers a few feet to the left, a couple kunai embedding themselves to the floor.

"Well well well! Look what we got here! Guess I'll be giving Jashin some high quality offerings this time!" A voice, familiar for all the wrong reasons, makes itself known, 2 figures jump down from their hiding spot.

Allen recognized the voice from the show. Hidan, and most likely Kakuzu.

"This was very bad…"

Allen shakes in mild fear, not for himself no, he knew he'd come back even if he gets killed then. Allen feared for Kakashi. There was no doubt in his mind that Kakashi was a strong shinobi, but against two of the Akatsuki, especially ones as troublesome and durable as this duo, was plain bad luck. Honestly, why exactly did Allen think Amegakure was a good destination?

"How could I have forgotten about where the Akatsuki had their headquarters!"

Allen mentally cursed at himself at his stupidity, Kakashi stood near him, kunai drawn and in a fighting stance.

"Hey Look who it is! Sharingan Kakashi! or is Kakashi the Copy Nin better?" Hidan jokes, his three bladed scythe lazily leaned on his shoulder as he held it with one hand. "Stop playing Hidan, it's not the time for jokes." Kakuzu admonishes from beside him.

"Maa, I'm not here to deal with you two." Kakashi interjected, not letting his guard down one moment, the hand not holding a kunai stretched slightly, an arm out as though trying to keep Allen back from the possible conflict. Hidan grins as he looks at Kakashi and Allen like prey, suddenly he pounced.

Making a quick hand sign with the hand not holding a kunai, Kakashi created a shadow clone that lifts Allen by his waist taking him away from the now actual fight. Kakashi blocks the swing of a scythe with the kunai, deflecting it to the side as he strafes to the right, letting the scythe slide off into the ground. Using the moment of Hidan pulling the scythe up from the ground, Kakashi throws the kunai at Hidan only to be impaled by what seemed like sharp thin gray tendrils. The Kakashi that was impaled with the tendrils suddenly disperses into smoke, only revealing what was a log in place.

Hidan easily dodged the kunai aimed at him, turning only to be met with a barrage of shuriken which he took on without much resistance with a thrilled grin. Kakuzu who upon realizing the decoy turned around to Kakashi making making hand signs at a rapid pace, "Katon: Yurika no Jutsu!" Kakashi breathes out a gigantic fireball sending it straight at Kakuzu before body flickering to the opposite sides quickly making hand signs as he slams a palm down to the ground, "Doton: Iwane Wooru!".

Rock Walls rise from the grounds, closing Kakuzu off with no place to escape as Hidan then makes his presence known once again bringing down his scythe, Kakashi narrowly avoids the slash as he rolls to the side pulling up his hitai-ate revealing his sharingan. An explosion occurs from the area Kakuzu was, revealing a wall of the same gray tendrils seen earlier, effectively blocking the earlier attack. Kakashi narrows his eyes ready for what is to follow.

The Kakashi clone jumped from tree to tree trying to put as much distance as possible from the fight and Allen as possible. It wasn't safe to have a clone spawned in while fighting such dangerous opponents, much less 2 S-class missing nins. Allen tried to disperse the clone, struggling in clone Kakashi's grasp as the distance between Allen and the real Kakashi grew.

"No, damn it, Kakashi shouldn't be fighting those two this early! He's been tired too! All because of me!"

Allen struggled harder, it was to no avail.

"He could die back there and it'll be my fault…"

He grips the Clone Kakashi's jounin vest, pulling on him, trying to get him to look even for a moment so he could sign something out.

"Self-sacrificing bastard, I'm just some client! A client who-"

Allen grits his teeth.

"No, pushing Kakashi away, denying the friendship we had formed, the bond we had formed changed more of what was supposed to happen than not keeping to myself…"

Underneath the blindfold, his eyebrows furrow into angry determination, God's Eyes Doujutsu whirling at a very fast pace.

"I'm done keeping quiet!"

"Hey." Allen spoke out in front of someone, a clone though it may be after a long time. The clone staggers, almost tripping on a tree branch. The Kakashi clone looks down to Allen, as he pulls up his blind fold, bangs being lifted out the way as it was turned into somewhat of a hairband, as he looks into the clones eyes further shocking the silver-haired nin.

"Put me down."

In an instant, the Kakashi clone obeyed as per the the orders or his intent infused words, he felt slightly more chakra drain from his reserves, large though they be, the clone Kakashi gains control of his body, surprise only momentarily stopping him. "Allen wha-"

Allen glared at him with bright burning fury, directed at mostly himself, Kakashi gets cut off by the intense look. "You're an idiot! You know who those two are! You can't take them! Not by yourself!" The voice comes out with an unused raspy quality to it despite the heat behind them.

Kakashi gets out of his stunned state, he and Allen will discuss this later but for now- "I had to keep you safe first." Kakashi raises a hand out already expecting the rebuttal from Allen, he was right as Allen promptly shut his mouth again. "When I took this mission, I had no intention of letting you leave Konoha permanently, you're my friend, you may not be a teammate but I'm not losing a friend again." Kakashi looked at Allen with the same amount of determination, if not more.

The two glared at each other, a unique first time experience between the two considering Allen's 'blind' and 'mute' front. Allen continued, "I get it…but even if I…" Allen thought for a moment.

"It wasn't time for Kakashi to find out about his identity as Shizuka right now."

"Even if I wasn't a ninja, or I don't know how to fight like you do I can still help, you felt what my voice was able to do just now, and I promise you my eyes are far more powerful than your sharingan." Allen explained, slightly hurried due to the urgency of the situation, Kakashi was strong, and his clone still hasn't dispelled, that means he was still holding up against Hidan and Kakuzu.

Kakashi appraised this new side of Allen. When the real Kakashi gets these memories, he's in for a big surprise. "Alright, tell me what your eyes can do on the way." He says, bending down to let Allen get on piggyback.

"Okay so first…"

As Kakashi fought to at the very least buy time for his clone to get Allen far away, he skillfully avoided Hidan's relentless strikes, but Kakuzu's elemental attacks created a challenging scenario. The battlefield became a chaotic mix of fire and wind, limiting Kakashi's mobility. As Hidan continued his assault, Kakuzu strategically corned Kakashi with earth-style barriers.

Caught in a pincer movement, Kakashi found himself at a disadvantage. Hidan's unpredictable movements and Kakuzu's relentless pursuit forced Kakashi into a defensive stance. Despite his mastery of the Sharingan, the sheer unpredictability of the duo as well as his unfamiliarity with their unique and uncommon personal techniques overwhelmed him momentarily.

Hidan, exploiting Kakashi's distraction, landed a critical blow with his ritualistic blade, leaving Kakashi wounded and weakened. Kakuzu seized the opportunity, launching a barrage of elemental attacks to further incapacitate the already disadvantaged Kakashi as Hidan consumes some of Kakashi's blood that got on his scythe, his appearance changing giving way to to white skin with black markings, "You'll be a great sacrifice to Jashin-sama!" He begins drawing the circle needed to activate his curse technique.

Struggling to regain control, Kakashi assessed his options. With Hidan's immortality and Kakuzu's relentless assaults, Kakashi needed a strategic breakthrough. Gathering his remaining strength, Kakashi unleashed a blindingly fast Lightning Blade to create an opening, but Hidan, activates his Curse Technique, swiftly stabbing one of the blades of his scythe to his own leg, Kakashi's body mirroring the injury as he falls to his knees.

As Kakashi was put in a disadvantage, his left leg rapidly bleeding, leaving him in a worse position than earlier, he watches as Hidan grins predatory and stretches a hand over his chest in a gesture that implies death on Kakashi's part. Suddenly, an onslaught of memories enter his mind, not having the time to process it right now he did as what was told to him in the last few moments of his clones memory by Allen, not dwelling on the use of his voice, Kakashi rolls to the left, his peripherals telling him he had just dodged an attack from behind courtesy of Kakuzu, before he heard a whisper of Allen's voice that he only remembers through his clones memories with that same tone before his clone obediently put him down earlier.

"Stop and step out the circle."

All of a sudden Hidan couldn't move his body as it was then forced to step out the circle, Hidan letting out a confused angered yell on what was going on.

"Dig out your heart." Allen continued in whisper, still enforcing his intent into his words as he felt his chakra drain further. Hidan, now out of the circle, his connection with Kakashi cut, stabbed into his own chest and dug his heart out. Kakuzu, who was surprised at all this, didn't follow through with his attack. "Hidan! You idiot, what are you doing!"

"I don't know what's going on man!" Hidan growled annoyed. Kakashi was relieved they didn't hear Allen's voice. Kakuzu refocused, turning his gaze on Kakashi as he moved to finish the Copy nin off. At that moment, a rustle in the bushes was heard by Kakashi, Hidan, and Kakuzu all direct their attention towards the bush, as a tri-pronged kunai flew out followed by a blue-flash.

"What the! How'd they get away!" Hidan calls out making Kakuzu look only to find no sign of the Copy nin, not even a drop of blood from his injuries.

"No blood from Kakashi gets left behind by the time the two enemy nin look to his previous location," The voice said, humor underlying his tone as he and Kakashi reappeared a distance away from the two Akatsuki members next to a tree with a seal similar to the one Minato used for his Hiraishin Jutsu.

Kakashi looks to Allen stunned, great surprise with underlying respect and relief on his expression as he looks at Allen, not really seeing him, more focused on his mind as he sorts through his clone's memories for a brief moment. Allen allows him the liberty to do so, he was fairly sure they weren't gonna get tracked down by the two missing nin due to the distance as well as the lack of tracks for them to trace to them.

The two of them sat under the tree that had the seal, Allen having pulled his blindfold back down, his eyes now also going back to their usual light blue pupil and white sclera, was sitting quietly waiting for Kakashi to sort through his memories. Now that the danger has passed, and his adrenaline was fading away, nervous energy thrummed through his vein at what Kakashi was to say about his now revealed secrets.

He hasn't even revealed the Shizuka thing yet. If he'll even be forgiven for the events this time around.

Kakashi turns to Allen seeing the nervousness of the shorter man and let's out an amused huff. Kakashi's leg was now wrapped with bandages, Allen had to do first aid earlier, with the help of his eyes to stitch him up and prevent bleeding. It was beginning to be a good thing that Allen took a nursing major in college back before he was isekai'd. Kakashi lifts a hand and lays it on top of Allen's head, ruffling the soft but fluffy hair on his head with a soft chuckle, "We…we have so much to talk about."

Allen lifts his head slightly, hair still being pressed under the weight of Kakashi's hand, he smiles, letting out a sigh in relief and happiness.

"Yeah.. we do."

Allen says, the words this time not having been forced out by the urgent situation but from pure willfulness to reveal that side of himself to Kakashi, he didn't mind the small amount of chakra that drains out from words not even having any intention to be used with Absolute Command.

"Alright, you win… a bond with Kakashi should be fine.." For the first time in a while, Allen smiles once again.

As Clone Kakashi raced to the forest with Allen on his back, as he listened to some of the capabilities of the God's Eyes, or Yochigan, Kakashi suggested instead, he had an idea. "Your eyes are like all dojutsus combined into one and then some, from what you say it's also a lot more capable and compatible with your body if you can copy and masterfully perform jutsus after just seeing it once. Can you do the same with seals?" Kakashi asked.

Allen pretended to think for a brief moment before replying, "Well I'm not sure about more complex seals, but I've actually been secretly making my own storage scrolls after looking at the ones I saw in my travels before I became a permanent citizen of Konoha." He explained clearly.

Kakashi, the clone, takes out a tri-pronged kunai, one that Allen has become familiar with throughout the show. He lets his confusion show at the current moment though. "What is it?" He asks.

"This was an integral part of my sensei, the 4th Hokage's special invented jutsu, the Hiraishin, it allowed him to essentially teleport to where the seal on the kunai is by entering a dimensional void. You also briefly mentioned being able to see the memories behind an object if you concentrated?" Kakashi asks mid explanation, "Yes, but it uses more chakra, I was fortunate enough to have been born with abnormally large reserves, most likely my body's response to adapt to when I activated the…Yochigan." Allen says, using the newly suggested name.

Kakashi grins, "Look into the memories behind us, I'll take us a distance away first."

Allen looks at the object unsure. He already knows a lot from having once been a viewer of this world, but Kakashi was essentially trusting him with a lot more than what was usually normal between those who have been friends. Especially considering they haven't really been friends the past 2 months prior to this. "Are you sure?"

Kakashi lets out an amused huff, "Yes, hurry." That was all the confirmation Allen needed as he channeled more chakra into his eyes focusing on the tri-pronged kunai in hands. He promptly lost consciousness shortly after, kunai still clutched tightly in his hand.

Just as quickly as he passed out, Allen woke up again, "I think I've got it down…you, you're really strong you know that…?" He says, giving Kakashi's shoulder a firm grip for a moment before they loosened. Kakashi smiles, "Maa, thanks, alright, use it here." Kakashi lands in front of a tree, letting Allen off his back.

Allen stood in front of the tree, he didn't exactly have a brush so he had to make do, with the help of the yochigan, Allen drew the Hiraishin seal on the tree's bark using pure chakra, Kakashi let out an impressed whistle. "I'm not sure if it's gonna work though."

"I trust you," Kakashi says, unusual in this situation since he didn't know that Allen was Shizuka the Silent Death, but the sentiment made a warm feeling rise up in Allen's chest. "Now, I dispel myself-"

"Wait." Allen says, using the yochigan to look into the future, Kakashi's future, his eyes widen suddenly, "Kakashi, you have to disperse and dodge, NOW!" Allen says with urgency as the Kakashi clone dismisses himself sending an onslaught of memories to the real Kakashi, hopefully Kakashi gets out from Kakuzu's surprise attack.

Allen used the hiraishin jutsu, entering the what seemed to be a dimension void where time did not pass, instead of setting the destination to the seal on the kunai Kakashi had on him, he made use of his yochigan to appear silently in a nearby bush, just in time to stop Hidan from killing Kakashi through his cursed technique.

Back to the current time, Kakashi stood with the help of Allen, an arm slung around the shorter man's shoulder as they walked into the area they previously camped at. It took a lot of breaks and a day and a half for them to get there. Allen helped Kakashi into a sitting position on a nicely shaped rock as he sat down next to him. "You wouldn't happen to have a storage scroll of food on you do you?" Allen asks.

"Maa, we left all my things back there since you wouldn't be able to carry me this far while also carrying all of my baggage. Plus, yours got left behind in the area where we fought with the Akatsuki." Kakashi reminds Allen, leaning into the blue-haired man for the sake of proximity. His instincts were still slightly wired in a way that he was prepared to make sure Allen doesn't slip from his grasp at any given opportunity.

Allen let out an annoyed sound at that, he had his blindfold up currently, eyes their normal non doujutsu state. As good as he was in navigating with it on as Shizuka, not only does Kakashi still not know about that identity, it was still a lot safer and quicker if he was able to use his vision. The yochigan would suddenly appear at times when he'd get startled or when an emotion of his got too high, but aside from the chakra drain, things were alright.

"I can understand why you hide the yochigan, especially with how it keeps turning on when you're too riled up or experience large emotions. But why your voice too?" Kakashi asks, tilting his head slightly as he looks down to Allen.

"It drains my chakra. It's like how your sharingan is constantly active, even now as I speak, I can feel it draining a little of my chakra as if I was using Absolute Command." Allen explains with a soft sigh.

"Maa, you could sign you know, as much as it is a delight to hear your voice now that I know you actually have one, seeing you sign is also really nice, the way you move your hands is also unique to you." Kakashi looked up to the sky, it seemed like it was around noon right now. Kakashi breaths in the air through his mask, savoring the warm forest scent that was around them.

Allen looks down for a moment before tapping a finger to Kakashi's leg to get his attention, "I'll go search for some fruits to eat." Allen taps at the side of his head near his eyes.

Kakashi nods, thinking for a moment before adding, "Maa, take one of my ninken with you." He says, biting into his finger as he does the summoning jutsu. Pakku appears in a puff of smoke. "Yo boss!" Pakkun says before he looks to Kakashi's state then to Allen who looked like he wanted to pet Pakkun.

"Pakkun, can you accompany Allen here to go gather some foor?" Kakashi asks with an eye smile. Pakkun salutes, turning and facing Allen, "Come on kid, let's go!" he says as he starts walking towards the forest, stopping a distance to look back at Allen as though gesturing 'follow me'.

Allen chuckles at the pug and follows. He holds back from just petting the pug with no permission.

After an hour or so of gathering and foraging for fruits, and berries to eat, Allen and Pakkun, who got to talking while doing so, got a little closer. Allen actually got to pet the intelligent pug, as Pakkun turns out thoroughly enjoys it. Belly rubs too. Pakkun asks Allen about him and Kakashi, to which Allen starts signing out a long series of words retelling Kakashi and his first meeting up until the current point of time.

When both human and pug reentered the clearing, Allen had used his loose sleeve as a makeshift racksack to carry all of the foraged food back into the clearing. Thanks to his Doujutsu he was able to determine what each fruit were and what effects they had upon being eaten, should even have an effect in the first place.

"Maa, poor little ol me, got replaced by a pug," Kakashi dramatically sighs, Allen who simply set down all the foraged food with a roll of his eyes turned to pat Pakkun affectionately in front of Kakashi with a teasing smile.

Kakashi pouts at the action, "Ano…you're so mean Allen-chan~ I'm the injured one over here, shouldn't I be getting tender loving care?" He whines jokingly.

Allen snorts at the antics, Pakkun deciding to join in with a quick, "Boss, you run usually away from tender loving care, Allen was probably just playing it safe." Before he dismissed himself.

Kakashi lets out a small laugh at that, "Ne, it seems you got quite close with Pakkun in the short time you two had some alone time?"

Allen lets out a huff, bringing up his hands to sign at Kakashi, "He's really adorable, his fur was very smooth, plus it's an experience talking to animals."

Kakashi's eye softened at the words, bending down to pick up an apple from the fruit pile in front of him, wincing softly when the action jostled his injured leg.

"Don't move too much, that was a really deep injury," Allen frowned as he looked at the bandaging around Kakashi's leg.

"I've lived through worse," Kakashi returns, not snarky or even with bite, but just that. A statement. A fact.

Allen walks closer sitting across the Kakashi Fruit pile between them. "I know," Allen replies, now able to do so. He was right about what he thought he'd see when looking into the tri-pronged kunai's 'memories'. He was both shocked and happy that Kakashi willingly shared that moment of his life with Allen. Even though the situation called for urgency and he was partly to blame why they ended up in said situation.

A comfortable silence settled between the two as they ate their fill with the fruits. It wasnt gonna last them long, not for the journey back to Konoha, but they'll take what they can get.

As another day passes by, Allen and Kakashi finds themselves barely making any progress on their journey back to Konoha.

"I think it's infected now," Kakashi says, his eyes wrinkled up slightly as he winces in pain. Allen looks to Kakashi's injured leg, his Yochigan activating on will as he stared at the state of Kakashi's leg.

Allen looked back up to Kakashi's face, he was supporting Kakashi with his entire body acting as a crutch for the silver-haired nin, leaving his hands occupied with keeping Kakashi supported, "No sht sherlock," Allen deadpans back.

After a moment of silence he speaks again, "You sure you don't want me to just hiraishin us back to Konoha? From what I could tell when I saw the kunai's history and memory, Minato-sama left his seal all over Konoha."

Kakashi hums noncommittally, briefly looking up to the now growing dark sky before turning his head back down leaning his weight more onto Allen. "You said you didn't want people to find out about your eyes and your voice. If you have to explain how you know the Hiraishin no Jutsu, you'll have to bring up your eyes."

Allen frowns, "I'm not putting your health at jeopardy just to keep my secrets. Besides, it's not like I have to say every single thing my eyes can do. I've barely even been able to tell you everything earlier." Allen grunts and shifts slightly to better account for Kakashi's weight.

"You're pretty strong for a civilian."

"I carry books all day, I literally carried everything I owned on our way to Amagakure."

"Maa, I'm sure a lot of your belongings were in sealing scrolls…sorry about your things by the way."

Allen shrugs, "I could just say I have it in my hand and it'll all appear in my hand if I wanted to, not now though. I don't think I can carry you and my things."

"I'm guessing you still have a lot you're not telling me?"

Allen freezes at that. His heart speeds up at the words as he struggles to push words out his mouth. "No need to get antsy, I…I trust you, when you're ready, tell me." Kakashi reassures Allen, Allen shoots him a grateful smile that Kakashi throws back at him.

"We still need to talk though," Kakashi adds after a while. Allen sighs, head hanging low before he looks at Kakashi with a resigned nod. Kakashi smiles in triumph.

"So then A-llen-chan," Kakashi begins, emphasising every syllable of his name with an added affectionate, if not teasing, honorific. "Mind telling me what possessed you to avoid me for 2 whole months and even flee to another village?" Kakashi eye smiles at Allen, a thinly veiled threat of his hand, the one slung over Allen's shoulder, gripping slightly tighter at Allen's shoulder to imply that he was very much not pleased by the treatment.

Allen avoids his face turning to the side, eyes going to and forth between the Yochigan and its normal state. "I…I felt that I was intruding," Allen slowly admits he's hanging low.

"Intrude? How so?" Kakashi says with a furrowed brow, not truly understanding how that could be the case.

Allen debates with himself for a moment whether or not he was to spin something up that makes sense, so as to not reveal any of his other secrets. Kakashi notices.

"Is it too hard to say? I want the truth, just tell me if you can't tell me." Kakashi says with a serious expression, something Allen hasn't seen directed at him, mostly reserved to those that Kakashi meets as Sharingan Kakashi.

Allen tries to organize his thoughts before speaking, "We…haven't known each other long. But even so, I kinda feel like I know a lot about you? Does that make sense? I don't mean it in a way that I know you as you are quite the famous ninja either. You are a very well known ninja Kakashi, that much is true, but I mean on a personal level. I'm not supposed to know you that deeply, but I kind of feel like I do and that both thrills and terrifies me."

Kakashi watches Allen's face as various emotions make themselves known as he talks, he urges Allen to continue. "Then I think about how great you are, but I also got the sense that the front you had on when outdoors like on our first interaction was a wall built to protect yourself. I know a little more context on that now." Allen sends Kakashi a knowing look, his eyes flicking to the kunai hidden somewhere on Kakashi's person, before they make their way back to Kakashi's face.

Kakashi felt his own breath hitch at the look, not sympathy, not pity, not disgust, but just knowing and acknowledging. Acknowledging Kakashi's past as the experience that it is with all the feelings and bitter memories attached. He sees immense respect in the vibrant light blue orbs that made up Allen's eyes.

"But I felt out of place, like I'm some kind of extra butting into an already perfect story." Allen finishes with a frown, "What if I ruin what is already a good flow of how things are to go in the world?"

Kakashi appraises Allen before lifting up his free hand to flick Allen at the side of his head. "Idiot," Kakashi says with a bit of mirth in his voice as he smiles genuinely under his mask. "There's no such thing as a perfect story. Nothing is set in stone, life isn't linear and how people act, live their lives and interact with other people all changes the future that will always come no matter what happens."

Kakashi looked up, the moon was out now and they still hadn't gotten close to being half way back to Konoha. "Even if you know one line of events that are to happen, there will always be other sets of events that could have happened, and sure it could have been better, but it's no one's fault if it doesn't happen because of a choice."

Kakashi looks to Allens eyes, his eye crinkle up slightly as he gives Allen a soft look. "You can't intrude on me because even if my life were part of a bigger story, each person is the star of their own stories and how they go through and expand on it is all up to them."

He then moves his free hand from having flicked Allen to laying it on top of Allen's head to ruffle his hair. He really liked doing that, it was very soft and fluffy. "Pretty sure you should have just let it be up to me to decide whether or not I wanted you gone, hm?" Kakashi said light heartedly, Allen let out a resigned but happy sigh.

"Alright, I get it. I'm still not, a hundred percent on board. In the grand scheme of things," Allen looks to Kakashi to convey that it involved something a lot deeper than what he had said earlier. "But at least when it comes to you, our friendship, our bond, and the people themselves. I'll try not to overthink it." Allen finally settles, looking up to see many stars adorn the night sky.

"Your really strong Kakashi, I'm glad I got close to you." Allen said under his breath as he looked up at the starry sky. Kakashi hears it despite the quiet volume that it was spoken in.

"Me too."

Despite Kakashi's disagreement, Allen decided to go ahead with using the Hiraishin to get back to Konoha when they got to the halfway mark of getting there. Kakashi was barely maintaining consciousness as he lacked energy and necessary nutrients for his body to heal as they didn't have many options for food.

At some point Allen was tempted to use Absolute Command to make the injury disappear, but he hadn't actually tried healing someone before using it, he didn't have a grasp of how much chakra it would consume. He couldn't risk passing out from chakra exhaustion from trying it, especially since he wouldn't even know how effective it would be.

Allen thought it would prove more troublesome to summon back his luggage as there was the possibility that the 2 missing nins had already taken or inspected it, if the luggage were to suddenly disappear it could tip the Akatsuki to his abilities in one form or another.

As he appeared in a red blur at the hospital in Konoha, discovering that there was a Hiraishin seal placed at the lobby –convenient if he thinks about it– Medical staff rushed towards them lifting Kakashi's weight off of him as Kakashi weakly looks to him, "You better…be there when I wake up." He managed to get out before getting hauled off by a Sakura who heard and rushed in seeing her sensei in such a state.

Anbu surrounded Allen. He had put his blindfold back securely in place before performing the jutsu.

"Allen Rue, the Hokage wants to see you." The masked nins said, no emotion lacing their voices as he just allows himself to be escorted. No doubt to be questioned.

Allen stood before Tsunade, he couldn't see her expression, unfortunate because now he couldn't tell how much trouble he is in.

Tsunade waves a hand to dismiss all the Anbu in the area. "Rue-san, things involving you has gotten quite troublesome. You've surprised everyone in the hospital arriving in a blue blur. Reminds me an awful lot like certain Hokage's jutsu."

Allen nodded his head, he heard no suspicion in her voice, simply just that of someone who was tired of having to deal with more things. "A lot of things happened, it wasn't something easy to avoid." Allen signs, mouth drawn in a thin line. Doesn't mean Tsunade wasn't directing blatant suspicion at him yet, doesn't mean she wasn't the least bit suspicious of him. She was one of the legendary Sannin. Allen wouldn't be surprised if she was good at making sure her thoughts and feelings stayed out of her voice.

Allen pushes his blindfold up letting his vibrant light blue eyes look straight into Tsunade's own as he activates the Yochigan. Tsunade's eyes narrow, her posture straightens, "Explain." She says voice, stern, tight, intimidating.

Allen starts signing the fastest he has ever signed since he first fell into this world.

"I see," Tsunade says after Allen's unorganized explanation of the events that had occured. Allen stares at Tsunade, he had turned off the Yochigan earlier, but it kept turning on as he felt anxiety spike through him while explaining under the intense gaze of the Hokage. He hasn't had the time to replenish his reserves, and he had about the high chunin amount of chakra left from the constant use of his eyes and voice the past couple of days.

Allen waited with baited breath as Tsunade closed her eyes as though in deep thought. As Allen fumbled with his hands worried about Kakashi and how he was doing, as well as whatever verdict Tsunade was gonna come to, he was beginning to get a little jittery as well.

"She doesn't know I'm Shizuka right? Shizuka never showed his eyes or talked before either, but the fact I even have a doujutsu is suspicious in of itself. Especially since I only came to this village not too long ago."

Tsunade watches as Allen shuffles in place, worry clear in his eyes along with his body language, she can see the way his Yochigan flickers on and off from the fluctuations of his emotions. She internally winces, she doesn't want to imagine how much chakra that thing drains. Tsunade already made sure to have the anbu make sure that the people who witnessed the scene be sworn to silence through her order. It was fortunate that Allen thought ahead to Hiraishin to the shinobi hospital and not the ninja one. He just narrowly avoided giving her an even bigger headache if civilians, aside from Allen himself, saw someone use the 4th Hokages Jutsu.

"I thought I'd have a bit of a break from such situations while Naruto's out of the village with Jiraiya." Tsunade thinks with a sign.

"How many jutsus do you know?" She finally decided to ask. Allen looks up, "...A lot Hokage-sama."

Tsunade stares harder, she looks scrutinizingly at Allen as if trying to decipher a code. "A blind and mute civilian. Except he isn't actually blind but rather, had a very powerful doujutsu, one that hasn't been noted or heard of before. Everything about him is suspicious. Strange, sudden."

Tsunade thinks back to the files on Allen she had called Shizune to find earlier before Allen arrived, not much was there. But that was what stood out the most now. Not much was there, almost like he only suddenly appeared recently. Her eyes widened.

"Someone who suddenly appeared and made such large ripples in the shinobi world."

Tsunade interlaced her fingers together in front of her as she sat on her desk, hands propped on the table blocking her mouth from Allen's view. She smiled, "Shizuka."

Allen freezes, eyes widening at being addressed by that name. Even his hands went stock still.

Tsunade smirked, "So I was right." Allen mentally cursed himself. "Was he that easy to be baited?"

Allen lets out a resigned sigh. Crossing his arms over his chest, words made from fire appear, "Was I that easy?" He says with a raised brow, a pout on his lips.

"The way you carry yourself is different, but both you and Shizuka the Silent Death suddenly appeared abruptly. It helps that both of you are blind and mute, except it's not both, it's just you." Tsunade says smug that her hunch was right before she takes on a much more serious expression.

"What are your-"

"I didn't enter Konoha with any ulterior motives or under the guise of a mission. You also already know that me wanting to initially leave wouldn't be because some non-existent commission has been completed. I didn't interact with Kakashi with ulterior motives either." Allen looked at Tsunade with strong determination, almost challenging her to try and say he was lying. Although he still held that nervous energy to him, the fierce and calm demeanor that Shizuka became known for shone through Allen's true personality.

Tsunade smiles genuinely, in a way Allen's fierce and slightly defiant look reminded her of Naruto. "I believe you, even as Shizuka you always made sure that your neutral stance was known despite the villages showing their desire to get someone like you on their side. I can also tell that your bond with that brat Kakashi is real, good on him, I was getting tired of the man asking mission after mission despite the strict protocols in place about them."

The tenseness leaves Allen as he lets out a breath of relief. "Please don't tell Kakashi, he doesn't know yet. About me being Shizuka." Allen bows his head in request, he really doesn't know what to do if Tsunade says no.

"I assume I can't get you to accept an offer into the Shinobi ranks of the leaf?" Tsunade asks as a joke, Allen rolls his eyes and just raises an eyebrow at her. "Whatever brat. It's not my business so long as it's not harming Konoha. Seems like you've got things to sort through." Tsunade then smirks, "Expect to receive more commissions from me though, as well as some of the Jounin's catching wind about your use of doujutsu, news always has ways of traveling no matter how hard I try to make things not get out."

Allen nods in understanding at Tsunade, he was getting a bit stir crazy and he really wanted to go visit Kakashi already. Tsunade laughs loud and light-heartedly, she mumbles something about young love that Allen pointedly ignored –No, he wasn't blushing, no matter what anyone else may say– as she dismissed Allen telling him to feel free in visiting Kakashi at the Shinobi Hospital. He pulls down his blindfold over his eyes, sprinting out the door even if it seemed disrespectful.

Allen had a silver-haired nin to visit.

When Allen got to the hospital it had already been past noon, he had used the Hiraishin no Jutsu just after they had breakfast. A simple case of catching and roasting fish that was caught in a nearby lake. With the Hokage finished questioning him– another one of his secrets now known by someone –Allen got to the Cashier, using the ever familiar notepad he always carried to write down who he was visiting.

He didn't have to though, the nurse recognized him immediately as the person who brought Kakashi in, in the first place. Allen was led through the halls of the hospital where he encountered Sakura who was just coming out of Kakashi's hospital room.

"You're Rue-san right? Kakashi-sensei has been inquiring about where you were," Sakura regarded Allen with a curious look. The same type that gossipy teens usually had when they had found new news to gossip about.

"Well, she IS a teenager after all."

Allen shoots her a thankful smile, "Thank you!" Allen lifts up his notepad for her to read.

"It's no problem Rue-san, Kakashi-sensei is family to me too!" Sakura says with a smile. The smile turns into a smirk, "Neh, Rue-san, maybe after Kakashi-sensei gets released the three of us can hang out sometime? Grab some food at Ichirakus?"

Allen sweat drops, "Like mentor like student," Allen thought to himself, deciding to just give Sakura a nod– he already knows he's in for the long haul with the gossipy teen –Allen enters Kakashi's hospital room after bidding Sakura goodbye as she jogs off to another room with a patient.

"Yo!" Kakashi greets with a mock salute from the bed. "Maa, I'm hurt Allen-chan, I didn't see you when I woke up!"

The smile on Allen's face was terrifying as he walked closer to Kakashi's bed, "How about you deal with Hokage-sama for a couple of hours?" The aggressively shaking hand held up the notepad to Kakashi's face, Allen's smile twitched as he smacked Kakashi on the head with the flat side of the notepad.

"Ah, So mean! I'm a patient Allen-chan," Kakashi easily grabs Allen's wrist, the notepad falling from his grip, sliding from Kakashi's head down to his lap. "You sure seem a bit too lively for someone injured and worried for their friend as they were interrogated by the Hokage!" Allen signs aggressively, struggling slightly with one of his wrists held captive by Kakashi.

Kakashi laughs at Allen's irritation, he watches as Allen fumes from his antics and continues to tease him a bit before deciding to cut Allen some slack. "Alright, alright, I'll stop. Really, how did things go with Tsunade-sama? I don't think it went badly if you're here already, that's why I decided to poke some fun…I was worried too." Kakashi chuckles, softly, sending Allen a relieved expression. "Worried for you," were the unspoken words. Allen knows what Kakashi meant anyway.

"Yes, well I managed to get away with not revealing anything about my voice. I twisted the story a little in the way we discussed." Allen signs, he sits at the end of the hospital bed. "Is your leg better? I know shinobi's have amazing medical jutsu's."

Kakashi nods his head as he leans back into the bed. Thankfully the bed was adjusted so it had a high incline allowing him to sit up. "Hmm, Sakura said the stitches were done really well," Kakashi shoots Allen a teasing look. "I've been taken off of missions for a while, it's best to let injuries like these heal naturally when possible. I'll probably ditch the hospital tomorrow."

Kakashi notices the unimpressed stare Allen was leveling with him as he said the last bit. Sweat dropping, Allen thinks for a moment, "How about I make it up to you? I know I didn't make things easy for you when I avoided you and all that, I'll try and see if I can tell Haruno-san to leave you to me. All my things are gone anyway, I'll have to buy my necessities again, so for now I'll stay at your place and–," Allen smirks at Kakashi.

" –and give you your so-called much needed TLC." Allen says in a whisper.

Kakashi blinks, still somewhat surprised at the sudden verbally spoken words before smiling, "Maa, I'll take you up on that."

"So, how many jutsus do you actually know?" Kakashi says arm propped on the table, his chin being propped up by his hand as he uses his other hand to hold a new book that Allen recommended the previous day.

"That's for me to know and you to never find out." Allen signs in between cooking. This has caused him to nearly burn the food a couple times. He throws Kakashi another annoyed look.

It's been a week since they came back from that B-rank turned S-rank escort mission, Allen has gotten a couple of intrigued looks from some shinobi he passes by during the times he'd walk to his shop from Kakashi's house. Allen did convince Sakura to let Kakashi discharge early on the condition that he avoid any challenges from Gai– Kakashi didn't mind that one, one bit– and he eat 3 full meals, and as he was already made aware off, Kakashi wasn't to take any missions until he goes back to the hospital for a checkup and gets an all clear.

Currently, Allen was dodging Kakashi's prying questions while cooking breakfast. Needless to say, it wasn't working.

"Maa, I'm sure you know plenty of jutsus, even as a civilian you've probably encountered plenty of jutsu's when you travelled." Kakashi glances over to Allen who has his back turned on Kakashi as he stirs a metal pot with what he assumed to be soup.

Allen sighs, "Last I remember I don't exactly go around being able to see, don't I?" Allen reminds Kakashi, giving up on signing and just dealing with the chakra drain from using his voice lest he ends up burning the soup. "Why are you so hung up on me knowing lots of jutsus anyway?"

Kakashi looks back to his book, not really focusing on the words on the page. "It's fascinating, not just because it's similar to how I have over a thousand jutsus in my repertoire but also because we possibly exchange, show, and teach each other jutsu's."

Silence blankets the kitchen for a few minutes, the only sounds present being the stirring and gurgling of the soup Allen was making for breakfast. He was making miso soup with eggplant, Kakashi's favorite.

"A lot." Allen finally decides to say. Kakashi looks up from his book confused at the sudden words before understanding graces his face and he grins cheekily. "How'd that happen?" He asks.

"Before I awoke the Yochigan I would often watch ninja's spar, practice, or learn jutsus. One of the Yochigan's abilities allows me to think back to a memory of me seeing a jutsu and allow me to copy and learn said jutsu. It takes a bit more to master it since it's from memory diving, but that's the gist of it." Allen explains, recalling fond but embarrassing memories from when he got to this world and tried out a couple of jutsu's.

"From what you've told me so far, it seems you have large reserves, but I can only feel the amount a civilian would have from you." Kakashi states, a questioning brow raised as he closes his book to continue later.

"Seals, I snuck into what remained of Uzushio before coming here to Konoha, I've read about it from some books I'd come by, I found myself really interested from the start."

"Maa, teach me?" Kakashi asks, turning to lean his cheek on his hand instead, watching as Allen sets bowls on the counter to pour the dish into.

Allen carries the bowls to the dining table giving Kakashi a full view of bright blue orbs, unobstructed by cloth. Allen sets the meal down in front of Kakashi, carrying his own meal and setting it down in front of his seat. "Shouldn't you be more concerned a civilian is sneaking into places he's not suppose to be?" He signs, finally having complete access to his hands.

"You say that as if you aren't basically a ninja already, all you'd need is a hitai-ate, or even just the proper equipment and you'd be jumping into action in no time." Kakashi pulls down his mask to eat, a genjutsu in place preventing Allen from seeing his whole face. Allen pouts, "No, I don't really feel like getting into life-threatening dangerous situations, you know? Rather stick to the imagination."

"Hm, I suppose it's for the best…Will you teach me?" Kakashi once again before he started to dig into the homemade meal.

"Alright," Allen finally relents with a sigh. "Becoming your friend is starting to seem more troublesome than it's worth."

Kakashi smiles when Allen gives in. They both know Allen doesn't mean his last statement. Not even a little

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"What did I do to deserve this?." Allen thought to himself as he questioned all his life decisions thus far.

After having breakfast with Kakashi, promising to teach Kakashi some sealing, he bid his farewell as he set off to his shop. He had to get back in business after all, as financially stable as he was from the money he earns from his mercenary work, Allen lost quite a lot from the trip to Amegakure. He ended up having to pay double for the roundtrip, thankfully Tsunade didn't charge more for Kakashi protecting him from 2 S-Class missing nins.

He got back to his routine, only with the added bonus– yes it was a bonus –of caring for Kakashi. He fanboyed a little at that. That would be great and all if it weren't for the fact that 3 hours into his shift, he hears the door slam open, expecting a robbery or something, only to pale further when he hears an ever so familiar voice.

"MY RIVAL'S NEW FRIEND! I THE GREEN BEAST OF KONOHA IS HERE TO CONGRATULATE YOU ON REKINDLING YOUR YOUTHFUL FRIENDSHIP!"

"Oh hell no." Allen internally cringed.

"Maito-san, thank you for last time," Allen nods his head in the direction where he heard Gai's voice from.

"IT IS NO PROBLEM NEW FRIEND, ANY FRIEND OF KAKASHI'S IS A FRIEND OF MINE!" Gai youthfully says Allen hears him walk forwards and was about to say something else when he suddenly feels Gai's presence behind him adn before he even had the chance to process what was going on, he got lifted up, slung over a sturdy shoulder, and carried off.

"COME! MY HIP AND COOL RIVAL HAS INFORMED ME THAT AS HE IS ON LIGHT DUTY, I AM TO TAKE UP CHALLENGES WITH YOU! YOUR YOUTHFUL MASTERY OF THE 4TH'S JUTSU WILL LET US EMBARK ON A ROAD OF POSSIBILITIES!" Gai youthfully exclaimed as he leaped from room to roof, no doubt heading towards a nearby training ground.

"Kakashi you little-"

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Gai set Kakashi down at an empty training ground, throwing him a 'blinding' smile and a thumbs up before doing some stretching as he says, "NEW FRIEND! AS YOU ARE NO DOUBT CONFUSED ABOUT THE CHALLENGES I SHALL GIVE YOU A BRIEF DESCRIPTION! ME AND MY RIVAL KAKASHI ENGAGE IN CHALLENGES THAT INVIGORATES OUR YOUTH! WE TAKE TURNS DECIDING THE CHALLENGE AND KEEP COUNT OF HOW MANY WINS EACH HAS!"

Gai finishes his stretches before then dramatically pointing at Allen, "I HAVE HEARD OF THE GREAT POWER YOUR EYES HOLD NEW FRIEND! I, MAITO GAI, THE GREEN BEAST OF KONOHA, CHALLENGE YOUUU!"

Allen sweat drops, he was definitely murdering Kakashi in his sleep that night. "Alright." He relents with a sigh.

"WONDERFUL! AS IT WAS MY TURN LAST TIME I CHALLENGED KAKASHI, I SHALL NOW LET YOU PICK TODAY'S CHALLENGE!" Gai once again gives a thumbs up at Allen.

Allen gives up on even questioning how things have ended this way and pulls up his blindfold. Deciding to just go with the flow he looks to Gai, a smirk gracing his lips.

"Gai wants a challenge? Oh I'll give him a challenge alright."

As he sends Gai a smug look, he suddenly disappears in a blue blur, a piece of paper slowly falling to the ground. Gai picks up the paper.

"Hide and Seek, I'll hide, you seek."

Gai grins excited and takes off in a sprint.

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Gai, driven by his indomitable spirit, tirelessly seeks out Allen in their game of Hide and Seek. The Hidden Leaf Village becomes a labyrinth of excitement as Gai vaults, sprints, and scans, determined to uncover the mystery of Allen's elusive hiding place. Meanwhile, Allen utilizes the Hiraishin no Jutsu effortlessly, evading Gai's pursuit. Teleporting to a new location when he sees the green jumpsuit wearing man. Allen always made sure to pick a spot that had good coverage and line of sight for where the exuberant ninja could pass. With each attempt to find Allen, Gai is met with dead ends and the occasional blue blur as Allen Hiraishin's between locations. As the game intensifies, Allen decides to add an element of surprise.

"I'm feeling a bit petty today."

Gai leaps onto a rooftop and is momentarily distracted with a bunch of litter on the roof. "HOW UNYOUTHFUL IT IS TO LEAVE SUCH A MESS! SOMEONE COULD SLIP AND FALL!"

As Gai went to pick up the litter only to find that the pieces of trash would not unstick from his hands, Allen takes a snap of the scene of Gai intensely waving his arms to get the trash off him before silently teleporting to a new location, leaving Gai to his current predicament. With a mischievous grin, Allen continues with his harmless pranks through the game, expertly managing to take a picture of each time Gai fell victim to them. When the sun started to set and Gai called out his loss, Allen materialized behind Gai.

"You almost had me there, Gai. It was a really fun activity to partake in." Allen signs with a grin. Gai, recognizing defeat with a hearty laugh, concedes, "AH, MY YOUTHFUL NEW FRIEND! YOUR MASTERY OF THE HIRAISHIN IS SPLENDID! TRULY, THE FLAMES OF YOUR YOUTH BURNING BRIGHTLY!"

Gai, ever gracious in both victory and defeat, claps Allen on the shoulder. "A WELL-FOUGHT MATCH, FRIEND! YOUR SKILLS HAS PROVEN WORTHY TO BE A CHALLENGE TO I! MAITO GAI, THE GREEN BEAST OF KONOHA!" The unexpected new friendship forged through a game of Hide and Seek, mixed with ninja techniques and civilian ingenuity, becomes known throughout the Jounins, especially a particular group who also call Kakashi their friend.

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Allen entered the Kakashi's house with a sigh, blindfold back in place, white cane in his right hand as he closed the door behind him. After getting roped into a challenge with Gai.

He's still gonna get back at Kakashi somehow for that.

Allen went back to the shop making sure that it was closed. He noticed the sign said closed so Gai must have flipped it as he left with Allen slung across his shoulder earlier and thankful the man at least did so before just hauling his but off somewhere. After making sure his shop was locked up before he went back to Kakashi's– and temporarily his too –place.

Walking into the leaving space he spots Kakashi on the couch book in hand. "Yo!" Kakashi greets with a cheeky smile. 💢

"Fall of the couch." Allen speaks out with intent, watching with great amusement as Kakashi's eyes widen before he ends up getting body flickered off the couch landing with a loud thud on the floor, his book falling on his face as he winces a little from his leg injury.

"You deserve it, I can't believe you sicked Gai on me!" Allen signs irritatedly at Kakashi who was lifting himself up into a sitting position.

"Maa, you sit in the bookshop all day, I thought you needed a little exercise." Kakashi gets off the floor, getting back onto the couch and onto the couch. Allen approached him, a hand out to make sure he didn't bump into anything before he felt a hand grab hold of the wrist of his outstretched hand, getting tugged down onto the couch.

"I get plenty of exercise myself, thank you very much." Allen says with sarcasm as he leans back into the cushions and lets out a relieved sigh.

"Who won though?" Allen faces the direction where the voice was heard and grins. Opening his mouth Allen says, "Me of course! It was with the Fourth's jutsu after all!"

Kakashi chuckles. Allen proceeds to bring out the stack of pictures he got of Gai falling to his tricks during the challenge.

They laugh over it all.

Another week passes by and Kakashi is given the clean bill of health from Sakura. With Kakashi back to his injury-free self, Allen set about moving back into his apartment. Kakashi helped the not-so-blind-and-mute civilian and in the record time of 2 hours, Allen got all his stuff back to him apartment, restocked on the things and necessities he lost on the trip to Amegakure on that same day giving him time to teach Kakashi how to make the seal Allen used to hide his chakra.

It took a lot of seals exploding in people's faces and homes. Allen's apartment specifically as Kakashi was already there in helping him bring his stuff back in any way. Eventually, Kakashi manages to successfully create one. It was on a piece of paper as it wouldn't have been safe to be trying things out on the human skin, but after Kakashi stuck it onto his arm and channeled chakra into it, his chakra seemed to appear as though he only had the capacity of a low chunin. It wouldn't be able to work against the Byakugan, but unless someone with at least a fully tomoe Sharingan looks carefully, Kakashi while the seal was active, would appear to have a lower amount of chakra than he actually possessed.

"I don't see how this would be useful to you. You're already a famous ninja. No self-respecting, knowledgeable shinobi would really believe that you actually have low chunin chakra. Besides, it could fall of since its just paper stuck to your skin." Allen signed with an amused expression as he watched Kakashi look smug for managing to create the seal.

"Don't be such a downer," Kakashi throws back at him with a sharp look, Allen simply shakes his head with a smile.

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Kakashi does take a mission in the middle of the week, it was a higher ranked one considering Kakashi said he might be gone longer than usual. Allen sees Kakashi off at the gates with a wave, this time he had a team with him, people that Allen don't remember seeing in the film. His team seemed to look shocked and bewildered at Kakashi genuinely smiling as he waved goodbye to Allen. Allen snorts at their expressions amused.

Allen spent the entire week just manding his shop, Team 8 came by at some point, mentioning having a final C-rank mission before taking the Chunin exams. Hinata has permanently lost her stutter and even seemed to show a glimpse of her fierce, determined, and strong older self. Hinata hugged Allen with a happy hum. She tells Allen how glad she was that he was back to being his usual self. Kurenai gives Allen a knowing smile, nodding to the young heiress's in agreement. Kiba allows Allen to pet Akamaru, while Shino gives Allen an insect cage with a mantis inside as a gift. Allen ruffles the teens's heads thanking them for their care.

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The following day after Team 8's visit, after feeding his new pet mantis, and doing his daily routine, he went out into the village, deciding to close the shop for the day to have a day to himself. As he stopped by the dango shop for a snack, he encounters Team Guy on his way out, dango in his mouth.

"AH NEW FRIEND! IT IS GOOD TO SEE YOU! WHAT YOUTHFUL THINGS ARE YOU UP TO TODAY?" Gai asked with a youthful pat to the back. Allen nearly chokes on the dango he had in his mouth.

"I'm doing well, I decided to get some time to myself so I closed the shop for today." Allen signs out, Tenten and Lee seemed confused at what he just said.

"YOSHH! IT IS ALWAYS GOOD TO GIVE ONESELF TIME TO BATHE IN THE SPRINGTIME OF YOUUUUTHHHHH!" Gai exclaims, the people around them starting to stare weirdly at them. Allen snorts.

"GAI-SENSEI YOU'RE TOTALLY RIGHT!" Lee joins in too, Tenten and Neji look like they wanted to have nothing to do with the 2 for the moment.

"Who are you?" Neji asks, calm and cold at the same time as he scrutinizes Allen.

Allen brings up his hands to sign only to be beaten to it by Gai, "THIS HERE IS MY RIVAL'S YOUTHFUL NEW FRIEND ALLEN RUE! HE IS AN EXCELLENT BOOKSELLER AND THE ONLY CURRENT USER OF THE FOURTH HOKAGE'S SPECIAL JUTSU!"

Allen pinched the bridge of his nose at the proclamation, thankfully they had walked into a more secluded area at that point. "The Fourth's jutsu? Hiraishin no Jutsu?! I've read about it in the library!" Tenten exclaims, looking surprised.

Neji just looks at Allen more, "How?" he asks.

"Always a man of few words as usual." Allen muses.

Allen listens out for any signs of people aside from them for a moment, this earns a confused look from the genin as it seemed like Allen was just standing stock still facing the air. After Allen was sure it really was just them there, he pulls up his blindfold letting his bright blue orbs be visible to the curies genins as he activates the Yochigan briefly before turning it off right after. He pulls his blindfold down right after.

Neji frowns, "I don't know any doujutsus that looks like that." Neji looks to Allen, expecting the man to explain. Allen doesn't dignify him an answer.

"How well are you able to use it?" Tenten asks respectfully, though her eyes shows her immense interest. Allen thinks for a moment before grabbing his notepad and pen from his pocket to scribble an answer quickly. "I can use it good enough that I won in a game of hide and seek with your sensei."

Neji looks to Gai for confirmation, unwilling to just take Allen's word for it. Gai flashes a blinding smile at Neji which makes him partially regret even looking at Gai.

After Tenten sent a barrage of questions Allen's way, Allen doing his best to answer as many as he could to the best of his abilities without revealing anything big or still hidden, Gai asked Allen if he could help with the training for that day.

Allen was skeptical, after all, it's not like Gai knew about his identity as Shizuka, so the only thing he knows of Allen is his ability to use the Hiraishin, as well as the fact Allen had a never before seen doujutsu.

"I PLAN TO ENGAGE MY YOUTHFUL STUDENTS IN A GAME OF TAG TODAY! IT WOULD BE VERY YOUTHFUL IF YOU COULD LEND YOUR ASSISTANCE!" Gai proudly exclaims giving Allen an expectant look.

Allen gives in. 

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After a tiring game of Tag, which Allen found to be unfair for the genin's side. Especially considering the fact that Hiraishin no Jutsu is literally teleportation. Allen leaves the training ground with all three genin having gotten a lasting impression of him from their time playing Tag.

Allen walks through the streets of Konoha, white cane sliding left and right on the floor to navigate his way to his next destination. The hot springs.

He never really got the chance to try it out. Before he got sent to this world, the country he lived in didn't really have any hot springs, so he never got to experience it. Silent buzzing excitement thrums under his skin as he makes his way to the hot springs. He pays the necessary fees needed and enters the male section— he made extra sure it was the male section, opting to listen in for masculine voices —and slowly lowers himself into the warm and muscle relaxing water.

"Definitely worth it." Allen thought as he sank deeper, the water reaching his neck as he closed his eyes under the blindfold to savour the feeling.

By the time Allen got out of the Hot Springs, the sun was setting and the usually busy streets of Konoha begins to give way to silence.

The warm breeze passes through him as he tilts his head up slightly, inhaling the scents that travel through the streets. Food from food stalls, perfume from some fancy shops, even the smell of gunpowder from fireworks and paint on festival masks.

Allen let the wind flutter his hair as he resumed his walk. His feet taking him to a nearby park. The one where he initially left Kakashi before avoiding him for 2 months. The park that became the place where his doubts, insecurities, fears, and anxiety took hold of him and dragged him under.

He still hasn't floated to the surface but his talk and time with Kakashi was like the moment someone goes to the surface to breathe in air before diving back down into the dark deep.

Allen listened to all the sounds that surrounded him, enjoying the symphony that nature played for him while he reflected on prior events. He was still iffy when it came to interfering too much with the events, but for now? Allen was willing to push back the old-fashioned guidelines. That in another time, another world, would have brought about something that spelled destruction and pain.

"For now, I'll enjoy the time I have with my new precious people."

That evening, Allen went to bed with a light heart as he dreamt of the future that could be.

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When morning came the next day, Allen woke up to a commission scroll on his living room table.

"The cons of being a civilian. Can't be booby trapping my apartment like a ninja would."

Allen lets out a breath, resigned to whatever fate the commission will bring him, he opens the scroll and reads its contents. ".....What?"

In the cover that the darkness of the night provides, Shizuka lands on the roof of a nearby house. From where he perched, he took a deep breath using echolocation as a means to determine the landscape in front of him. Two lifeless bodies lay behind him, a clean kill with the use of the combination of specific chemicals and poison to deliver a quick yet painful silent death.

They never saw it coming.

When Shizuka finishes surveying the area, managing to create a mental representation of what the entire place looked like, another benefit of having the Yochigan. He didn't need to take the blindfold off to use it after all. Shizuka vaguely wonders what Kakashi would say if Shizuka told him that the only actual reason he wears the blindfold is to prevent seeing information that other people wouldn't want him to see. It wasn't his fault that looking at people with the Yochigan allowed him to know a brief rundown of that person. After all, that was a breach of privacy.

Shaking his head out of unnecessary thoughts, "I have a commission to do." He reminds himself.

Shizuka takes out a scroll, unrolls it, and puts it over the 2 lifeless bodies. Channeling chakra into the seal, the 2 bodies disappear into the scroll as Shizuka rolls it back up and places the scroll inside his kimono.

"Two down, more to go."

Shizuka leaps over the wall that enclosed Danzo's residence with ease and grace, landing soundlessly unto the ground on the other side. Crouching low, Shizuka takes out a slip of paper with an elegant looking seal on it. Channeling chakra in a way that didn't activate the seal but rather transfer it into his skin as he presses the seal down into his arm just above his elbow, Shizuka then activates the seal with a burst of chakra. A seal of diversion, a seal that makes those around divert their attention away from him. It was more natural and effective to use than a seal of invisibility as it utilizes people's subconscious unlike how invisibility gives way to extreme lack of nothing which would actually be more suspicious to a Ninja's senses.

Shizuka sneaks past the guards in a silent stroll, the guards suddenly seeming to think they heard something in a different direction as their heads look away to the opposite direction of where Shizuka was. Shizuka walks into the house, though unable to feel the presence of the skilled ROOT agents, he felt the sound of the night go through them like vibrations hitting a wall only to be dampened by passing through it. With a quick flick of the wrist, the ROOT agents' heads lean forward no longer being supported by conscious muscle movement. Lifeless.

Shizuka with his Yochigan active under his blindfold foresaw them attacking him, aiming to kill. He wasn't gonna let them have the luxury to do so.

He pushed forth with his endeavor, he wasn't arrogant enough to think that Danzo hadn't been alerted of his arrival yet. He had purposely let one of the three scouts that he encountered outside the compound escape on purpose after all. Assassination calls for a quick kill without the target knowing, but Shizuka took this commission personally now. He wanted to see Danzo regret in his last moments, the actions he took to maintain the so-called 'power' or 'prestige' Konoha must have. The people he took advantage of, the people he hurt, all for his greed for power.

First comes first though, he needs to deal with the pesky ROOT agents.

"I've already made sure he can't escape from the compound anyway. He's a caged beast nearing his end."

Shizuka deals with five more ROOT Agents that come his way, foreseeing how they planned to attack him, beating them to it and turning their own initiative against them.

Five more down.

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It was nearing 1 in the morning, Shizuka had about what could be a small mountain of bodies sealed into the scroll, good thing he found a way to shorten the seal formula for a higher capacity storage scroll that allowed for living things to be stored in it without him having to opt for a bigger scroll.

A body falls into Shizuka's arms as he lowers the body down to the ground, he seals them into the scroll, moving on. Shizuka lifted his blindfold up with his thumb to survey the area. He finds a secret passage under a tatami mat.

He grins. He fixes his blindfold back on his eyes.

A figure lands behind him, before rushing forward with a kunai in hand. Shizuka slides to the side avoiding the attack as he spins to look at his assailant. Under normal circumstances he would have ended this ROOT Agent without knowing him. Being isekai'd into a world that he's seen the ending off had its perks as he appraises the attacker with his sensitive hearing.

The sound of ink sploshing inside a container.

Sai.

As Sai got ready to use his unique jutsu, brush in hand poised to draw out something on the scrolls that was about to open, Shizuka body flickers behind the boy delivering a swift neck chop rendering him unconscious.

Transferring a Paralysis seal from a piece of paper to Sai's forehead, Shizuka moves on swiftly dealing with all agents that come his way.

"I'm beginning to feel bad for these agents. Really glad for the cheat abilities too. Thanks again Kamisama!"

Shizuka was making his way down the secret passage when another seal located at his wrist started to tingle. Shizuka halts for a moment, a smirk gracing his lips before he makes quick work of two more ROOT ninja formulating a plan to take him down.

"I should stop dawdling. Hmm, I've still got about 70% of my chakra reserves left."

A sembon thrown. A body falls.

"For a man hungry for power he sure knows how to flee quickly."

He makes 3 Shadow Clones instructing them to investigate the other rooms. Shizuka moves forward where a rotten old man got caught in a trap. The clones disperse, sending him memories of children found in chambers. The clones tagged the rooms with barrier seals preventing harm from coming to them.

Shizuka spawns 3 more shadow clones to entertain and comfort the children as he deals with garbage.

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When Danzo was informed that the compound was breached, he immediately sent units of his ROOT agents to deal with the intruder. What Danzo didn't expect was the intruder to be Shizuka the Silent Death. "This is outrageous! Someone must have commissioned him to do this!"

Danzo entered the secret passage that goes into the ROOT Headquarters, he wasn't foolish enough to be overconfident with dealing with a ninja with little to no information on their skills. Danzo was confident with his power and abilities, but he wasn't senile.

As the ROOT operatives go to assess Shizuka's abilities and skills to gain information and the upper hand while Danzo conserves his energy for the fight.

"By exhausting him of chakra and letting him exert his energy, I gain the upperhand as well as information on his capabilities."

As time ticked by with no news or return of his agents Danzo grew anxious. Danzo decided to have a tactical retreat for now. Even if he managed to escape from confrontation with the strong nin, Danzo wouldn't be able to get out without revealing some of his cards. It wasn't time for that yet.

Going through the ROOT headquarters, Danzo makes his way up an emergency escape where upon exiting it lands him at the back of the compound. All he had to do was get over the wall and-

A loud thud echoes in the silence of the night, accompanied by the sounds of crickets, and other sounds of nature. Danzo couldn't move, he couldn't even access his chakra.

"What is this?"

Danzo felt dread climb up his spine, he couldn't retreat if he couldn't move. He tried calling out to his ROOT Operatives-

"Shut Up."

Danzo hears no sound come out of his mouth, his throat tightens at the implications as he hears steps coming the emergency exit get louder. He couldn't move, couldn't access chakra, couldn't speak! He was like a lamb, waiting to be slaughtered. He grits his teeth trying to think of what he could do to get out of his situation.

A shadow looms over him. Unable to move his head, Danzo moves his eyes up to the figure. White spiky hair, Short in length. The figure had pale skin, clear from blemishes, scars, and more giving the figure a doll-like appearance.

"So this is what the Silent Death looks like."

Danzo narrows his eyes. The figure wore a red blindfold and a gray loosely fitted kimono, black skin tight clothing underneath. Two katanas hang on both sides of his hips adorned with an elegant looking hilt with red and whites as a color theme.

He looked ethereal. Which made him look more dangerous.

Danzo throws Shizuka a defiant glare as Shizuka crouched down with a playful grin.

"Do you like my new look? Not that you saw what I looked like before, I thought it'd go well with tonight you know!"

If Danzo was able to talk he would've asked the white haired mercenary who-

"-Hired me?" Shizuka drawls playfully, smile turning dangerous.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Shizuka asks sarcastically, he pokes at Danzo's paralysed head with a pale finger.

Danzo felt his blood run cold. "Did he have the-"

"-Ability to read minds? Who knows! That isn't really helpful information for you, that's for sure!" The words spawn close to wrinkly skin, singing them a little. Danzo hisses at the burn.

"What is it that you want? I could-"

"Nothing you could offer would save you from the fate you will meet by my hands." The playful smile is gone from Shizuka's face, his mouth drawn into a tight line. The evening breeze ruffles his hair and clothes. The sounds of clothes blown by the wind, only heard by the two nins in each other's presence.

"You sure made it easy for me to get you. It would've been more challenging if you had waited for me with all of your ROOT agents and ganged on me! So much for being a council man, wasn't your job meant to be advising?" Shizuka mocks Danzo, he rolls his eyes under his blindfold delivering a sharp hard jab with 2 fingers to Danzo's forehead, reminiscent of what Itachi does to Sasuke.

Danzo gets the implication, "Did that Uchih-"

"That isn't any of your business." Shizuka grabs hard and yanks at Danzo's hair, pulling the man up till his head was at the same level of Shizuka's face. "Just like that isn't your business to have either."

Shizuka uses his free hand to yank the bandages off Danzo's head revealing the sharingan. His head then bows slightly as though looking to one of Danzo's arms. "Those don't either~"

Danzo pales, this mercenary nin knew too much for some reason. It was his loss from the start. While Shizuka knew everything, he knew nothing of Shizuka. Danzo felt the weight of his fate settle, his expression growing frantic as he moves his eyes over to Shizuka, pleading. Not that Shizuka could see the expression.

Not yet that is.

Pulling up his blindfold revealing ruby colored eyes he grins. Letting go of his hold on Danzo's hair, he let's the old coot's head fall back to the ground with a thud. Taking out a kunai his eyes raze over to Danzo's throwing him an eye smile, one that Kakashi would have been proud of, and plunges it into the arm covered in bandages, accurate in his mark as he tilts the kunai at an angle making the sharingan eye pop out.

Danzo opens his mouth in a soundless scream, body shaking in pain. Shizuka loses his grin, "Calm down, geez you're making me seem like the villian. I didn't  WANT to do this, you know? I was just gonna let you do your thing until the actual person who's supposed to kill you comes for you." Shizuka's eyebrows furrowed in concentration, a tongue poked out as though in concentration as he pops out another eye from the arm.

Tears prickle on the corners of Danzo's mouth this time. It was ignored.

Shizuka slowly took out the sharingans from Danzo's arm one by one, sealing them into a separate storage scroll from the bodies, all that was left was Danzo's own eye. Well not his OWN eye but that's not the point. Danzo has long stopped responding, mind overrun with the sensation of pain, no longer responsive to Shizuka's words.

Shizuka took one last look at Danzo in his pathetic state and plunged the kunai deep.

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After Shizuka dealt Danzo the final blow, he swiftly flashes back home using the modified Hiraishin he used initially when he got Tsunade's delivery mission a couple months back. Making quick work of his equipment, Shizuka sends a small burst of chakra to deactivate the henge as he goes to take a shower.

"To cleanse him off the blood on him." Was the ignored thoughts despite not getting a signal splatter of blood on him due to his method of killing.

Allen spends 2 hours in the shower, scrubbing off imaginary dirt, grime….blood. He moves on autopilots storing the 2 scrolls, one with bodies, and one with the sharingans into his large storage scroll. He'll deal with that tomorrow. He takes off his blindfold, feeling the smooth texture of it in his hands as he blankly stares at it, memories of the one sided massacre fresh on his mind.

Depositing the smooth cloth onto his nightstand as usual, Allen flops down into the soft mattress of his bed.

"I'll have nightmares tonight." Allen thought as his vision fades to black.

“Are you planning on having Allen-san learn Uzumaki sealing?” Asuma asks the blond Hokage.

“Yes, I have already confirmed his identity and his loyalty,” Tsunade says out loud. “Although he's loyalty doesn't lay in the village necessarily.”

“I plan to have him act as a resident sealmaker, should this mission be a success, I plan to have a formal meeting with Rue-san about expanding his business to seals and not just books.

Anko looks at the floor in thought, “Do you think he can find out a way to remove the cursed seal?” She finally voices out, Anko was still a bit sensitive about the topic, and sometimes she would lose hope in being free from Orochimaru having even a slight chance of being able to influence her.

“I'm sure that would be the case, but your curse seal is to be removed today by someone who's already a seal master. He will actually be joining you on your mission as reinforceme-'' Tsunade gets cut off from a figure entering through the window.

”Sup.” The figure says with a mock salute similar to Kakashi's, he lands silently on the floor as he shoots Tsunade a respectful nod. Shizuka turns to Asuma and Anko and gives them half a wave, words of fire appearing in the air to communicate with the two. ”Hi, I assume you two are the ones I will be working with for the commission the Hokage requested of me?”

Anko blinks dumbfoundedly at the entrance. Asuma sighs.

This was certainly gonna be interesting.

Tsunade levels Shizuka an annoyed glare as she briefs the three of them on their mission/commission. Asuma and Anko, knowing how Tsunade was, was slightly concerned for the white-haired mercenary and wondered what he could have done that warranted such a reaction from their Hokage.

“Alright, I expect the three of you back in 2 week-”

”Quite carefree of you to expect things to go according to plan to the point that you want us back here in 2 weeks.” Came the bold interruption of words conjured out of fire by Shizuka. He felt a bit petty from all of Kakashi's avoidance and mood that he may have been taking it out on Tsunade a little.

Asuma tenses up expecting Tsunade to send another one of her monstrous punches, they don't come, but she was gripping the edge of the table so hard that a resounding Crack! was heard. “Is interrupting me a hobby of yours brat? Cause if it is, trust me, you're lucky you're going on a mission right now or I'll be making sure you spend an entire week on bed rest.” Tsunade glares at Shizuka, an anger vein present on her forehead as he held herself back from just pummeling the white-haired mercenary.

”You've already tried that last time. As I can see, I'm in one piece am I not?” Shizuka pokes back with a smug smile, Tsunade stands up, her hands against the table as the table splits in half down the center from her slamming her fist down onto it. Asuma visibly sweat drops at the interaction, he looks over to Anko who looked at Shizuka like she had locked onto her next target.

“Great, I'm surrounded by weirdos.” Asuma thought with a sigh.

“Excuse me Tsunade-sama, I'm sorry to interrupt but if we are to arrive in 2 weeks, I think it would be wise if we are to leave as early as possible.” Asuma looks to Tsunade in anticipation. He didn't really wanna get pummeled that day.

Tsunade sighs and sits back down, he signals to the anbu to call for someone to replace the table before turning back to the trio. “Right, off you go then, Shizuka, make sure my shinobi come back in one piece.” She looks at Shizuka with a telling expression. Shizuka nods back at her with a serious expression.
”Of course.” Were left behind as he, Asuma, and Anko left the tower to prepare for the mission.

”I'll wait for both of you at the gate.” He body flickers away leaving the two to their preparations.

“He's kinda annoying.” Anko says with amusement. Asuma just sighs.

It's gonna be a long two weeks.

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Asuma and Anko got to the gates, bidding their farewells to Izumo and Kotetsu, they exited the village looking around for their third member. ”Took you long enough,” was the short greeting the two get as Shizuka lands in front of them, flinching a bit at the words formed from flames that just appear in front of them.

“Of course, we had to make sure we had enough for 2 weeks.” Asuma simply explains, Anko however took offense to the jab at punctuality. “I don't see you preparing anything, don't come complaining and asking me and Asuma for some of our rations when you didn't bother preparing anything.” Anko crosses her arms as she shoots Shizuka aan annoyed look.

Shizuka rolls his eyes from under his blindfold, he points his thumb toward a nearby tree where a large scroll was leaned on. ”You were saying?” OKay so maybe he was projecting quite a bit, he's really salty at the moment and was itching to get out and move to get his mind off of the weird push and pull tango dance he had going with Kakashi. He missed the regular hugs and head pats damn it!

Anko sputters a bit at being made a fool, her face going bright red she was about to retort when Shizuka turns on his heel, picks up the large scroll and slings it over his shoulder before turning his head back, ”Come on, there's a clearing nearby. I'll remove the cursed seal on you so you can walk it off later.” Shizuka smirks, he starts walking forward leaving a stunned Anko and Asuma behind for a few moments before they sprint to catch up.

The removal process was pretty straightforward. Transfer the seal into a piece of paper using another seal and then trap the cursed seal into the seal on the paper and burn it to prevent the possibility of it somehow reattaching to another person. Now where exactly did the problem lay? Well, the process was really- no, very painful.

Shizuka had Anko lying down on her stomach with her shirt removed on a large piece of paper which had a seal inscribed into it, he hands a kunai to her and then gestures at his mouth as he makes a biting motion. Anko understands and bites down onto the kunai handle that was padded with cloth. ”This is gonna hurt a lot. Bear with me.” Anko nods, she just wanted to be rid of the cursed seal. She didn't mind how much pain she was gonna be in as long as she'd be free of the seal.

“I’ ea'y,” was the muffled reply of Anko, her mouth biting the kunai and her arms bound behind her. Shizuka makes rapid hand seals before slamming his palm down onto the paper, the seal whirs to life, gathering nature chakra around it. Shizuka uses his keen senses to monitor the process of the seal as it redirects the gathered chakra over to wear Anko's seal was located. The chakra then envelops the seal, Anko clenches her teeth around the kunai hard.

Anko's muffled screams fill the clearing's silence as Asuma watches in concern, he heard that it was gonna be painful, but he hadn't anticipated that it would be painful enough for Anko to actually scream in pain. Asuma knew just how impressive Anko's pain tolerance was. The fact that the pain was enough for Anko to scream made Asuma wince just trying to imagine how much it probably hurt.

Anko felt like she was burning alive. The seal which has ingrained itself on her shoulder, connecting to her chakra network was being isolated by the pure nature chakra that the seal below her was absorbing and manipulating. It felt like someone using a very dull blade to skin her alive while getting burned and doing it oh so very slowly. Anko could vaguely see her surroundings with tears in her eyes as she heard herself scream in immense pain. Shizuka keeps track of the procedure with keen senses. He notices that the chakra has finished isolating the cursed seal and prepared a small piece of paper which had another seal on it that he places over the cursed seal on Anko's shoulder, Anko blacks out from the pain, her muffled screams dying down as the paper absorbs the cursed seal onto its surface with the help of the nature chakra basically peeling it off of Anko's skin.

As soon as the cursed seal was transferred to the paper, Shizuka tosses it in the air before burning it to ashes with a quick basic fire jutsu. Asuma jogs over to them assuming the procedure over and covers Anko with a blanket. It takes half an hour before Anko wakes up and when she does, she thanks Shizuka with teary eyes. She still felt sore all over and Asuma had to carry her for half the day but they were on their way.

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Four days pass by with the trio being close to their destination, Shizuka was surprised at their speed in travelling especially considering Anko just had a very ingrained seal peeled off of her shoulder. They took breaks for lunch and camped during the evenings, finally after another day, they arrived at their destination.

“Should we split up and take as many as we can? I've got 5 storage scrolls packed but I'm not sure how many we're gonna find.” Anko asked as she took in the scene of the ruined village.

“Yeah that might be faster, the sooner we can finish gathering all the materials the sooner we can head back, maybe we could even be back in time when Kakashi gets back from his own mission. Maybe we could sneak a couple of drinks this week.” Asuma ponders out loud, Shizuka decides to dig for information.

“Kakashi Hatake? the Copy Nin?” Shizuka asks with a tilt of his head. Anko looks at him and grins, “That's right, hey what do you think of Allen-san? I heard you know each other.”

Shizuka hums and thinks for a moment, ”He's like a brother, we helped each other a lot and we're basically family.”

“Oh so you don't like him romantically or anything like that?” Anko asks, she sends Asuma a relieved look that Asuma returns.

“What…?”

”Why do you ask? What does the Copy nin have to do with a civilian like Allen?” Shizuka prods, maybe he'll find out about something after all. Sakura said that Kakashi wouldn't spill anything and just kept everything to himself, but just maybe. Maybe even though Kakashi was closing people off, his friends had realized what was wrong with their friend. He only hoped Anko remained talkative and spilled whatever inkling they had on Kakashi's behavior.

Anko looks to Asuma for a moment, she turns back to Shizuka, “Well, I'm only telling you because you did help me get rid of the cursed seal, and Allen-san is family to you. Kakashi has been kind of out of it the past couple months, I think it's because of you.”

“Hold on…me?! How does that even make sense? I haven't even met Kakashi as Shizuka!”

Asuma must have noticed Shizuka's intense confusion so he continues to explain, “It's pretty obvious that Kakashi likes Allen-san, and Allen-san told us about Shizuka a couple months back when all of us went drinking, it checks out that when Allen-san was talking about you, he had a fond expression on his face. He probably thought Allen-san liked you in that manner.”

Shizuka's mouth pulls into a hard frown at that, he's surprised that's all his face was doing considering the rampant thoughts that were plaguing his mind.

“Kakashi likes me?! Like- Like like kind of like?! Since whe- of course! That's why he was a lot different to how he acted in the film. He wasn't one for getting close to people but he easily got into bed with me. He was jealous of Shizuka? This is just unbelievable!” Shizuka mentally kicks himself for being so dense at the obvious affectionate actions Kakashi directed towards him.

Shizuka shakes his head to get rid of the rampant thoughts, ”So he's jealous of me? Why not just ask Allen what he thought of me then? It would save everyone the trouble. Besides, I'm sure Allen probably feels frustrated and confused from the situation.” He sighs, ”You know what? forget it, let's get this mission over with. I'll personally come to tell this friend of yours that he can have Allen all to himself if he wants.”

Shizuka fights to prevent himself from blushing as he says the words. He needs to get this mission over quickly. He had to knock some sense into someone.

Probably have some much needed cuddle time and confess if possible.

Shizuka doesn’t notice the relieved expressions of Anko and Asuma at the notion that Kakashi's downtrodden mood would soon be fixed. A new couple might even be born soon.

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It surprisingly took 2 days for the trio to gather all the scrolls, documents, and materials that contained things about sealing, jutsu's and other possible techniques. After sealing everything into storage scrolls, the amount Asuma and Anko brought wasn't enough so the majority of what they found and collected got stored in Shizuka's scroll. The night after they completed their goal, Anko, Asuma, and Shizuka exchanged stories of missions/commissions that they have experienced where they learned and laughed at each other's bizarre experiences.

“Sometimes being able to talk about things like these is good too.” Shizuka smiles genuinely as he thinks back to the silver-haired nin that he had a crush on before he even got to this world. After Shizuka got to know Kakashi personally, he already knew that he was falling in deeper. Hearing that the Copy nin could have felt the same even if only a little, made a fluttering feeling well up in his chest. “I suppose one more secret revealed is fine. Better it be me telling him myself than being forced to reveal it due to some dire situation.”

Asuma, Anko, and Shizuka arrived 3 days earlier than the expected return date. Dropping off a mission/commission report to Tsunade along with all of the things they have collected in a secure vault that Tsunade has prepared in advance, Shizuka received his pay for the commission and headed home. Kakashi hasn't got back yet, but according to Tsunade– she read him like an open book –Kakashi would be returning the next day as was indicated in a report sent through his summons.

Kakashi helped him, comforted him and never gave up on him even when he tried so hard to push him away. Shizuka…Allen…He wasn't gotta stand by anymore, Kakashi was right about choosing their own path. There will be things he has to make sure remains the same, but at the very least he'll grab the future by its shoulders.

He'll start with hopefully getting together with a handsome, suave, charming silver-haired in.

Kakashi passed through the gates of Konoha, he was tired, injured, and his clothes were filthy, filled with blood that was both his and not his. He had already sent his two teammates off to get themselves sorted out while he delivered the mission report. In the back of his mind, a flash of Allen waiting behind the counter of his shop entered his mind. He dismisses it, he couldn't bear seeing the blue-haired civilian in his current mood. He tried his best to be there and remain friends with the lovely civilian, but he just didn't trust himself to cross lines if given the opportunity to do so. It's why he was preventing himself from engaging in the usual headpats and close proximity he shared with Allen for the past couple of months. Still, Kakashi couldn't help but long for more, he knew it was hopeless though, Allen had someone else in his heart. Someone that was probably better than him.

“That was fine though, Allen deserves only the best.”

Kakashi will simply remain as his best friend, that was enough. Unintentionally, he frowns. Kakashi makes his way to the Hokage Tower, hands in his mission report and even says a brief overview of the bloody mission on autopilot. As expected, Tsunade orders him to drop by the Hospital before going home. Kakashi does as instructed, upon getting checked out, Sakura had scolded him on his recklessness before her eyes tear up. Kakashi's eye widened in surprise, not knowing what to do. When Sakura throws herself at him to hug him telling him how worried she was and that she didn't wanna lose anymore of her family, her team, he returns her hug muttering a tired apology as she gets her his flack jacket wet. After she breaks up the hug, she makes sure to patch Kakashi up, healing the more serious wounds, and bandaging the minor injuries that should be allowed to heal naturally.

Kakashi is banned from missions for a week again, he was a bit irked at that but figures it was for the best. Even he knew that due to his current state of feelings, he was more of a liability on the field than a benefit. It doesn't change the feeling of failure that wells up from within. That's what he always was after all.

Taking a leisure walk back to his apartment, he notices the sun begin to set. With the streets devoid of the usual amount of people that littered the streets, he decides to pass the long way home. He didn't feel like facing the cold lonely confines that reminded him it wasn't really a home. Just a building he keeps his things in and shelters him during bad weather. As he slowly makes his way, he bumps into Gai who, surprisingly didn't challenge him, he was confused by the folded piece of paper that makes its way to his hands courtesy of an exuberant Gai that yells something about youth before bidding him farewell for the day.

“Strange.”

Looking down onto the paper he finds the word ‘youth’. “Fitting,” Kakashi thought to himself with a weak chuckle wondering what that was all about. Flipping over the note a small message was written

Kakashi snorts at the note. It was a bit weird coming from Gai but no less endearing, as to what the deal was with it. He didn't know yet.

Continuing his path back to his house, Kakashi then encounters Anko who gives him a playful punch to the shoulder making him slightly hurt from one of his injuries being jostled. Anko throws him a sly smirk before handing him another note. This one said ‘Shizuka’.

Frowning at the word, he still flips it over.

Kakashi raises a brow at the message, very Anko-like indeed. Kakashi wasn't even surprised that she knew the reason why he was in the mood that he was in the past couple of months. Knowing her gossipy nature, the rest of his friends know too, and they all seem to be in on something that Kakashi had no clue about.

Kakashi decided to just go along with this note thing that seemed to have been planned by his friends, briefly, he wonders if Allen is in on this too. Kakashi shakes his head, not yet, he can’t think of the cute bluenette just yet. He was already struggling to keep himself inline, despite realizing his feelings months ago and having held back from pursuing the blue-haired man, Kakashi still found himself falling deeper, it seemed holding back actually made his feelings grow more.

Sighing to himself Kakashi continued on, it seemed that the next person up was Asuma and Kurenai, Asuma claps Kakashi on the back as Kurenai put a hand to his shoulder, they both had soft smiles on their faces as they handed Kakashi a note and then waved him farewell for the day. The word on the note was ‘Together’. In two different colored pens, the note said.

A warm feeling envelops Kakashi's chest, tucking the note back into his jacket he makes a mental note to go over to Allen's the next day. Kurenai was right. He should really just talk things out. It was gonna be difficult, but as a ninja he's faced harder things. Kakashi let's out a soft breath of relief, it felt like a weight was being lifted of his shoulders. He had such good friends that stuck by him despite his great attempt at keeping them all at arms length. he should treat them all to drinks next time as thanks.

Kakashi continues on his path back home, he encounters Sakura next who gives him a sly grin similar to Tsunade's when it comes to gossip and leaves after reminding him to take it easy the next couple of days. The word on the note she gave him was ‘Blossom’.

Trembling hands fold the piece of paper in half before tucking it into a flack jacket. Kakashi exhales a shaky breath, he hadn't felt like this in a long time. He lost all his precious people once, so he vowed to keep people at arms length, building up his walls to block out people who try to reach out to him in hopes that he wouldn’t have to experience the pain of losing people again. All he was doing was delaying the inevitable. His friends were the determined bunch after all. A tear slips out the corner of his eye as he lets out a loud laugh. Right, he was being an idiot again. He again wonders if Allen was next to give him a note.

“He’ll probably call me an idiot first.” Kakashi muses.

Much to Kakashi's disappointment there was no Allen he encountered on his path. He frowns as he arrives back home, thinking of why Allen wasn't part of the nice thing that his friends had planned. Opening the door to his house, he enters the living space only to be surprised at the presence in his house, familiar through the pictures he has seen.

“Shizuka.” He simply says, staring at the white-haired man with wide eyes. “Why was he here? Did he catch on to his feelings for Allen and has come to tell him to back off?”

Fire words that form in the air in front of him interrupt his thoughts, ”Idiot. You're overthinking things.” Shizuka pushes off from his spot leaning against the back of Kakashi's couch. He walks over to Kakashi with lips drawn into a tight line. Kakashi feels his throat tighten. Not at the possible threat of Shizuka being in his house despite all the traps he set up, not even because the man was walking towards him. Kakashi finds it difficult to try to formulate words from his confusion, shock, and exhaustion setting in.

”If you run away I'll tie you up if I have to.” Shizuka says, stopping just a few steps away from Kakashi.

He finally manages to push words out his mouth, “Why are you here? Tsunade obviously doesn't mind you being around, she seems to call you in for commissions frequently. Is this about Allen? Cause I'm telling you, I snapped off it and I'm not letting him go easily!” He manages to say, firm and determined, his lone eye staring at Shizuka's covered one's head as if daring him to challenge him.

“Well that’s good,” Shizuka says, his voice smooth and playful. Kakashi freezes at the Deja vu of the circumstances, he watches as Shizuka closes in on kakashi's space tilting his head up to face him as a finger pulls up his blood red blindfold, a Yochigan stares up at him, a playful smirk on Shizuka's lips as he says with a different yet oh so familiar voice. “I’m not about to let you go either,” He says, a blush creeping up on pale cheeks at his own words as Kakashi finally breaks out of his shock.

“...Allen?” Kakashi whispers, his body stock still as his mind raises through numerous thoughts trying to piece things together. Shizuka allows Kakashi time to process and sort out his thoughts.

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After the big reveal, Kakashi and Shizuka move to the couch, Shizuka opted to stay in the henge for now, at least until he and Kakashi got to talking more. After a couple of minutes, Kakashi breaks the silence.

“So you're a mercenary.”

Shizuka looks at Kakashi like he's grown a second head. Kakashi flicks the white-haired nins forehead for the expression.

“You know what I mean.”

Shizuka snorted, rubbing at the spot on his forehead that Kakashi just flicked, “Yes, I also didn't appreciate being avoided by the person I liked.” He bluntly stated looking at Kakashi with ruby colored eyes. Kakashi's breath hitch, “I'm sorry…I thought you had a thing for Shizuka. You said his- your name in your sleep.”

Shizuka gave Kakashi an incredulous look, “I was saying YOUR name you dolt! Why would I be crushing on myself? Especially since I modeled this appearance after you?” He says, a blush covers his face as he avoids Kakashi's gaze. Kakashi feels a flush envelop his face at hearing the words. “Oh…I like you too, but I think you already knew that already judging by this whole thing. You're the one who organized the note giving weren't you?” He gives Shizuka a soft look, a smile graces his face.

Shizuka nods in confirmation, Kakashi looks to Shizuka, inspecting all of his features, “I can see bits of your actual appearance through this. I can't believe I didn't notice sooner even with just the pictures on the bingo book. Sorry for the past couple of months.”

Shizuka stares at Kakashi, he drops the henge, “It's a complete solid henge, so it's a complete reformation. I had to train myself differently due to the difference in body builds. Even so, my Shizuka identity, appearance, and body is just as much me as I am him.” He explains, as he twiddles his thumbs.

Kakashi finally lets himself run his hand through Allen's hair, Allen leans into the touch. Kakashi's fingers twitch watching the soft and adoring expression on Allen's face that was directed at him. Kakashi's gaze moves down from Allen's eyes to his slightly parted lips. “Maa, I guess we're even.” He says with a chuckle, Allen pouts.

“That's not fai-” Allen gets interrupted by Kakashi closing the gap. As Allen was talking Kakashi couldn't hold himself back anymore and swiftly pulled his mask down, using the hand he had on Allen's head, shifting it behind Allen's head to pull him into a deep kiss.

Allen's eyes widened in shock before smiling into the kiss as he returns it with equal want. Kakashi closes his eye as he savors the feeling of Allen's lips on his. “Warm.”

A few seconds, they break apart, Allen breathing slightly heavier to make up for the amount of air he needed back. His whole head turns red as he avoids Kakashi's gaze. Kakashi chuckles light-heartedly, as he reaches out to pull Allen against him. “I like you,” Kakashi whispers into Allens ear.

“I like you too,” Allen replies, ears red. Kakashi shifts Allen onto his lap, tilting his head upwards with his free hand as the other holds Allen by his waist. Kakashi dips down to give Allen another kiss.

When he pulls back he smiles, face in full view of Allen for the first time. “Yeah, it's better in person.” Allen thinks as he drinks in the sight of Kakashi's face unmasked.

The sunlight peeks through the blinds that covered the window landing on Allen's face. Allen stirs to wakefulness blinking his eyes to get rid of the haze of sleep, he notices that the room was different when  the events of the previous day all caught up to him. His face goes red and he tenses momentarily which makes him realize that Kakashi was spooning him in bed.

“I'm glad everything worked out.”

The day Allen arrived as Shizuka with Asuma, and Anko, Allen decided to take matters into his own hands after previously finding out from Asuma and Anko what the possible reason for Kakashi's behavior was. After much thought, Allen decided to finally reveal his long kept secret to not only Kakashi, but to the people that mattered for both of them. Allen hasn't gotten especially close to people aside from Hinata and her team, but he knew that Kakashi's friends have also become part of his precious people.

Allen first went after Asuma and Anko coming clean to them and asking them for their help for a plan of his to make Kakashi truly realize how important he was to them, as well as for Allen to confess his feelings and reveal his other identity as Shizuka. The plan soon came together, him talking to Kurenai, Gai, and Sakura to inform them of his plan as well as what he intended to do, along with his identity as Shizuka. He had asked everyone to hold off on their questions and that he'd try to answer what he could at a later date. Thankfully, everything went perfectly.

Allen sighs pleased as he savors the morning in Kakashi's embrace. He could feel Kakashi's breath behind his head, and nearly drifted back to sleep before he felt teeth lightly nip at his ear making him jolt, a red flush runs from his face to his neck. “K-kakashi!” Allen stutters out in surprise, Kakashi chuckles behind him deep and throaty, somewhat raspy with sleep.

“Good Morning, Sorry, I couldn't help myself. I've been holding back for months, you know.” He mumbles into the back of his head, taking in the fruity blueberry and mint scent on Allen. Allen turns around in Kakashi's arms, facing him in bed looking up at his unmasked face. “I'm kinda glad you wear a mask, if your face was presented like this for everyone to see, only blind ones would leave you alone.” Allen says with a smug expression on his face.

Kakashi chuckles, pecking Allen on the lips before he looks at him, “Ironic considering you were posing as both blind and mute.” He says right after, amusement clear in his expression. He moves a hand up to Allen's face, his thumb brushing over his cheek. “Thank you again, for your little plan. I guess I spent so long building and repairing the wall I had to keep people away that I never truly saw how much others were affected by my well-being.” Kakashi remembers Sakura, how she told him how she felt with him going on missions while knowing he wasn't in the right headspace.

He looks back down to Allen, “I assume Tsunade-sama knew you were Shizuka?” Allen hums, burying his face into Kakashi's chest, “Yeah, she figured it all out when I revealed the Yochigan and how I knew the Hiraishin. She's been taking advantage of the fact I reside here, and the fact that I had a very blatant and obvious soft spot for you to commission things of me that normal people don’t commission mercenaries.”

Kakashi chuckles at that, “Well I can't exactly blame her. As a ninja, especially since she's Hokage. She used information she gained about you as leverage, knowing you, I doubt you'd have taken it all lying down had you actually disliked what she was doing.”

“Doesn't stop me from being a bit petty here and there. You should have seen how surprised she was when she tried punching me only for me to catch her punch with no issue whatsoever.” Allen laughs at the memory.

“What commission did she give you?” He pulls back a bit to look at Allen's face.

“Danzo one,” Allen yawns, he latches onto Kakashi's arm, hugging it.

Kakashi blinks for a couple moments as he shifts to move on his back, “Ah, knowing you're Shizuka gives me so much more context on why you felt the way you did back then.”

“Mhhmmm,” Allen snuggled closer, he was a bit touch deprived during the months Kakashi was in his walled off state.

The two spent a couple of minutes more in bed before getting up. Kakashi offered Allen his shower while he summoned Pakkun to grab some of Allen's clothes from his house. While Allen showered, Kakashi entered his kitchen to prepare them both breakfast. Since Kakashi was still supposed to take it easy and recover, he figures he can somehow weasel Allen to stay with him for the day. They have just got together after all, and Kakashi had a lot to catch up on. Kisses, hugs, and snuggles mostly. Perhaps when he gets the green light from Sakura, he could get Allen to spar with him, that would be exciting.

As Kakashi sets down breakfast on the table, he hears the shower close and after a couple of moments, Allen leaves the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist and a towel over his still dripping hair. “Um, do you have any clothes I could wear?”

Just as the question was asked, Pakkun arrives with a set of clothes that Allen gratefully accepts, thanking the pug with a scratch behind the ear. Getting dressed while Kakashi himself goes to take a quick shower, Allen took over with bringing out the utensils to use for breakfast.

Kakashi comes out shirtless, wearing a pair of sweatpants as he wipes his hair with a towel. He notices that Allen just placed the towel on his head around his shoulders after getting dressed. “You'll get sick doing that,” he says, walking over to Allen as he takes the towel from the shorter male's shoulders and starts drying Allen's hair with the towel. Allen smiles while he enjoys Kakashi dry his hair before Kakashi finished and discarded the used towels in a laundry basket.

“Thank you for the meal.” They both said as they dig into the homemade meal.

“So, to clarify…we're together now. You're my lover?” Allen asks with a blush. Kakashi lets out an amused breath and replies, “Maa, I sure hope so, I don't know about you but I don't make a habit of making out with people I wasn't with.”

Allen nods, smiling, a giddy feeling washes through him at the notion, “Do you still wanna learn more seals? Me, Asuma, and Anko actually got back a day before you did from Uzushio.”

“Right…What exactly did you do there?”

“We collected all the literature that taught sealing, and various jutsu.” Kakashi hums at the explanation. “You didn't receive anything from the pile?”

Allen shakes his head, “I technically have access to all of it. I'm expanding my business to seals not just books. Tsunade-sama requested it of me as a civilian that has a doujutsu.”

A noise of surprise, “Really? How do you plan to expand?”

Allen takes a sip from his cup of tea, “Well, the original plan was to set up shop near a ninja equipment shop, but I decided I didn't really wanna have to deal with that so I'll just act as a supplier, while an actual ninja shop does the selling. I heard that one of Gai's genins’ family is a trusted shinobi shop. I might just collaborate with them.”

“Ah the Uranashi Shop. Yes, that is indeed a good shop to partner with.” Kakashi puts a hand to his chin in thought. “Maa, with you making seals for Konoha, we have gained another sustainable force. I assume you're still gonna remain neutral as Shizuka?”

Allen nods, pushing his now empty plate forward, “Yeah, I don't wish to involve myself in village politics, though Tsunade-sama seems to have become my most loyal customer in requiring my services.” Allend snorts at the thought, he still couldn't help messing with the blond Sannin every time they met.

Kakashi shakes his head in amusement, as he finishes his own plate, he takes both dirty dishes to the sink to be washed at a later time, for now, he wanted to spend as much time with his new lover. “What would you say to a date?” Kakashi asks, throwing an unmasked grin at Allen.

Allen grins back, “Of course!”

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After Kakashi finally put on his ninja issued clothes with his mask, along with his flack jacket, Allen who had gotten his blindfold and white cane, set out with Kakashi for a day of just the two of them. At first, Allen was curious as to what exactly they can do that would be date worthy in the village when Kakashi asked if they could both stop by the Hokage Tower.

Upon arriving at the Hokage's Office, Kakashi asked Tsunade for permission to leave the village for the day and much to Allen's confusion, Tsunade just agreed with a teasing grin sent at the two as she shooed them out of her office. “So we're leaving the village? To where?” Allen wondered curiously.

Kakashi leads Allen to the gates, intertwining his fingers with Allen's as to guide and support him the where they needed to go, even in the darkness caused by his blindfold, Allen smiles bright and wide as he happily follows along with whatever surprise Kakashi had. Leaving the gates they make their way through the path before going off of it into the forest after a 30 minutes walk. Eventually Kakashi sees a familiar pathway, and he leads Allen to it, dodging questions about where they were going as Allen pouts and guesses where they were headed.

Eventually Kakashi stops, Allen feels the warm hand holding his tug at him before he hears Kakashi say, “Take off your blindfold, people will mind their own business here.”

Allen frowns a bit in confusion but does so anyway, he trusts Kakashi and if Kakashi said it would be fine despite the chances of his Yochigan activating randomly due to his emotions, then Allen would believe him. Pulling his blindfold back as if it was a makeshift headband, Allen found his eyes widening at the scene.

It was a small and simple town, but it felt cozy somehow, and there were lots of street foods and children gushing about with their equally little playmates. It was comfortable, homey, and peaceful.

Allen looks to Kakashi with wonder in his eyes, “What is this place?”

“I ended up here once, it's a strictly no shinobi village where some people come by for a break, even if you end up meeting other nins from other villages, they aren't allowed to start fights here or else they'll be banned and kicked out. I come here when I want some time to myself.” Kakashi explains as he looks back to the nice scene in front of him.

After taking in the view, Allen smiles as he tightens his hold on Kakashi's hand pulling him along, “Well, what are you waiting for? Show me around!” Allen says, just for this day he'll allow himself the luxury of speaking out like usual, he's sure his reserves will last throughout the date despite the slight chakra drain as he talked.

It was their first official date after all, as well as the day after they got together. He may as well spend it as his self from before he bore the weight of the world's future on his shoulders, from before he had to learn how to adapt to the new abilities his body had.

Yes, it was gonna be a good day. A day to remember.

Allen spent the day walking around the nice town. They had a relaxing time going to the hotsprings as they talked more about some novels and books that Allen had recommended to Kakashi. Kakashi inquired about his travels before he ended up in Konoha as well as some missions that got him to eventually be called Shizuka the Silent Death. Allen animatedly talks about all of his experience, listening in turn when Kakashi shares his own stories into the mix. They jab at each other's personal experience good-naturedly and Kakashi even tells Allen more about his old genin team. Allen went silent and offers Kakashi a soft smile before he hugs Kakashi comfortingly, the man melting into the comforting hug before backing up and pulling Allen into a passionate kiss. After a mini make-out session, Allen regretfully tells Kakashi that he still had one big secret left and this one was a lot harder for him to actually say, to which Kakashi told Allen that he didn't mind waiting.

After the hot springs, they went around the town, Kakashi giving brief descriptions about the places they go by before they finally make their way to a sushi place for lunch. They ate their food in comfortable silence, simply relishing in the close proximity between them before paying for their meals and heading into the inn they checked in. Allen taught Kakashi some basic seals, even one that placed a genjutsu mask on his face that couldn't be seen through even by a Sharingan or a Byakugan. Kakashi's eye sparkled at the idea and he even got around to asking Allen if maybe he knew of a seal that could turn his sharingan on and off as needed. Allen beams back telling Kakashi he did know a seal that could do that and even brought out a brush asking him where he would like the seal on his head.

An hour after Kakashi told Allen he wanted the seal to be behind his ear, Kakashi now had a seal that could shut his sharingan off by sending a burst of chakra into it, and two bursts of chakra to turn it back on. Kakashi would have to practice using it, but he was pleasantly happy with not feeling the drain of chakra from the sharingan even when covered. Upon looking into a mirror he also finds that the seal changes his eye color to his usual obsidian orbs when the sharingan is off, and Kakashi didn't even bother holding himself back from pulling Allen into a hug and later a kiss from the gesture.

The two decide to just get take out to eat at the inn for dinner, to which Kakashi asks if Allen can show him his Shizuka appearance. Allen nods and activates the solid henge before he gets yanked forward by the kimono he was wearing and felt up by Kakashi, much to his embarrassment.

“W-what are you doing?!” He says in a voice similar but different to his normal voice. The solid henge changes all aspects, even his voice which was handy in a lot of ways.

Kakashi answers by dragging an ungloved hand under the white-haired man's kimono along the his chest making Shizuka visibly shiver at the touch. “Even your body type is different,” Kakashi murmurs into his ear, as he gets pulled into Kakashi's lap, being subjected to curious roving hands.

When Kakashi moves to grope Shizuka's butt, he gets thrown across the room by an embarrassed Shizuka who yells, “PERVERT!” at him with ruby colored eyes while adjusting his clothes.

“Maa, both appearances are truly you in every way despite the differences, I just wanted to catch up on some physical affection with this appearance of yours,” was the excuse Kakashi gives as he looks at Shizuka with a leer causing the mercenary to go bright red. Kakashi just laughs out loud at the flustered smack that comes his way that he easily stops as he grabs Shizuka's wrist.

Shizuka being as petty as he was ignores Kakashi for half an hour before he gets lured back in by Kakashi stealing an affectionate peck on his lips. Shizuka thought that wasn't a good enough first kiss for that appearance so he grabs Kakashi by the collar of his kimono– he changed into one when they first booked the inn –and pulls him in to trap him into another heated make out session.

Kakashi makes a teasing remark of them acting like they were in their “Honeymoon phase”, which makes Shizuka, who has just unhenged back into his Allen appearance, blush red once again as he turns away to grumble at Kakashi being such a tease.

It was a good day indeed.

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Kakashi and Allen returned to Konoha at dawn the next day, as they did so, they noticed that the weather was kinda chilly. “It's close to Christmas after all,” Allen mused out loud as he looked up to the rising sun. Kakashi closed his eyes– he had pulled up his hitai-ate at Allen's suggestion due to the sharingan no longer being a chakra issue –and breathed in the cool scent of nature as he tilted his head up as Allen did.

“Hopefully I don't get any missions on Christmas, and that you don't get any commission requests too.” Kakashi opens his eyes again, holding Allen's hand as the blue-haired civilian had his blindfold on, his white cane held in his other hand.

Allen and Kakashi first went home, with Kakashi dropping Allen off at his shop/apartment before heading to his own house.

Allen enters his apartment, pulling up his blindfold he first goes to his closest where he channels chakra into the seal, two scrolls pop out “Of course, it would have been weirder if there wasn't any new requests after such a period of time.”

Picking up one of the scrolls, he frowns as he sees who it's from. “Akatsuki.” Allen promptly burns that scroll, sealing its ashes into a storage scroll he has lying around before burning that storage scroll, just like he did last time. He looks to the other scroll.

“Huh?”

Allen rereads the contents of the scroll just to make sure it was right.

Allen blinks and sighs at the troublesome commission request. If he was still very strict on himself about changing things he would've burned the scroll. But the fact that it was Gaara himself that sent the commission that he somehow came to the conclusion that he could trust Shizuka? That didn't make much sense in Allen's personal opinion as they've only actually met from that one delivery mission he took from Tsunade.

Part of Allen wanted to ignore the request, he resolved to not keep himself out of the world's affairs and it's most likely future, but that didn't mean he wasn't somewhat apprehensive in actively changing something, especially since this time, it wasn't as personal as it was with Danzo considering his feelings for Kakashi was already present at the time as well. Add on the question of how Gaara even knew he was adept at seals. “Probably from Tsunade-sama.” He thinks briefly.

He thought about the red-haired ninja Naruto considered his brother of sorts, they shared something deeply in common after all. It wasn't easy being a jinchuriki, but it was especially hard for a jinchuriki to have a faulty seal. Even Allen couldn't imagine being unable to sleep. Looking down to the scroll once more, he rolls it up and places it on his bed. Allen goes back to his closet taking out some new clothes before he activates the henge seal, turning into his Shizuka appearance.

He decided to accept the commission. As Shizuka grabs his two Katana's from his large storage scroll and latches it on his waist, he hears a knock on his window. Turning to look, he sees Kakashi.

Shizuka smiles and walks up to the window, opening it, allowing Kakashi to enter his apartment. ”Is it really that hard to enter through the door?” A chuckle leaves Shizuka as he turns around to get his things in order. He double checks if he still has enough ink left and if his sealing brush is still in good condition.

Kakashi watches Shizuka prepare his things, “You got a request?” He asks as he walks to lean on a nearby wall. Shizuka simply nods, completely focused on his quick preparations. “How long do you think you'll be gone for?” He adds.

”2 days tops, I left a tag for me to teleport to 30 minutes away from the village. If no one stalls I could get back tomorrow.” Shizuka explains as he seals all of his things into his large scroll and slings it over his shoulder.

Kakashi pouts, “Trying to escape from me already?” He approaches Shizuka, circling his arms around his waist as he pulls him into a hug, giving Shizuka a quick kiss on the forehead, he looks back at Shizuka's cloth covered eyes.

Shizuka smiles, ”You can't get rid of me that easily.” He gives Kakashi a kiss on the cheek before pulling himself out of Kakashi's arms. ”You're still off from missions, so take it easy, go hang out with Sakura or something, you sure need to no more about taking care of yourself.”

“Maa, alright,” Kakashi smiles and gives Shizuka a wave before the white-haired mercenary disappears in a white flash. “Ano…what to do for now.” Kakashi hums to himself, looking at the empty but still warm apartment, Kakashi looks at himself in the mirror. It was a bit strange to see both his eyes visible, stranger but obviously better in terms of his sight. He touches a hand to the scar that ran across his eye. He should tell Obito and the other's about Allen.

Kakashi leaves through the window and heads for the ever familiar stone.

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After Kakashi tells stories to the ghosts of his old team, he wanders throughout Konoha before he remembers what Allen told him. “Well… I guess I could go and mess with some people.” He grins under his mask before vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

Kakashi started with going to Sakura for a check up, upon seeing him, her eyes widened as he gives her his signature closed eyes smiles, this time with two eyes since he had his hitai-ate up. After the initial shock, Sakura gives Kakashi a small smile, telling him to take a seat on the chair for her to examine him. She congratulates Kakashi on his new relationship with Allen as she gives him a check-up. Sakura gives Kakashi the clean bill of health, but still tells him that he's not to go back on missions yet, Kakashi simply whips out his book and bids Sakura goodbye. Sakura could be heard yelling about perverts in the background. It seems he hadn't lost his touch.

Kakashi then encounters Kurenai and Anko. Anko, upon seeing Kakashi claps him on the back with a loud chortle as she congratulates him, Kurenai just throws him a smile and gives him a handshake. When they notice that he had both eyes uncovered Anko suddenly grins even bigger before bragging about having been the first one between the two of them to receive a seal related gift from Allen as she proudly shows off her cursed-seal free shoulder. Kurenai blanches at that before scolding her best friend for not telling her sooner as Kurenai then pulls her into a hug belatedly congratulating her on it's removal. Kakashi just nods softly at Anko, his eyes crinkling up a little, showing her he was also glad she was finally rid of the damned thing. Kakashi let's the original comment about receiving a gift from Allen first pass as his congratulatory gift to the purple-haired nin.

He makes his way over to one of the training grounds, deciding to get some exercise in when Gai comes by to challenge him, the green spandex wearing man was the most visibly shocked, and Kakashi watched Gai amused out the corner of his eyes as he gaslights Gai telling him he didn't know what he was talking about and that he had always had both eyes uncovered.

Gai ends up challenging him to a taijutsu match to which Kakashi accepts, opting to get a feel for his new wider range of vision. Needless to say, being the genius that he is, after the first 10 minutes of experimenting, he beats Gai at the challenge successfully claiming a 5 point advantage on his tally for the challenges he had with Gai.

After his taijutsu with Gai, Kakashi went back home, entering his house he looks around, the memory of when he finds Shizuka in his house resurfaces, his eyes soften at the memory. He looks to the couch, remembering the first time he kissed Allen, a hand goes up to his lips. “I'll make sure to keep him, all of them safe this time. Thanks Kamisama.”

Kakashi enters the still bare but now warm home. He still lived alone, but with memories of a lovable and cute bluenette in the home, Kakashi found himself smiling.

Allen slowly opened his eyes, blinking away the haze. He tries to sit up only to notice that he was on a bed, still in his Shizuka henge. Sending a burst of chakra to the seal for his henge, he turns it off.

“Shiro must have taken me away after I dropped dead…Where?” Allen looks around realizing he was on Kakashi's bed. “Well that's not good. He must have been very worried.”

Allen frowns, feeling bad for the emotional turmoil he probably inflicted on Kakashi for being dead for what he assumed was a couple days. Allen takes a deep breath, feeling his chakra which has doubled in quantity. “So it did work. That hurt like hell though.” Allen winces as he remembered the intense pain he felt before dying.

As Allen shuffled his position in bed so he was reclining instead of lying, he hears the sound of footsteps approach him before it stopped, “Allen…”

Allen felt arms circle around him pulling him into a firm hug. “You can't NOT tell me about things like this before it happens you idiot!” Kakashi chides, Allen looks to Kakashi's worried gaze, noticing how his eyebrows were furrowed and there were heavy bags under his eyes. Allen frowns.

“Sorry,” he says, returning the hug. “I planned to tell you about it along with my identity as Shizuka. I must have forgotten.”

Kakashi hugs Allen closer, Allen could feel the slight tremble in Kakashi's hands as he was hugged. Allen put a hand over Kakashi's hand in comfort. “I'm here. I'm alive. I'm not gonna leave you behind. I promise.”

Kakashi draws in a shaky breath, “You better, do you have any idea how I felt when I felt your cold body? When I couldn't find a pulse?” Kakashi pulls back from the hug, his expression serious and reprimanding. Allen pulls Kakashi down to place a kiss on his cheek. “I won't do it again, sorry. I'll be more careful.”

Kakashi sighs as he sits next to Allen on the bed, “So you have summons, wolf summons.” He decides to change the subject.

Allen lets out an amused huff, thankful for the topic change. He still looked at Kakashi's state, concerned but they'll sort this out together.

Kakashi explains to Allen that he was out for an entire week. He tells him that after he got the all clear to take missions again, he requested Tsunade to allow him to be free from mission duty at least until Allen woke up. Tsunade did grant Kakashi's request but told him that he would have to take an important mission afterwards to make up for it and that Tsunade told him to tell Allen that Shizuka owes her a free commission for her magnanimity.

Allen rolls his eyes at the message but nods nonetheless. Judging by what Kakashi said about Tsunade's soon to be issued mission/commission, it was gonna be a dangerous one. Allen makes a quip about how great he and Kakashi would do as a duo which Kakashi returns with a confident but tired grin.

“Oh right, I know my summons so I'm sorry if they said anything weird.” Allen says, leaning onto Kakashi's shoulder.

“Weird in what way?” Kakashi asks, confused, he sees Allen's face turn pink as the shorter male avoids his gaze.

“Things like mates or packs and such,” Allen mumbles out but Kakashi manages to hear it anyway. The taller male lets out an amused laugh, “Maa, did you not know? The Hatake Clan despite my summons being ninken, are more likened to wolves. Similar to how the inuzuka are likened and close to dogs.”

Kakashi moves Allen to his laps pulling him close, “Unlike dogs who usually mate with more than one female, which the Inuzuka do somewhat practice as some of the clan members have more than one mate, us from the Hatake Clan only ever mate with one person. We have what is called chakra bonding.” He explains nuzzling Allen's hair with his nose.

“O-oh…But uh, we…uh…” Allen stutters, not knowing what to say, face as red as a tomato.

Kakashi chuckles at the sight and placates the stuttering man, “There's no need to think much on it, it will happen when it happens. We only got together Allen, let's get to know each other more, neh?”

The words seem to ease Allen's jumbled thoughts as he draws his lips into a tight line, his eyes avoiding Kakashi's gaze. Kakashi chuckles at the cute display, pulling him closer till Allen was leaning on him on his lap, head tucked under Kakashi's chin.

Kakashi continued his recounting of the days, at some point, Sakura, who was curious of the phenomenon and worried about a new member of the team 7 family– she determinedly insisted as such since Allen and Kakashi where together, even going so far as comparing the both of them to parents while her, Naruto, and Sasuke would be their kids, Kakashi blushed red at that –and proceeded to do a full body Assessment of the cold lifeless body of Shizuka.

Despite the lack of a heartbeat and a pulse, chakra still seemed to be present in Shizuka's body, which Sakura theorized could be due to whatever stunt it was that Shizuka pulled that got him killed in the first place. Allen confirmed that what she had said was right as soon as Kakashi told him of that part of the story.

Allen explained in more detail what it was that he was trying to do which got him a flick to the forehead courtesy of an annoyed Kakashi as he heard the man mumble about reckless idiots. Allen snorted at the sight earning another flick to which he simply sticks his tongue out in retaliation.

After the little distraction, Kakashi continues to catch Allen up on the past days that he was asleep. It seems that as it was even closer to Christmas, it has even started snowing throughout the Elemental Nations. Allen looks to the window in response to an excited and childlike grin appearing on his face as he spots the white flakes that fall from the sky.

Kakashi lays a hand over the blue hair as he pats Allen’s head, watching the shorter man smile at the white dots falling from the sky outside. “The snow isn't so thick yet since it's only been a couple of days but you're gonna have to bundle up soon. I think a scarf would look quite good on you.”

Allen looks up to Kakashi, something on his mind before he grins, “It would be funny if your mask changed with the season, like I think red would look good on you too. a red mask with a snowflake in the center.”

“Hmm, who knows, I might just take you up on that idea,” Kakashi returns an unmasked smile towards Allen. Allen’s gaze softens as he lifts a hand up to cup Kakashi's face.

“You should have slept more, I wasn't going anywhere. I knew you'd keep my body safe.” Allen says, running a thumb under Kakashi's eye, over his visible eyebags.

Kakashi shrugs leaning into the touch, “I kept getting nightmares,” he admits, slightly vulnerable, his eye droops down a little at the warm touch of Allen's hand on his face.

“Sorry again,” Allen says in a whisper. He lifts up another hand to cup hold the other side of Kakashi's face. Their breaths intermingled with each other as they leaned in closing the space between them with a soft kiss.

Allen can feel Kakashi's well hidden insecurities through the intimate contact, a sort of desperation and pleading to it as he feels himself get lost in the contact. Allen himself tries to express his gratitude, trust, and comfort through the kiss.

Allen moves from holding Kakashi's face to wrapping his arms around Kakashi's neck as the silver-haired man moves his hand from on his head to the back of his head as if trying to get them even closer together as the other hand holds onto Allen's waist. Kakashi tilts his head to the side a little, licking Allen's bottom lip. Allen responds with parting his mouth slightly, which Kakashi takes as an opportunity to explore Allen's mouth with his tongue.

Allen lets out a pleasant hum at the action which makes Kakashi lock their mouths in place better to use his tongue to explore the intense heat that was Allen's mouth, savoring the texture, feeling, and space as he reminds himself that, yes, he's alive, well, and right there next to him. Reminding himself that he didn't just fail and lose another one of the people he considered precious.

Allen doesn't fight for dominance nor was Kakashi going for domination in the first place, instead Allen reacted with Kakashi in sync, dancing around with his tongue, eyes closed, simply enjoying the sensation and warmth that was being shared between them with such an intimate moment. Allen first thought it would be awkward, french kissing Kakashi. He had never been with anyone even before he got Isekai'd into the world, nor had he kissed anyone before he initially died in his world. He was glad that Kakashi seemed to understand and lead and taught, and savored.

Eventually, since they were only humans, they parted. The couple breathing heavily to account for the air they needed to regain. Allen still had his mouth partially open, eyes drooped as if enchanted and licked his lips.

Kakashi's eyes follow the movement. He grins and lets out a hearty laugh pulling Allen to his chest as the shorter male soon follows shortly after with light chuckles of his own. “Go to sleep Kakashi, you've lost enough of it, while taking care of me. I'll be right here with you when you wake up.” Allen says scooting himself off of Kakashi's lap and pulling the silver-haired nin with him into a lying position on the bed.

Kakashi pulls Allen close, closing his eyes as he is finally allowed a peaceful rest.

When the couple do manage to finally get themselves out of the house, Allen decides to properly introduce his summons to Kakashi. Kakashi found the idea of meeting the wolf pack without the threat of Allen's well-being exciting and even suggested introducing his own ninken pack to the blue-haired man's pack.

Allen Hiraishin's himself and Kakashi to the clearing that Shiro initially had him stay in before Kakashi found him a couple days prior. Kakashi decides to start them both off by summoning his pack out as they look around immediately, some of them going over to Kakashi to be pet and belly-rubbed by the man.

“Maa, all of you, this over here is my lover, Allen, I wanted to introduce you to him and his pack.” Kakashi tells the group who look over to Allen who had his blindfold up in its usual makeshift headband as he waves at the group of dogs. Pakkun, who was already quite familiar with Allen, having been summoned to help him forage for materials before, trotted over to the bluenette.

“Hey kid! So you finally got together with the boss! Take care of ‘im will yah?” Pakkun remarks, Allen kneels down to give Pakkun a pat on the head with a smile. Upon seeing Allen pet Pakkun, the rest of the pack circles around him, Bisuke, Shiba, and Akino nudge at Allen's other arm making him laugh joyfully as he gives the smart dogs some belly rubs.

“Maa, how could you betray me like this?” Kakashi pouts at being left by his pack in favor of circling around and getting attention from his cute lover.

Shiba looks at Kakashi, “He gives really good bellyrubs boss! You chose a good one!” The fierce looking dog says before licking Allen's cheek to imply his approval over the new member of the pack, Allen chuckles carding his fingers through the fluffy fur of the dogs.

“Thank you all for taking good care of Kakashi so I could meet him,” Allen proclaims with a teasing grin, the dogs make proud faces making Kakashi sweat drop. Shaking his head, a smile on his face he looks at the wholesome scene before him. Allen tried his best to give equal attention to each of the dogs, treating them not as tools, nor as simply ‘pets’ but rather as the smart animals that they are while also keeping in mind that they were still dogs that enjoyed things like being pet, getting treats, and getting belly rubs.

Kakashi watches Allen talk to each of the dogs, asking questions to get to know them even if only a little bit. Kakashi walks over petting Bull upon approaching before turning to Allen, “They were quite surprised when they saw me with both my eyes out, you should've seen it,” Kakashi teases the ninken. Guruko lets out a bark, “You can't blame us! We thought something bad had happened.” The brown dog.

Allen laughs, bright and free. “Don't tease them too much Kakashi, I might just steal them from under your nose.”

“I think you’re already doing that,” Kakashi returned with a deadpan expression.

“Allen! Kakashi mentioned something about meeting your pack too?” Pakkun asks.

Allen grins standing up, making sure to be mindful of accidentally stepping on any of the ninken. He makes the hand seals for the summoning jutsu, slamming his palm to the ground as large puffs of smoke appear in three spots in a line. When the smoke clears, 2 large wolves, one of which was Shiro, another colored darker like a blackhole, and a third larger than the rest, towering over the two already large wolves appearing to be as large as a tailed beast, silver in color as the light of the sun appeared to reflect off of the wolf's fur, navy blue marking on the wolf's body. The wolf's four legs were adorned with 3 stripes as though the wolf wore bracelet accessories, with the tips of the wolf's ears tipped with the same navy blue markings.

Kakashi and his ninken look in awe at the large wolves.

“Rigen! Can you shrink a bit?” Allen calls out, the gigantic wolf looks to its contractor and white smoke whirls around Rigen. When the smoke cleared, Rigen appeared to be the same size as Shiro and the void colored wolf.

“Guys! This is my lover Kakashi Hatake and his ninken pack. Kakashi, you've already met Shiro, this is Rigen, he's the Alpha of the-” Allen starts to say before he gets interrupted by the wolf in question, “I have already told you Allen, you are the pack's Alpha.”

Allen rolls his eyes at the interruption, “Yeah alright, and this-” he gestures at the void colored wolf, “-is Kusho.”

Shiro walks over to Kakashi and the ninken before laying down on his belly, the dogs go up to the large wolf and start to sniff him before curling up to the fluffy summon. Kusho, seeing this, sniffs at Kakashi for a moment much like what Shiro did a couple days prior, and licks at his face, the large tongue basically encompassing his whole face as Allen laughs in the background at Kakashi's dumbfounded expression.

Kusho moves to lay on the other side of where the ninken curled up around Shiro, laying her head down on one of her front legs.

Rigen stares down at Kakashi, gaze steely and cold, a sense of inferiority befalls Kakashi as he senses the wisdom and years that the large wolf had in its life. Despite the feeling, Kakashi holds his ground, looking up with determination, challenge, and a burning passion in his eyes. Rigen observes this all in silence, before bowing his head to the silver-haired nin. “I shall leave our pack leader in your care. Protect him as he is your mate.” Rigen speaks in request and favor. After Rigen says his spiel, he raises his head once again, walking forward he nudges Kakashi with his nose before looking to Allen, “I shall head out first, the young ones may cause trouble back at home.”

Allen nods his head giving Rigen a hug to his snout as the wolf's eyes soften and he dismisses himself, a puff of smoke indicating the fact he has returned to the realm where the Wolf Clan resided.

Kakashi wipes his face with a handkerchief, “I didn't think I was gonna get my whole face covered in wolf slobber.” Kusho's ear twitched at that but the wolf stayed laying down with her eyes closed.

Allen laughs at Kakashi's predicament, “Rigen acknowledged you! That's good. Aw come one, as if your ninken hadn't licked me all over my face just a moment ago.” He teases back.

“My ninken aren't larger than the ichiraku ramen stall.” Kakashi rebuts with a disgruntled expression. Allen just laughs at him.

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Kakashi receives a summons from the Hokage just after lunch, Allen, who was with him receives a scroll from the Anbu that had come to summon Kakashi. Pouting a bit, Allen gives Kakashi a smile and a nod before disappearing in blue blur. Kakashi sighs, gets up from his seat and pays for the meal– both his and Allen's –and makes his way to the Hokage Tower.

When Kakashi entered the Hokage office– through the window as usual–, he was unsurprised to see Shizuka already there, Tsunade looking smugly at the white-haired mercenary.

“Glad you know that you owe Konoha a favor for allowing you to stay and recover in the village. I'm sure Kakashi has already told you about it, but I will be commissioning you to join Kakashi on his mission.” Tsunade says as she gives Kakashi an irritated look as he notices the nin enter through the window again.

”Of course, to show my gratitude in your hospitality, I'll do the commission for you for free.” Was the neutral and curt reply of Shizuka, lips drawn in a tight line, blindfold firmly in place.

“Good,” Tsunade waited for Kakashi to stand next to Shizuka before continuing, “The old man left such a huge mess behind. After investigating ROOT, I found out about other things namely the uchiha massacre. From the evidence gathered, I plan to publicly announce the true events of what happened that day and revoke Itachi Uchiha's missing nin status. The mission is for you to inform Itachi of this development and bring him home.” Tsunade explains with seriousness, Kakashi's eyes widen at the implications.

“That would mean…” Kakashi starts, “That since Itachi is to be brought back to Konoha, Sasuke, whose goal is to kill his brother, will have to come to the village in order to do so. It is then he is to be apprehended, confined, and put on trial for forsaking the village. Sasuke will also be told the truth about the Uchiha Massacre, preferably by Itachi.” Tsunade adds.

Shizuka takes a deep breath to calm himself of his nerves. What he heard just now, if implemented and followed through, would significantly change the events of the future. Time isn't linear, but it will surely try to mold the future back to its original path. Shizuka wasn't gonna purposely go out of his way to meddle with things, but he wasn't gonna hold back on making changes anymore.

“What if Itachi refuses to go back to Konoha?” Kakashi asks in concern, plans don't always go its way after all. Shizuka shakes his head which gets the attention of the two shinobi.

”Itachi will have no choice but to come back with us to the village if Tsunade truly plans to announce the truth. Add the fact that we tell him about Danzo being eliminated as well as his terminal sickness, he has no choice but to come back. After all, he's initial plan was to paint himself the villain, have Sasuke kill him, which will then get Sasuke to be proclaimed a hero. That plan goes to ashes if you announce the truth which would then reveal that Itachi was a hero for his actions at the Uchiha massacre all along.” Shizuka explains all this, a wall of words made from flame, stays in the air, allowing the 2 shinobi time to read the words.

Tsunade and Kakashi looks at Shizuka surprised, “How-”

”The Yochigan's main ability is foresight. Although focused more on what is to happen in the future. I can easily find out the past just by looking into the history of things. Passing by the Uchiha compound on my walks sometimes make me see into the events that have happened and the people involved. Usually I have to do it by will, but for some reason it happens involuntarily when I pass by the area.”

Tsunade's mouth closes, she doesn't even get angry at being interrupted as she digests the words of the mercenary. “That's why you don't affiliate yourself with any of the villages.” She says, not a question, but rather a statement.

Kakashi understands Tsunade's line of thought, “You have the ability to look into the future, should you be affiliated to a village, although you secure the future of one village, you'd essentially be either abandoning or putting into disadvantage the other villages. Knowing you personally, you don't care much for politics. In fact, you love peace, you love helping others. That's why you chose to be a mercenary, you're essentially a ninja that's affiliated with every village.” Kakashi continues.

Shizuka releases a resigned breath as he nods at Kakashi and Tsunade's words, they've figured it out.

Tsunade's eyes softened at this, “Thank you.” Shizuka shrugs as if it wasn't that big of a deal, ”Let's focus on this mission.”

Tsunade continues to discuss the mission with the two, telling them that they are to depart for the mission tomorrow morning. Shizuka and Kakashi nod and leave through the window, much to Tsunade's disappointment. Shizuka asked Kakashi if they could have a friendly spar as he has yet to try to fight with his newly structured and chakra coils and larger reserves. Kakashi agreed and the two headed to Training ground 7 to have their spar.

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Shizuka spars with Kakashi to test his chakra control and ability for jutsu after his coils were basically recreated and his reserves were doubled. At first, Shizuka found difficulty in executing jutsu's and chakra related skills and techniques, but after exchanging a couple of blows with Kakashi, after 30 minutes of adjusting and finetuning his use of chakra, and experimenting with chakra control. He eventually gets used to his new reserves and chakra coils/network that he manages to start giving Kakashi a run for his money.

After an hour and a half passes Shizuka and Kakashi trading blows and jutsus, a game of cat and mouse where they both got to experience being the cat and the mouse, as Kakashi moves to grab him, aiming to flip Shizuka, Shizuka grinned teasingly as he puts up his hands in front of Kakashi's feeling Kakashi grab his wrists together as Shizukak uses the weight of his body to fall backward, using a leg to nudge at Kakashi's knee making him trip. The result was Kakashi maneuvering himself to prevent crushing Shizuka under his weight, his hand holding up both of Shizuka's hands over the white-haired mercenary's head as Kakashi towered over Shizuka, other hand being used as support to prevent him from just plopping down face first on Shizuka.

“Quite scandalous of you to attack so boldly in the day,” Shizuka whispers to Kakashi as he watches in glee as the masked man's face– the visible part of it anyway –grow red, the copy nin propelling himself backwards, letting go of Shizuka's wrist in the process. Kakashi hears Shizuka snicker quietly.

“Maa, that's so mean of you to do Shizu-chan,” Kakashi pouts in response, face still red from the previous position.

Shizuka lets out a snort, “For someone who reads such…books…you sure get quite flustered getting into a position similar to what is in it.” Shizuka gets up from the ground, dusting himself off. ”You're not the only one who can be such a tease.” A cheeky grin was on Shizuka's face. Kakashi's eyes twitched at the expression. As he tried to catch Shizuka off guard, the blindfolded male swiftly dodged Kakashi's grab before body flickering 5 meters away.

Tapping at his cloth covered eyes, fire words appear in the air in front of Kakashi as if trying to taunt him, ”I have very good hearing you know?” Shizuka smirks as he sprints away, Kakashi laughs in good fun and chases after him.

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Shizuka and Kakashi meet at the gate the next day, Kakashi was 2 hours late, giving Shizuka a lame excuse. “This is the first time I've actually heard Kakashi make those lame excuses haven't I? Has he not been late before to any of our meeting?”

Shizuka shakes his head to get rid of the thoughts, there was no point in musing on them as Shizuka didn't really mind if Kakashi was to be late anyway. He knew the man spent the time talking to his precious people, Shizuka himself wished he could have somewhere or something that symbolized his family so he could talk to them. He gave up on finding a way back to his own world a year ago.

Shizuka just gave Kakashi an understanding nod and a smile when the silver-haired nin arrived late. They left the village setting out for Itachi.

After a day of travelling, both nin jumping from tree branch to tree branch for better leverage and scope, Kakashi's voice breaks the comfortable silence that fell on the couple, “How exactly do we find Itachi?” The copy nin asked, running neck n neck with Shizuka, the white-haired mercenary slowing down his pace to match with his lover.

”Itachi periodically sent the Third Hokage reports on the Akatsuki's movements, acting as a double agent of sorts. The problem was since the Third Hokage died, Tsunade wasn't informed of the correspondence with Itachi, Itachi now doesn't have a person to report to but he tries to sabotage the Akatsuki's development a couple of times.” Shizuka explains, he spots a good area to take a break in, noticing that the sun was up high signifying it was noon.

Nodding over to Kakashi and tilting his head over to the direction of the area he found, Kakashi gets what Shizuka wanted to tell him and nods back to his companion. The two parkour down to the ground, entering the clearing as Shizuka pulls out a brush and a bottle of ink as he starts to draw a seal around the area. After he finishes the seal, he channels chakra into it, the seal activates as a translucent dome seems to whirl to life around the area before disappearing.

“Don't go near where the seal is, just stay here in the center.” Shizuka speaks out, he picks up a rock and throws it at the now invisible dome, the rock disintegrates into nothing. Kakashi backs up from the invisible force with visible concern on his face. “Maa, inform me before you activate the seal next time.”

Shizuka looks at Kakashi's reaction with mirth, shaking his head he pulls up his blindfold so he could see his aloof lover. “To those outside, this area looks normal, with no one in sight. It's soundproof too. Those with hostile intentions get shredded. Those that don't have any hostile intentions get a genjutsu casted on them as they are warped to the opposite side, they'll feel like they entered the area as normal.”

Kakashi's eyes light up in interest. “You haven't taught me new seals in a while.”

“The seal last time was on the basic side. I'll need to teach you from the ground up if you want to be able to make something like this.” Shizuka prepares a campfire, “That's fine, even knowing a little sealing is sure to come in handy at some point.” Kakashi sets down his things, opting to take out ingredients to cook.

A comfortable silence spreads around the area, the two working seamlessly to prepare for lunch. Kakashi takes over the cooking as Shizuka takes out some blank pieces of paper of varying sizes as he starts drawing various seals on them.

“How do you navigate while blindfolded? How do you even draw seals blindfolded for that matter?” Kakashi breaks the silence, curiosity laces his voice as he chops up ingredients and prepares the pot.

“I taught myself how to use echolocation. If push comes to shove, I could activate the Yochigan even while blindfolded, like how the byakugan can see into chakra networks.” Was the moderately lengthy explanation from Shizuka. He draws up various kinds of seals, some he wraps unto the hilt of a Kunai. Others he bundles together. Shizuka holds up two fingers and takes out another bottle of ink having just gone through an entire bottle.

Shizuka holds up a hand, two fingers extended as he channels chakra into it. Moulding the chakra in a way that it tangibly forms the tip of a brush. Kakashi watches Shizuka do his thing from the corner of his vision as he continues to cook their meal. Shizuka dips what is essentially a chakra brush into the bottle of ink, drawing the ink up as he then moves to draw a seal into the underside of his wrist. The chakra brush passes through his skin as Shizuka hisses a little at the burning sensation as he draws a storage seal mixed with a couple other components that would make the seal turn invisible on his skin.

After he draws the seal, Shizuka watches as the seal fades away, going invisible. He disperses the chakra brush letting the ink fall back into the bottle as he then proceeds to store the bundle of seals drawn on paper into the storage seal on the underside of his wrist

“If Jiraiya ever meets you, he'd try to pick apart your brain for sealing related things.” Kakashi says, approaching Shizuka with a bowl of porridge. Shizuka looks up to him with a smile, he gratefully accepts the meal.

The two eat in silence sitting across each other as they chat about various things, Shizuka opting to talk using words of fire as it drained less chakra than just him using his voice normally. After their meal, Kakashi and Shizuka cleaned their dish, Shizuka finely tuning some water jutsu to help in the cleaning process before the two went to rest their bodies and allow the food they ate to be digested. Shizuka pulls out a familiar book, the very same one Kakashi saw him reading when he first entered his now favorite bookshop. He smiles wide before pulling out his own book, a familiar orange that many women have grown to be annoyed off due to its perverted contents. The two read in comfortable silence, shoulders touching for the sake of having even a little bit of physical contact.

Kakashi eventually asks Shizuka how they were gonna track Itachi down as the white-haired man never actually stated so. Shizuka looked sheepishly at Kakashi upon realizing he hadn't actually said where they would find Itachi.

”The Land of Rice Paddies. When Itachi had free time or wasn't assigned a mission by Akatsuki, he likes to visit his brother from the shadows and observe his growth.” Shizuka honestly wouldn't know that Itachi was there if he only relied on his knowledge from the show. This was the unknown period between Naruto and Naruto Shippuden after all. Fortunately, his Yochigan allowed him to see into the future as well as the history and past of objects and people should the conditions be met.

It was a bit of a long way to their destination, but after 2 days they finally made it to their destination. Before they approached the border that signified the entry to the Land of Rice Paddies, Shizuka stopped Kakashi from further proceeding as he first drew a modified Hiraishin seal on the ground near the root of a bush.

“If Minato-sensei saw that, he might just pick your brain,” Kakashi remarked with amusement, Shizuka let out a huff. ”I don't need both a Sannin and a Hokage trying to pick at my brain.”

After Shizuka applies his seal, he looks to Kakashi, ”Are we gonna be sneaking in? Or are we entering with a disguise?”

“Sneak in. We came here to talk to Itachi and get him back to Konoha. If we disguise ourselves, we might run into Sasuke. It's not time for him to know yet.”

Shizuka nods at the choice, ”Sneaking in then, here.” Shizuka gestures for Kakashi to give him his hand, Kakashi obliges, curious as to what Shizuka had planned.

Grasping Kakashi's wrist, he takes out a piece of paper with a seal drawn on it, ”I'll transfer this seal to your skin, It's designed to fade away once turned off, it's what I used to sneak into Danzo's place.”

Kakashi watched in awe as the seal gets transferred to his skin from paper, “”Don't activate it yet.”

Shizuka moves to transfer the same seal onto his skin from paper, he takes out a brush and adds a component to the skill, grabbing Kakashi's hand to add the same component to the one on his hand. ”That should prevent the seal from working against each other. It would be troublesome if we couldn't find or turn to each other due to the seal making everyone and anyone from drawing attention to you.”

“Maa, I look forward to when you start selling seals. This is becoming very handy,” Kakashi admires the seal on his hand before slipping his fingerless gloves back on that he took off when Shizuka first asked for his hand.

”Send a burst of chakra to activate it.” Shizuka explains as he does so to the seal on his own body.

After the two had activated the diversion seal, they both walked through the border checkpoint, the guards stationed in the area not even paying attention to them as they all turned to have something to do as Shizuka and Kakashi passed by. Kakashi looks impressed at the seal's effect as he looks at Shizuka with an impressed closed eyes smile.

Next was to actually look for the prodigious missing nin.

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After also moving to enter Otogakure, the couple having no luck of finding the missing nin for the first two hours of sneaking around, Kakashi even had tried summoning Pakkun to track down the ninja's scent only to no avail. Shizuka and Kakashi decided to take a break on one of the roofs of the buildings in the village.

“I'm impressed that we haven’t been trying too hard to hide our presence aside from concealing our chakra yet we haven't been found. No one suspects two shinobi having run around the village.” Kakashi signs out in order to not make a sound, they were still in enemy territory after all.

Shizuka stares at Kakashi's hands who had just signed for a moment, he throws Kakashi a smile before he brings up his own hands to sign, “Thank you, it took a lot of tries to figure it out. I think I might just use the Yochigan to track him down. He can't escape us if I see where he plans to go, what he plans to do, and so on.”

Kakashi looks down to the busy street below them, not unlike that of Konoha, he looks back to Shizuka with a nod as the white-haired nin activates the doujutsu under his blindfold. Shizuka closes his eyes, feeling the drain of his chakra as he concentrates on a target who's future he wanted to see. Itachi.

Kakashi watches as Shizuka’s head slumps down in a nod and waits for the mercenary to finish looking into the future. A couple minutes pass and Shizuka lifts his head with a devious grin on his face. “Okay so here's the plan.”

Kakashi pays attention to the quickly signed out plan from Shizuka after which he nods his head in understanding. The two look at each other, Kakashi's expression matching Shizuka's as he found himself having fun with what's supposed to be a very serious mission. They split up to set their plan in motion.

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Itachi landed silently in one of the alleys of the village, he noticed that Kakashi and Shizuka the Silent Death seems to be in pursuit of him. Why the mercenary was with a leaf shinobi, he didn't know, nonetheless he didn't intend for himself to be caught. The current Hokage doesn't know of his role and correspondence with the previous Hokage so he assumed that they have come to capture him once and for all. Itachi moved through the village with the grace of a shadow, his senses attuned to any potential threats, he had only come to check on his beloved little brother after all, and he had already made sure that Sasuke was getting strong. Little did he know that the intricate dance orchestrated by Shizuka and Kakashi was drawing near.

Shizuka, hidden in the shadows, maintained the connection with his Yochigan, under his crimson blindfold tracking Itachi's every move with slight glances at the future. As the Uchiha wandered through the narrow alleys, he felt an unusual chill, an inkling that he was being observed, most probably having been found by one of the two nins in pursuit of him. Itachi plays along, a plan in his mind at the shadow that follows him. Unbeknownst to him, Shizuka was navigating the shadows, silently manipulating his clones to keep pace with their elusive target. He could already foresee what Itachi was thinking.

Kakashi, on the other hand, moved with the precision of a seasoned tracker. His Sharingan remained turned off, a trump card to be revealed when the time was right. As Itachi turned another corner, he found himself facing a seemingly dead end. Confident in his ability to escape any predicament, he smirked as he thought he had successfully lured the mercenary to a trap.

At that moment, Shizuka's clones sprang into action, converging from all sides to create an illusionary barrier. Itachi's keen instincts kicked in, sensing an imminent threat. He swiftly disappeared in a blur of leaves, only to find himself face-to-face with another Shizuka clone.

A playful grin adorned Shizuka's face as he engaged in this cat-and-mouse game. Meanwhile, Kakashi, observing the unfolding spectacle from a rooftop, signaled Shizuka with a quick series of hand signs. It was time to escalate the situation.

Shizuka, using his mastery of seals, activated a concealed barrier, limiting Itachi's escape options. The Uchiha found himself trapped in a complex web of illusions and shadows. Being a master of genjutsu himself, he tried dispersing the illusions with the aid of his sharingan only to find out he couldn't as he attempted to then decipher the situation he had found himself in, Kakashi descended from above, landing gracefully in front of him.

Itachi, now surrounded by the mischievous duo, realized he had become the unwitting participant in their strategic game, as he lacked information on Shizuka and his skills. Shizuka, with a theatrical flourish, revealed the essence of their plan. "Caught you, Itachi. Now, let's talk about business."

The Uchiha, though momentarily surprised, couldn't help but respect the audacity and skill of his pursuers, he was surprised to see his old Anbu Captain have both of his eyes out, sharingan nowhere in sight as well as the notable mercenary that had made a name for himself in a short span of time, eyes covered by a fairly thick cloth ensuring no vision.

What started as a serious mission had turned into a calculated game, and as the trio stood within the intricate web of jutsu, they prepared to unravel the secrets concealed and make right what was supposed to have been done earlier. Itachi would come home, Sasuke would give chase when he heard of it. Naruto would knock some sense into the raven-haired teen. The future will change.

Will change for the better.

Kakashi explains Tsunade's plans as well as Danzo's death to Itachi as Shizuka stands by. Shizuka had promptly grabbed onto both Kakashi and Itachi and used the Hiraishin no Jutsu to flash them to the seal he made just before the border.

Itachi listened with rapt attention about Tsunade's intentions. “The Akatsuki isn't as simple as you think. Each member is strong enough to deal massive damage all on their own.” Itachi explains with seriousness, he looks to Shizuka, “Fortunately Shizuka-san didn't respond to any of their invitations.”

Kakashi looks to Shizuka with mild surprise, Shizuka frowns as he turned to face the general direction Itachi's voice came from, ”I'm not going near that group even with a ten foot pole. If they try to kill me off for failing to recruit me…They can't blame me if they find whoever tries to kill me dead.” Shizuka's voice was cold, hard, and serious. Kakashi was surprised to hear his lover sound absolutely hateful towards people much less a group, still Shizuka seemed to be pretty neutral, if not quite respectful of Itachi despite the man being part of the group.

“He must have foreseen that Itachi wasn't truly part of the Akatsuki. I wonder what exactly the group does in the future to cause such a reaction.” Kakashi muses to himself before turning back to Itachi, “Neh, Your return would be a large help to the village, furthermore it would be cruel for you to continue with your plan even if you were able to. Truths always come to light just like how Danzo couldn't keep his secrets forever. Sasuka, even if he were to kill you will grow to regret such actions when he finds out the truth.”

Itachi closes his eyes in contemplation, “Very well, but we both know that even with revealing the truth, such news isn't always receptive to the people. It could simply draw a target to the village.”

Kakashi nods in agreement with the statement as Itachi loosens his posture, the tenseness leaving his body, “It's been a while since I last stood near you as an ally Kakashi-taicho, I see that a lot has changed,” the Uchiha comments with a respectful nod as he eyed Kakashi's other eye where a sharingan would normally be visible.

Kakashi nods and gives Itachi a closed eyed smile, “The village has a new seal master, I had him give me a seal that allowed me to turn the sharingan on and off.” Kakashi explains, Itachi seemed to be in thought.

“What of Shizuka-san? Having heard of his strong neutrality I assume he hasn't been integrated as a leaf shinobi.”

Shizuka looks over to the two, ”I had recently owed Hokage-sama a favor, she used the favor in the form of a commission where she didn't have to pay me for this one.”

Itachi nods in understanding at the explanation, “You seem to know the Fourth's Special Jutsu.” The Uchiha observes, making Shizuka click his tongue, “”I know you understand the concept of secrets. My true identity is as one of the civilians of the village. After requesting to be escorted to Amegakure, we encountered Hidan and Kakuzu which left me no choice but to reveal that I…had a doujutsu that hasn't been seen off before it allowed me to look into the history of one of the Fourth's special kunai which Kakashi had allowing me to copy said jutsu.”

“I see, that's why those two came back irritated, had you not been worried about your identity being disclosed, you might have been able to eliminate those two at that point,” Itachi says, appraising Shizuka.

Shizuka doesn't dignify him with another response as he simply turns away. Kakashi shakes his head at the awkward and tense atmosphere, Shizuka usually gets along with most people. I guess not everyone clicks with everyone.

Shizuka didn't know how to act around Itachi, on one hand he respected and was awed by the shinobi's skill and love for his little brother, but Shizuka could never find himself relating to the genius shinobi, and he says this after he himself sacrificed himself to save his little sister before he ended up in this world. Still, the fact the missing nin endured being his brother’s target of hate just to keep said brother safe, made Shizuka feel a bit sympathetic in a way. He could never do that to his sister had she been in this world too, he'd make sure he used other ways which didn't involve such extreme methods.

Shizuka pushes himself off from the tree he was leaning on as he extends a hand out to his aloof lover, the silver-haired nin grabbing hold of his hand, Kakashi extending his other hand– the one not grasping onto Shizuka's hand –to lay it on Itachi's shoulder the missing nin simply braising himself for the transport.

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Shizuka promptly got all three of them back to Konoha. Upon flashing them into the Hokage's office, he gives Tsunade a nod and flashes out to his apartment as he didn't need to wait for his payment this time around.

It took a total 3 days total to sort everything out, one to announce the true story behind the Uchiha massacre as well as the truth of Danzo's treachery, the two other council members that aided Danzo were apprehended to be investigated as Tsunade also renounced Itachi's missing nin status telling everyone that should the Uchiha hear of the development, he was allowed to come back home. Tsunade kept it a secret that Itachi was actually already in the village, instead she gave him back his Anbu status along with his old mask before assigning him to protect Allen– the blue-haired civilian found that annoying –as he was essentially a soon to be seal master despite being a civilian due to his doujutsu which allowed him to pick up on seals rapidly. It took 2 other days to assess Itachi's sickness as well as implant 2 new eyes to prevent his blindness.

They still had the Sharingans that Shizuka retrieved from Danzo. Allen being fed up with Sakura somehow deciding Allen was her personal therapist, as she stressed out about being unable to figure or help out Tsunade with Itachi's issue, gave in and approached Tsunade as Shizuka giving her the recipe for medicine that existed in the modern times which he had recreated using the available resources in the current time.

Needless to say the next time Allen saw Itachi from the corner of his eye, the Anbu doing his job diligently, the Uchiha gave him a thankful nod before resuming his new guarding duties. Allen just resigned himself to his ever present stalker. Tsunade tried to sneakily say he wouldn't need a protector if he revealed himself as Shizuka, to which Allen already knew was a light-hearted attempt at getting him to be a leaf-shinobi.

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After the Itachi retrieval mission things became pretty uneventful. Allen became the main seal supplier for the Uranashi shop. That week, when Sakura went to spend some time talking with Allen and Kakashi who were eating at Ichiraku at the time, during her break, they found out that there were less casualties and fewer injuries sustained. Allen was surprised by this as he didn't really make any complex seals. In fact most of the seal related things that were sold were custom made ones that simply got mass produced such as communication seals, paralysis seals, barrier seals of various kinds that are activated via kunai formations.

Soon enough Christmas came, luckily, Kakashi didn't get assigned a mission on the day and Allen didn't receive any commissions. The couple spent their day of Christmas eve together, deciding to go revisit the small town where they had their first date to have a relaxing day free from anything ninja related. The evening of Christmas eve was spent in the company of each other as Allen and Kakashi cuddled near the fire. Allen sat between Kakashi's legs, back pressed against the taller man's chest as they both read from a single book simply enjoying the feeling of proximity with each other.

The next morning Allen woke Kakashi up with a kiss on the lips. He grins watching Kakashi slowly rouse from his sleep, eyes blinking away the haze as he gives Allen a smile of his own, pulling the blue-haired man close to give him a proper long kiss, before greeting his lover good morning in a raspy voice. Allen giggles happily at the affection and urges Kakashi to get up.

Kakashi grumbles a bit as he tried to pull Allen down to cuddled with only to be dodged by the man, a playful grin on his face, as Allen left the bed going over to his large scroll as he takes out a moderately sized boxed wrapped neatly in a silver wrapping paper, a crimson ribbon like Shizuka's blindfold around the box completing the gift's look. Allen happily gives Kakashi the box to which the drowsy but now sitting on the edge of the bed, Kakashi takes it with a thankful look.

Kakashi unwraps the gift with care, making sure not to end up ripping the wrapping. Lifting the lid of the gift box his eyes widen at the book of basics in sealing which he snorts at, remembering all of the times he's bugged Allen about teaching him more in depth sealing. Kakashi notices there are still other things in the box as he looks back down to it. One of the things in the box was a seal on a piece of paper, the other was another tri-pronged kunai, a seal marked on its hilt, it looked different to Minato's. Kakashi's eyes widened at the latter, he looked at Allen in question.

“It works the same as Minato's kunai, but it's with my modified version of the Hiraishin no Jutsu. You don't even have to actually throw it. Just channel chakra into it and I'll come running- or well, teleporting over to you. I added something else though, as long as you have it on your person. If I ever get into extreme danger, a seal on my body will react with a component of the seal on the kunai which will immediately Hiraishin you over to my location. Its kinda redundant in a way since I can't die but-”

Allen gets cut off from his long tirade as Kakashi hugged him tight. Allen smiles, returning the hug. He knew Kakashi despite his tardy tendencies, always hated it when he was late when his precious people needed help. Allen was one of if not Kakashi's most precious people, and even if he never truly did stay dead, the man would rather Allen not experience such the pain of dying. Allen taking Kakashi's feelings in this aspect really meant a whole lot to the Copy Nin.

Allen, still hugging Kakashi, continues, “The seal is one I'll be tattooing on you. It's an honorary contract of sorts. I've already consulted with Rigen about it as well as all the other wolves. Basically it allows you to summon them too. You don't have to accept it, you have Pakkun and the other's after all, but we're pack now, and I wanted to teach you the Wolf Clan's Senjutsu. Rigen said it should be very compatible with you because the Hatake Clan was likened to wolves a lot and have a history with them too.”

Kakashi looks down to Allen smiling, “Maa, I'd be delighted to be taught Senjutsu, if I get stronger, I can protect my precious people better. Don't worry about Pakkun and the others, I'm sure they won't mind. In fact, if I could, I'd let you be able to summon the ninken too. They would really like that as well.”

Allen nods, giving Kakashi an affectionate and soft smile as they parted from the hug and decided to get breakfast ready. They planned to go back to the village at around noon to spend time with their friends. Allen told Kakashi he'd tattoo the summon seal on him the day after Christmas to which Kakashi agreed.

Allen and Kakashi roamed the small town after having breakfast. Allen went from booth to booth, dragging Kakashi along as he bought various kinds of snacks and tried out some different parlor games from the booths that littered the street on Christmas day. Kakashi smiled at seeing the childish actions of his younger lover. Despite the cold air, Kakashi felt warm, not only due to the extra layers he had on but also because of the warmth that spread from his chest at the content happiness he had in watching the joy and laughter on Allen's face.

It soon approached noon, despite the sun being up in the sky, thick fluffy clouds covered it, preventing the harsh rays from beaming down the people. Allen and Kakashi packed up their things and paid for their stay at the inn's reception as they headed back to the village.

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When Allen enters the village, the sight of festive decorations and noise merchants make themselves known. Kakashi and Allen walk through the streets of the village hand in hand only for them to get separated. Allen gets yanked by a joyful Hinata and her team, and Kakashi by an exuberant Gai who drags him– much to Kakashi's playful annoyance –off to where the rest of his friends probably were. Allen laughs as he watches his lover get dragged off, a playful expression of annoyance of himself as he sends Allen a nod and a wave before he gets dragged out of sight. Allen, dealing with the happy chunin team, allows himself to be pulled over to a meeting location where he sees Sakura in the area, as well as other chunins.

Allen greets Sakura a Merry Christmas and introduces himself through his trusty notepad to the other chunins. He complimented the delicious food that Choji brings to the large picnic, talked to Ino about flowers and the meanings themselves, the blond chunin being delighted at finally meeting someone that knew a lot about the subject, and even played a couple rounds of shogi with the smart Nara who's eyes glinted in interest when Allen manages to beat him in one of the 3 shogi matches they had.

Allen told Shino that the pet mantis he got from the Aburame Clan had sadly passed away, to which Shino nodded his head in understanding, knowing full well of the short lifespan of the species he had given to Allen. Shino let Allen dance around with his bugs, much to the slightly horrified look Ino gives at the scene. While Akamaru prances around the area playing fetch with Kiba.

As a few hours passed by and the sky darkened, people started cleaning up the things in the area as the sun began to set, its rays being covered by fluffy thick clouds. Allen helped out in the cleaning, chuckling lightly whenever he sees Hinata tell off Kiba for making more of a mess rather than helping.

“There really is a pattern, isn't there?” Allen muses to himself as he watches the teams interact with each other. Hinata thanks Allen for the book recommendation and told him to expect her to come by for another recommendation when she finishes the last story in the book. Shikamaru who hears of this gets curious and asks Allen if there are any books he could recommend to Nara as well. Allen throws Shikamaru a smug grin as he told him that he had quite a number of recommendations that he's sure the chunin would like or find interesting.

Eventually the sky sets and each team of Chunins and their members part ways to head home to their own families. Allen waves each and everyone of them bye, giving a hug to Hinata and Ino, and a pat on the back to Kiba and Choji, thanking them for the great day. Allen throws a wink over to Shikamaru and Shino as he pulls out a kunai with a seal attached to it as he throws it into the air. The two reserved Shinobi as well as the rest of the ninja in the area turn to look only to see the tag on the kunai burst into a bright array of glowing particles that resembles snow.

Allen takes out his notepad scribbling quickly on it before he presents it to the people in the area with a playful grin, “Merry Christmas Everyone!”

The people in the area look up in awe at the pretty display, some turn their attention back to the blue-haired civilian to see his silent but cheerful greeting. Shikamaru lets out an amused huff, “Troublesome.” He says despite the small smile that graced his lips.

Shino looked silently to the bright and pretty display, his dark glasses hiding the bug user's expression. Other members of team 8 watch the display with a smile, as Choji and Ino look at the falling particles with wonder.

Soon enough after the display was over, all of the shinobi and people in the area started to disperse and head back home to their respective families. Allen watches as each of the people in the area disappear, one by one. He lets out a breath he was holding looking to the dark sky that was littered with stars.

“Mom, dad, little sis…I'm doing well here. I hope you guys were able to move on from my death, I don't want you guys to be sad. I've got someone I call family now, even if we've only got together recently. I know you'd probably have a lot to say with me dating someone a bit of a pervert but even I have my moments you know?...Little sis, I hope you achieve your dreams, I'm sorry I won't be there for future Christmas’ that you'll have, and be there to take a picture of you as you blow out your candles on your birthday.”

Allen closed his eyes under the blindfold, his lips drawn in a tight line as he laments a little on the family who are still alive yet he couldn't see or meet. He got by fine without dwelling on the situation too much, but on such a holiday he couldn't help but miss his family, his friends. His world.

“If I was presented a way back…” The thought makes Allen bow his head forward and frown. No, he had a life now here too. He couldn't just leave everything here behind. He couldn't leave Kakashi behind.

“Is it selfish of me to want to see you all, to introduce to you the person I love?”

A voice calls out from a distance that interrupts his reverie, he turns to face towards the direction of the sound.

“Allen!” Kakashi's voice calls out, arms around him to pull him into a warm and tight hug. “Ne I was calling you a lot of times, what were you thinking about so deeply?” Kakashi asks, concern swirling in his obsidian orbs.

Allen shakes his head and smiles, pulling himself closer to Kakashi as he returns the hug. “Nothing, don't worry about it Kashi.” He says, burying his face into Kakashi's chest.

Kakashi scrutinizes his lover a little as though trying to discern whether it truly was nothing. After a while Kakashi decides to let it go, pulling away as he breaks the hug, “You gave me your gift this morning, I never got to give you mine.”

Kakashi takes Allen's hands in his, he places something cool and hard on the shorter male's hand, Allen turns his head downwards to his palm a confused frown on his face as he wonders what it was. Kakashi let's go of Allen's hands allowing the blue-haired civilian to feel for what it was in his hands.

Allen's breath hitch. “Is this…?”

“Come live with me. I know it might seem like it's too soon, but we decide the pace right? We haven't been together that long but I feel like my connection with you is deep. I gave you a key but I think it's time I go clean up and use the Hatake compound, I’ll code in your chakra, neh?” Kakashi says, voice soft as he gazes down lovingly at Allen.

Allen's eyes shake from behind the blindfold, eyes glistening with tears of happiness as he could barely contain his emotions. Gritting his teeth in an attempt to silence any sounds that come out of his mouth, afraid that his voice might tremble, Allen grasps the keys slightly in his hands as he jumps at Kakashi in happiness, throwing his arms around the taller man's neck as he finally brings himself to say– “Yes!” –in an excited whisper.

Kakashi hugs Allen back, using his strength to support the man who was basically dangling on his neck. The two look at each other, Allen smiles wide as he goes in to deliver a chaste kiss on Kakashi's masked face. The loving couple vanish in a blur of silver and blue. Off to Kakashi's-

No…off to their new home.