Fanfic / The Kakashi Way

Okay, so Sasuke never intended to travel back in time. It just sort of happened. Accidentally. And in the process of reorienting himself, he kinda-sorta came across Naruto, who'd been left behind by the rest of Team Seven after the bell test concluded to get out of the ropes all by himself. When he hadn't actually learned how to escape ropes at the Academy. Teaching him how to do so probably wouldn't trigger any major changes, right?

Well, he could try his darndest to avoid meddling any further... but that just feels wrong. He could make like Naruto and tell everyone the honest, unvarnished truth... but given that the Sandaime is still in charge, and Danzo's still kicking around, that hardly seems like the best option either. He could pull a Sakura and start punching everything he doesn't like... tempting, but he finds himself drawn toward their teacher's preferred methodology.

So begins The Kakashi Way, an Naruto work wherein Sasuke, now calling himself "Indra", deals with his unintentional Peggy Sue plot by setting himself up as a Trickster Mentor, aiming to nudge others in the right direction while observing the fallout from a distance... and trolling the heck out of everyone along the way. Though of course, he's not afraid to sprinkle in Sakura-style servings of cathartic justice, starting with old Danzo...

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This fanfic contains examples of:

• Adaptational Villainy: Over the course of the story, Danzo is revealed to have had a hand in many, many terrible events, far beyond the ones he is canonically known to have been involved with. This includes having played a role in the Kannabi bridge incident and the shunning and isolation that led to Sakumo's suicide, the latter coming after failing to eliminate him via suicide mission. He also set up the demise of Nawaki and Dan Kubo, Tsunade's little brother and love interest.
• Ambition Is Evil: Danzo, full stop. His desire for power and to become the next Hokage rather than a self-appointed "shadow Hokage" led him to sabotage anyone he decided posed a potential threat to his interests, leaving considerable damage in his wake even after he's exposed.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • Indra gets Naruto to reconsider his knee-jerk rejection of D-Rank missions by asking him two in rapid succession:
    Indra: Would you give the Hokage hat to just anyone?
    Naruto: Of course not! It has to go to the strongest ninja! That's why I'm gonna earn it one day, dattebayo!
    Indra: How do you prove you're the strongest ninja?
  • Followed shortly by "Would you want to send Sakura up against a whole group of missing-nin?", further driving home the importance of getting stronger and learning how to work with his teammates before facing such threats.
  • When Sakura tells Indra that she wants to be stronger, he presses her with "Why?" until she admits her deeper motivations.
  • Upon seeing Sasuke for the first time in several days, Naruto asks him what's wrong. When Sasuke denies that anything's bothering him, the blond asks "Then why are you crying?", causing him to realize he was shedding tears without realizing it.
  • While reviewing the Kannabi bridge incident with Kakashi, Inoichi asks him "Why do you sound as if you regret that he saved you?" Kakashi swears internally and refuses to answer.
  • During an argument with Kurama wherein the Kyuubi demands that he not use his name, Naruto catches him completely off guard by asking what he should call him instead. Kurama is taken aback by Naruto's willingness to respect his wishes despite not understanding why he doesn't want to be addressed in that way.
  • Indra/Sasuke hits Hiruzen with four in a row in Chapter 15:
    Indra: May I ask you something, Hokage-sama? How much did you know about the Massacre? Really?
    Hiruzen: (sighs after a lengthy silence) I knew the clan elders would be killed. But that was supposed to be all.
    Indra: Did you try talking to them?
    Hirzuen: No. I was... advised against it.
    Sasuke:^note He notes in his mental narration that he's no longer 'Indra' in this moment. By Danzo.
    Hiruzen: (sighing again) Yes.
    Sasuke: Why didn't you just give him the hat? You didn't want the Hokage's seat again. He did, he was strong enough. So why?
    Hiruzen: I couldn't let him have that kind of power and control.
    Sasuke: So you knew. What kind of man he was.
    Hiruzen: (scoffing) Of course, I did. I just... didn't think he'd go that far.
    Sasuke: (locks eyes with him) You did.
    Hiruzen: (shaking his head after a lengthy silence) Perhaps you're right. I just...
    Sasuke: Didn't have the will to fight him anymore?
    Hiruzen: (with a defeated sigh) Yes.
  • During Tsunade's argument with Hiruzen, she's thrown off balance by his remarking that he's so desperate for a solution that he's asking somebody whom he knows hates the village for advice:
    Tsunade: I... don't hate the village.
    Hiruzen: (shaking his head) You left. With no intention of coming back. If Konoha would have been razed yesterday, would you have cared at all?
    Tsunade: (following a lengthy silence where she privately admits to herself that she would have gotten over the loss of her homeland quickly) Indifference isn't hatred.
    Hiruzen: Same result.
• Armor-Piercing Response:
  • After learning about Indra, Hiruzen lectures Naruto, but is struck silent by his reply:
    Hiruzen: Naruto, you need to stop trusting everyone who's nice to you just because they're nice to you!
    Naruto: Then I'd be even more alone.
  • When Indra takes Kakashi to task for how poorly he'd handled Team Seven's training the first go-round, he finishes by declaring "This is your legacy, Hatake, whether you want it to be or not. Your choice what to do with it." Kakashi finds himself unable to respond to that.
• An Arm and a Leg: Sasuke subjects Danzo to a literal disarming along with an Eye Scream in order to retrieve the Sharingan eyes he stole. He then dumps the arm on the younger Sasuke's doorstep.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: One of the reasons why Naruto trusts Indra so much is because he's one of the few adults he's met who treats him like a person.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: Sasuke/Indra likes to greet Kakashi with the same casual "Yo" that his former teacher uses.
• Brutal Honesty: When Sakura wonders whether she can learn the kage bunshin, Indra tells her point-blank that if she attempted it at her current level, she'd die, as she lacks the necessary chakra reserves.
• Cassandra Truth:
  • Alluded to; Sasuke muses that while telling everyone the truth about his original timeline would likely provoke plenty of amusing reactions, he doesn't trust that everybody would listen... especially when Hiruzen still considers Danzo to be a friend.
  • Naturally comes up once Indra is interrogated, as he simply tells the truth. To be fair, having photographic evidence of the future helps.
• Comfort Food: Sakura decides to treat herself to some dango after learning that Naruto is the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki and realizing that he's the son of the late Yondaime.
• Contrived Coincidence: Discussed when Hiruzen speaks to Indra for the first time. The Sandaime suggests that it's strangely convenient for him to have evidence of his true identity, asking him if he makes a habit of carrying around things that would utterly destroy him during any undercover missions. Indra just snorts and declares the only worse choices for any kind of undercover missions would be his teammates.
• Cool Big Bro: Naruto swiftly comes to regard the adult Sasuke this way, labeling him "Indra-nii" and readily accepting the notion of training under him while Kakashi is indisposed.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Naruto's reliance on this tactic is brought up, alongside its success rate — though Sasuke privately acknowledges that it took a lot of tries before it started sticking with him.
• Disappointed in You: Upon learning the truth behind the Uchiha Massacre, Kakashi can only stare at Hiruzen in silent horror and disapproval.
• Dramedy: Sure, Future!Sasuke's efforts to guide Team Seven down a better path than the first go-round are both humorous and heartwarming, and there's no denying the catharsis of Danzo getting trounced and having all his scheming exposed by something he couldn't have predicted. But Danzo still did a LOT of horrible things, and the impact of his scheming doesn't magically disappear. Everyone still has to navigate the emotional and psychological fallout, especially as they learn just how much damage the bastard has done.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Sakura attempts to discourage her crush on Indra by reminding herself that "No one is cuter than Sasuke," unaware that they're the same person.
  • Younger Sasuke refuses to believe Indra's assertations that he used to be just like him, to Indra!Sasuke's mixed amusement and annoyance. Even after he recounts their shared history (and how it resolved for the original Sasuke), The Urchin insists that "Th-that's just you. My situation is different! It'll be different!"
• Dramatically Missing the Point: While discussing the matter of their rivalry over Sasuke, Sakura tells her that both of them had forgotten there was a 'third opinion' neither of them were taking into account: namely, how Sasuke felt about everything. Ino misinterprets this as Sakura suggesting somebody else is competing for him and frantically asks if Hinata has started pursuing him.
• Exact Words:
  • Indra!Sasuke exploits this heavily when meeting his younger self for the first time, explaining that the reason he left him by himself for so long was because he only got back to Konoha a few days ago, while his younger counterpart was still in the hospital. He also tells him that he used to be just like him.
  • Kakashi attempts to set this up when informed that he needs to promise that he won't act against Danzo or anyone else in his family. Inoichi states that he's taking note of the loopholes Kakashi is leaving for himself in his wording, but wants to trust him not to act upon those.
  • Kakashi also used this against Ebisu. As he eventually explains, he stated that he meets Team Seven at 10AM on the bridge. What he left out was that he usually tells them to meet him there around 7 or 8AM.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: While recounting the Kannabi bridge incident, Kakashi falters upon reaching the moment where Rin was taken hostage, realizing that she wasn't taken to be interrogated, but as bait for him and Obito, in keeping with Danzo's plans.
• Eye Twitch: Kakashi feels his eye twitching when he has to reenter T&I in order to confront 'Indra'.
• The Farmer and the Viper: While Hiruzen knew that Danzo was ambitious, and that he had a lot of strong feelings about "how Konoha should be run", he still offered him the benefit of the doubt despite the concerns of others. Naturally, this did nothing to curtail those ambitions, resulting in his old friend being free to do a lot of damage before the future Sasuke stepped in.
• Fatal Flaw: For Hiruzen, it all boils down to denial. Not only did he not want to face the notion that Danzo posed a serious threat to Konoha, he also hoped to find another successor after Minato's passing, and didn't want to acknowledge that his second term as Hokage was stretching out far longer than he liked. Dealing with Danzo meant admitting he was locked in for the long haul, and he outright refused to do so, to his eventual regret.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: After learning that Hiruzen lost his wife Biwako during the Kyuubi's rampage, Sasuke/Indra muses to himself that the old Sandaime was effectively forced to retake a job he didn't want without the support network people like Biwako and Minato had provided in the past. While he appreciates the perspective this adds, he also believes this in no way excuses how he allowed Danzo to go largely unchecked.
• Handicapped Badass: Sasuke may be missing his left arm, but this doesn't prevent him from utterly trouncing Danzo, and he swiftly establishes himself as one of these in the present-day Sasuke's mind after their first Training from Hell session.
• Healing Factor: This works against Danzo; after his literal disarming, Indra drops him off at the hospital, enabling them to see how his severed arm is regenerating. The tests they run enable them to immediately realize he had active chakra pathways through said limb and had been faking his disabilities.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Danzo's meddling dramatically shaped Sasuke's psyche, denying him the psychological support he needed to cope with the Uchiha Massacre and setting the original Sasuke down a path that eventually led to him becoming an incredibly powerful shinobi... who then manages to pull a Peggy Sue by accident, coming back in time and promptly kicking Danzo's head in and exposing his treachery.
  • Danzo also kept extensive private records chronicling all of his schemes. As Hiruzen notes shortly after they're uncovered, it appears that his old friend's paranoia about having his plots uncovered was ultimately overshadowed by his overconfidence that nobody would ever catch on or discover said personal records.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Played With in that Hiruzen was not blissfully unaware of what kind of people Danzo and his old teammates Homura and Koharu were. He knew all about Danzo's ambitions, even accepting the position of Hokage again despite not wanting the role back in order to prevent Danzo from taking over instead. The problem is that he severely underestimated how far Danzo was willing to go in his pursuit of power, and similarly downplayed the impact of Homura and Koharu being unempathetic war hawks because he wanted to believe better of them.
• I Hate Past Me: Downplayed in that Sasuke is more scornful towards what he became in the original timeline. He still regards his younger self as an irritating brat whom he dubs 'The Urchin' and greatly enjoys messing with.
• I Need a Freaking Drink:
  • Hiruzen takes a long drag of his pipe before he informs Kakashi that Sasuke in the hospital being treated for shock and starting mandatory mind-healing sessions. He also tends to light up during conversations about the revelations regarding Danzo.
  • After getting to review Danzo's private files for a few hours, Jiraiya finds himself wanting a drink. Or ten. Or the whole damned bar.
  • Inoichi gets a turn at this after Kakashi's Missing Time incident, much to Shikaku's amusement.
  • When he tracks down Tsunade, she immediately drains the rest of the bottle she was drinking. He then offers her his own Toad Sage sake, declaring that she'll need the "peace offering" in order to cope with what he's about to tell her.
• I Warned You: Averted; when Kakashi is about to make a remark to this effect after learning about Danzo's newly discovered treachery, Hiruzen gets him to relent with a warning of his own:
  Hiruzen: You are not allowed to say 'I told you so', on pain of me leaving this hat to you.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Sasuke's first major move upon resolving to change the future for the better is to disarm Danzo, divest him of his stolen Sharingan, and drop him off at the hospital before leaving the arm on Sasuke's doorstep, ensuring that the theft and deception he engaged in is swiftly revealed and leading to further investigation.
  • In Chapter 4, Inoichi informs Kakashi that they discovered Danzo set up the Kannabi Bridge incident to deliberately sabotage Minato.
  • Chapter 5 has Sasuke meet Indra, learning that There Is Another Uchiha aside from Itachi and himself, with Sakura taking Naruto aside to explain to him about the Uchiha Massacre. Indra also, with Naruto's blessing, informs his teammates of how he was sabotaged at the Academy.
  • In Chapter 9, Kakashi finally learns the unexpected consequences of the prank he pulled on Ebisu.
  • Chapter 10 features Jiraiya getting Tsunade caught up on recent revelations. Indra also reveals that he has the Rinnegan to Naruto, and casually refers to the Kyuubi by their true name, which results in Naruto meeting Kurama for the first time, along with Naruto deciding to tell his teammates about the Fox.
  • Chapter 11 has Hiruzen help bring the rest of Team Seven up to speed about the jinchuuriki situation, explaining his reasoning for why he handled it the way that he did. Near the end, Sakura proceeds to realize just who Naruto's father is.
• Missing Time: Kakashi goes through this upon hearing that Danzo orchestrated his father's isolation after sending him on a suicide mission failed. When he comes to, the only thing he can vaguely recall is punching through a wall with Chidori.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Played With — Kakashi's decision to Troll Ebisu by deliberately sabotaging his ability to meet up with Team Seven gives Indra ample room to step in and act as their substitute teacher instead. While this arguably works out quite well for Indra and the genin, it also causes a LOT of panic when Kakashi finally learns that his students have been meeting up with a complete stranger for a full week.
  • More seriously, Indra trolling Kurama by casually revealing the Rinnegan and his knowledge of the Fox's name enrages Kurama enough that he tries breaking out of the seal then and there.
• Not Helping Your Case: Hiruzen combines this with a hint of Blaming the Victim when he notes that Naruto's propensity for pranking didn't discourage anyone in Konoha from treating him like crap. Naruto retorts that "they deserved it".
• One-Steve Limit: Naturally averted and Played With through the two Sasukes. When they meet for the first time, Future!Sasuke reflects that he might have to refer to himself exclusively as Indra, only to decide he's not willing to cede his name entirely to his past self and nicknames him 'The Urchin'.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Jiraiya immediately realizes that something's seriously bothering Hiruzen when he barely reacts to him popping up unexpectedly.
  • In order to impress upon Tsunade just how serious he is when he tracks her down to deliver the news about who was responsible for Nawaki and Dan's deaths, Jiraiya very pointedly holds eye contact with her, without sparing so much as a glance down to her chest.
  • Team Seven is thrown for a loop when Kakashi not only shows up to their meeting spot on time, but tells them to meet him at Training Ground Three in five minutes... and is actually there when they arrive.
• Open Secret: Discussed after Naruto's teammates learn about his status as the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki, as Sasuke swiftly realizes that this was the real reason the blond was mistreated. This spurs both him and Sakura to question Hiruzen's logic, pointing out that the supposed secrecy doesn't appear to have actually protected Naruto at all. Not from threats inside Konoha, anyway.
  Sasuke: No... I'm saying that everyone already knows. Except us, I guess. If it's a secret, it's the worst kept secret in the village.
• Peggy Sue: Sasuke managed to pull this off accidentally while attempting to check up on the imprisoned Kaguya.
• Plot Parallel: Hiruzen's relationship with Danzo darkly reflects Naruto's connection with Sasuke. Despite some initial distrust, Naruto latches onto him HARD, both as his teammate in the original timeline and as his newfound adoptive big brother Indra. He stubbornly hangs onto this faith even when it gets challenged, much like Hiruzen insisted upon believing the best in Danzo despite all evidence that his rival wasn't trustworthy. But while Naruto's trust ultimately pays off, Hiruzen's proves to have been tragically misplaced.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • Danzo counted upon this when he canceled Sasuke's mandatory mind-healing sessions after the Uchiha Massacre, anticipating that nobody would catch on until it was far too late to address the matter, with his name censored on the official records. While Hiruzen has access to a jutsu that can uncensor the original file, he only checks it after Inoichi storms in demanding to know why he allowed Sasuke to go untreated in the first place.
  • Thanks to Kakashi's petty prank causing Ebisu to show up late to Team Seven's meeting spot, he mistakenly believed that the genin were ditching said meetups instead of giving up when he failed to show up on time. As a direct result of this, Indra is able to position himself as the kids' substitute jounin instructor himself, with nobody realizing that they've been meeting up with a complete stranger until a full week has gone by.
• Post-Support Regret: Hiruzen convinced himself that Danzo's ambitions didn't change his devotion to Konohagakure... something he regrets once they start uncovering the sheer depths and scope of his former friend's depravity.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • In Chapter 14, Indra passes his training schedules for Team Seven over to Kakashi and bluntly takes him to task for how poorly he'd been handling them on his own.
    Indra: [The younger Sasuke] has training resources. Have him go through the Uchiha manuals and scrolls. Those are all open to him and while he'll likely need some guidance to learn them correctly, he should be able to figure out what he needs to learn on his own. Just... keep an eye on him. He can be... overly-ambitious. The other two, though, don't have nearly as much when it comes to accessible material. You are their best resource and you need to realize that. They can't just find thems on their own. Not if you want them to be as good as they need to be to not die before they're sixteen.
    Kakashi: (snorting) You all survived, according to you.
    Indra: Barely. And for the most part, I wouldn't attribute that to you. All three of us had to find other teachers to teach us and... not all of us found reputable ones. Yes, we survived, but after going through a lot of issues we didn't need to go through. Both Naruto and I lost an arm because we were fighting each other... after the war had finished. I can't say that wouldn't have happened if you would have stepped up and treated everyone like equals, but I can say it wouldn't have hurt.
  • Chapter 15 has Indra/Sasuke confronting Hiruzen over how he knew just what kind of man Danzo was — enough that he was determined to keep the power of the Hokage out of his hands — and yet effectively allowed him to "rule from the shadows" anyway by refusing to deal with him directly.
  • Tsunade also calls Hiruzen out upon her return; however, Hiruzen stands his ground and calls her out in turn for believing that she can simply sweep into Konoha and kill Danzo as if she's the only one he's hurt.
• Security Blanket: Downplayed in a humorous fashion; in order to help Kakashi feel better about having to stay in protective custody, Inoichi presents him with his Icha Icha books. Kakashi immediately embraces them and reflects that he might be too sincerely attached to them to use them as ironic deflection pieces anymore.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Jiraiya enjoys inflicting this upon Hiruzen, considering himself to have scored a 'point' whenever he manages to startle the old Sandaime.
• Super Breeding Program: Referenced; in the past, Uchiha and Hyuuga attempted to have children together in hopes that the kids would inherit traits of both of their respective "special eyes". Unfortunately, anyone who did wind up with both tended to die from the sheer amount of chakra their bodies required; the drain even claimed the lives of several mothers before the kids were even born.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: "Indra" rolls with Sasuke's presumption that he's an Uchiha who was outside of Konoha at the time of the Massacre, mentally noting that he's technically not entirely wrong.
• Targeted to Hurt the Hero: Proves to have been one of Danzo's favorite methods of attack, aiming to undermine anyone he deemed to be a potential obstacle by going after their loved ones.
• A Taste of Their Own Medicine:
  • Part of the reason that Sasuke decides to employ "the Kakashi way" for dealing with his temporal displacement is that he rather likes the idea of paying back his teacher for how he trolled Team Seven so often while teaching them. He even blithely admits as much when confronted over how Kakashi wound up under suspicion for the attack on Danzo, calling it 'a happy accident' and claiming he finally understood why he trolled them so much in the first place.
  • Hiruzen also considers giving Indra a taste of his own medicine by making him his successor, knowing he can't actually do so but musing that 'It was almost worth the joke just to troll the guy back'.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted; in fact, shinobi are supposed to receive mandatory mind-healing sessions after dramatic missions and other events. However, Danzo ensured that Sasuke never attended any appointments after the Uchiha Massacre, and Kakashi refused to attend them after the incidents that cost him each of his teammates, believing he didn't deserve such treatment.
• There Is Another: Played With; "Indra" invokes this in order to explain his existence to Team Seven without revealing the truth about himself. Sasuke is utterly flummoxed, then furious at the notion that the Sandaime and others kept him Locked Out of the Loop regarding Indra, unaware that they don't know about the other Uchiha.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Kurama declares that Indra stealing the name of his brother and the eye of his father is utterly unforgivable.
• Training from Hell: Indra puts Team Seven through some Downplayed stress-training, though it's Kakashi that boots it up to this level once he returns to teaching them himself.
• Tranquil Fury: Kakashi goes into his blank-faced ANBU mode after learning the truth of the Uchiha Massacre.
• Trickster Mentor: Future Sasuke/Indra sets himself up as one for Team Seven, though most of his overt trickery and trolling is reserved more for the adults.
• Virtue Is Weakness: Danzo very firmly believes in this, along with Love Is a Weakness. Which is why he made a point of targeting any such attachments his perceived "rivals" in Konoha had.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Deconstructed: One of the main reasons Hiruzen turned a blind eye towards Danzo's scheming for so long was that he firmly believed his old friend fell into this category, and that for all his flaws, he truly cared about Konohagakure above all else. This proves to have been an utterly awful idea that makes the Sandaime partially responsible for all the pain and suffering Danzo caused.

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