Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Condensation was so thick Kakashi had to swallow with each breath. His clothes clung to him uncomfortably, restraining his movements. His hitai-ate had sagged down from the weight of water, and the salt stung his eyes. Kakashi thanked every higher being in existence that Zabuza wielded a large blade with a damn hold in it. Dramatic bitch. His blade whistled as it careened through the air, and Kakashi could dodge what he could not see. He ducked down and took a swipe at the missing-nin’s ankles but missed. Zabuza must be further back than he initially thought.  

Another whistle, and Kakashi dove to the side. He wanted to scoff; this man was likely an S-ranked missing-nin solely on rumors. Who the hell uses such a noisy and slow weapon with a silent killing technique? The technique would be better utilized if Zabuza used a damn kunai. Then he would deserve his reputation: Demon of the Bloody Mist. This guy couldn’t even figure out how to assassinate properly. What was Mist even doing?

Kakashi jumped, keeping staying mindful of his young team. He was coaxing the missing-nin to follow him further away from his client and students. “Zabuza, Demon of the Bloody Mist. I’ve seen you in the bingo books!” he called out. “Why would someone like you be after a lowly civilian? Seems beneath you.” A little flattery goes a long way. Gloat at me, big guy.

Zabuza’s hoarse laughter echoed through the air ladened with water, making it difficult for Kakashi to pin his location down. Fucker used an auditory genjutsu, something his Sharingan doesn’t help with. Either Zabuza did do his homework, or it was just a lucky happenstance. But this guy cared more about embellishing his reputation than doing his job correctly. Kakashi didn’t bother to try breaking the genjutsu, wanting to coax Zabuza into a false sense of security. He still had his sense of smell, though in this instance, perhaps that wasn’t ideal.

Another whistle and Kakashi moved out of the way, but he had to divert immediately when he nearly lost his foot to the blade. So, he was using the genjutsu on the whistling from his sword to make it difficult for Kakashi to pinpoint him. Kakashi grinned; the bitch liked to play with his food. Well, Kakashi could mess with him in equal measure.

Kakashi flipped backward, his hand partially sinking into the moist ground. He was being driven back into the water. Zabuza probably assumed he would have the advantage here, except Kakashi could electrocute him using the water as a conduit. However, he’d rather show Zabuza how a real shinobi plays with his prey. After all, sharks get eaten too.

“Money is money, Kakashi of the Sharingan. You have a pretty bounty on your head too.” Kakashi frowned at the lack of whistling. Where was he? Zabuza’s voice reverberated in the air. Then the genjutsu snapped, and the fog gave away. “But I am not being paid for your head.”  

Kakashi’s genins and the lying foolish bridge builder stood frozen as Zabuza’s Executioner’s Blade reared back. Sasuke-Stupid-Uchiha shoved the bridge builder out of the line of attack instead of moving himself. The bridge builder fell and skidded across the ground on his shoulder. Naruto and Sakura didn’t move in their terror. All of Naruto’s boisterous promises shattering before the blade could even make a connection. Sasuke had wasted his one move to delay the garbage builder’s death. Everything meandered forward, giving Obitio’s eye plenty of time to ingrain this into his memory, bit by gory bit. This was supposed to be a C rank easy mission: a camping trip! He was supposed to be teaching them how to snare rabbits and gut fish. Laughing when they used poison oak to wipe their butts.

They’re going to die. 

Kakashi was going to fail a C-rank mission because he wasn’t fast enough. He couldn’t do anything. Even a kunai with an exploding tag wouldn’t leave his hand in time.

Another team is dead. 

He was going to see them split in half and remember every second of it.

Fuck. 

Everything turned red.

Kakashi barreled towards his genin as the sword swung to sever them in half. The ground split under their feet, and the trio dropped into it. A scream shredded Kakashi’s throat as he dove after them. Sasuke reached up to him, out of the hole that was engulfing him. His eyes were blown wide, saying all the words his mouth wasn’t. Their fingers brushed against each other, and Kakashi stretched further, grabbing his wrist as he tumbled in after them. The whistle of the sword broke their air above them.

And they fell.

Naruto woke from his stupor and began screaming. 

“Naruto!” The yell shot pain through Kakashi’s neck, but he got Naruto to stop. The floor was rushing towards them. He gathered his genin against him the best he could. Fire seared across his eye, and the ground opened up and consumed them again.

Kakashi rolled them so that his shoulders would take the brunt of the fall. He called upon what chakra he had left to cushion the fall as careened to earth like a meteorite.

Kakashi heard the thud he made before he felt it. He felt like his ribcage stabbed through his back, pinning him into the ground. His heart bled into his lungs, and he choked on the blood, desperate to refill his lungs with air, as he lay crushed between the unforgiving stone beneath him and his three students on top of him.

“Kaka-sensei?” Sakura whispered to him. Her voice had an under skirting of fear, but that wasn’t something he could deal with right now. He pushed her off of him and dragged himself out from under the two boys. He turned over on his hands and knees and gasped. His lungs burned as they inflated.

Small black pebbles bit into his palm. The rock they landed on was strangely course, like pebbles glued together. He had never seen anything like it. “Saku-“ his voice was lost to the storm of glass and rolling clouds of fire that erupted behind them. The force of it shoved him back into the ground, and he threw his hands around the back of his neck as debris pelted the earth around him.

As soon as the rain of rocks let up, Kakashi scrambled up to his feet. People were scattering in all directions, but he couldn’t hear them; it was merely a high-pitched squeal. He doubled back to his genins and shook Naruto by the shoulder, “We gotta go!” He shouted his order to them. He wasn’t sure if they could hear him either, but he made his intentions understood as he hauled Naruto up onto his feet.

Kakashi wasn’t sure where they were or where they would go. They were surrounded by towers taller than trees. The ground was hard under his feet with no give. This wasn’t where they had been. A large oval-shaped man came barreling towards them. He threw his hand out, and Kakashi met it with a swift kick.

Strangely the man didn’t seem phased by it. He was massive, though. Putting those two elements together, Kakashi stepped back to regroup with his genin. Sasuke settled into a fighting stance next to him. Good kid. Sound was finally starting to Kakashi. He was hearing crashing behind him and a lot of people yelling, but it was like they were screaming into a fishbowl.

The oval man took another step towards them, and his hand was still outstretched. He was wearing a vibrant yellow atrocity that was somehow worse than Naruto’s orange. Sasuke lunged out at the guy first going in with a solid kick. Then, like the idiot he is, Naruto created some clones and took off after Sasuke. Naruto’s clones screeched as they all went in for the attack, but strangely they all popped out of existence, and the man looked none the worse.

Sakura made a nervous fluttered sound next to him. “Stay on your guard,” Kakashi reminded her and pulled a kunai from his pack. Sasuke leaped away and threw a volley of shuriken. The man seemed too large to move out of the way quickly, but the shuriken disappeared into him. What kind of Kekkei Genkai was this?

The world twisted to the side, and Kakashi’s stomach rolled with it. Fuck his chakra reserves. He sucked in a breath through his nose to try and steady himself, then launched himself forward. He slid up between Naruto and Sasuke. Anger fueled his movements. He didn’t know where they were. He didn’t know what the hell happened that caused them to fall here. That cow, Zabuza, nearly killed his team. The bridge builder lied to them. This was supposed to be a simple C-rank mission. But here he was, low on chakra, his eye bleeding, and the enemy wasn’t even shaped like a human. It was pissing him off. Every kick and punch felt like he was beating on a sandbag. Nothing was going the way it should.  

“Sensei!” Naruto screeched, claiming his attention. Naruto’s hand was stuck in the man’s flesh, but there was no blood. He pushed on the man’s large body only for it to claim his other one too. Sakura rushed over to try and Yank Naruto’s arm out, but he continued to be absorbed. Then Sasuke let out an angry hiss. His leg was sunk in up to his knee. What the ever-loving hell? Were they being eaten?

Maybe he could shock the oval man? Force him into releasing them from...whatever this is? Lightning danced across his skin and stars across his eyes. Oh. This had been a bad move. 

“Kaka-sensei!” Sakura abandoned Naruto and was running towards him. 

Shit. He couldn’t pass out. 

Crack.

Chapter Text

Water sloshed out of the sink, further darkening Shouta’s black shirt. The warmth from it quickly cooled as Shouta chased the plate that had disappeared into the soapy sink. “You know what I mean, Hizashi.” Shouta’s voice was strained, and not for the first time he wished Hizashi could just read his mind.

Hizashi was leaning forward on the counter, and his folded arms were propping him up. He was dressed to leave for work at the radio station. “I agree Hitoshi has some unique personality traits-“ Shouta snorted, earning him a glare from his husband, “but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care. He probably just shows it differently.”

“Or he’s autistic or something,” Aizawa reiterated.

“He’s not autistic, not that there would be anything wrong with it. But I think you’re grasping at straws here, Sho,” Hizashi said, “what is it that’s actually bothering you?”

Shouta paused for a moment, his hands clutching the sink. He stared down to where his fingers disappeared in the suds. “I’m a teacher, part of my job is to connect with the kids.”

“Hmm, yeah, it’s part of it. Well, that’s part of the goal.”

Shouta leaned against his arms, his shoulders drawing up around his ears, “I’ve managed to connect with kids from all different walks of life, but Hitoshi? Even now, there’s this wall. He keeps us at arm’s length, constantly hiding things from us, there are weapons all over this house, and we can’t figure out why. We can’t even ask him because we’re worried it might set him off.”

Hizashi frowned, “What are you suggesting exactly?”

“I don’t know,” Shouta straightened up. “Nothing, I guess.” He snatched the sponge from the water and searched for that plate again.

Hizashi glanced at the clock, “Do you want me to call in-”

“No. No, go to work. I’m not saying anything we both don’t already know.”

Silence encapsulated the moment. There was so much left unsaid, but Shouta had no way of voicing it. Nothing was resolved, and frankly, Shouta wasn’t sure it could be resolved. He felt Hizashi’s eyes on him, and it stirred up guilt for even bringing it up. “I’ll be tuning in tonight.”

That usually brightened Hizashi up, but this time he remained unmoved. “You sure you’ll be okay? Are you-”

“Don’t,” Shouta quickly silenced him. Hitoshi should be in the bath right now, but the boy was so quiet it was hard to keep track of where he was. He didn’t need to overhear this kind of conversation. He’d misunderstand. Besides, Shouta didn’t regret taking Hitoshi in; it was just more challenging than he had expected it to be. Did that….did that make him a bad parent? “You should get going, or you’ll be late.”

“Yeah, I’ll go,” Hizashi agreed. He walked over to Shouta and pushed his hair back, looking him in the eyes. 

Shouta didn’t want him looking too closely. He leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss goodbye. “Get a move on before the station starts calling.”

Hizashi gave a dry laugh, “Yeah, alright. You’ll tune in?”

“I already said that,” Shouta reminded him.

“Right, right,” Hizashi grinned and hesitantly moved away. 

Shouta shouldn’t have brought it up. He should have kept it to himself. “Go, you’re late.”

“I’m going,” Hizashi said, walking out the door quicker. 

The door closed with a click that echoed loudly in his chest, knocking against his heart. Hizashi was much better with kids than Shouta. He was vibrant and friendly, and it attracted everyone to him. Yet Hitoshi managed to resist him too. How do you connect with someone who is apathetic about everything?

Shouta glanced down the hall towards Hitoshi’s room. Should he check and see if he was even there? For all he knew, Hitoshi was out wandering the streets again, like a stray cat. Did Shouta even want to know? How sad was it that two pro-heroes couldn’t keep track of their own kid?

For a moment, he dithered between ignorance and reality. To his relief, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He fished it out and answered Tsuakuchi with a quick, “Eraserhead.”

“Eraser, I trust I am not catching you at a bad time,” Tsukauchi said.

Shouta was suddenly glad Tsukauchi’s quirk didn’t work over the phone. He had no way of knowing if his response would ring true or not. “It’s fine. What can I do for you?”

“I was hoping you would come down to the station. I have some video footage I would like your input on. I can’t e-mail it to you, so I’ll pass you off a flash drive,” the end of the sentence pitched up like a question.

Shouta glanced down the hall, still hoping Hitoshi was actually in his room. “Yeah, I can pick it up. When do you want the flash drive back?”

“Tomorrow. I realize it’s not a lot of time, but it’s a delicate case involving three minors. I’d like to hear your insights before I give more about the case away.”

Shouta frowned. Tsukauchi was using him to test a theory. It wasn’t the first time, but it always made Shouta feel like he was handed a pop quiz. “I’ll be there shortly.”

“Thank you.”

Shouta hung up and sighed heavily. His ignorance about Hitoshi’s whereabout was going to have to be short-lived. He went to his door and knocked. He held his breath and listened for any movement. Otherwise, he would have to tell Tsukauchi that he had lost his kid again. He needed to put a tracking device on that kid.

The door opened, revealing Hitoshi, chin deep in teenage angst. Perhaps he just needed to put a bell on him. Shouta should have been able to hear Hitoshi approach the door. Hitoshi raised a single white eyebrow as if Shouta wasn’t worth the effort to use actual words with.

“I need to run to the police station. How about you go with me?” Aizawa suggested.

Hitoshi saw right through him. “I’ll stay here.”

“Will you?” Shouta asked blandly.

“Mmmm, do I have anywhere else to go?” Hitoshi asked unruffled.

Shouta wished he knew the answer to that. Then he would know where Hitoshi was disappearing to. He can hear Hizashi’s voice reminding him to trust Hitoshi, not interrogate him. Teenagers needed to stretch out a bit, and it was better to respond with understanding. That would be great if he did understand, but he didn’t. He would wager Hizashi was quoting some parenting book he was hiding from him to sound smarter. He didn’t think Hizashi understood either.

“Fine. But you better be here when I get back,” Shouta warned.

“Maaa, I told you I won’t go anywhere. Have fun with your friend,” Hitoshi closed the door.

Shouta frowned at the painted white wood. Surely, this was normal, right? Isn’t this what most parents of teenagers complain about? They have more of a relationship with the bedroom door than the gremlin behind it.

“Call me if you need anything,” he called out to Hitoshi but didn’t stick around for a response. He was probably being ignored anyway.

#####


Shouta opted to walk to the station. It wasn’t that far, and it allowed him to double it as a patrol. It was a little odd that he was being passed a flash drive rather than it being e-mailed to him or just giving him access to it where it was stored. Which meant Tsukauchi was doing this unofficially. And since Tsukauchi rarely did anything in an unofficial manner, Shouta figured he must have some sort of special knowledge or connection to this case. Tsukauchi likely wanted to verify this before bringing him on in any official capacity. It was a risky move, so Shouta would be discreet about it.

Bringing a hero into the case was a lot of paperwork, and it had to be reported to the press. This often led to a lot of public interest in the case. Thankfully, Eraserhead wasn’t a hero with a great reputation that would immediately pique the media’s interest. There was still a chance, but it was unlikely.

Shouta stuffed his hands in his pockets as he trudged through the street in full view of everyone. People steered out of his way. He didn’t blame them. He could only imagine what he looked like with all the stress Hitoshi had been giving him, robbing him of his sleep. All the students were packing up right now for their work studies too. Most of the students had gone home for the weekend, but Shouta forced Hitoshi to come home too, the brat.

Shouta walked, and the blast from the AC stopped him in his tracks. He stood there for a moment and enjoyed the rush of the cool air. He hadn’t realized how hot it had been out there. He opened his eyes when he heard a muffled laugh.

“Enjoying the AC?” Tsukauchi grinned behind his closed hand. 

Shouta shrugged, not willing to grace the teasing with a response. Tsukauchi didn’t seem particularly disturbed by his lack of response. Of course, for a walking lie detector test, he was hard to get a read on. Even under pressure, Tsukauchi didn’t lose his cool. It was one of the reasons, so they got along so well.

“Let’s go talk in my office,” Tsukauchi didn’t wait for a response as he led him around back. “How is Hitoshi doing?”

“Same as always,” Shouta said, not allowing his frustration to bleed through. He didn’t want the detective to question that further.

Tsukauchi seemed to read into this and moved on to ask about Hizashi instead. When they got to the office, Shouta dropped into the cushioned metal chair. It was as uncomfortable as it had always been. Tsukauchi unlocked his desk drawer and pulled out a red flash drive, and passed it off to him.

“There are a series of interviews on there. One is an adult, and three are minors,” Tsukauchi explained. “I also put a file of the security videos of the crime. Do you recall when the Tomato Bank was blown up on 61st? That is where these four were apprehended.”

“They blew up the bank?” Shouta asked.

Tsukauchi shook his head, “I don’t think so. Watch the video. I don’t want to create a pond if there has been no rain.”

Shouta flipped the flash drive over in his hand. It was light, barely weighing anything, and yet somehow dread pulled on his stomach. He hated anything that had to do with minors. Children were easy victims to so many sick fucks out there. Three juveniles and one adult, he didn’t like this already.

“So you’re not going to tell me anything about what I’m walking into?” Shouta asked. 

“I want to get your honest opinion,” Tsukauchi smiled at him. 

Shouta let out a heavy sigh and forced himself to his feet. “You should get better chairs.”

“If I did, I’d find you sleeping in it,” they shared a grin, and Shouta couldn’t deny that without his lie being called out. Tsukauchi walked him out of the building. The red flash drive weighed heavily in his pocket. He was both eager to get home and get this over with and apprehensive about what he would find. 

#####


Shouta got home and took note that Hitoshi’s shoes were still at the entrance in the same position as when he left. It was a relief, but they weren’t his only pair of shoes. Shouta went to the bedroom and knocked on the door. There was no response. Shouta opened the door and saw the back of Hitoshi’s head. His hair had a blue glow to it from his computer screen, and oversized headphones Hizashi had gotten him covered his ears. Hitoshi was still home and safe.

Shouta closed the door and went to make himself a cup of coffee. Four interviews and security footage to go through told Shouta he was in for a long night. He settled into the couch with his laptop, coffee, a cat, a notepad, and the flash drive.

Shouta paused for a moment and looked at the radio. He had promised Hizashi he would listen to his show tonight. He was sure Hizashi would understand and put his earbuds in and started first with the security footage.

The window popped up, revealing the security footage. The camera had a decent angle from across the street of the Tomato bank and the busy street it sat on. Everything looked pretty normal. People were milling about; there was no one in a hurry or standing out. Everyone was utterly unaware of what was about to take place, and apparently, so was Shouta. He had expected the bank to blow up; instead, something fell from the sky and shattered the road under it. His first thought was a meteorite.

It didn’t take long for the object to unfurrow, revealing a man, a girl, and two boys. He pushed the girl off of him and crawled out from under the group on his hands and knees. His hair was colorless like Hitoshi’s. He also wore a similar style mask. The man hacked and coughed until the building finally blew up, flattening him to the ground. The camera shook wabbled from the blast, but he could still see the white-haired man scramble to his feet and double back to the children.  

Fatgum was the first to show up on the scene and directly interact with this group. He seemed to be directing people away from the chaotic scene so they could identify who needed help. But when he approached this group, they immediately started attacking him, even the boys. This was hardly a normal civilian response to a hero.
The blonde boy duplicated himself several times over, and his clones all started attacking Fatgum. As they struck him, they popped out of existence. Unstable clones. Shouta wished he could hear what was being said.

The dark-haired boy threw some sort of small weapons at Fatgum. Why was a child carrying any kind of weapon? The man then launched into the frame and joined the assault. Shouta paused the video and backed it up so he could rewatch it. His speed was incredible. He slowed it down so he could actually see him move across the frame instead of suddenly appearing. Fatgum could only stand there and absorb the attacks. Had he been anyone else, they have died from the sheer speed of these blows. Fatgum’s body rippled constantly. Shouta moved to slow it down further. He must have a speed quirk and was using his momentum to power his hits. The fact that he didn’t break his bones while doing this was impressive. Had his bones and muscles mutated to keep up? He was almost tempted to get Midoriya’s opinion; he excelled at analysis.

He watched again as the silver-haired man launched himself into the frame and delivered a destructive kick to the ribs. It was a kick designed to break gone. Going for the ribs would interrupt his breathing, possibly even his heart rhythm. It would undoubtedly unbalance any enemy. They wouldn’t be able to focus on anything else other than trying to breathe. Hitoshi liked to go for the ribs too. Shouta had the bruises to prove it. His kicks were vicious but not nearly as fast. Hitoshi tended to follow right through with the kick and swing back around with his other foot aiming for the head.

He hit play and frowned. He backed it up and watched it again. Dread pooled in Aizawa’s stomach. This time he started focusing more on the kids instead of the white-haired man. The girl stayed in the back; perhaps she was scared? The boys charged in to attack. Young boys made the first move to attack a hero. The girl never called out for help even though she was scared and there was a hero right in front of her.

Shouta paused it and zoomed in on the headband one of the boys were wearing, and his heart sputtered to a stop, then sank like a weight to the floor. He knew that symbol. A swirled leaf, Hitoshi drew it on his papers when his mind was wandering. Over and over again, he would draw the same image. It would show up on his homework, worksheets, and even his notebooks at home.

These children were fighting a hero. They were the first to jump in after the man rejoined them. The girl hung back, afraid but never tried to go to the hero for help. Was this his first lead to the child soldier ring?

Shouta snagged his phone from the coffee table and pushed on Tsukauchi’s contact. Shouta skilled the pleasantries and gripped the phone tightly like he was crushing the throat of a snake. “Is it confirmed? Is this the child soldier ring?” he hissed into the phone. His eyes flickered up as he suddenly remembered Hitoshi was in the house. “Don’t answer that. I’m heading to your office.”

He quickly hung up and stuffed his phone in his pocket. He closed the videos and yanked out the flash drive before heading to Hitoshi’s door. He knocked, and unfortunately, this time, he got a response. Had Hitoshi overheard?

Hitoshi opened his door and looked up at him with his bored expression. “Hm?”

His headphones were around his neck, but Shouta could still hear the audio coming through, calming his fears. “I’m heading back out. A new case,” he paused, waiting for a response. 

Hitoshi stared back at him and then shrugged, “I guess I’ll see you when you get back.”

“Are you packed?” Shouta asked, peeking into his room.

“I did that the fourth time you asked me to do it. Are you worried?” Hitoshi asked.

Shouta was never sure how he was supposed to feel about what Hitoshi did or didn’t do. “I just want you to have what you need. I don’t have time to be driving across town to drop off your toothbrush.”

“Mah, mah, if I need to go with bad breath, then so be it,” Hitoshi gave his fake grin.

“That’s not-I don’t mean that. If you really need something, I’ll bring it to you. I just want to avoid that by packing properly.”

“Thank you, Sensei, but I believe I have everything I need. If I have forgotten something, I know how to make a purchase,” Hitoshi assured him.

How did this kid make him feel stupid? How was it he could never speak easily to him and be understood easily? Where was Hizashi when you needed him? He swore he could hear his voice. Shouta’s brows furrowed, “Are you listening to Hizashi’s show?” 

“He always asks me to,” Hitoshi said as a way of an explanation. Hizashi did the same to Shouta, so it was believable.  

“Ah, I’ll be back in a few hours, don’t-”

“Take off. You said that earlier,” Hitoshi cut him off. 

“Brat. I wouldn’t have to repeat myself if you listened the first time,” Shouta huffed and turned to leave. 

Shouta grabbed his keys this time. He didn’t want to waste time walking. Hizashi often referred to his car as a bag of bolts, but it got him from point A to point B. He had gotten it when he was single and didn’t see the purpose of trading it out if it still worked.

He quickly made his way back to the precinct. Thankfully, nearby parking was free after nine pm. He closed the car door but didn’t lock it. The most valuable thing in or on the car were the windows. If anyone was looking to get in, he’d rather give them access and let me be disappointed than to lose his windows to idiots.

Shouta took the steps two at a time and met up with Tsukauchi at the top of them. “You were waiting for me?”

“I knew you would come quick. Did you finish watching the videos?” Tsukauchi asked him.

“No,” he responded honestly, “but I had seen enough.”

Tsukauchi nodded and folded his arms; his eyes scanned the street behind him. “Then you believe there is a connection with him?”

Shouta didn’t need to ask who he was. Shouta had vocalized his concern about Hitoshi’s past to Tsukauchi. He had asked the detective to pass along any information of a possible crime ring focused on recruiting and training children. There had been some minor leads but nothing like this. “In the video, they seemed to all be wearing a headband. Do you have those?”

“In the evidence locker, yes. I’ll take you.” 

The two went inside, but no one did a double-take to see Shouta going to the back. His face was a familiar one among the other officers. Sometimes they joked that Shouta should turn in his hero license for a badge. 

Shouta nodded a greeting to the man standing guard of the evidence locker. He signed in and presented his hero license while Tsukauchi scanned his badge. “Helping with another case, Eraserhead?” the man’s voice was surprisingly deep.

Tsukauchi answered for him with a shrug. “Some heroes are more useful than others.” There was a buzz, and the barred door unlatched. It felt so rudimentary, but Shouta knew looks were deceiving. Those bars were outfitted with electrical charges. They will make a mess of you if you touch them.

The evidence locker was always daunting to look at. A large room with rows of shelves with boxes and various items that didn’t fit in a box. Everything was labeled. Everything is associated with some crime. It was a harsh snapshot of the world they lived in.

Shouta waited by a table while Tsukauchi left to retrieve the box. The box didn’t look any different from other evidence boxes he’s seen before. Despite this, a deep feeling of trepidation seated itself deep inside Shouta. This box could help unravel the mystery that is Hitoshi. A lead that was finally worth pursuing. He didn’t wait to be given the go-ahead and removed the lid of the box. He needed to see. Shouta began to gently pull out the contents of the box. Each item was stored in a clear bag. On the top were two books. They looked to be part of the same series dubbed Icha Icha. It didn’t take a genius to determine what type of books these were.

“Was anything discovered inside of these?” 

Tsukauchi shook his head, “no, but what we didn’t find was pretty interesting.” He took the book and flipped it over, showing no barcode. “We couldn’t find the international book registration for this.” He then put on a pair of latex gloves and pulled the green-colored book from the bag. He flipped it open and pointed to the printing information. “This isn’t how we normally organize our printing information, and we have no idea where fire country even is.”

“Is it possible it’s a publication from a personal printing lab?” Shouta asked. 

“It is. The quality is less than we would expect from most publications, but the book is well worn, so it’s difficult to say.” Tsukauchi slid the book back into its bag. “They’re both like that, in case you were wondering.”

They set the books aside, and Shouta reached in and pulled out various weapons. Most of them were smaller, but the blades on the kunai were larger than the legal limit. Just moving them was causing tears in the bag. “They’re very sharp.”

“They were thrown at Fatgum with a great deal of force by the children,” Tsukauchi said. 

The fact that these were designed to injure was left unsaid. You don’t throw blades like this and expect them to bounce off. Had anyone but Fatgum been there, they wouldn’t have gotten out unscathed. Those boys moved in with impressive speed, and their aim was to kill. Their first reaction to seeing a hero was to try and kill him. 

Shouta was brought back to when Hitoshi first appeared on his radar. He had been younger than the kids they had just captured. He would attack adults with little care for his own safety. What had he gone through to get to that point at such a young age? Was the man leading these children the culprit? He needed to stop going down this line of thought and focus.

“A spool of wire?”

“Incredibly sharp. It will slice through an arm if used properly,” Tsukauchi informed him. 

Shouta sighed and pulled out a few scrolls, “And these?” 

“Likely written in code. We made copies and sent them to our code team. They’re working on them currently. It’s impossible to understand what they mean currently.” 

Shouta didn’t like how many of these scrolls there were. All of them were written in code. Tsukauchi opened one for him, and Shouta couldn’t make heads or tails of it. It was written in a circular design. Some of the symbols were familiar others were not. Shouta opted to move on. There was also camping equipment, what looked to be rations, instant ramen, backpacks, more scrolls, a sizeable shuriken-like weapon that folded down into a single blade, traps and snares, and a book with information on various people.

“We think it’s a bounty book. Each of these people had a price on their heads. Most are wanted dead.” Tsukauchi explained, “We haven’t located a single one in our system. We are requesting international aid instead.”

Shouta brows popped up. “International? That would make this a huge ring.”

“If it is one, then yes,” Tsukauchi agreed.

“This man used children to fight his battles for him. What else would we call it?” Shouta snapped.

Tsukauchi raised his hands in defense, “you know the job-required vernacular.”  

Shouta did but made an irritated huff anyway. He found the headbands at the bottom of the box. He rubbed his thumb over the leaf shape etched into the metal. “This is it. Hitoshi draws these sometimes. It’s this symbol.” 

Shouta felt breathless and dizzy. His first real lead, and the culprit, and 3 victims were detained. 

“Shouta, are you alright?” 

He broked from these thoughts and looked up at Tsukauchi. He had been swimming in his relief and fear, but now wasn’t the time. He wanted to see this man for himself. “I want to see them.” 

“I figured you would.” 

They worked together to put the items back into the box when Shouta noticed something. They were marked as Adult 1, male adolescent 1, Naruto Uzumaki, and female adolescent 1. “Do you not have the names for the others?” 

“They refuse to talk. Uzumaki-kun does. He has a lot to say, but he doesn’t respond to our questions well. He mostly screams,” Tsukauchi shrugged, offering a half-hearted smile. 

They finished putting the items away and headed off to the interrogation area. Shouta signed out, and then they had to sign in for the interrogation sector. Shouta was very familiar with this area. Sometimes he was called in for his erasure quirk to help deal with a villain. They could usually get the information they were after between Shouta’s erasure and Tsukauchi’s lie detector quirk.

Shouta walked past the low-security rooms towards the reinforced ones. They doubled as holding cells for villains under prolonged interrogation but were not ready to be released into the prison section. 

“Do you want to see the kids first?” Tsukauchi offered. 

Shouta was surprised by the offer. “You are keeping the kids back here too?” He would have thought they would be in the low-security section. 

“They’re violent.”

“Even the girl?” Shouta asked in disbelief. She seemed absolutely terrified and timid. 

“She went so far as to bite one of our officers. So, the kids are separated,” Tsukauchi explained. 

Shouta would have thought she would be the one to fall gratefully in the hands of the police. To spill everything about the organization and what they had likely put her through. This organization must have warped her thinking hard for her to attack a police officer. 

“If you had finished the video, she had taken one of those knives and went to attack Fatgum too. She was a bit smarter in her tactic, using slashing moves instead of stabbing. She managed to get a few good strikes on him before midnight joined the fray and put her to sleep.”

This was only getting worse the more he heard. Children at that age should not feel like they need to fight for their lives. She had been white as a sheet in that video. The stress she must have been under to cause her to go on the offensive must have been immense. A twisted world where heroes were dangerous and villains were safe. Shouta needed to see this man.

They walked quietly into a side observation room. The lengthy figure wore a yellowing straight jacket, keeping his arms wrapped around his body. His chest was strapped to the chair’s back with a thick leather band and chains over top of it, and his legs were strapped to the chair legs that were reinforced to the ground. He wore sandals, a type of medical taping up his claves, and loose blue pants. He looked at the crown of silver hair, and for a moment, everything stopped. The buzz of the AC was gone. Tsukauchi vanished beside him. There was no barrier between Shouta and the man tied to the chair. The vest he saw in the evidence locker was now on him. The villain lifted his head, revealing mismatched eyes and a masked face. 

“Eraserhead?” Tsukauchi’s hand shook his shoulder. Shouta blinked back and was once again staring at the crown of silver hair. “What’s wrong?”

“He’s wearing Hitoshi’s hero costume.” 

Shouta left the observation room with hurried steps, Tsukauchi trailing behind. Someone tried to talk to him, but Shouta had no patience to hear them. He pushed past a few more and found the emergency exit. He sucked in the smog-filled air desperately.

Shouta had all but confirmed that this was the group that had hurt Hitoshi. They had taken a young child and taught him to fight without hesitation against adults. What was that training like? How small had he been? When Shouta had first encountered Hitoshi on the streets, his size had thrown him off guard. How could that man take an even smaller Hitoshi and treat him like a soldier? 

Hizashi and Shouta had been doing their best to give Hitoshi a decent home. One where he didn’t have to worry about where his next meal was coming from or if he was safe to sleep at night. He didn’t need to worry about being attacked or mistreated. His needs were taken care of, so he could focus on friends and school. Not that Hitoshi excelled with social interactions even now but considering what he must have lived through.

And yet, he designed his hero costume after his captor. <

Shouta closed his eyes, not sure if it was his head or heart that hurt. That man twisted these kids so hard that even now, his hold on Hitoshi was not gone. How had he gotten them to idolize him? Shouta straightened himself up and looked back at the concerned face of Tsukauchi. He was thankful the detective had given him silence up until this moment, but what was he going to say?

“You okay there, Eraserhead?”

Shouta grunted, unable to properly answer that one way or another without lying to some degree. “Hitoshi’s hero costume is just like what that villain was wearing.”

Tsukauchi’s brows shot up, “you’re kidding me.”

Shouta shook his head, “the symbol, the fighting style, the kids, and now the costume, this is the biggest lead I’ve come across.”

“But?”

“If Hitoshi finds out, I’m not sure what he’ll do,” Shouta admitted.

Tsukauchi shuffled his feet, rolling the misplaced gravel under the sole of his shoe. “You think Hitoshi would try to go back to this guy?”

Shouta shrugged, not wanting to voice it, as if giving it a verbal form would give the theory too much credence. “I don’t think his hold on Hitoshi is exactly gone,” he said instead. “Do you think he has a mind-altering quirk or someone in the group does?”

Tsukauchi hummed and rubbed his chin while his eyes drifted heavenward. “It’s a good theory, but I don’t think the guy we have does mind control. He was incredibly fast, and he attempted to summon electricity.”

“Electricity?” Shouta echoed, not expecting that. Speed and electricity? Had he managed to manipulate the electricity to help him become faster? But those children moved quickly too. One obviously had a clone quirk, but that wouldn’t allow him to move quicker. “Multiple quirks?” 

“What is Hitoshi-kun’s quirk again?”

“Brainwashing,” Shouta answered quickly.

“Hmmm, a useful quirk for such an organization. Perhaps you should consider moving Hitoshi to somewhere safe?” Tsukauchi suggested.

Where would be safe? Shouta had no idea how far this group’s influence even stretched. “He’s doing his work-study this week.”

Tsukauchi cocked his head a bit, “at first year?”

“A change in the program. He’ll be heading off to learn under Edgeshot.”

“So, your class will be gone for the week?”

Shouta nodded, “I’ll be here every day until we wring every ounce of information from this guy.” he glared.

Tsukauchi offered a nervous smile, “You’re a scary guy when you want to be, Eraserhead.”

“Good.” 

Chapter Text

Shouta met with his class the following day. He sent them off with a few words of wisdom. In short, they were ‘do what you’re told’ and ‘don’t fuck up.’ His class filed out of the room excited, but Shouta’s eyes remained on Hitoshi, who didn’t look up from his phone. Shouta wasn’t able to call out to him either. There was a lot he wanted to say, but there was an unspoken code between them. Hitoshi didn’t want the rest of the class to know about their relationship. It was fine most of the time. Just not right now.

Exhaustion pounded behind Shouta’s eyes. He hadn’t slept at all last night. By the time he had returned home, Hizashi had been in bed sleeping. Shouta didn’t bother laying down, knowing his mind was going to let him sleep. 

“Hey Shouta!” a familiar nasally voice pulled him from his thoughts. He looked over to his husband, who looked like his usual chipper self but with an edge of nervousness. “Your class already dismissed.”

“Yeah, you just missed them.”

“Hito-”

“He’s fine. He can figure out how to get to where he’s going like all the other students,” Shouta cut him off. A heavy silence pulled at them. Shouta’s mind whirled with everything he wanted to say but had no idea how to start the conversation. All night, Shouta had been talking to Hizashi about this new lead on Hitoshi's past, but he never uttered a single word. He felt thoroughly exhausted from talking about it so much, and yet his tongue itched with the need to tell Hizashi about it.

Hizashi looked around the empty classroom. And like he could see Shouta’s thoughts floating through the air, he said, “Is this still about Hitoshi?”

Shouta remained silent. Yes. No. It was but so much more. 

“You’re doing great, Shouta. I know he’s a bit difficult to connect with, but he’s a teenager now. We expect them to pull away.” Hizashi launched into his speech.

Shouta wasn’t of the mind to listen to what Hizashi was going to say next. He was sure it was insightful in some ways, but that was no longer his primary concern. “I have a lead on Hitoshi’s past.” Oh! Words. He finally found words to say. Where had those come from?

“What? You mean...Shouta, you don’t mean the child soldier ring,” Hizashi stammered.

Shouta nodded his head gravely. Hizashi took a few steps back until he bumped into one of the desks. They allowed the silence to stew them in the implications. Hizashi then made his way around the desk and sank into the chair. “Are you sure?”

Shouta leaned against the whiteboard, “ I got the call from Tsukauchi-san last night. Do you remember the news about the Tomato Bank on 61^st?”

Hizashi nodded, “Yeah, the criminals were apprehended. It was attributed the Akai-Me gang.” 

“There was a coinciding incident that occurred that the police are trying to keep quiet. A man and three minors were also apprehended there. They attacked Fatgum, who thought they were civilians that needed help.”

“Wait, the man attacked Fatgum, or the kids did?” Hizashi asked.

“Technically, the man did, but it could have been viewed as defensive because he created distance between himself and Fatgum. It was the two boys that launched the assault. One of them has a cloning quirk. The other two did kids didn’t demonstrate their quirks for us, but the speed they moved at was incredible. They used weapons during the assault and were clearly trying to injure, if not kill Fatgum. The silver-haired man joined the boys’ attack.”

“And the third kid?”

“A girl. Initially, she appeared too frightened to do anything. Still, when the others were captured, she managed to cause some major injuries to Fatgum before she was taken out. Apparently, even in custody, she is still behaving violently.”

Hizashi’s brows furrowed, his lips twisted, “okay, I agree that’s pretty messed up, but why do you think this is related to Hitoshi?”

This is the part that Shouta felt more confident talking about. There were so many things pointing to a connection. He turned around on the whiteboard and drew the swirly leaf symbol. “You know this one, Hitoshi draws it on everything. This symbol was etched into the metal plate of the headbands they were wearing. They had a similar fight style as Hitoshi. I’ve never really been able to place it, and he’s always elusive about where he picked it up from. And the adult male wore a costume that looked remarkably similar to Hitoshi’s hero costume.

Shouta returned the cap on the dry erase marker and waited for Hizashi to absorb the information. He watched the train of emotions cross his husband’s face, from confusion to sorrow, and then finally rage. “I want to see them myself,” he demanded. His hands were clenched into fists on top of the desk.

Shouta’s lip twitched up, “I’ll see if I can get you involved. Tsukauchi wants to keep this contained for as long as possible.”
 

Hizashi nodded his head and let out his tension with a deep breath. “Shou, you don’t think Hitoshi would go back to them, do you?” There was an unfamiliar tremor in Hizashi’s voice. Yet, it connected perfectly with something deep inside of him, causing his own pain to burst forth.

“I don’t know,” Shouta admitted, and he wished he wasn’t so unsure about his position in Hitoshi’s life.

############

Shouta was eager to get back to the precinct, but he had work to do at the school. He was scheduled to work with the support classes and general ed third years on the hero business track. Most of his week was designated for prep work, so he still had some time to work on the case. That time just wasn’t right now.

Shouta and Hizashi parted ways in the hallway. Hizashi had other English classes to teach, and Shouta was going to his desk in the teacher’s lounge. He went to check his schedule to verify nothing had changed and plan out when he’d work on his curriculum and when he would work on the case. He had a handful of new e-mails, but he zeroed in on the one from Tsukauchi-san.

Shouta was now officially a consultant on the case, so he now had access to the case files, transcripts, and recorded interviews they had conducted so far. Shouta’s cursor hovered over the links for a moment. He had other things he should be doing at this moment. If he jumped into this now, nothing else would get down, and there was no telling when he’d be ready to stop. It wasn’t the right time to go down this rabbit hole.

Shouta clicked on the link, logged into the database, and scrolled through their current content. There were some videos and transcripts of their most recent interview. He decided to read the transcripts first so that he could focus on their body language and tone of voice rather than what they were saying when he watched the video.

Shouta decided to start with the larges file named Uzumaki Naruto. The Uzumaki name pricked at Shouta’s memory. Despite it being vaguely familiar, he couldn’t place it. He clicked on the transcript, and his eyebrows immediately shot up.

‘Minor would not stop screaming. Sedation was required. Sedation did not work.’ That was telling in all the wrong ways. Shouta quickly scrolled down to figure out what the kid was screaming about.

Despite the length of the document, Naruto didn’t same much. He primarily repeated himself. He was often shouting his own name like it was supposed to mean something. Did it? Was he related to the leader of the organization? Uzumaki. He chewed on the last name, trying to place it, but still, nothing came up.

Shouta then logged into the Hero Commission site to search for known Uzumaki villains, but his search results delivered very little. There was one, but he was long since deceased. That didn't mean that the theory was dead. He scribbled out a note on a pad of paper to remind himself to gather the names of all residents with the name Uzumaki. The kid clearly expected them to recognize it. He also repeatedly said he was going to become Hokage: Fire Shadow Ruler. If that didn’t scream villainy, he didn’t know what did.

Hokage - possible leader position name for child soldier ring. 

Shouta went back to the transcript and made more notes of the names the boy gave. Sakura, Sasuke, Kakashi-sense, and his Jiijii. Perhaps his grandfather was this Hokage, so the boy was expecting to inherit the organization?

The three names Uzumaki gave were assigned to the other individuals in custody. Well, that was helpful. This kid was too loose with information for someone who thought he was caught by the enemy. He hoped the other kids were like that.

Shouta reached into his top drawer and pulled out a jelly packet, and twisted the top till it snapped off. He quickly consumed it, not bothering to register the taste of it. “Did they figure out how he activates his quirk?” Shouta muttered to himself as he scrolled back to the top. Quirk-type was listed as multiple. He clicked the link, and it took him to the note. “Quirk-type: Clones; able to duplicate himself. Clones, when injured, dissipate. A possible metabolism side-effect of the quirk since sedation methods were ineffective. Enhanced speed quirk. The subject was seen moving at high rates of speed. Other anomalies detected.’

Other anomalies detected was a frustrating statement. It could mean anything, especially since they didn’t bother expanding on it. What other anomalies did they see? Multiple quirks were not necessarily impossible, just incredibly rare. Since most dual quirks were simply one quirk affecting various aspects of the same person. Midoriya would have a field day with this.

“Whatcha reading?” a warm voice tickled the back of his neck.

“Don’t you have a class to teach?” Shouta asked Hizashi.

“Ha! Already finished! It’s lunchtime, Shouta. Did you get lost in your-“ Hizashi waved his hand towards Shouta's computer screen. He knew that pause. Hizashi was allowing him to decide if he was going to tell Hizashi or keep it to himself.

It wasn’t always like that between them. Hizashi had always been a nosey person. Even as teens, he needed to know what Shouta was up to. He would go as far as to snatch things out of his hands or harass him until he gave in. This followed into their relationship, and it really strained things between them. It took years to get to the point where Hizashi had enough self-control to not demand to know what Shouta was doing all the time. In return, Shouta had to be willing to offer information more readily than before. It had not been easy for either of them.

“The case we spoke about earlier. I’m scanning through the initial interviews.” Shouta watched Hizashi’s face twist from distaste to something akin to steel.

“Do you still think-”

“Even more than before,” Shouta interrupted him. He didn’t want Hizashi to say it out loud. This case was supposed to stay quiet, and right now, they were in the teacher’s lounge where anyone could overhear them. Frankly, Shouta shouldn’t even be looking at this right now. He should be working on his curriculum.

Hizashi took a deep, steady breath, and Shouta copied him. “Will you tell me more at home?” Hizashi asked.

Shouta couldn’t refuse him. Regardless of the red tape surrounding this case, Hitoshi was their son. He wasn’t going to keep Hizashi out of the loop regarding this. “I’ll do you one better. I’ll let you read over everything, including my notes. I’m sure you’ll notice things I miss.”

Hizashi offered him a smile, but there was no warmth to it. It was the smile of a predator that finally locked on to a scent.

######

Shouta tried to reengage with the curriculum in front of him. Before him had his list of students, and if he just picked on, he could start updating their individual plans. But his eyes kept drifting down to Hitoshi, but then Tsukauchi texted him telling him that they were about to interview the kids. They had been waiting for a children’s psychologist to be able available to assist them. Shouta closed down his computer and quickly left the school. He shot off a text to Hizashi telling him that he would see him a home tonight.
 

“Glad you could make it, Eraserhead,” Tsukauchi greeted him when Shouta walked into the observation room attached to one of the interrogation rooms.

Shouta nodded his head and took one seat away from Tsukauchi. He cursed the fact he didn’t think to bring a notebook in his hurry to get here. Maybe he could get a copy of the detective’s notes after they were done.

“Ike Sachiko-san is our psychologist today. I asked for her specifically because she specializes in children who endured long-term trauma and children who have been removed from cults. She’s even written several papers on it, and I believe, published two books.” Tsukauchi pointed to a woman in the interrogation room. She had a small frame and a round face. She wore a long skirt and an oversized sweater that made her appear even smaller. She sat down at a low table with a clipboard and pencils.

The room itself wasn’t designed for standard interrogations. There were toy bins, books, a whiteboard. It was meant for kids, to make them feel more comfortable and give them alternative ways to express themselves.

The first child was brought in strapped into a wheelchair. “Sasuke.” Tsuckauchi supplied him. “We don’t have a last name yet.”

“The last name may not help us anyway if they’re changing them to keep them from being associated with missing children,” Shouta pointed out.

“There’s a lot we don’t know about the organization. Hopefully, these kids will be willing to talk to Ike-san.”

Shouta didn’t respond; he was antsy to get this started. He wanted answers, information that would lead to arrests and justice. The officers were releasing the boy from his straight jacket. “Wait, why are they releasing him?”

“Ike-san believes that she will have an easier time getting information from them if they are not being restrained.”  

“She’ll be in danger. Those kids aimed to kill-”

“I know. I don’t like it either, but we agreed to do it her way. Sometimes, we have to trust the professional,” Tsukauchi gave him a helpless shrug.

None of this sat well with Shouta. Sure, they were kids, but they were dangerous kids. “Does she at least have a license to use her quirk?”

“No.”

“This is incredibly stupid.”

“But if it works.” They dropped the conversation and watched as Sasuke shook out his wrists. He didn’t look pleased about the situation. Ike-san gestured to a chair to offer it to him, “I’m Ike Sachiko. You can call me Sachiko if you would like.”

Sasuke silently eyed the room before giving Ike-san a once over. He then looked away with folded arms as if dismissing her.  

“Will you tell me your name?”

Sasuke eyed the door for a moment. He then walked over and turned the handle, but it didn’t budge. He scoffed and turned back to Ike-san with a murderous glare that put Shouta on edge. “What do you want?”

“Just to talk. You and you’re umm … group?” She paused, waited to be corrected, but Sasuke stayed silent, so Ike-san continued, “were brought in because there was concern about your wellbeing. Maybe you can tell me about them?”

“No.”

“It would help us a lot. We could talk to your family, perhaps? Make sure things are safe there?”

Sasuke snorted and stuffed his hands into his pockets. Only the sound of the AC could be heard rattling as it kicked back on. The boy finally looked back at the Ike-san. “Where is this place?”

Ike-san glanced around as if she didn’t know. "A police precinct in Musutafu." 

Sasuke’s brows pinched together tightly, and his eyes flickered around as if looking for an explanation on the walls. Ike-san picked up on his confusion, “Where are you supposed to be if not here?”

Shouta sat up straighter when Sasuke seemed to be staring straight at him. Could he see them? He was able to verify because Sasuke returned his attention back to Ike-san. “Are you really part of T&I?” he asked.

"T&I?"

"Torture and Interrogation."

"What? No. Sasuke, I would never-"

Sasuke took a few steps back, "how do you know my name?"

"The blonde, Naruto, he told it to me."

"Tch. What an idiot," Sasuke scoffed. 

Ike-san picked up the paper she had been drawing on earlier. "Can you tell me what this symbol means?"

The boy looked at it and then looked at her. "You don’t even know that much?" 

Ike-san shook her head, "I've never seen it before. Maybe you could help me understand?" 

Sasuke’s feet shifted, and Shouta felt his anxiety start growing. A sneer twisted the boy’s face. “Help you understand? Why are you really here? Do you honestly believe I would fall for such an obvious lie?”

Ike-san didn’t react immediately. She turned the paper to herself, allowing Shouta to see the leaf symbol that had been carefully drawn on it, “how about you tell me what you think is going on?”

“This is some illusion. You’re trying to get information from us about Konoha.”

“Am I not allowed to know about Konoha?”

The boy jerked his head away, and the two sat there in silence for a moment. Ike-san leaned forward, “Sasuke-san, did you go to school?”

Her question dropped like a dead weight to the floor. “Do you have friends?” Still nothing. Ike-san sighed, “It’s okay to be done talking. Is there something you would like to do, maybe eat?”

“I don’t want anything from you,” the boy spat.

Ike-san nodded her head like that was a reasonable response. “If you would like, I can have them take you back to the room. Maybe this time with a bit more freedom?”

Was that allowed? Shouta looked at Tsukauchi, but he didn’t look at all surprised by the offer. Perhaps this had been an arrangement they had agreed on earlier to get the boy to trust her. Sasuke’s arms loosened, and he considered her carefully.

“So, I wouldn’t be strapped to the chair?”

Ike-san nodded, “I could ask them. Would you like me to?”

Sasuke seemed to mull on this. It was such a simple question, yet he was giving it a great deal of thought. “What would you get out of it?”

“Sasuke-san, I’m not here to get things out of you. I just want to understand,” Ike-san said earnestly.

“I’ll leave now.”

Ike-san let out a gentle breath and nodded, “I’ll call for them.”

Sasuke glanced back at the door. Ike-san made a show of calling for the officers and asking them to leave Sasuke with minimal restraints, all the while saying how well he had done during their talk.

“Konoha was the biggest bit of information we got out of that exchange. Do you know the place?” Shouta as the detective.

“I do, actually. It’s a small town about 5 hours from here.”

“Have you been there before-”

Shouting erupted from the room. The boy was gone, and the officers were scrambling after him. Shouta jumped to his feet and sprinted out of the room after him in seconds. He was already unwinding his capture weapon. The boy was incredibly fast. He slipped past the first barrier, but the second one was already secured. That’s where Shouta cornered him.

Sasuke whipped around and sped through several hand gestures as his chest began to puff out. Shouta wasted no time and threw his capture weapon as a massive ball of flames materialized out of the boy’s mouth. The hallway was turned into a fire tunnel as it barreled through them. Shouta yanked on his capture weapon as the heat lapped at his skin. The sprinkler system saved them from further damage as it rained down on them, and the hallway was filled with hot steam.

Shouta glared at the boy wrapped up tightly in his capture weapon. His hands were shoved up against his face, and all he could do was wiggle his exposed fingers. “That wasn’t a smart move, kid.” He glowered darkly at him. One of the officers hurried next to Sasuke and injected him a sedative right into his neck. It was fast-acting and specially developed for the police force.

Sasuke struggled for a moment before his eyes slipped closed and his head lulled forward. Shouta released him from his weapon and caught him before he hit the ground. Tsukauchi appeared at his side, and Shouta passed the boy off to the police.  

"You okay, Eraserhead?"

"Yeah. The kid has a fire quirk. Guess he can breathe it." 

Tsukauchi sighed, "I had a feeling this wasn't going to go well. Thanks for capturing him. You made it a lot easier to do so." 

Shouta didn’t acknowledge the gratitude and instead focused on returning the weapon around his neck. Tsukauchi tilted his face up towards the sprinkler system spraying on them, “well, at least we were able to verify that they work.”

Shouta snorted, "question is, will they will turn off?" 

“Fire department will be here soon. They’ll turn them off. Now mopping up is another story.” The two trudged down the hall back to the children’s interview room. It was dry since it was part of a different portion of the building. Ike-san had stayed behind.

Tsukauchi gave her his polite smile, "it seems you two had a different definition of freedom."

Ike-san sighed, "it was a risk I had hoped would pan out better."

"Did you get anything out of this?"

Ike-san glanced at Shouta, prompting Tsukauchi to explain his presence. "He is a consultant as well. This is not our first run-in with members of this group." 

“Oh, I see! Well, the kids had been extremely isolated and were soundly indoctrinated. I haven’t figured out the details, but it’s clear that they were being given filtered information. This symbol, for example,” She showed them her drawing of the leaf symbol, “he was incredulous that I didn’t know what it was. He may have been born in this organization. This symbol is rudimentary knowledge to him. So much so that my lack of knowing surprised him.”

While Shouta was interested in the story behind the symbol, that was not what he wanted to talk about. Who cared about a symbol when the boy said far more disturbing things? “Why are you worried over a symbol instead of the idea he thought we were here to torture him?”

Ike-san tucked a non-existing lock of hair behind her ear. “The threat of torture by the outside world is a prevalent tactic. It doesn’t offer us much insight into the organization as a whole. It’s a common control tactic. But the symbol could hold the key to the identity and ideology of the group. It may be significant to the members as well.”

Tsukauchi nodded his head as he listened to her explanation. He opened his mouth to say something, but Ike-san cut him off. “he didn’t attack me. He considered me non-threat and left without injuring anyone.”

"He blew a massive fireball at us in the hallway," Shouta informed her. 

"He was trapped. Either way, the next child, I want to offer the same arrangements." Ike-san pressed, staring at Tsukauchi. 

"Ah, well, we had a deal, Ike-san. We would do things your way the first time around. If it didn't work well, then we would change tactics." 

Ike-san shook her head, “Detective, there is no way I will be able to build a rapport with these kids if I can signify trust in them first.”

This was stupid. Why was she even arguing? “We can’t trust them,” Shouta interjected, “They don’t trust us either. They need to offer more to earn trust from us. Make them work for it. That kid clearly used your trust in him to try to escape, so we know what their goal is now. If they have to work to get to the point that they have a shot at escaping, we’ll be able to get something out of them.”

Tsukauchi offered Ike-san an apologetic smile, “We tried, Ike-san, but we have the safety of you, our officers, and the surrounding civilians to consider.”

Ike-san sighed, “it’ll be hard to get them to talk with an officer around.”

“We’ll put Eraserhead in the room with you.”

“What?” both Ike-san and Shouta both gapped at Tsukauchi.

The detective laughed a bit, “Eraserhead is a teacher at UA; he’s familiar with handling youth. He also doesn’t look like a typical hero.”

Shouta couldn’t help but snort in amusement at Tsukauchi’s underhanded way of telling him he looked like he just rolled out of bed. He glanced at Ike-san to see her shoulders slumped with a heavy sigh.

She looked back at him sharply under her thick bands, “Some rules, first. Don’t discredit or contradict what they are saying. Our goal is to understand their world, not correct it. When they ask questions, don’t talk down to them. Consider first why they are asking the question. We can sometimes get stuck on what they’re saying and not try to find out why they’re saying it. This requires listening. You can’t be formulating your response while they’re talking. Do not interrupt them. Repeat back to them what you hear them saying before you say what you want to say. Don’t resort to-“

“I know how to talk to kids,” Shouta cut her off. He was a teacher. He talked to kids all the time, and teenagers at that. He also had more experience with kids being destructive with their quirks than she probably did.

Well then, I’ll have the next kid brought in for us,” Tsukauchi said and left the room, giving space for awkwardness to arise.

Every move either of them made was like sandpaper against the skin. Shouta tapped his finger against the folded arms as he counted the passing seconds. The sound of the door opening was a welcomed break in the tension.

Shouta gripped his capture weapon when he heard an enraged, muffled scream. The blond boy was wheeled in, his arms forced around his body in a hug from the straight jacket. He was then secured to the wheelchair, and a muzzle was stapped to his face. Angry eyes turned accusing, and the blue bled to purple and red.  

“Take that off of him,” Shouta demanded, his sharp voice slicing through the enraged sounds of the boy, silencing even him.

The officers traded uneasy looks and then looked back at Shouta. “The muzzle,” Shouta clarified. “What are you doing, muzzling a child?”

“He wouldn’t stop screaming,” one explained while the other officer worked to unstrap it.

“Then let him scream. You don’t muzzle a child.”

Naruto eyed him half suspiciously and half curiously. Shouta didn’t want to give the wrong impression, so he tried to relax his expression to something more friendly, but he was unsuccessful, judging by Naruto’s cringe. The two officers slipped out of the room as the boy’s express turned to squint at him.

“Anosa-” Naruto leaned forward, his eyes firmly planted on Shouta, “are you a perv?” 

Shouta had to replay the question over in his head to wrap his mind around what the boy just accused him of. Ike-san chortled off to his left. She had her face hidden behind her clipboard, but he could see her shoulders shaking. He closed his mouth and tried to fight the heat going to his face. “Of course not. I’m a teacher.”

“That doesn’t stop someone from being a perv. Ne ne I know a good test!” Naruto wiggled eagerly.

Ike-sand sucked in a deep breath and released it slowly, but her grin was still very present. “Perhaps another time, Naruto-kun. My name is Ike Sachiko, you can call me Sachiko, if you wish. This is my helper Aizawa, Shouta. Can you tell me how old you are, Naruto-kun?”

“Eh? I’m 12! I’m a genin, but I’m going to be the Hokage one day, believe it!”

“Oh! A genin, how did you become a genin?”

“I pulled off a really cool move. I even saved Iruka-sensei’s life, believe it! I was amazing, like one of those ninja movies!”

Ike-san smiled, “it certainly sounds like you were amazing. Do you watch movies often?”

“Eh, no. Sometimes I get to watch something, but movies are expensive. I’d rather eat ramen.”

Ike-san nodded and made some notes on her clipboard. “So, you saved your teacher’s life? Who was trying to hurt him?”

The boy brightened up again and bucked against his chair. “Mizuki-sensei! He was a traitor! And-ack! I’m not supposed to talk about it.” Naruto jerked his face away from them.

“No? Who isn’t allowing you to talk about it?”

“Jii-jii, Old Man Hokage.”

“Oooh, the Hokage, and one day you’ll be Hokage, right?”

The boy’s face brightened like a 5,000 lumens lightbulb. “Yeah! I’ll be the strongest in the village, and everyone will acknowledge me!”

Shouta couldn’t help but scoff at the ridiculousness of the boy’s outburst. It was so childish, like wanting to be the strongest heroes so everyone would love you. “That’s not how it works, kid.”

Naruto glared at him, “how would you know? You don’t even look strong.”

“He means that often it takes more than just strength to gain acknowledgment,” Ike-san filled in quickly. “But maybe you can tell me about your family? Your Jii-jii seems really strong, but what about your parents?”

“I don’t know who my parents are.” 

“Oh, I’m so sorry. Who takes care of you?”

“Eh? Sometimes Jii-jii gives me money, but I live by myself.”

Alone? At his age? “How long have you been living alone?” Shouta interjected.

“I left the orphanage when I was five and moved into my apartment.”

“And you didn’t live with anyone then, either?” Ike-san asked.

“Eh? No. Why would I?” The question was equally heartbreaking as it was revealing. Hitoshi had easily surrendered himself to the streets. Even after living with Shouta and Hizashi, he still hadn’t come to rely on them in any significant way. This child, who was the grandson of the leader, was left to raise himself. What had Hitoshi experienced?

“Most kids live with an adult,” Shouta answered.

“Adults don’t like me. I don’t want to live with one,” Naruto grumbled.

“Why do you think adults don’t like you?” Ike-san asked gently.

Naruto began fidgeting and started looking around the room. “Oi, when do we do the cool stuff? Like the torture? Man, a cool scar or two would really impress Kiba!”

“We’re not going to hurt you,” Ike-san said. “We’re trying to understand your situation and make sure you are safe from now on.”

“Eh? What kind of enemy are you? Ne ne - what village are you from? You’re not wearing hitai-ate.”

“Hitai-ate? Oh! Do you mean this symbol?” Ike-san flipped her paperback to the one with the leaf. 

“Huh? Yeah, that’s Konoha. Are you part of Kiri?”

“Is that another village?”

Naruto scrunched up his face. “You guys are really dumb.”

“Watch it, kid,” Shouta warned him.

Naruto glared at him, “Shut up, pervy-hobo.”

Shouta’s eyes burned, and his hair lifted off his shoulders. Naruto jerked back and then started yelling for help as he struggled against the bindings.

“Aizawa-san!” Ike-san snapped at him. He stopped using his quirk, and his hair fell back around his shoulders. Regardless of Ike-san’s ire, a little fear would do Naruto a bit of good. The boy would be more respectful towards him.

“Stop yelling,” Shouta ordered Naruto. His mouth clamped shut on command, and Shouta tossed Ike-san a look. He told her he knew how to handle kids.

The blonde glared at him, and his bottom lip jutted out in a pout. "Whatever pervy-hobo."

This kid just doesn't learn! "Listen, Kid, we are trying to help you. You clearly don't realize the amount of danger you are in."

Naruto bared his teeth at him like a dog. "I'm not in danger; you're in danger. I could kick your ass anytime I want!" 

"You're strapped to a chair."

"Gah!" The boy attempted to flail his limbs, but it turned into more of a wiggle. "Release me from this chair, and I'll show you who's stronger, believe it!"

"Whatever, Kid."

"You pervy-hobo-coward!" 

The door opened, and the two officers came in to remove Naruto. The boy screeched and wiggled about as he was taken back to his cell.

"Aizawa-san, that is not how we discussed speaking to children."

Shouta cringed at the hard-line in Ike-san's voice. "We weren't getting anywhere with him."

Ike-san’s hands were planted on her hips, and she glared up at him through her thick fringe and oversized glasses, like a child dressed up as a kindergarten teacher. “It’s not just about information. It’s about building a relationship. These kids need our help, and if we don’t work on earning their trust-“

"By lying to them?"

"By being gentle with our words! By understanding what they are ready to hear and what they are not. You can't just shove their face into a pile of truth and expect them to understand!"

"That's how life works, Ike-san. The sooner they figure that out, the better." 

Tsukauchi cleared his throat, gaining both of their attention. "Do we want to interview the girl or?" He left the word hanging in the air. 

"Not with him," Ike-san said firmly. 

"Eraserhead is there for your protection, Ike-san." 

“Then you will remain silent. You are hurting what I am trying to create here. These kids need our help, not to be hit over the head with your version of the truth. They need to know they are safe. We are safe. We have no idea what they have suffered or what lies they were fed. I don’t need you shoring up those walls that were built for them by their captors.”

Shouta glanced at Tsukauchi, who shrugged and walked back out. He was no help. Tsukauchi didn’t deny anything Ike-san had said. He should know that Shouta wasn’t anything like their captors. He would never hurt a child!

"I adopted a child out of this ring. I know what these kids have suffered. I see it in my own son."

“Then you should know how much we need to earn their trust. Watch this interview from the child’s perspective. Think about where she came from, what she has seen, and how she has been treated by us thus far. Then you tell me what this experience must be like for her.”

Shouta swallowed a retort, and it burned in his throat. He was here to help these kids, to help his son. When Shouta first met Hitoshi, he had reached out to help him, but Hitoshi had used his quick on him and escaped. Shouta searched for him and ended up finding him in a large group home, muzzled. Shouta and Hizashi got him out of there. There was no way Hitoshi didn’t trust them…right?

The girl was brought in. She didn’t say a word, but her wide green eyes had a glassy sheen to them. Her hair stuck to the side of her face as if she had been crying at some point. He was struck hard when he realized she was scared of them. She was scared of him. Had the boys been scared too? Sasuke ran and then attacked them. Naruto had blistered and raged. This girl was crying. Were all three of them acting out of fear? Were they scared, not of being returned to their captors but of them?

Ike-san greeted her with a soft tone, but the girl’s wide eyes only stared at him. Shouta wondered what she was seeing. What did he look like in her eyes?

“Sakura-chan, is that your name?” Ike-san’s voice was just above a whisper as if she was talking to a spooked deer.

She whimpered and stabbed at Shouta's heart. He had to look away. 

“We’re not here to hurt you.” There was a pause, and Shoutat glanced at Sakura, finding her still staring at him. “nor is he. He just wants to make sure both of us are safe. My name is Sachiko, and his name is Aizawa Shouta. We just want to know who you are and how we can help make sure you are safe.”

Ike-san gave Sakura the space to speak, but Shouta wondered if she would. He searched her eyes and only saw his own reflection staring back at him, and never had he felt more ashamed of himself. He had a 12-year-old girl bound to a chair, crying, and he was demanding answers from her when he was a stranger. It was on the tip of his tongue to suggest they untie her.

"My teammates…. are they okay?" she spoke just above a whisper.

"Yes, we're taking care of them. You must be really worried about them. I just spoke with both Naruto and Sasuke."

"What about Kakashi-sensei?"

Why was she concerned about him? Shouta’s nails dug into his palm. Sakura seemed to notice it too and made a pitchy noise. Ike-san glared at him, and Shouta forced himself to relax.  

"Kakashi-sensei is in another room, but I don’t talk to adults. I'm only here to listen to you, Naruto, and Sasuke."

"Listen?"

Ike-san bobbed her head and hummed in agreement, "to anything you would like to say to me."

Sakura chewed on her lip and looked around the room. Shouta followed her eyes. The room was sterile despite a low table and what looked like some soft toys and building blocks in a bin. The floor was tile, and the walls were white. It looked like a police room. Shouta suddenly wondered how anything about this room would make them want op open up. Especially with that giant glass window that you couldn't see through. 

"Ike-san, why are we here?"

"So, we can find out who you are. Maybe find your family? Make sure you are safe?"

"Safe from what?"

Shouta frowned at the question. What did she mean? 

"From people hurting you." 

"You're hurting me," Sakura said plainly, her watery eyes dried up and her mouth set in a firm line. 

And the worst thing was Shouta couldn’t argue with her. 

######

"You okay there, Eraserhead?" Tsukauchi asked him. 

They were sitting in the observation room attached to the holding cell for Kakashi. Shouta was resting his eyes while he mentally flipped through the interviews. "Fine." 

He cracked his eyes opened and stared at his knees. How long had those kids been under that man's tutelage? Did he train Hitoshi too? "We don't have to be nice to this guy." 

"No, we don't,” Tsukauchi confirmed.

"Good. Let's get this over with." 

Shouta stood to his feet with anger rolling off him in waves. This asshole was training kids to use lethal force on command. He was stealing their childhoods and warping their minds. Did he kick them around? Did he curl their little fingers around a weapon that was too big for their hands and show them where to strike? Did he replace their dolls and trains with steel and blades? Did he meet their hugs with fists and a cruel smile?

Did he bare his teeth when he smiled, like a wolf towards their prey?

Crack

"Eraser!"

His fist burned like a wasp sting. The pale jaw remained unchanging in mockery. Shouta wasn't given the satisfaction of seeing the skin bleed beneath the surface. Tsukauchi yanked him back away from Kakashi. 

"Mah, was that really it? I've taken better hits from kids."

Raged spiked down through his spine. Shouta grasped the front of his straight jacket and attempted to lift him up, but he was secured to the chair. “Listen here, you piece of shit, I’m going to find out what you did to those kids. I will find every one of your dirty little secrets and expose it for everyone to see. I will drown you in your own filth. I will personally make sure the judge gives you nothing less than the maximum sentence, and every prisoner there will know what you do to little kids. It’ll be a special kind of hell for the likes of you.”

He wished he could look this guy in the eyes, but they kept him blindfolded. He had a strange eye, so they assumed his quirk was ocular in nature. 

The man stayed strangely silent. Shouta released him and stepped back to Tsukauchi. He didn’t want to see the disappointment on his friend’s face. Shouta was well aware he had lost himself in his own anger. He was better than that, or he at least knew better. They were actually lucky the man’s face didn’t bear a bruise they would have had to explain, no matter how much the asshole deserved it.

"They're not children," Shouta stilled, and Tsukauchi's hand grabbed his bicep, "they're my soldiers." 

Thankfully, the shattering of bone like glass and the blooming of red remained only in Shouta's mind's eye this time. Tsukauchi was standing between him and that piece of trash, with his hands on his shoulders anchoring him in place. "Eraser." The firm order refocused Shouta. 

Shouta clenched his jaw tightly and jerked away towards the door. The handle seared his hand blistering his bones. Still, he needed to remove himself from the situation before he removed that dull-witted deplorable calamity of birth.

Chapter Text

Shouta rolled over to escape the sun’s reach. It was entirely too bright, and there was squabbling flying rats outside of his window. He didn’t remember sleeping last night, but he was not enjoying this waking-up shit. Shouta rolled not his shoulder and reached his hand out but was met with a lukewarm mattress. He groaned and wondered what was even the point of life if this was all there was to it.

The door popped open, and Hizashi leaned against the door frame. “That’s your third alarm, Sho. You can’t ignore that one.”

“I don’t remember the other two,” he grumbled.

“You slept through them.” The bed dipped when Hizashi sat down. “Technically, you don’t have to go at the same I do if you need more sleep.”

The offer was tempting, but that meant paying more in gas or riding the bus later. “No, no, I’m fine,” he forced himself to sit up. His muscles were corded into knots that pulled taut as he moved. He groaned and rubbed his shoulders, already feeling a headache coming on.

Hizashi was utterly unsympathetic to him, “Someone is getting old.”

“Can’t I have coffee before you start making fun of me?” Shouta groused. He flipped the blankets off of himself, partially covering Hizashi in the process.

“I don’t know. Can I sleep without you punching me?” Hizashi grinned.

He punched Hizashi? Shouta scanned his husband for an injury, “I hurt you?”

“It was a joke. You had a rough night. Mostly, you were just waking me up and ordering me to secure sector four. Then at some point, you started laying into Todoroki for burning down a kindergarten or something. You were so furious I apologized,” Hizashi laughed and smoothed down Shouta’s bed head. “Go shower, coffee will be ready, and then tell me what’s going on.”

Shouta had returned home late last night, and they hadn’t had the opportunity to talk because of it. “You’ll be late for work.”

“I call in for a substitute. Don’t give me that loo, Sho. Just because you hate relying on subs doesn’t mean I have to.”

Shouta didn’t have the will to argue with Hizashi. Frankly, a morning shower sounded amazing for his sore muscle, and morning with his husband sounded even better. “Alright.”

######

Shouta took a lot longer than usual in the shower. The hot water did wonders for his body but not so much for his mind. He needed Hizashi for that but once again wasn’t sure how to make anything he was thinking come out of his mouth coherently. He sat down at the table with a hot cup of coffee between his hands. Hizashi had made him an omelet, despite knowing he didn’t eat breakfast. Shouta had managed a few bites to appease him, but as the minutes ticked by, the weight of the conversation was bearing down on him.

“We got a confession,” Shouta decided to drop the load of stones he was carrying without preamble.

Hizashi stared at him for a moment, his mind trying to process what he had just thrown down between them. “Wait – you got a confession about the child soldier ring?”

“More or less. The man they captured, Kakashi, he called those kids his soldiers.”

To your face?”

“To my face. He said, ‘they’re not kids, they’re my soldiers.”

Hizashi sat back in his chair, his eyes blown wide. Shouta could hear his brain running as fast as his mouth usually did.

“Shouta – Hitoshi!”

Shouta grimaced at the mention of their son. They had suspected this, and now it was being confirmed. Was either of them ready for the mystery shrouding Hitoshi’s past to be brought to light? What had Hitoshi lived through that he still didn’t feel safe enough to tell them?

“We can’t tell him,” Hizashi declared, surprising Shouta. They had determined early on that they wanted to be as honest as they could with Hitoshi. It was a massive violation of how they agreed to raise Hitoshi.

“I agree, but I’m not sure it’s for the same reasons as you,” Shouta took his last swig of coffee, “those kids were not relieved to be away from the ring. They want to go back. They seem to be willing to do anything to return to the very people that hurt them. I’m worried Hitoshi would want to return if he found out.”

Hizashi shook his head, “Shou, no. there’s no way he would.”

“You didn’t see them. They were scared of us, Hizashi. Not of them, but of us. Sasuke tried to run the first chance he got. He attacked us when we cornered him. He has impressive control over his fire-breathing quirk for his age. Clearly, he’s been trained. Naruto is loyal to this child soldier ring. He called it Konoha. Even said he’d be taking it over one day. And Sakura,” Shouta shook his head, “she knew what she was doing. Twelve years old, and she was interrogating us as much as we were interrogating her.”

He dropped his head in his hands, letting it rest like a boulder. “They don’t trust. Worse yet, they want to go back to their handler.”

“Shouta, did you forget that Hitoshi escaped that place on his own. He never went back. He could have. Even now, if he wanted to go back, he could do it, but he hasn’t. He’s here with us and working towards his hero license.”

Shouta lifted his head and looked at Hizashi with confusion. “Then why are you against telling him?”

Hizashi rubbed the side of his nose with a slight smile, “I don’t want to ruin his UA experience with the stuff from his past. He’s finally making friends and seems somewhat happy.”

Shouta lifted a brow, “he’s happy?” The boy didn’t seem happy to him. He kept himself caged in his room unless he was avoiding them by staying out on the streets.

Hizashi shrugged, “happier then. It’s relative to him, just like it’s relative to you.”

Shouta huffed at the ribbing and got up to refill his coffee. For a moment, he watched the steam stretch and curl through the air in a futile attempt to grasp ahold of something.

“If this gets out to one of the news stations, perhaps you and Hitoshi should take a holiday somewhere. Somewhere he would like. Maybe an internet café or something?”

Shouta nearly jumped with Hizashi erupted in laughter. “You expect us to spend a holiday at an internet café?”

“I don’t know.” Shouta huffed, lifting his cup to hide his reddening face, “He’s always on his phone or the computer.”

“Camping. He’d probably like camping a lot more, and between the two of us, so would you.”

Shouta lowered his cup, “Camping? Really?” he didn’t picture Hitoshi being interested in such a thing. He was so into technology, wasn’t he?

Hizashi bobbed his head, “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. I hate bugs,” he scrunched up his nose. Shouta grinned. The conversation was evoking one of the many memories he had of Hizashi screeching at a bug. One time it was a roach, and they had to replace a window because Hizashi started shrieking with his quirk before Shouta could stop him. On the plus side, the shrieking killed the roach too.

“I can’t imagine you camping.” 

“Exactly, so don’t make me do it.”

“You really think he’d be into that?” Shouta asked. 

Hizashi grinned, “yes, and you two should go camping together once all of this is over. Go sleep in the dirt with the bugs, and I’ll stay here and sleep in my bed.”

Shouta couldn’t help but grin at the ceiling as he leaned back in his chair. Why hadn’t he known Hitoshi would like camping? Shouta would have taken him out sooner. Shouta had a foster dad who was really into camping. He had lived with that family for nearly 6 years and had been his last family. They were to him, and he still missed his foster Dad. He had been a heavy smoker and died from lung cancer sooner than Shouta had been ready for.

Shouta went to sit back at the table and take another bite of his cold eggs. Now wasn’t the time to be remembering old camping trips. “I should get back to the precinct.”

Hizashi jumped to his feet before Shouta could stand. “I want to go too,” the anxiety in his voice conflicted with the hard edges of this eyes. A rejection weighed down on his tongue, preventing it from escaping. Hizashi had been patient, but now that so much had been confirmed, he understood why Hizashi wanted to join him. When Shouta first heard of the possibility that this was the group that had hurt his son, he jumped in immediately to take part.

“Is that why you asked for a sub?”

Hizashi gave a sheepish grin and scratched the side of his face, “well, I was hoping you would invite me, but that wasn’t happening.” 

Way to stick a fork in him. “Shit, sorry,” Shouta rubbed his eyes and decided to blame exhaustion over being straight up careless, “I’m just tired.”  

Hizashi seemed to allow his lie to pass. Shouta was under no delusion that his husband didn’t see through his bullshit. He’d have to make it up to him later. He pulled out his phone and shot off a quick text to Tsukauchi. “I’m giving them a heads up that you’ll be joining me today.”

Hizashi grinned, and Shouta couldn’t help but send one back his way. There was something about putting villains in their place they both got off on.

“Awesome! Let’s go kick his ass!” Hizashi practically sang.

Shouta snorted and stored his phone back in his pocket. “I got in trouble for that already. As soon as I saw him, I punched him in the face.”

Hizashi threw his head back and laughed. Warmth bloomed in Shouta’s chest at the sight. It had been a dumb move but seeing Hizashi laugh over it made it worth it. Well, aside from the satisfaction of shoving his fist in that villain’s face.

Hizashi wiped a tear from his eye. “Tsukauchi-san must have freaked out!”

Shouta shrugged, “he wasn’t pleased, but the villain didn’t bruise or anything, so we can pretend it didn’t happen. He probably has another quirk to prevent injury or something. I saw in the report that they are running their DNA to figure out who they are. They can probably get a general idea of their quirks, too, since they seemed to be all over the place.”

“I thought one could clone himself, and there was a fire-breather.” 

Shouta nodded his head, “yes, but that doesn’t account for their speed.”

“You’re pretty fast,” Hizashi pointed out. 

“Not that fast. I’ll show you the videos later, and you’ll understand what I mean.”

The couple stopped on their way to the precinct to pick up another round of coffee. Shouta signed in and grabbed a visiting consultant badge while Hizashi signed in as a visitor. They waited in the lobby for a bit before Shouta’s phone buzzed.

“Looks like Tsukauchi is held up with a different case. Let’s go to the evidence locker.”

“They gave you clearance for that?” Hizashi asked, impressed. 

Most heroes didn’t get involved with the investigative side, but Shouta worked closer with the police than most heroes ever did. It gave him certain privileges. It’s amazing what happens when you approach people on even ground and are not blinded by your own popularity.

Shouta shot him a smirk, and Hizashi shoved him forward by the shoulder.

They greeted the clerk at the evidence locker and requested access to the boxes. Unlike when Tsukauchi was with him, Shouta and Hizashi were taken to a different room, and the boxes were brought to them. The room was small with a table and two chairs. Cameras were on them, and the clerk that brought them the box stayed in the room with them.

Hizashi opened one of the boxes, “Sho, this symbol.”

Wrapped in the plastic was one of the headbands that displayed the leaf symbol that Hitoshi introduced them to. Hizashi ran his finger along the swirl of the pattern, looking almost devastated at the sight of it.

“All four of them were wearing these around their forehead,” Shouta said quietly.

“That’s a strange fashion choice. You would think we would have heard about a group if they were making public signs like this.”

Shouta frowned at the truth in that statement. A group of people wearing a metal headband with a strange symbol on it should have attracted a lot more attention. In an age of digital media where everyone is a reporter, why had he not come across speculation over this? Why had none of them heard of it? He’d have to do some searching on a few of his less reliable sites. Someone should be talking about this.

Hizashi moved the headbands to the side and started in on the various sizes of blades. “they had all these weapons on them? Why did they think they could get away with just walking around like this? And why would an organization even send them off with so many weapons rather than having them rely on their quirks? These are like a neon sign screaming, “I’m a villain! Arrest me!”

Shouta picked up one of the blades, and it split the plastic. Hizashi was right. Why were they dressed to stick out? If they were part of the robbery, this wasn’t a way to make a clean escape. Shouta didn’t think they were part of the robbery, though. It seemed more coincidental that they appeared there. But what were they doing there to begin with? Why were they falling and not dying?

“Scrolls?”

Hizashi switched out his gloves for a pair of clean ones. He unrolled one of the scrolls revealing a unique design. “A cipher?”

Shouta shrugged, “they’re assuming the same thing.”

“You’re not?”

“There are so many of them. I think they have a utilitarian purpose. There’s no reason for them to each be carrying so many.”

Hizashi smoothed the scroll out a bit more, his finger tracing over some unfamiliar characters. “So, you think someone designed this with a quirk to do something.”

Shouta ducked his chin behind his scarf. “Possibly, I don’t know. It just seems weird that they would have so many copies of the same thing.”

Hizashi hummed, his voice vibrating the air a bit. Shout pulled the scroll over to himself to examine it again while Hizashi explored the rest of the content. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense to him that these scrolls were supposed to do something. Everything they carried was a weapon of some sort aside from these scrolls and the paper tags.

Shouta’s phone buzzed, “looks like Tsukauchi is ready for us.” They put the stuff back neatly and left the boxes in the capable hands of the clerk. 

Tsukauchi greeted them in the lobby with his usual politeness. Hizashi shoved a plastic and over-the-top grin on his face. “Hey, Tsukauchi! How’s it going? Thanks for letting me step in on this-“

Shouta shoved his elbow into Hizashi’s ribs to shut him up. His strange level of excitement was a violation of the atmosphere. Hizashi gave a nervous laugh, “sorry. Uh-thanks for letting us be here.”

Tsukauchi shook his head and didn’t seem thrown off my Hizashi enthusiasm. “It’s nothing, Present Mic. Eraserhead has already been a massive help in knowing what elements to focus on. Had it not been for both of your insights and suspicions, we wouldn’t have known what we were dealing with.”

“Aw man, don’t say it like you owe us something. You don’t get how much this has been weighing on us. To finally have answers,” Hizashi’s voice trailed off, and his eyes dulled. Shouta wanted to say something, anything to move the conversation forward, but Hizashi perked up. He was always the resilient one. “Can we see this guy?”

“I’ll have two sit in the observation room. Perhaps we’ll have more success with interrogating him this time around. He’s been a difficult person to compel to talk, though. I think Eraserhead managed to get the most information out of all of us,” Tuskauchi tossed Shouta a teasing smile. Shouta considered flipping him off but tangled his hands in his scarf instead.
 

“How are the kids doing?” Shouta changed the subject.

“We’re trying a new setup with them. We outfitted a different kind of cell so they would have more space to move about in. The challenge we have is that they’re minors, but they’re really dangerous on their own,” Tsukauchi explained as he led them down the maze of halls towards the high-security interrogation units. “We don’t have a complete understanding of their abilities, and it seems to me they have more than one quirk at play here.”

“Has that been confirmed?” Hizashi asked.

“Not yet. Their speed we have seen, but they seem stronger than they should be too. One of them dented the door, and we had to reinforce it. The least destructive of the three seems to be Sakura, but she did manage to create a clone of herself, much like the other boy. I’m not sure how, but she managed to disguise herself to look like part of the wall, so she escaped momentarily when we went to check on her. We did manage to knock her out and return her to her cell.”

Shouta sighed heavily while Hizashi whistled. “That’s pretty impressive. I’d like to meet these little listeners myself!”

“Unfortunately, until we figure out how to properly secure them, that isn’t possible.” 

They entered the observation room attached to Kakashi’s holding cell without Tsukauchi. Hizashi immediately went up to the glass to stare at the man strapped to the chair, his head hanging forward like he was asleep. “He has the same hair color as Hitoshi.”

Shouta grunted, “I noticed that too.”

“Are we sure they aren’t related?” 

“Hitoshi had young parents. It’s unlikely they could have had a child before him,” Shouta sank down into one of the cushioned chairs that still managed to feel stiff. 

“I remember reading Hitoshi’s file that his father suggested Hitoshi wasn’t his. Perhaps it was a surrogacy program?”

Shouta sat up, “Surrogacy? As in she was paid to have a child?”

“They could be experimenting with genetic manipulation to get the types of quirks they want. There have been various articles on the potential even research articles suggesting ways to harness and even direct the path a quirk can develop in a child. If you can introduce multiple quirks into the DNA during gestation, would the body be able to handle it as if it was meant to be born that way?”

Shouta frowned. “Why do you know about this stuff?”

Hizashi shrugged and glanced back at him. “My listeners like to talk about stuff like that. It’s a hot topic for the night show. Morning radio doesn’t usually go down that path, but it’s fun to talk conspiracies when the sun goes down. I just didn’t think I’d ever be living in one.”

“Hitoshi doesn’t have multiple quirks,” Shouta dismissed.

“That he’s told us. You can’t tell me you haven’t been curious about his eye. It’s red with the black dots, and sometimes those dots move. I’ve seen it.”

“You think he’s hiding a second quirk from us?” The idea really bothered Shouta. He was responsible for Hitoshi’s quirk training not only as a parent but as his teacher. Isn’t not telling them a significant sign he didn’t trust them?

“I mean, his brainwashing quirk was taken so well. If he had a second quirk, wouldn’t that have scared even more people? I wouldn’t blame him for keeping it a secret.”

“But from us?”

“Especially from us.”

Shouta wanted to probe further, but Tsukauchi and two other officers entered Kakashi’s room. The man lifted his head with a frown etched on his face.

“Good morning,” Tsukauchi greeted Kakashi.

The observation room door opened, and Ike-san slipped into one of the seats. She didn’t look surprised to see them. She laid some folders in the chair next to her, placed a to-go cup on the floor, and pulled out a clipboard and pen. Why was she even here? She was supposed to be working with the kids. Did she see him punch Kakashi in the face? Not only did he argue with that blonde brat, but then he hit this guy. Her impression of him must be in the sewer.

"Hatake Kakashi, Konoha shinobi, registration number 281409."

"How old are you Hatake-san?"

"Hatake Kakashi, Konoha shinobi, registration number 281409."

"Yes, thank you Hatake-san. Can you tell me about your quirk?”

Kakashi lifted his chin to look at Tsukauchi for a moment, but the blindfold should have prevented that. His face remained relaxed, almost bored. "Hatake Kakashi, Konoha shinobi, registration number 281409."

Tsukauchi, to his credit, seemed undisturbed. Honestly, the man had patience beyond what Shouta could imagine. “Your registration number is rather long. Are there a lot of Konoha Shinobi?” 

"Hatake Kakashi, Konoha shinobi, registration number 281409."

Tsukauchi leaned back in his chair with a sigh. He made a show of closing the file he was working on and looked to the other officers in the room. “Perhaps we should bring someone in with a quirk that would force compliance? At least to prompt him to talk, like someone with a brainwashing quirk?”

Shouta raised a brow at Tuskauchi’s request. It wouldn’t surprise him if they had someone contracted with a quirk that could compel you to answer questions, but that wouldn’t be called brainwashing. Was he trying to signal to Kakashi about Hitoshi?”

One of the officers nodded and slipped out of the room. Kakashi’s face followed the man leaving and then returned to Tsukauchi. There was no way he didn’t notice Kakashi tracking the people in the room. For his part, though, Tsukauchi was still playing it calmly. He tapped his fingers on the files in his lap. “We’ve been talking to the kids. They have a lot to say.”

For a moment, a hush enveloped the room. They all waited to hear how Kakashi would respond. But that moment came and went, and the view in the room had been paused. No one was moving. An officer suddenly crumbled to his knees as he let out a ragged sob. Tsukauchi didn’t move an inch in response. Shouta wasn’t even sure he was breathing.

Eraserhead rushed past Ike-san with Present Mic at his heels. They yanked the door open, and Mic, not at all mindful of the fact Shouta was standing in front of him, let out a wail that rattled Eraser’s bones. 

But it seemed to have worked. The wail shook everyone out of whatever oppressive atmosphere was conjured up. The officer and Tsukauchi both shoved their way past them out of the room.

The heroes cautiously walked further in keeping a firm eye on the man strapped to the chair, his arms bound with the straight jacket and his eyes concealed with the blindfold. Nothing had changed.

“What the hell did you do?” Shouta demanded. He half expected Kakashi to stand up out of his restraints, but of course, he didn’t.

“I’m educating you about who you are messing with. You hurt those kids; I will kill you.” Kakashi’s voice was like water flowing over steel.

Hizashi tugged on his shoulder, pulling him out of whatever tunnel-like headspace he had been in. “We need to find Tsukauchi,” Hizashi reminded him. Hopefully, talking to him would reveal what was going on.

######

They found Tsukauchi leaning against the first set of barriers in the hall. His back was against it, and he seemed to be focused on breathing. His face was still pale, and his hair dampened with sweat.
 
“Detective?” Hizashi called out to him, his voice flowing more smoothly than usual, like a mother’s hum.

Tsukauchi cracked his eyes open and sighed heavily, “I apologize.”

“There’s no need for that,” Hizashi assured him, “But I am confused about what happened?”

Tsukauchi sucked in a breath and slowly released it. “It was strange. Like I suddenly couldn’t breathe. He didn’t say anything, but I was terrified, a terror I had only known a few times in my life. So I knew I was going to die. So much so I thought…” his voice trailed off, and a troubled look crossed his face. He then continued much quieter, “I thought I should end myself first because I would give myself a kinder way to go.”

Shouta looked down the hall in the direction of Kakashi’s holding cell. How had he done this? Was it a pheromone quirk? What prompted him to unleash it now?

“You should go home, Tsukauchi-san. At least take a break,” Hizashi said.

“I think I will.” Tsukauchi bowed and then walked away with a slump to his shoulder. Shouta didn’t expect him to take Hizashi’s advice. It really showed how much the attack had rattled him. Psychological attacks were some of the deepest cuttings.

Ike-san approached them from behind, “Tsukauchi-san is leaving?”

“Ah, yeah, he is. I’m Present Mic, we didn’t get a chance to introduce ourselves earlier, and this is-”

“Eraserhead. We have already met,” Ike-san finished for him.

“Ooooh, what did he do this time?” Mic waggled his eyebrows.

“Hizashi,” Shouta growled, really did not want this topic to be brought up.

Ike-san bowed, clutching her folders and clipboard to her chest. “I’m Ike Sachiko. I’m a child psychologist. Part of my specialty involves children raised in cults.”

“Whoa! Does that happen often?” Hizashi gaped.

“More than you want to believe.”

“Can I interview you some time on Hands Up Radioshow? My Listeners would love this topic!”

Ike-san seemed surprised by the offer but then nodded her head, “That would be great. I’m always looking for a way to bring more awareness to the issue.”

“Ike-san, why were you watching the interview with Kakashi?” Shouta interrupted.

“Oh, because I wanted a better idea of the cult we’re dealing with. He would have insights on it the kids wouldn’t have. I also want to see what it’s going to take to rehabilitate him,” she explained.

Shouta and Hizashi both jerked in surprise. “Rehabilitate him? A man like that?” Hizashi decried.

“He belongs behind bars forever,” Shouta hissed. This was ridiculous. Where did they find a person like this?  

Ike-san frowned, “putting him behind bars forever, as you say, won’t help him.”

“He’s hurting children. Why do we care if he gets help? He needs to pay for the crimes he committed and for the childhoods he has destroyed,” Shouta shot back.

“And who will pay for his childhood?” Ike-san asked calmly.

“What?”

“That man was clearly raised in the cult as well. I don’t get any indication that he has ever known life outside of it. It is my belief that this is a well-established cult, a rarity. Normally cults die out with their leader, but Naruto mentioned that his grandfather was the third leader. So, they may have been around for a very long time. I haven’t figured that out yet, but it’s safe to say the cult is older than he is. Either way, that man is just as much of a victim as those children are.”

Chapter Text

It had been a waste of a substitute teacher for Hizashi. They couldn’t blame Tsukauchi for that, so they went home and watched the surveillance videos instead.

Shouta leaned back into the couch, his eyes towards the ceiling. Exhaustion sat like a stone against him. “Keeping Hitoshi out of the loop is a bit of a pain,” Shouta groused.

“It’ll probably be more painful for him if we have to drag him into this. It’s only been a few days. Let’s see how far we can get first,” Mic said while his eyes remained glued to the videos.

Mic suddenly frowned and sat back, his brows scrunched together. “Hey, do you think Hitoshi still has that memorial in his room, or do you think he took that with him?”

They shared a look for a moment and then jumped to their feet and raced to Hitoshi’s room. Hitoshi was a very tidy teenager, so the memorial was exactly where it had been when they had found it originally. They unburied it but they didn’t pick it up. “We should get a picture of it.”

Shouta pulled out his phone and carefully took a few photos of it. Then they buried it again and hurried back to the living room as if Hitoshi would suddenly show up and catch them snooping.

Their heads were nearly touching as they read through the list of names. Hizashi pointed at the three they were looking for. “Right here! I knew they would be on here. Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Naruto.”

“Do you see a Kakashi anywhere?”

“Doesn’t look like it. I had always assumed these people were dead, but maybe it’s just a list of people he left behind?” Hizashi suggested.

Shouta frowned, “They’re younger than he is. And when he left the cult, he would have been really young. Why would he even know about those kids?”

It felt like the more they dug into this, the less it made sense. There were obvious connections such as the names, the leaf insignia, and Hitoshi’s hero costume. But the timeline was hard to put together. How could Hitoshi have been a part of a cult, ran away, joined the public school system, killed a man, and then ended up in foster care by the age of 7? It seemed he had been living with his mom up until the time of the incident too.

"Hitoshi is such a cryptid," Hizashi lamented. 

Shouta snorted at the comment. Even after these past few years, Hitoshi was still a mystery to them. “Hizashi, earlier you mentioned that Hitoshi would likely lie to us about having multiple quirks.”

There was a beat of silence. Shouta had been hoping that Hizashi would pick it up from there, but instead, he remained quiet. “Zashi, why do you think he would lie to us?”

"He doesn’t want to lose what he already has.”

Shouta frowned, “But we wouldn’t reject him over a quirk.”

“He doesn’t know that. Look at how he was treated for one quirk that was deemed unacceptable. I just don’t think he wants to risk it by telling us. When he’s ready, I’m sure he’ll come clean,” Hizashi said.  

“You honestly think we haven’t proven ourselves to him?”

“Shouta, you’re not getting it. This isn’t about us. It’s about Hitoshi and what he has experienced. He's wrestling with his own past.”

“We’re not like those people though. We don’t hurt him or force him to wear muzzles. We saved him from all that,” Shouta argued.

“I know. That’s why he’s not telling us.”

Shouta bit back a groan. How did that make any sense? They were the safest people to tell. Shouta could make sure Hitoshi got the training he needed for his other quirk if he even had one at all. They only had 3 short years to get Hitoshi ready for fieldwork. Every day Hitoshi didn’t tell him was a wasted day of training. What if he doesn’t tell them before he goes pro, and the quirk isn’t registered properly? The Hero Commission could revoke his license, even put Hitoshi in jail. Was waiting really the best idea?

########

Shouta had to put a few actual hours into work. He needed to show his face in the teacher’s lounge and get some grades entered in and then work on his curriculum. It was a testament to his ability to focus that he managed to ignore his desire to work on the case for any length of time. But even his disciplined focus gave up after lunch and Shouta found himself back at the precinct. He sent a mental apology to Hizashi, who was stuck teaching Gen Ed Classes today. The Gen Ed Classes had a more intensive English course than either the heroics or support classes.

Shouta signed in and headed to Tsukauchi’s office. The door was open, but Shouta knocked on it anyways. The detective waved him in. “Eraserhead, good to see you.”

“I have something you might be interested in for the case.” Shouta pulled out his phone with the image of the memorial stone on it.

Tsukauchi took the phone from him and examined the photo. “What is this?”

“Hitoshi made it. It’s hidden in his closet.” Shouta reached over and zoomed in on the leaf insignia.

Tsukauchi nodded his head, "When did you discover this?" 

"A couple of years back. He tends to hide weapons throughout the house. We stumbled across it during one of our searches."

"What did he say about it?"

Shouta signed as he straightened up. “We never asked about it. As far as he is concerned we don’t know about it. I thought this was a list of people that he cared about, but that had died. I’m changing my opinion of that now considering the names on it.” He reached back over and zoomed into the names of the captured children.

"How old is Hitoshi?" 

"15." 

"And he knew these kids?" Tsukauchi frowned. 

Shouta shrugged. “It’s not impossible, but they would have been babies at the time he left. So, I question why they were important to him.”

"And Hitoshi is-"

"Doing his internship. I want to keep him out of this as long as possible."

"He's holding useful information that could help us understand what we are dealing with," Tsukauchi argued, finally taking his eyes off the screen. 

"We have 4 such people we are still trying to interrogate. There is no reason to drag Hitoshi into this just yet."

Since Hitoshi was a minor, there wasn’t much Tsukauchi could do. Shouta understood his frustrations, though. Shouta wanted Hitoshi to talk to him and actually be honest about something. To show even a little bit of trust in Shouta, instead of treating him like an unknown threat he needs to tiptoe around. He wished there was a way to make Hitoshi understand that Shouta just wanted the best for him. He was on his side! Hitoshi had such a rough start and Shouta wanted to do everything he could to compensate for that, but nothing seemed to work. His students trusted him more than Hitoshi did.

At least he could do this. He could protect Hitoshi from his past. 

#####

"Eraserhead," Ike-san greeted him, "I hear you will be observing today." 

Shouta bowed, "Yes, if you don't mind." This could go either way. Shouta had not put his best foot forward with her as he should have.

Ike-san nodded, "This must be very stressful for you, having a son from this organization." 

Shouta mentally cringed at the topic of this conversation. He did not want to discuss this with her. “Hitoshi is doing fine.”

"I wasn't asking about Hitoshi." 

Shouta nearly swallowed his tongue. How was he supposed to respond to that? He didn’t want to blow her off because he was already on shaky ground. Ike-san was also incredibly valuable to this case with her insights. They needed her. “I’m determined to bring justice for Hitoshi. To make up for all the things he suffered.”

"That's a lofty goal."

"It's a necessary one."

"Is it?"

Shouta frowned, not sure what she was getting at. "Are you suggesting Hitoshi doesn’t deserve it?"

"Not at all. I am suggesting that it is impossible to obtain. We cannot erase someone's past no matter our quirk. Even if we were to take away the memory it changed our very DNA, and our experiences mold us in a very physical way. I would suggest not focusing so much on his past and focusing on who he is today. Support him now and let people that know how to deal with trauma help him there."

Shouta frowned, "You're recommending therapy."

"I am."

"It could hurt his chances at a hero license. They look at these things when making final considerations," Shouta explained.

"Would you rather he have his hero license or that he recovers from the pain he’s enduring?"

Again, Shouta found himself, begrudgingly marveling at how she didn’t pull her verbal punches. He was already seeing stars and it left him unable to respond.

"Eraserhead, it is only a recommendation. You know your son better than I do. He may not even be ready to meet with someone."

"He isn't. He doesn't even trust me," Shouta admitted. 

"How old is he?"

"15." 

"That's a rough age for anyone. Most parents feel like their teens don't trust them anymore. What parents often miss is that it's because their teenager trusts them that they act out. They're safe people to misbehave around."

The word safe slid under his skin uncomfortably. "And how do they act when they don't feel safe?"

"Hypervigilant, secretive, performers, anxious. I'm sure you've seen them in the past among your students."

"Secretive, huh?" Hitoshi was that in spades. This was proof Hizashi was wrong.

“Yes, but secretive in a different way than other teens. It’s normal for teenagers to hold secrets from their parents. They will even lie, but a teenager that doesn’t trust you will lie differently. They’ll tell you what you want to hear only. Because for them the truth doesn’t matter. You would dictate the truth. This will involve even very minor things.”

"What if they tell you obvious lies? Like they're just so ridiculous they couldn't possibly be true?" 

She gave him an incredulous look, "Are you sure those aren't just jokes?"

Jokes? Was Hitoshi joking with him? Shouta had been so irritated by the lying he had never considered that they were mere jokes. Now that it was mentioned it felt so painfully obvious. Shouta sighed in response.

Ike-san smiled at him, clearly enjoying the pain he was suffering. "Parenting is hard."

He didn't want to talk about this anymore. "What do you plan to talk to the kids about?"

"Their current events. I want to establish what they know. And how it was interpreted for them. It'll give me a starting point of what the goal of this cult is." 

Shouta nodded his head but had little to contribute in this area. “I see.”

“Do you want to join me in the room?”

Shouta was more than a little surprised by that. After his performance the past several days, he was grateful to even be allowed to observe. “Why would you invite me into the room?”

Ike-san was focused on rifting through her folder. “You’re a teacher. You’re aware of both modern and historical events and you interpret them to your students. I think this could be an interesting exchange if you can manage to keep your cool. We’ll be speaking to them through an intercom system anyways.” She pulled out several sheets of paper. “Here, these are the events.”

“Wait, am I the one talking to them?”

“Yes, I’ll be taking notes. Think of it as practice if you want.”

Shouta debated on how offended he should feel right now. Ike-san had a unique way of being incredibly insightful and understanding then backhanding you with the truth. He accepted the papers and read the headlines of each of the printed articles. The earthquake in America dropped California into the ocean, the Stain situation in Hosu, the insurgency of a radical militia in Sweden, and the latest hero rankings.   

He rifled through the articles several times rereading them over and over without truly paying attention to them. Did they remember Hitoshi? What if they were too young to remember him? Would Hitoshi be hurt by that? Should he go against his agreement with Hizashi and tell Hitoshi that they had these kids in custody? What if they weren’t the right kids? What if they were? Did he need to take in 3 more kids? Just the thought of 3 more kids in the house gave him a headache. He didn’t want that, but Hitoshi might. If these kids meant something to him, he’ll need to be able to at least stay in contact with them.

“Eraserhead, are you ready?”

He looked up and noticed Ike-san watching him. "Yes." What was she seeing? Did he want to know? Probably a hero in name only with tendencies towards violence and unkempt hair. Did he shower last night? He was pretty sure he did. 

They stood outside of the first cell. Inside was Sakura. Between them was a door and they were expected to talk to them through it. Sure, the door was clear, but it still felt wrong. These kids were victims and it felt like they were holding them in cages. He glanced at Ike-san and sympathized with her earlier argument about giving these kids as much freedom as possible and focusing on building a relationship with them.

"Will this be okay?" Shouta ducked his head down and asked.

Ike-san shrugged, "There isn't much we can do about it."

Shouta signed at the truth of that statement. These kids were both dangerous and a flight risk. But, as Ike-san pointed out, this was no way to convince them to talk. It didn’t generate a feeling of trust.

“Sakura-chan, can you hear me?” Ike-san called out. The girl seemed to appear out of nowhere and approached the door cautiously.

“I can hear you,” Sakura answered in a clear voice. She wasn’t acting like a scared little girl as she had before. Instead, she presented herself with a great deal more confidence. She didn’t look away, instead meeting his eyes.

“Do you remember me?” Ike-san asked.

Sakura nodded her head. “Why are you keeping us here? We’re just a genin team, we don't know village secrets.”

“I’m not looking for village secrets. We're - I'm trying to understand who you are and make sure you're not in danger." 

Sakura’s brows furrowed as she studied him. Her nose scrunched up like she needed to sneeze, "This is not what they taught us to expect when captured by an enemy village. Aren't you supposed to be dangerous to me?"

Shouta frowned, "Heroes are supposed to help people, not hurt them."

Sakura blinked, "Isn't it a bit presumptuous to call yourselves heroes?"

Ike-san made a pitched sound like the startled squeal of a mouse, "Oh! I'm not a hero. Just a psychologist. Aizawa-san is, though. He is also a teacher at UA, teaching the next generation how to be heroes."

"You teach kids to be heroes?" Sakura asked slowly, almost tasting the sentence as she said it. 

"Is that a problem?" Shouta asked. 

"Ah!" Sakura waved her hands in front of herself, "No, not at all. I'm just not sure how you teach something like that. I mean, heroism is," Sakura then cleared her throat and shifted into what could only be described as a lecturing stance, "heroic conduct especially as exhibited in fulfilling a high purpose or attaining a noble end." She dropped her hands back to her side, "I don't see how that is a teachable character trait." 

Shouta mulled over the question. Oddly enough, he had never experienced pushback on it. "I teach students to become heroes as a career. I hope they have that ideal within them. All heroes strive to represent that."

His explanation didn't seem to clear any of that up for her. So, he decided to use a different tactic. He flipped to the article with the latest hero rankings and, of course, All Might was on top. As much as he disliked him, All Might was useful in these instances. "All Might, for example, is referred to as the symbol of peace. Why do you think this is?" 

Sakura's brows pinched even closer together. Her confusion was palatable. Had she not heard of All Might being referred to as the Symbol of Peace? The girl lifted her skinny arms and flexed them. "Ummm, because the strongest prevails? But what does that have to do with heroism?"

Shouta tapped his packet of papers on his arm, "Well, he's the number one hero."

"Who is?"

"All Might."

"All Might is a person?"

Shouta stared at the young girl, her question echoing in his brain as he attempted to wrap his mind around it. Was All Might a person? No. All Might was a symbol, an icon, and an ideal, not a person. But he didn’t think that was what she meant. Had she just not heard of the hero All Might? It felt preposterous. All Might was the biggest name in heroes longer than she had been alive. 

Shouta looked at Ike-san, wondering if he was misunderstanding, but her mouth gaped like a fly trap. Their eyes met and Shouta felt a shudder down his spine when he realized Ike-san didn’t know what to do either. 

Shouta fumbled with his papers, "So, no heroes then. What about Stain in Hosu?"

"A stain in Hosu," Sakura repeated. "Did they wash it out?" 

Shouta dropped his chin down into his capture weapon to hide his laugh. The comment was so ridiculous and yet so perfect. It was terribly sad that she knew so little of the world around her, and frankly, Shouta should not be laughing. Now if only he could stop. 

He looked forward to relaying this story to Hizashi later. Shouta cleared his throat as he pulled himself under control. There was no point going over the other articles. The girl knew nothing about the world around them. He'd take Ike-san's advice and listen instead. 

"How about you tell us the latest news instead? Not village secrets, I know, but the things that everyone would know?"

Sakura seemed to mull on this for a moment. Her eyes drifted up as if looking for the answer on the ceiling. "Recently a new village was created called Sound. I think they are in the land of Grass, but I could be mistaken. A new tea house opened in Konoha. I've been wanting to try it. Umm." She scratched the side of her cheek. "I don't know a lot of news outside of the village. Other than...I mean...there's Wave. It's really poor and the bridge builder is trying to connect to the mainland to increase trade, but someone is trying to stop them." She seemed to get more excited as she spoke, her hands clenching into fists in front of her. "People shouldn't be left starving like that!"

Shouta wracked his mind for a place called Wave. "Where is this located? Maybe we could send people to help?"

Sakura looked surprised by the offer. "You want to help? Ummm….the Land of Wave is an island in the Middle Sea just outside of Fire." 

What kind of directions was that? "Middle Sea...like the Sea of Japan?"

"I don't know where Japan is."

"You're in Japan."

"I was in Wave though…." she said, lost. "You moved us?"

"No, you're in the same city you were picked up from. How did you get here?"

Sakura pursed her lips, "We fell. I'm not sure how but we fell."

"You fell from where? An airplane?”

"I don't know what an airplane is, but I don’t think so. We were about to die when the ground gave way and we fell through the ground then through another ground and then we hit the ground. Then some paper bombs went off and this big guy came after us, but he captured us." Sakura tried to explain.

Shouta looked at Ike-san who was writing furiously. How could she keep writing after being told such a nonsensical story? "Fatgum. He was trying to get you to safety. He's a hero."

Sakura puckered her lips in a cringe. "He was not." 

Shouta opened his mouth to argue then closed it again. Ike-san told him not to argue to see things the way they saw it. So, he mentally apologized to Fatgum for not defending him. 

"You said you nearly died before you fell,” Shouta redirected the conversation.

Her eyes darkened as she recounted her memory "Zabuza Momochi, Demon of Hidden Myst. One of the Seven Legendary Swordsmen. I heard Kaka-sensei say it."

"And this Zabuza was trying to kill you?"

She looked up at him with glassy eyes. A large tear trailed down her cheek then she dropped her chin and wiped it away. She said nothing for a moment then Shouta noticed that her shoulders shook, and Ike-san put down her pen.

 "Sakura-chan, can you tell me how you are feeling?" Ike-san prompted.

"Scared. I'm scared but I don’t have a reason to be." 

"Why do you not have a reason to be scared?" 

Sakura hiccupped then held her breath for a moment. She released it slowly before answering, "Because I’m not hurt and he's not here and you are not attacking me."

"But you are in a strange place, separated from people you know, being held and questioned against your will, and you just experienced a life-threatening ordeal."

Was Ike-san trying to make things feel worse for her? Shouldn't she be trying to make her feel better? Get her to stop crying?

Sakura looked up and her lashes splashed tears across her cheeks. "I want my mom."

"Maybe we can find her?"

"I don't even know where I am." 

"I know, but we'll work together to figure it out, okay?" 

Sakura nodded and as a shuddered sob tore through her. She had been really strong up until this point. She held up well. Frankly, she had the makings of a hero. To have that much control over herself at 12 was impressive. Even with her falling apart now. If anything, it impressed Shouta even more. She was hiding all that fear and grief inside all this time.

"Aizawa-san, why don't you give me some time to speak with Sakura-chan?"

Shouta nodded and handed her back her packet of papers. He didn’t like dealing with crying children anyways. 

Shouta left quickly escaping the sound of her sobbing. Nothing she said truly made sense and it bothered Shouta. Where was the Middle Sea? Land of Waves? She mentioned Zabuza, Demon of the Mist. That was clearly a villain, but he had never heard of them.

He knocked on Tsukauchi's office door then walked in, dropping into the first chair he came across. 

"Hello Eraserhead, come in and make yourself comfortable." The teasing in Tsukauchi's voice snapped him out of his own analysis. Shouta decided to ignore his own lack of manners. It wasn’t important. 

"We spoke to the girl, Sakura."

Tsukauchi glanced at the time on his computer, "Just her? Must have gone well."

"Ike-san is still talking to her. She started crying, and asking for her mom." 

"This one has a mom? The other two didn't seem to have parents."

Shouta shrugged. He wasn't terribly interested in that tidbit. "She was pretty talkative this time around but very little actually made sense. She doesn't know where Japan is." 

"Did her group call Japan something else?"

"Possibly. She also doesn't know who All Might is or heroes in general." Shouta leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees, "For a group that is training children to take part in a militia to be counter-cultural,  how does she not even know about the basics? Geographical locations? The names of her enemies? How can you train a group up and keep all this from them?" 

Tsukauchi leaned back and stared up at the ceiling. "And you are certain she was being honest? If I had realized she would be so talkative this time around I would have been there."

"You have more than just this case on your load. But she seemed honest. Ike-san would likely know better than I would."

"You're a pretty good judge, Aizawa-san." 

Shouta didn’t respond to the comment. Instead, he let out a heavy sigh. How was it that he was no closer to understanding the situation at hand than when they first started? In fact, he felt like he was further from his answers than ever before. 

Chapter Text

Shouta stood next to Tsukauchi staring at the man on the other side of the shatter-proof glass. He was strapped to the chair and blindfolded. Shouta’s emotions roared against each other. Their intensity drowned out everything around him. This man hurt Hitoshi. Ike-san claimed he too was a victim. How does Shouta put that together? Kakashi is both the perpetrator and the victim? He wasn’t sure he was ready to buy that yet. How could he not know what was going on in the world around him? He’s an adult and there’s no way he could be as ignorant as the children had been. Could he?

“I think you should ask him similar questions we did with the kids. Figure what he knows about the outside world,” Shouta said.

Tsukauchi looked at Shouta from the corner of his eyes as he considered his suggestion. “Do you think we’ll get similar answers or different?”

He breathed for a moment, considering his answer. For Shouta, his responses would tell him if Kakashi was a victim or not. If he’s not it gets easier from here but if he isn’t and Ike-san was right, Shouta wasn’t sure what he would do. Was he ready to give up his anger that he piled onto Kakashi? This was the only tangible target he had to blame for Hitoshi’s childhood. The only one he’s found the handle the brunt of his anger. “I think it will depend on if he will even talk to us.”

Tsukauchi nodded and rolled his shoulders. “Do you think you can handle being in the same room with him?”

Shouta frowned at the question. “Are you asking me to go in there with you?”

Tsukauchi gave him a lopsided smile. “So far you are the only one that has gotten any information out of him. I would like to try it again.”

“Last time I punched him,” Shouta reminded him blandly.

Tsukauchi shrugged, "Maybe that's what he needs."

"Are you being serious right now?"

Tsukauchi took a deep breath his shoulders exaggerating it. “A little bit-maybe-yes. Yes,” he finally settled on an answer. “We’ve done what we can, but at this point, our hands are tied. We can’t force him to talk and he keeps repeating the same sentence over and over again.”

“Can’t you use a quirk to compel him to speak?”

“No, it would go against his rights. We can’t force them to speak if they don’t want to. It would take us getting a judge to sign off on it and before that, we must prove that they have information that is an immediate threat to someone else. I don’t have that with this case.” 

Shouta briefly tried to compile a case to suggest there was an immediate threat but not even him, with all his biases, could see it. They didn’t have anything to go on at this point, and if they didn’t get something soon they wouldn’t have anything to use to keep them here. His lead would slip away. Thought it was likely they could keep custody of the kids.

“Has he really not said anything beyond what he said to me?”  

“He just keeps repeating his name and registration number.”

Shouta mentally groaned. He couldn’t imagine having to listen to that over and over. It was a technique he had heard of to handle torture. It helped to ground you and frustrate your enemy, but they weren’t torturing him. Was he expecting them to? Shouta had to add another uncomfortable checkmark to the idea that Hatake Kakashi had been raised a child soldier and my not be away for life outside of this cult.

Villains usually were well informed about how far the police can go in an interrogation. They knew outright torture was off the table and the villains took advantage of these handicaps. Villains could do far more to heroes and police than they could do back to them. It was maddening at times. Especially, when you were looking for a missing person or their remains and the villain just sits there smugly, fully intending to take this knowledge to their grave.

Somehow Kakashi seemed unaware of their limitations.

“Has he tried that psychological attack again?” Shouta asked.

Tsukauchi shook his head, “No, he hasn’t, and I couldn’t tell you why. I haven’t figured out how he does it yet and how to defend against it. I am expecting the test results from his DNA and quirk analysis today. That should provide us with some insights into what we’re dealing with. But until then I’m hoping if he starts it again-“

"I'll have enough wits about me to turn it off." Shouta's panic response was usually to activate his quirk so it shouldn't be a problem. 

Tsukauchi nodded and then gestured towards the door. “Shall we then?”

They walked into the interrogation room and the door shut behind them. The latch locked into place with such finality Shouta was tempted to try the handle. Somehow this didn’t seem like a good idea. Dread pooled in his stomach as he turned to face a snarling wolf. Was he really supposed to see this person as an injured dog? To offer him his hand knowing he would get mauled, and for what purpose?

Shouta stepped closer and the man straightened up. Did he know Shouta was here? He could feel his eyes penetrating the blindfold, following his movements. Which one of them was captured again?

“Shinsou Hitoshi, do you know him?” Shouta tried to quell his racing heart so he could hear the answer, but Kakashi remained silent.

Shouta tried again, “you two look similar. You have the same hair color, similar…face. He’s 15. Perhaps your half-brother? He has a purple eye and a red eye.”

"I don't have siblings." 

Shouta continued to press, “He dresses like you. He seems enamored by the same symbol too. That leaf symbol.

"A lot of people dress like me. It's a uniform," Kakashi said blandly. 

"A uniform from Konoha?" 

Kakashi went silent again. He was talking so why did he shut down now? Was it the mention of Konoha? The last time Shouta had threatened him, Kakashi talked, this time he mentioned Hitoshi, and Kakashi talked again. But when they mentioned the kids, they have captured, Kakashi attacked. What was the pattern?

Shouta decided to go back to the previous subject. “Hitoshi fights as you do. He’s not as fast, but he likes to use a similar stance. Did you ever work with him? Maybe trained him or something?”

Kakashi’s mouth twisted down, “Hatake Kakashi-“

“I know. I’ve heard it.” Shouta cut him off. “Look, I just –“ he paused and then tried again his voice quieter, “I adopted him okay? If you’re his family I think he should know.”

Kakashi shifted in his seat, “I don’t have a brother. I don’t have a family.”

Shouta pressed further, “Would you know if you did? Does your organization tell you if you have family or not?”

“I don’t have family,” Kakashi said firmly. Shouta looked over at Tsukauchi who gave him a thumbs up signifying he was telling the truth. Damn.

The Hitoshi angle wasn’t getting him what he wanted. “Earlier I was talking to Sakura-“ Shouta triggered his quirk but there was nothing to stop. Kakashi remained unmoved. Shouta then coughed and decided to continue, “she mentioned that there was a fight before your encounter with Prohero Fatgum.”

“Prohero…Fatgum?” Kakashi repeated slowly his mouth twitching up in humor.

“Yes, the hero-the man in the yellow hoodie that went to assist you after the bank exploded.”

"And you call him a Prohero?"

"Yes, and you're called a genin right?" Shouta asked. 

Kakashi jerked against his restraints and barked out a laugh. It started both Tsukauchi and Shouta. “Mah-I haven’t been a genin since I was five. You really know how to insult a man.”

Shouta cringed, how was he supposed to know? “So then what are you?”

“I’m jounin in rank.”

“And what’s the difference between them?”

Kakashi shrugged, “Body count.”

Shouta looked at Tsukauchi hoping he wouldn’t see a thumbs up, but the detective just shrugged. That wasn’t helpful.  

“Body count means how many people you have killed. How many do you need to qualify to be a Jounin?” Shouta wasn’t sure he wanted to know this answer.

"Enough to stop dreaming about them."

Shouta felt a shudder run down his spine with how causally he answered the question. “And when did you become a Jounin?”

"I was nine." 

Nine.

A child murderer.

Ike-san’s question rang loudly through his mind. Who would pay for the loss of his childhood?

Shouta mentally scrambled to stay on topic. Did this make sense? Who would send a little child to murder people? Hitoshi had at that age. No, Hitoshi was protecting those around him. “But those other kids, Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto, they’re what, 12 or 13? They said they were genin, so how could you have become a jounin at nine?”

"I was really good at my job." 

Shouta sucked in a sharp breath. Did Kakashi realize what he was saying? How good had Hitoshi been? They knew about that one villain but had there been others?

“Hatake-san,” Tsukauchi stepped in, “the fight you were in before your encounter with Fatgum, where was that located? Our footage shows you falling from the sky.”

Kakashi frowned, "it wasn’t here." 

“Yes, but where had it taken place?” Tsukauchi repeated his question.

“it’s a bit pointless to tell you. You wouldn’t know it.”

"Why wouldn't I know the place?"

"Because we're from a different dimension." 

######

Shouta didn’t remember walking out of the interrogation room. He didn’t remember going through the halls or past the different barriers. He wasn’t even sure when Hizashi had gotten there just that his hands were on his shoulders, and he was calling his name. Had he been brainwashed?

Shouta blinked and examined the face of his concerned husband. “When did you get here?”

“I was in the observation room. Are you okay, Shou? Did he do something to you?”

Did he? Shouta wasn’t sure. His mind felt fuzzy and exhausted like he had suffered through one too many sleepless nights. Which was probably true, at this point.

Tsukauchi joined them and he did a once over on Shouta briefly. “Let’s go to my office. I just received the results and I thought we would go over them. I’ll be calling for Ike-san too.”

The results were finally coming in. Results like this should not have taken more than a day. They had machines that worked constantly spitting out data. The fact that it took so many days means it was either flagged or something was seriously wrong.

As soon as they were in the office Shouta wanted the results but Tsukauchi refused. He wanted to wait for Ike-san first. It took a lot of self-control when he knew Tsukauchi was staring at the results on his computer. It was driving Shouta mad to be left in suspense.

Hizashi was doing much better. He bounced his leg and wrung his hands as he waited. They were both staring at the door willing for Ike-san to walk through. What could be taking her son long? She was just down the hall with Sakura or one of the boys.

Ike-san finally arrived partially out of breath. She gave them an apologetic smile and seemed to be ready to apologize but Tsukauchi silenced her with a wave of his hand.

“Thank you for coming so quickly, Ike-san.”

Hizashi jumped up out of his chair and offered it to her. She said a quiet thank you and sat next to Shouta. Shouta had half a mind to get up and offer his seat to Hizashi, but a game of musical chairs would be counterproductive.

“We’re all here,” Shouta declared trying to hurry this along.

“Yes, thank you, Eraser. As you know one of the first things I did was to send their DNA for genetic analysis. We were hoping to be able to connect them to their families as well as get an understanding of what their quirks were. Their tests were flagged multiple times and were pulled off to the side for more advanced analysis. The reports just returned.” He pulled the papers out of his printer and passed them out to the group.

Shouta immediately went to the summary. Nothing confirmed. Could not identify. No cross data is available. What did this mean?

Tsukauchi’s face was as blank as a white canvas. It offered no answers for Shouta. “Ike-san,” Tsukauchi started the conversation, “you were not there for it, but Hatake-san said he believed he was from a different dimension.”  

No.

“Do you believe him?” Hizashi asked. “You would know if he was telling the truth.”

No. He was not. 

"His answer rang true to me."

Impossible. 

"When I was speaking to the kids, they mentioned a few things that ran counter to a cult situation. Sakura-chan talked about a new store opening. Cults don't typically have commerce or allow their members to participate in commerce casually."

This was his only lead. 

“And while they lack knowledge of the world around them, they are not isolated. They spoke about traveling. You can’t travel and not experience the outside world.”

There were so many things in common. 

"How would they have gotten here?"

The insignia. The hero costumes. The names. 

"We'll need to investigate that further. They mentioned falling."

Everything pointed to there being a connection 

"What do you think, Eraserhead?"

A deep connection. 

"Shou? You okay?" 

Can they really just pretend this is all just coincidence? 

"Shouta." 

Where does that leave him?

"Sho!" 

"What?" Shouta bit out at Hizashi. 

Hizashi's brows were forked down, and his mouth pursed. His eyes flickered over towards the others in the room then laid heavily on him. Shouta looked away, not wanting to understand what Hizashi was trying to tell him. Shouta stood to his feet. "I have somewhere to be," he declared and hurried out of the room. 

#####

Despite Shouta’s best efforts or perhaps delusions, he couldn’t escape Hizashi. No one was as persistent as his husband. No one would have the nerve to chase him down either. But Shouta was standing on the top of an office building and when Hizashi showed up completely out of breath. He was likely faking it in hopes to garner enough sympathy that Shouta wouldn’t run again. Fuck him, it worked.

As soon as Hizashi realized Shouta was going to stay put he stopped with the panting act and stood beside him. Shouta wished it was dark out to better conceal him but it was only late afternoon. The restaurants were just starting to welcome their dinner guests. Kids were milling about dressed in their school uniforms, and office workers were heading home or going out for the evening.

"You left in a rush."

"I had somewhere to be," Shouta repeated. 

“Ah yeah, this roof seems really important.” Hizashi’s sarcasm wasn’t unwelcomed. Shouta felt some of the tensions in his shoulders drop. He was being ridiculous. Running away because he didn’t like what they were saying.

Still, he wanted to argue his point. “There are too many coincidences to just dismiss this out of hand. The symbol, the names, and everything.”

"We're not dismissing it Sho," Hizashi argued. 

Shouta rounded in on him. “They’re from a different dimension? How is that not a dismissal? How does it even make sense? You were all sitting there, nodding your heads saying yeah yeah, that makes sense. They’re not from our world. Then what about Hitoshi!”

There was a moment when the distance between them was far more than a mere two feet, but then Hizashi spoke, and the divide crumbled away. Then they were too close. “Shou.”

“Don’t,” Shouta warned him. He didn’t want compassion. He wanted answers. He wanted for things to make sense, but Hizashi didn’t heed his warning. Hizashi wrapped his arms around him and pulled him closer. Shouta put his hands between them and pushed Hizashi off just a bit. “I’m not ready to lose this lead.”

“Shouta they don’t exist here. They ran the tests multiple times. They don’t have any known ancestors. Their DNA had strange signatures. They might even be aliens. And the quirk analysis, Shou they don’t have quirks. What they seem to have is an extra organ in their body that is as extensive as their circulatory system.”

Shouta was once again floored at Hizashi’s ability to speed read, and the fact he could do it in both Japanese and English. It was amazing and frustrating. “All of that was in the report?”

Hizashi nodded, “Yeah. You didn’t have time to read it all, but it was there. I suspect they sketched them based on their DNA.”

"Another late-night show topic?" 

Hizashi shrugged but didn’t smile, “I have incredible listeners.”

Silence encompassed them for a moment allowing them to stew together. They watched the people below them go about their lives, completely unaware of their existence above them. Hizashi isn’t able to stay quiet for long though, a good 40 seconds perhaps. “I have the report with me still.” He pulled it out from his pocket and offered it to Shouta.

Shouta didn’t take it. He stared at it, somehow knowing that accepting it meant accepting more than he was willing to.

Hizashi lowered the papers out of reach. “Shouta, what’s going on?”

He’s explained this, why doesn’t Hizashi get it. “If they’re not from here then I lost the only real lead I had. Hitoshi so from here, we’re certain of that. But if they’re not, it means there’s nothing. I can’t bring him closure so he can feel safe. So he can talk to us at least.”

Hizashi frowned, "Hitoshi will talk about it when he's ready." 

“And how could he ever be ready when they’re still out there?” Shouta demanded. “I know there are things in my life I will never be ready to talk about and dammit all I don’t want that for him. To be weighed down by his past and unable to enjoy what’s in front of him.”

"Are you unable to enjoy what's right in front of you?" Hizashi asked him. 

"That's not what I meant," Shouta huffed. 

"But is it still true?" Hizashi pressed. 

"Of course not." 

"You're awful focused on this for it not to be true." 

"Hizashi," Shouta growled. 

"No, I'm serious, Shouta. I don’t think this is actually about Hitoshi. I mean it is and it isn't. Shou, why are you so convinced that Hitoshi doesn't like or trust you?"

"Hizashi this isn't about that. I'm trying to help him!"

"But he's fine!" 

"He isn't fine. He's hurting and if we just keep ignoring it then-"

"Then what Sho? What will happen?" Hizashi challenged him.

A snake sank its fangs deeply in Shouta’s throat, injecting him with a blistering poison. Raw sensitive skin screamed when he tried to swallow, but he couldn’t make a sound. Shouta dropped his chin into his capture weapon and shut his eyes. Behind his eyelids, he saw the green tracing of his foster father’s heart rhythm. He could hear every beat more delayed than the last. There was so much he had left to say to the only father in his life that ever stuck by his side.  

Shouta hadn’t been easy on his foster dad as a teenager. Like Hitoshi, he had been distant unwilling to trust him. When Shouta came of age he moved out and ended the relationship. Shouta had been angry but not at his foster dad per se, but at the others that came before him. He punished a man that didn’t do those things to him like he had. Shouta never thanked him for those camping trips, the waffles in the morning, or bullying him into drinking his coffee black. His foster dad taught him to work hard and not cry over spilled milk. ‘Life isn’t fair and sometimes you need to get motor oil on your new pants. Don’t bitch about it, just do what needs to be done, Shouta.’

Shouta hadn’t deserved to have that man’s hand guiding him through his teenage years. Shouta rebutted every attempt his foster dad made to show he cared. Because Shouta didn’t want to care about him. Didn’t want to be hurt by him. But then he was gone, and he was never made aware of much Shouta had wanted him around. How much he had learned from that simple man with simple goals. His foster dad, his dad, had shaped him into the hero he is today, and Shouta was trying his best to be a father like him. But he was failing so miserably.

What would you do?

Hizashi was hugging him again and this time Shouta leaned into them. "I can't fail him, Zashi."

"You're not. You're doing your best. We'll keep looking. After all, there are too many coincidences to just give up on this trail. I don’t know how they are connected, but they are. We are not giving up, but we can't hold on to false leads either." 

Shouta took in a calming breath. "Let me see the report."

Chapter Text

It was Thursday and Shouta was expecting his class to return on Sunday. It had already been a long week and Shouta had hardly touched his curriculum. Final Exams were coming up and All Might wanted approval for some sort of rescue race thing. He wasn’t completely sure what the details were as he had barely skimmed the email. Ugh. His email. Those had been stacking up too. He needed to settle in and give a proper response to everything.

Shouta rubbed his eyes to encourage them to focus better when the words started to blur together. Maybe he just needed a nap. He hadn’t been sleeping well and he had been keeping Hizashi up at night too. He could just curl up under his desk and no one would bother him. But he had so much to do.

Shouta slouched back into his chair and stared at his screen a bit more trying to decide where to put his waning efforts. His students deserved better than this. They were entrusting their futures to him.

“I can’t focus.”

For half a second Shouta thought he had said his thoughts out loud by accident, but then Hizashi crumpled into the seat next to him. His long legs stretched out and his fingers nearly swept the floor. His bottom lip stuck out childishly.

A glance at the clock told him that Hizashi was not where he should be. “Clearly, if you’re here and not in class. Did you wander out?”

Hizashi shrugged the best he could with his shoulders around his ears. “They’re working on projects. I figured I’d give them time in class for it.”

That didn’t explain why Hizashi was sitting inside the teacher’s lounge instead of supervising his class. “Are you okay?”

“Hmm?” Hizashi’s eyes flickered over to him, “Yeah, I’m good.” It was then followed by a heavy sigh and he tossed his body forward, dropping his head in his hands. “No, I’m not. We finally had something and-“ Hizashi shook his head. “I don’t want to upset you, Shou.”

Shouta leaned forward and touched his forehead against Hizashi’s, “Hey, we’re in this together. We can hurt together too.”

Hizashi gave a wet laugh, “Yeah, I guess we can. I just really wanted this for Hitoshi too. I wanted to give him so closure, so he doesn’t have to keep living with that weight on his shoulders, ya know? Something tangible so he knows that we care about him and what he’s gone through, even if he can’t talk about it yet.”

Shouta gathered Hizashi closer to him and wished he knew what to say or had any words that would comfort him. Nothing came to mind. Was it weird for him to feel better about things knowing that Hizashi was struggling too? It probably was, so he should keep this to himself.

“He listens to your radio show,” Shouta said after a moment.

Hizashi lifted his head, “he does?”

“Yeah. I caught him doing it.”

“Then he’s probably not trying to hide it,” Hizashi laughed. “Ya know, I’ve been wondering if he’s my mysterious caller Henohenomoheji.”

“Didn't he mention wanting to use that as his hero name at one point?”

Hizashi laughed as he nodded his head, “he totally did.”

The two grinned at each other, enjoying the silliness of their teenage son.

#####

“We’re going to release them,” Tsukauchi announced after the group had gathered into his office, that afternoon.

Hizashi sucked in a breath through his teeth, making a hissing sound. It wasn’t really a shock, just a painful reminder that this was another dead end. No, not a dead-end but not the right lead. There were too many coincidences to completely dismiss this.

Even if this man isn’t from this dimension Shouta didn’t think the wisest thing was to simply release him. “He’s admitted to murdering countless people since he was a child. He’s clearly dangerous. You can’t just release a man like that onto the streets,” Shouta argued.

“I also can’t hold him on no charges. I don’t have any evidence of a crime other than that one vague confession, and I’m fairly certain murders in alternative dimensions are outside of my district.”

“You could hold them on a weapons charge. The number of weapons they each had on their person is reason enough.”

“Those have already been confiscated. I would still end up releasing them and giving them a court date, but in reality, we need to send them back where they came from.”

“They’ll need those weapons returned to them when they go back,” Ike-san spoke up, “While they are not from a cult, they are certainly child soldiers. To send them back unarmed would be a death sentence.”

The three men stared at Ike-san for a moment trying to digest this information and what it meant for how they go forward. It also made it painfully obvious they didn’t have a consensus on what to do with them.

"You want to send them back?" Hizashi sputtered. "They’ll be killed! You said so yourself!"  

“If they stay, I’ll have to release them into society,” Tsukauchi pointed out, and as Eraserhead pointed out they’re dangerous. If their society is as different from ours as Ike-san has suggested then they are ill-equipped to live in ours. They may even attract the wrong kind of attention.”

“Couldn’t we work with them? We could teach them how to live here. Everything they would need to know. There’s no need to send children back to such a life,” Hizashi pressed.  

“Even Kakashi?” Shouta asked.

"Yes, even him,” Hizashi argued earnestly. "We should at least try!"

“Yamada-san” Ike-san’s voice was incredibly soft but it still cut like a knife through the anxiety. “I’m certain they would appreciate your desire to protect them. You have such a heroic heart. It's no wonder you’re a pro hero. But you are proposing we keep them away from their home, families, and friends. They want to go back.”

“It’s not safe though. How could we even consider sending those kids back to that kind of reality? It’s our job to protect them.”

Ike-san gave a sad smile, “not exactly, Yamada-san. We can’t save people from their reality. They still have to live the lives they were given. But we can give them tools to help them live it more healthily. It’s like with your son, Hitoshi-kun. There isn’t anything we can do to change his past. We can’t hand him a brand-new life, but we can offer him the tools he needs to continue down the path to a fulfilling one. These children have a reality they must face.”

“Why do they have to face it though? If we keep them with us, then their reality changes!”

Shouta could side with his husband’s desperation. He wanted to step in and protect the kids too. But Shouta also understood what Ike-san was saying. Even if you are removed from the situation, it doesn’t change the fact you were in it in the first place. Plus Sakura had cried for her mom. She had family back at home. “Zashi, “ Shouta put his hand on his husband’s arm, “I don’t think keeping them here would be saving them. They have a family and friends to return to. They want to go back. I know if I was in a similar position and landed in a more peaceful dimension, I would want to come back, because you are my home. We don’t have to like their reality, but as Ike-san said, maybe we can offer them some tools and a different way of looking at things before they go.

Shouta then turned to Tsukauchi, “Why not make a request with Nezu about confining this group at UA? Perhaps we can find a way to get them back to where they came from. Nezu likes this kind of shit, anyways, I’m sure he’ll jump at the opportunity.”

“Shouta,” Hizashi looked at him with a hurt almost betrayed expression. Shouta wrapped his hand around Hizashi’s with a squeeze. He wasn’t sure how to express this to him, but they needed to let these kids go.

“We can’t take in every stray, Zashi. Especially, those that have a home,” Shouta murmured.

“But if it’s not a good home?”

Shouta knew all about not good homes. He had been to several before his final home and he hadn’t learned to appreciate that home until it was gone. “We hope for the best. It’s like what we tell kids looking to become heroes. You can’t save everyone. The quicker you figure that you figure that out the better. So, focus on the ones you can save and prioritize them.”

“I’m pretty sure only you say that,” Hizashi muttered but squeezed Shouta’s hand back in return.

Tsukauchi sat down at his computer, “I’ll call Nezu and ask then send the official request.”

“I’ll speak to the kids again in the meantime. A lot is going on in those young minds and what they’re dealing with. Maybe I can get Sasuke-kun to speak to me,” Ike-san said thoughtfully.

“I think we’ll talk to Hatake-san if possible. See if he knows how he got here and if there’s a way he can return,” Shouta announced.

Tsukauchi nodded his head, “Thank you all. Hopefully, this will get resolved soon.” 

#####

Shouta felt a keen sense of trepidation as he stepped into the interrogation room with Hatake-san. They were to going to release him in just a moment. They were going to remove the shackles and chains that surrounded him, yet somehow, Shouta had the impression he only stayed restrained because Hatake-san allowed it.

“Hatake-san,” Shouta’s voice was much more confident than he truly felt at that moment. “We finished our investigation on you and your children’s sudden appearance. We agree that you are likely from a different dimension, and because we have no charges against you we cannot keep you here. Please allow us to unchain you peacefully and discuss the terms of your release.”

For a moment, all Shouta could hear was his own heartbeat. Then Hatake-san’s voice cut through it, thick with confusion, “What?”

“We are releasing you because the charges against you have been dropped. There are some terms-”

“You’re releasing me?” Why was Hatake-san so surprised by this.

“Didn’t you hear, Listener? The charges were dropped,” Hizashi tried to explain.

“What charges?” Hatake-san asked.

Shouta and Hizashi exchanged looks. “There was a weapons charge that could still stand, but that not enough for us to keep you. Primarily you were being charged with human trafficking and the endangerment of minors,” Shouta explained.

Hatake-san seemed to mull this over for a moment, “I was being charged for crimes not held as an enemy nin?”

“Ah, no. As you said, you’re from a different dimension,” Hizashi said as he scratched his cheek.

“Even so to release a dangerous enemy,”

“Are you our enemy?” Shouta asked cutting him off.

Hatake frowned, “my loyalty is with Konoha.”

“And we are looking to get you back to Konoha, so the question still stands, Hatake-san, are you our enemy?”

“Mah, I guess not.” Then terrifyingly, Hatake-san began to shed the chains and the straight jacket wrapped around him. They laid in pile around him on the floor. He rose to his feet and lifted the blindfold with his thumb exposing only one eye. He then greeted them with a smile and a ‘yo’.

“Ah, yo,” Hizashi repeated back slowly. “How long have you been able to do that?”

“Hmmm? Do what?”

“Get out of that confinement?”

“Was I supposed to be confined? I thought it was to keep me warm. It’s fairly breezy in this room,” Hatake-san drawled. Shouta would have liked to call bullshit if the man hadn’t just removed the straight jacket and chains as easily as taking off a sweater.

“This is ridiculous,” Shouta muttered pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Mah, didn’t you say you wanted to discuss terms?” Hatake asked. Shouta briefly wondered if he should add don’t kill us to the list of terms.

Probably best not to keep the mass murderer waiting. “If everything goes right you’ll be released into the custody of UA. UA will then be responsible for finding a way to send you back to your dimension, or if no way can be found, helping you integrate into society here,” Shouta explained. “You will be confined to the school grounds, but you will not be allowed to interact with the students there until UA says otherwise. We will provide lodging and food, as well as other necessities.”

“UA is an academy?”

“Yes. It’s a school for training heroes.”

“Ah.” Hatake nodded, not questioning the hero concept like Sakura-chan had done.

“Do you know what heroes are here?” Shouta asked.

“They’re your version of shinobi,” Hatake said. “Both of you came in here ready to fight me if it came down to it. You’re trained. The others referred to both of you as heroes too. Now that yell from the other day, that was interesting.”

"That was me!” Hizashi boasted propping his thumb against his puffed chest.

“Yes, I figured as much, you struggle with volume control. I can hear you when you are on the other side of the mirror,” Hatake-san smiled.

Hizashi blushed and Shouta frowned. Hizashi hadn’t been especially loud in the observation room. He had been practically whispering. What else could this man do? “Your children will be housed with you of course,” Shouta refused to call them soldiers.

“Students,” Kakashi corrected him, “They’re genin that makes them students.”

Shouta had so many questions about that but forced himself to refrain. “Can you agree to those terms?”

Hatake-san shrugged his shoulders, “Mah, I guess.” 

Shouta wasn’t convinced they could force Hatake-san to do anything he didn’t want to. He eyed the restraints on the floor. Hatake-san had led them to believe they had properly restrained him but for what purpose? He didn’t answer any of their questions. Was he extracting information from their questions without offering any information in return? Shouta stabbed the admiration that was threatening to surface.

"When speaking with Sakura, she mentioned that you arrived here by falling through the ground. Can you explain to me, how that is possible?" Shouta folded his arms.

Hatake looked up at the ceiling and squinted, "It was likely my eye. It has unusual abilities that can become apparent at times of stress."

"And this was one of those times?"

"If you consider your students being cleaved in half then yes." 

Shouta felt a rock settle in his throat at the image of that. Hizashi made a pitchy noise that caused Hatake to wince and rub his ear. 

"And you want to take them back there? It's dangerous!" Hizashi vocalized his stance again.

"My job is to teach them to handle it. This mission wasn't supposed to be dangerous. It was supposed to be little more than a camping trip."  

"That's some camping trip,” Shouta muttered.

Hatake sighed in agreement, "nearly die and end up in another dimension. I would say so." 

"So, are you able to just do it again and get back home?" Hizashi asked. 

Hatake took a moment to answer. He looked at them then stared at their reflection in the glass. "It's not that simple. It is not an ability I have mastered and this is the first time I have ever managed to do it to myself."

Chapter Text

As Shouta had predicted, Nezu eagerly took in the strangers. He got a certain thrill when examining a new ‘specimen’. Shouta ignored the implications of that term. He instead focused on getting their guests settled into one of the UA’s visitor apartments. They had a handful of them for temporary lecturers or officials.

The apartments were nice enough. Shouta didn’t think he should put them in one of the over-the-top apartments, but the group was really impressed with it anyways. He passed them off a bag of clothes for them to change into. The kids were given UA gym uniforms but Hatake-san got some of Shouta’s old clothes. They looked to be about the same height and build, but Shouta got a rude awakening when the T-shirt proved they were not the same build.

Hatake-san had also managed to procure a mask from somewhere. Shouta tried his best not to jump at that similarity. Hitoshi and masks, Hatake-san and masks. Could he just give the similarities a rest?

Shouta also gave them a cell phone to use during their stay in case they needed anything.  Hatake-san seemed uncomfortable with the device and handed it back to Shouta.

“If I need something I’ll find you,” Hatake-san assured him. Nothing was reassuring about that. Shouta didn’t want Hatake-san knowing where he lived.

Shouta had dinner delivered to them. Naruto requested ramen which the others seemed less than pleased about and the kids began to argue. Did they think they had to agree on one meal for all of them?

“I can order different kinds of meals. It isn’t a problem.”

“Really?” Sakura’s eyes brightened. “Cause I’m so tired of all that sodium in ramen. It’s all we ever eat around Naruto.”

“Ne ne, but Sakura-chan nothing is better than ramen.”

“Shut up, Naruto. So many things are better than ramen.”

“How about you just tell me what you want instead?” Shouta cut off their arguing. He was able to put their order in and everyone was happy they could have what they wanted instead of agreeing on something. Did this group agree on anything?

The next morning Shout arrived at the guest complex. He had stopped by the convenience store on the way and grabbed a few breakfast breads, jelly packets, coffee, and juice. He wasn’t entirely sure what they would want but no one would complain about his offerings.

Shouta lifted his key card to access the building but stopped when he heard noises from the other side of the building. He paused and listened. He could easily pick out Naruto’s happy babbling. It was a relief that they didn’t seem traumatized by their captivity, but at the same time, he wasn’t sure if that was a red flag or not.

Shouta craned his neck up and squinted at the roof of the building. It wouldn’t take much effort to get up there, and he’d be able to observe them without interruption. He wanted to see how they trained. If their training didn’t look safe for the kids he would intervene. No matter what world they are from they’re on UA property and need to abide by their rules. So for as long as those kids were his responsibility he wouldn’t allow any harm to come to them, even if he had to take on Hatake himself.

Shouta, like a normal person, used the stairs to get on the roof. It was overall a nice day, sunny with only a slight breeze. He laid the shopping bag on the ground and sat down on the edge of the building letting his feet dangle off.

The boys were running up the side of the trees and marking their peak. First of all, Shouta was very impressed with how high they were getting. Secondly, Shouta was very concerned about where they had gotten those weapons. As far as he knew the police still had the confiscated weapons.

Shouta shot off a text to Tsukauchi to find out what had been returned to them and what had not. He then slipped his phone back in his pocket to watch them run up the trees. He debated on what the purpose of this exercise was until one of them exploded the whole damn tree with his feet!

Shouta scrambled up and was looking for a place to hook his capture weapon on so he could go check on the kid, but Naruto just stood back up, shook his fist at where the tree once existed, and started in on another one. Was this expected? Were they trying not to blow up trees with their quirks? How the hell did this become such a problem they had to train for it not to happen?

Kakashi didn’t seem all that worried. He barely glanced up from his book when it happened. He didn’t offer correction or encouragement just existed, slumped up against a tree near where Sakura was doing katas. Honestly, it wasn’t anything like the monstrous training he was expecting to see.

Shouta rolled his shoulder and decided he should stop spying on them and at least give them their breakfast. As he turned to head back to the roof door the air beside him suddenly displaced. Shouta jerked to the right his quirk buzzing but unable to latch on to anything. Kakashi was suddenly standing there with a smile and his hand raised in a greeting.

Shouta’s heart hammered against his ribs. This man was fast! How did he get up here? Was it just a clone? Shouta glanced down but he didn’t see Kakashi down there anymore.

"Mah, it's rude to spy." 

Shouta released his grip on his capture weapon and shrugged. It was rude to scare the shit out of someone by suddenly popping up beside them too. “I brought breakfast.” He scooped up the grocery bag and offered it to Kakashi.

Kakashi took it from him with a simple thanks.

"It's just some packaged breads, juice, and coffee. There are a few jelly packets I recommend."

"Ah." 

Kakashi really could be related to Hitoshi. They both had the social grace of a dead clam.

“How long will your training run for? I’d like to work with you for a while, see if we can figure out how to recreate what brought you here.”

An amused look crossed Kakashi’s mostly covered face. Shouta only caught it because it was reminiscent of Hitoshi’s. “You’re going to train me?” Kakashi asked.

Shouta shrugged. “Offer a different perspective if you would rather. I’m a teacher at this school, so I’m accustomed to working with a variety of quirks.”

Kakashi lifted his eye to the sky and rubbed his chin as if he was contemplating Shouta’s offer. It was a stab to his pride so he decided to end his deliberation. “You’re required to have someone supervising you, anyway.”

“In that case,” Kakashi raised the plastic bag Shouta had brought, “let’s go deliver these to my cute students.”

Shouta didn’t get the opportunity to respond because suddenly the wind picked up and Kakashi was gone with only a couple of leaves to mark his wake. How did he do that? Shouta peeked down to see Kakashi down below calling his students to him with the bag in his hands. Shouta shook his head and headed down the stairs because he didn’t have wind to scoop him up and deposit him anywhere. It would be pretty amazing if he did. He could escape all those uncomfortable situations he finds himself in or find a place to nap quietly.

Shouta finally arrived on the lawn of the guest apartments and the kids were sitting on the ground munching the breads. Kakashi tossed him one of the jelly packets. “That’s the last one.”

Shouta frowned looking at it. "How many did you eat?"

"Four."

Shouta’s brows hiked up and his worry edged into his chest. “You’re only supposed to eat one at a time.” Jelly packets were filled with essential vitamins but also had additives for energy. Shouta should have explained this to him before giving him them. “If your heart starts beating funny, tell me immediately and we’ll take you to Recovery Girl. You need to drink water to try to dilute it. We’ll get some on the way to the training grounds.”

Kakashi gave him that slightly confused but mostly amused look again. 

“Pervy Hobo, you have a training ground? I wanna see! I wanna see!” Naruto began jumping around with a can of coffee in his hands.

Shouta snatched the can of coffee out of his hand. That kid did not need caffeine. “Drink juice, Kid, it’s better for you. And watch how you refer to me. I’m Aizawa to you.” Naruto began to mutter something, but Sakura yanked him away before Shouta could understand it. 

Hatake-san clapped his hands together to gain everyone’s attention. “All right my cute genin, we will have to work on tree walking later. Aizawa-sensei is going to be training me, so you all will have to come with us. We are all in need of supervision.”

Shouta felt mocked by that statement. Of course, the situation deserved to be mocked. There was no possible way Shouta would be able to stop or prevent Hatake-san from doing anything. That was becoming terrifyingly more obvious the longer he was around him. Hatake-san was humoring Shouta’s rules, like a kitten leading around a lion by a leash.

"I'm just doing my job," Shouta muttered. 

Kakashi shot him an irritating grin, "of course, Aizawa-sensei."

How did he make his title to be more insulting than pervy hobo?

"We'll be going to ground Beta. It's too big for what we're doing but the PE grounds are being used right now," Shouta explained.

"By your academy students?" Sakura chirped curiously. 

Shouta studied her. She would have had another 2 or 3 years before she could test to join them. "Our heroics and support courses are out doing work studies and internships." 

"Heroes?" Naruto asked. 

"It's what they call their shinobis here," Sakura whispered. 

"Really?"

"That's stupid," Sasuke scoffed. 

"What did you say, Bastard?" Naruto hissed as if the comment was directed at him. 

"Boys not now," Kakashi headed off the argument.

Shouta felt he should probably defend his profession. "No more stupid than being called a ninja is to me." He turned and started the walk to ground Beta, the training ground made to look like a city. It was much too big for what they intended on doing but at least it would hide them from prying eyes. 

The kids gawked up at the skyscrapers of Ground Beta, even Kakashi looked uneasy. “This is just a simulation. It was designed to look like a city to allow our students to practice apprehending villains in an urban environment. Such a place offers a unique set of challenges from the vast amount of places to hide to minimizing the destruction in tight quarters.”

Shouta looked back to see Kakashi's eyes swinging from one building to another. Hypervigilance seemed to be going haywire on him. "No one but us is here. We have the area well secured and lots of security. We would know if there was an intruder."

"How would you know?" Sakura asked. "There are so many tall buildings it would be easy to hide."

“Aside from the massive fence, we use it as a deterrent. There are cameras everywhere including roaming ones that use thermal imaging.”

“Thermal imaging?” Sakura question.

“It records heat sources, like body heat,” Shouta explained.

Sasuke scoffed, “All they have to do is stay out of the range of the cameras or lower their body temperature. It’s not foolproof.”

“Few things are.” Aizawa knew of a handful of quirks that could bypass thermal imaging. If a person was cold-blooded, they could do it or had an ice quirk perhaps. “So, we have other devices too, such as motion sensors. Our security team already knows we are here, and they’re watching us.” Shouta didn’t want the kids getting any weird ideas.

The group arrived at a warehouse shell of a building. All the buildings were shells, but this one was long and empty making it perfect for training. Hatake-san stuffed his hands in his pockets and glanced around. “You said we would be watched everywhere in this training ground, so perhaps my genin can continue their tree walking exercises on the buildings outside?”

Shouta had seen their tree walking exercise. They were trying not to blow them up, would they blow up the building too? Surely that wasn’t a thing. He gave the trio his best stern look, “Don’t leave the training area. I will be informed the moment you do.”

“Alright!” Naruto hooted and took off outside. Sasuke chased after him determined to outrun him, and Sakura hesitated for a moment before following the boys.

“They’re not going to actually train, are they?” Shouta asked.

Hatake-san shrugged his nose already buried in his book. Why was he choosing now to read? They weren’t here just to exist in each other’s presence. A familiar irritation flashed under Shouta’s skin. Hitoshi had a similar habit. The moment there was the smallest amount of time-lapse he was already reading a book or staring at his phone. Shouta forced his agitation out with a sigh. “Do you need time to finish your chapter or shall we begin?”

Kakashi clapped his book closed with a smile, “Of course Sensei. Where would you like to start?”

Again, with the insult. What was so funny to him? “How about you start explaining your quirk to me.”

“Hmmm,” Hatake tapped the spine of his book against his masked chin, “I’ve been told my quirk is that I’m late to everything, not taking things seriously, and being incredibly handsome.”

Shouta debated if he even had the energy to put up with this guy. Maybe he could convince Principal Nezu to work with him instead? He shouldn’t have assumed responsibility for this man.  

“You got here somehow, what brought you here?” Shouta redirected.

“Ah, that would be my eye,” he tapped his hidden eye. “I have a technique called Kamui. I can put an object I see into a different dimension, but it costs me a lot of chakra.”

“And this chakra is what? The thing that powers it?”

“More or less,” Kakashi shrugged.

“So, you put those kids into a dimensional portal you created with your eye.” That was an incredibly powerful quirk. “Can I see it in action?”

Hatake-san lifted his headband and exposed his red eye with black tomes in it. Shouta sucked in a breath through his teeth. He had seen that eye before. That very eye, every single day. Hitoshi had it and he refused to say anything about it. Shouta watched as the tomes spun around the pupil and then morphed into a shuriken shape. Hatake-san then tossed a kunai into the air and then it disappeared as if it entered into a void.

Could Hitoshi do that too? Was that his secret quirk, making objects disappear? Was he doing that at home without them knowing it? Holy shit is that what was happening to all those unpaired socks? No. No, that didn’t make sense. That was happening before Hitoshi came, and plenty of other people complain about it too. The missing forks, on the other hand, kept disappearing and that wasn’t normal. “Can you do that with forks?” The question escaped out of Shouta’s mouth before he could sensor it.

“I believe I can, Sensei. Are there a few forks you want to dispose of?”

Shouta coughed, “No, never mind. Can you bring it back?”

“No, it’s a one-way portal. I can’t reclaim something that goes in there.”

Ah, that was the problem. That was why he couldn’t just reverse themselves.

“How long can you keep the portal open?”

“About a second or two.”

“That’s it?” Shouta asked startled. “How did you manage to transport all of you if that was all you could manage?”

“Adrenaline.” 

That wasn't the response Shouta wanted to hear but it also didn't surprise him. People can perform impressive feats with enough adrenaline coursing through them. 

"So, you put the kids into your dimension portal and-" 

"Slide-in after them. But I did it twice. We entered into, what I suspect is, a pocket dimension. As we were plummeting, I created another one and we fell into that one.”

“But it led you here instead of your own dimension,” Shouta finished for him. That was an issue. They had no way of guaranteeing that he would even return to his own dimension if they opened the portal. And if he opens the portal on the kids but he doesn’t manage to get through himself then he doesn’t know where they went. If he practices and accidentally puts himself through, he’ll have left the kids behind with no guarantee of being able to retrieve them.

“I suppose the first thing we need to see is exactly how long you can hold the portal, how far it has to be away from you, how quickly you can run, and can you maintain it while running towards it.”
 

Kakashi's eyes were half-lidded as he listened to Shouta tick off the information they needed. “I see what you did to earn the title of Sensei. I wonder if you could teach the genin better than I could.”

Somehow that comment didn’t sound mocking even if it should have. Something uneasy twisted in his gut but Shouta didn’t think he could ask what he meant. “Right, anyway, we should get started.” Shouta pulled out his phone so they could start constructing the needed data.

######

Hatake-san was sweating profusely when Shouta decided that was enough. They had gotten only half the data they needed but apparently just opening the portal consumed a massive amount of energy from him.

“There’s no reason to stop yet. I can do more,” Hatake-san insisted.

“You can do more after you rest. There’s no reason to push yourself to incapacitation.”

“I know my limits.”

“I doubt that,” Shouta said bluntly as he changed to a different app on his phone. “How about lunch instead? I can order something from Lunch Rush.”

“We already ate.”

“Yes, that was breakfast this is lunch. You need to eat both. I’ll order some extra water too. You clearly need more.” Shouta tapped in the orders for the lunch and then pocketed his phone. “It’ll be here shortly.”

“You ordered by your phone?” Kakashi asked.

“Yes, through an app.”

“And they know what you want and where to deliver it despite the fact you didn’t talk to anyone?”

Shouta hid his grin and pulled his phone back out to show Hatake-san how to use it. The man seemed genuinely curious, even if he was trying to hide it. Hitoshi did much the same. He didn’t like exposing how interested he was in something, and if you pointed it out, he’d shut down immediately. It didn’t take much before Hatake-san was navigating the phone like he had used one all his life. Perhaps he was a genius?”

"That is not Konoha."

Shouta looked over at his phone. Hatake-san had searched up Konoha and it brought up a small town that was home to a shrine and a well with a story. Apparently, that was not the Konoha he was expecting to see.

"Konoha is surrounded by a dense forest, and we are most noted for the cliffside. The past Hokages’ faces are carved into the cliff."

"And the Hokage is your leader, Naruto's grandfather?" Shouta verified.

"Hmmm? Naruto is not related to him." 

Shouta frowned, perhaps he had misunderstood his use of Jiijii. Kakashi had already closed out of Konoha and was skimming through various links. 

"Your eye, have you met others with it?" Shouta decided to approach the subject that was itching in the back of his mind.

"Hmmm which eye?"

"The special one."

"Mah, I don't believe so. But it's hard to tell. So many people have dark eyes, but I believe mine is closer to a dark gray than a brown."

Shouta sighed heavily. "Please try and be serious. The eye that makes the portal."

"Ah, you should have been more specific. Yes, they were hereditary among a clan known as the Uchiha."

"Sasuke's clan?"

Hatake-san nodded, "mine is a gift, however. I wasn't born with it."

Shouta frowned. How did Hitoshi have such an eye then? "Perhaps if we have not gotten you back by Sunday, I will introduce you to my son Hitoshi. He has the same eye."

Hatake-san looked up from the phone and frowned, "the Sharingan?"

Shouta nodded, "but only one in the same eye as yours. I have a picture of him." Shouta took the phone and flipped into his gallery and opened to one of his favorite shots with Hizashi and Hitoshi doing a selfie together. Hizashi was relaxed with his hair down, and Hitoshi was looking up almost startled with Hizashi's arm around his thin shoulder. It was taken probably two years ago. Had it already been that long? Where was the time going? 

Hatake-san stared at the photo intensely and Shouta took the opportunity to compare the two. It was eerie like they could be brothers. Shouta reached over and swiped the pictures till he got to the one of Hitoshi in his hero costume.

For all the similarities the two had there were differences. Hitoshi’s other eye was purple not a dark gray and his face was rounder but that may be due to age. Shouta looked for any signs that Hatake-san potentially recognize Hitoshi even if it was a long shot.  

"This is your son?" 

"Yes, does he look familiar to you?"

Hatake-san turned the phone’s screen off and passed it back to Shouta. "No." 

Shouta wasn’t ready for the topic to be over. Did Hatake-san somehow know Hitoshi? He was staring at him intensely. He wanted to press for more but suddenly Hatake-san was gone, two leave floating gently to the ground where he had once been standing.

"I am beginning to hate leaves," Shouta muttered. 

#######

Shouta had trouble talking to Kakashi with any substance after that. He eluded questions like he was dodging fists. At the end of the school day, Shouta had had enough. He led the group back to the guest suite, informed them their dinner would be delivered, and went to find Hizashi to head home. 

Shouta didn't think he could handle anymore nonsensical and half-assed attempts at lying. For such an intelligent person why the hell would he lie the way he does? He sunk into the seat of Hizashi's imported car and glared out the window. 

"You wanna get some soba for dinner, Shou?" Hizashi asked. "Shouta?"

"He's a fucking lunatic."

"Alright, perhaps we'll just do take out instead." 

"Who the hell cannot answer a simple question? Why is he dodging everything? Is he allergic to honesty? Breakout in freaken hives or something?"

"Who are we talking about again?"

"He has the same eye as Hitoshi! Then we were doing fine until he saw a picture of Hitoshi and then it was like dealing with a jellyfish in my ass."

"A jellyfish in your-"

"He was such a shit for the rest of the afternoon. I don’t understand what changed. Does he somehow know Hitoshi? They're not from the same dimension. Was it the eye? Do they have the same eye? Does it work the same way? Why won't either of them explain this to me?" He growled and kicked at the dash. 

"Hey hey. Not the car. She didn’t do anything to deserve your wrath." Hizashi rubbed the dashboard cooing his devotion to it.

Shouta rolled his eyes and went back to glaring at the road. 

"Shouta, Hitoshi will tell us when he's ready."

"How can you be so calm about this? What if all of our forks are stuck in his eye?" Shouta demanded. 

"What?"

"It makes sense. We keep losing them. They must be in his eye, but he won't tell us because he is keeping it secret."

"Shouta stop back up. Why do you think our missing forks are in his eye? How does that even make sense?"

"Kakashi's eye creates a dimension portal. He can put stuff in, but he can't take it back out. That's how he got here."

"And you think Hitoshi's second quirk is the same thing?"

"They have the same eye, Hizashi. The exact same eye. It makes sense in all the ways that it doesn't make sense at all. I just...I don’t know." 

"You don’t have to know, Shouta. We can just be patient and see what time reveals."

Shouta didn’t like that response. "You're awfully confident he'll tell us and that none of this is a problem."

Hizashi shrugged and chewed on his bottom lip. His eyes shifted briefly from the road to Shouta then back again. For a moment Shouta didn't think Hizashi was going to explain himself.  But he let out a noisy sigh. 

"It is a problem, Shouta. I know it is and you know it is, but it's not our problem. It's Hitoshi's. So, Hitoshi is the one that must resolve it. If we push him, he's going to get so focused on hiding his secret that he won't ever consider why he is keeping it secret in the first place."

Shouta frowned, "how do you know this?"

Hizashi cracked a smile, "because he's not all that different from dealing with you. The more I pry the more secretive you get. It works better if I give you opportunities instead. It's a pain in the ass, Sho. If you could just be upfront and honest with me, it would make everything so much easier. But you're not like that."

Shouta tapped his finger on his arm. He knew this was an area they had worked on. Hizashi couldn’t mind his own business and it stressed their relationship out. Was he being like Hizashi towards Hitoshi? 

"Hitoshi is a child, I'm an adult," Shouta argued. 

"I know, Shou, but I still think it will work if we are both doing it not just one of us." 

Shouta couldn't help but feel he was being neglectful as a parent by letting his kid hold a painful secret from him. Something he could help with. These secrets were entirely unnecessary. 

"Let’s go have soba instead of take out."

Hizashi brightened up at Shouta's suggestion. Perhaps Shouta could do with being less secretive too. 

Chapter Text

Kakashi could honestly say he had never been on a mission like this one to date. Of course, it had to be his first C-rank mission as a jounin instructor. It tracked with the rest of his fuck ups. He had thought meeting up with Zabuza had been a nasty surprise. But Kakashi was a genius and found a way to fuck it even more. It was a talent really.

This was why he didn’t want to cart kids along with him. What could he offer them? Hey, kids follow me while I show you all the ways not to do something. Sensei must be screaming at him from his grave. Didn’t I teach you better?

Aizawa-san seemed like a competent sensei though. The kids could do much worse than being left here with him.

The sharp edges of guilt forced Kakashi to sit up in bed. He ran his calloused hand down his face. Leaving the kids here in this place, could he really do that? Should he? It was much more peaceful here. The kids at this school were just starting their training to be shinobis and they were 15, older than his genin. His students would have another few years before joining in the fight if they stayed. The sight of them nearly being hacked in half by Zabuza invaded his thoughts. He closed his eyes tightly, willing Obito’s sharingan to stop.

Kakashi left his room and went into the apartment’s bathroom. He turned the faucet to cold and cupped his hands under it. He lowered his face and allowed the cool water to soothe the ache in his eyes. He released the water from his hands and peeled his mask down so he didn’t soak it further. He gave a tired look to his image in the mirror and scowled when the picture of Aizawa’s son came to mind.

It didn’t take a genius to realize something was incredibly wrong. Looking at that kid was like seeing a picture of himself during his early years in ANBU, except….happier? That wasn’t the right word, but just about anything could be considered happier than that time in his life. He cupped his hands again and watched the water pool in them. He rested his closed eyes in the water once more wishing his brain would just stop.

Kakashi didn’t escape the image of the boy, though. There were some distinct differences between them. His hair was a different texture, it curled more at the ends. His face was rounder but maybe he didn’t miss as many meals as Kakashi had at that age. Then there was the purple eye, but the sharingan stared mockingly back at him. It no more belonged in that kid’s head than it did in his own.

Kakashi took the hand towel and patted his face dry. Where had he gotten it from? How was he able to leave it exposed the way he did? Kakashi took a deep breath and tried to force his mind to drop the puzzle. There was no way this line of thinking would lead anywhere good.

Kakashi turned off the faucet and paused when he heard crying. He turned his face towards the door and stopped breathing to get a better listen. He rolled his mask up back in place and silently walked down the hall. He paused by Sakura’s room. She quietly called to her mom. Kakashi waited a moment, but her crying remained consistent. He should give her some privacy.

Kakashi opened the balcony door and stepped outside. He quietly slid it shut behind him. He scanned the area but there was honestly nothing to see. This place was as peaceful as they come. His genin would be fine without him here.

Kakashi ran. From what he didn’t want to ask himself. He sprinted as fast as his body would go until the trees began to thicken around him. He swung up onto one of them, grounding himself on the sturdy branch. It wasn’t Konoha’s tree though. It didn’t hum with life, it didn’t have the right smell, and it was still smaller than most of their mature trees.

 Kakashi moved further through the forest, this time at a slower pace. Was this still part of UA? He hadn’t seen any border to tell him otherwise. He pulled to stop and took in his surroundings.

There was nothing around except what should be there. Deer were bedded down under the cover of brush, mice scurried about scavenging under fallen leaves, and the hum of insects filled the air. He knew the tall metal buildings clustered together were nearby. He could hear the cars in the distance.

Their village was massive and they chose to build up instead of down. Their structures are made of steel and glass rising high above the lands, a strange mix of strength wrapped in weakness and arrogance. Perhaps they didn’t need a tunnel system to usher their civilians out of harm's way, or stockpiles of supplies in the mountain to help them survive attrition.

There was also the obvious care they had for their children. When he was being interrogated he had never once been accused of being a spy from an enemy nation. They thought he was a renegade group that was hunting their children.

How novel.

His sensei would approve. It had been his dream to make Konoha safe for children. It was said that was the whole purpose of building Konoha, to begin with. Kakashi was the embodiment of their failures and frankly, he couldn’t see how any society could do so. Yet, here he was in a world that managed it.

It's a shame he didn't have it in him to stay.  

Kakashi should leave his students here. They were young, a place that values children the way they do would surely take care of them. They wouldn’t be made to shoulder burdens before their time. If he could spare three kids of this life, shouldn’t he?

He could pretend they died. It wouldn't be too far from the truth. They would have died. He shouldn’t be trusted with a team. He doesn't have a good track record. 

The echoes of Sakura’s crying in the back of his mind argued against him. She wanted her Mom. Sakura had a family, Kakashi would be making her an orphan if he left her here. Naruto had a dream to be Hokage and he would be taking that dream from him. Sasuke needed to avenge his clan, something Kakashi wanted to help him with. He shouldn’t do this to them, not even for a world at peace.

Kakashi shot off from one tree to another. He moved quickly, running from his own weakness. No matter what he did he was going to screw these kids up. He takes them back, he’ll get them killed, if he leaves them here to live, they’ll lose everything important to them. Which is worse? Every shinobi should be willing to die for their village, but why did a village demand the lives of those so young?

Kakashi stopped and looked out across the forest. He needed to leave. They were not equipped to live in this kind of world. His students were not designed to live in a world without chakra. The hum of life that connected everything was missing in this world. What good was peace when everything around him looked and felt dead? He needed to take his students and go and they needed to leave as soon as they could before Kakashi deludes himself into believing this was the best place for his students.

There was also the matter of Aizawa and his son that needed to be avoided. Call him a coward but that was a situation he didn’t want to touch. Was Hitoshi a reflection of him in this dimension? No. This was not a puzzle for him to solve. He needed to stop.

He didn't need to be filling his head with a childhood that could have been in a world that didn’t even feel real to him. He needed to leave. 

#######

"Yo!" Hatake-san raised his hand in greeting the next morning.

Shouta raised the bag of convenience store grabs in offering. Hatake-san took it and passed it off to Sakura-chan. The other two kids immediately crowded around to see what was in it. 

"I see you made it through the night,” Shouta commented, attempting to make casual conversation. He was hoping Hatake-san was in a more tolerable mood.

"Mah, there isn't much here to cause us trouble." There was some unfortunate truth in that statement.

"Are you ready to practice some more?" 

"Actually, I believe I am ready to leave with my students,” Hatake-san announced.

This wasn’t what Shouta was expecting to hear. They practically missed half a day of practice because Hatake-san developed a sudden onset of jerk’ondicitis. “We haven’t finished gathering all the data we need.”

“If I did it once, I can do it again,” Hatake-san somehow said with a straight face.

What the hell kind of confidence was that? It was complete and utter bullshit.

“You’re going to rely on dumb luck?”

"Of course not. I am expecting adrenaline to make a strong appearance." 

Shouta gapped at Hatake-san’s smiling face. He couldn’t be serious. “No. There is a systematic way of doing this. There are safety measures we need to build in-“

"I wasn't asking, Aizawa-san." Hatake-san's cold voice cut through his protest. "My team has a mission to complete. We have wasted enough time here."

Shouta frowned, "Your team nearly died. You're taking them back to that life."

"Yes."

Hatake-san had offered no defense. Shouta knew there wasn't a defense that could be made that would satisfy him. He also knew he couldn't stop him. "At least take the jelly packs with you." 

Hatake-san smiled and Shouta wasn't sure what to do in return. Hatake-san then turned and walked to his students. He took the bag from them and tied it up.

"Take care of yourself," Shouta called out. 

Hatake-san looked at him seemingly taken back, but Shouta meant it. He then received a sharp nod in return.

A portal was opened up under the students' feet and then in a blink of an eye, all of them were gone. "That easy huh?" Shouta muttered. Perhaps the man was a genius. 

Shouta tugged at his capture weapon, irritated by the sudden change of plans and the anticlimactic ending to it all. Kakashi's departure suddenly freed up his entire day and ruined his plan to bring Hitoshi to meet him. The mystery that was Hitoshi wasn't solved yet. 

Why had Kakashi been in such a hurry? Would they be alright? 

Shouta scanned the campus ground as if he’d find something that would clue him in if they made it back safely or not. But there was nothing. Wait…did he take the school phone with him? He’d have to go check. That prick probably stole from them.

Shouta didn’t move though. He stayed there as if waiting for them to come back or some sign to say if they were okay or not. It wasn’t coming of course, but he found himself unwilling to move just the same. He probably should work on his curriculum. He had been neglecting it. It wasn’t the only thing he had been neglecting though.

Shouta pulled out his phone and dialed a number he had never been able to forget. He could only hope it was still in service. The phone rang only three times when an aged voice greeted him with mild suspicion. "Hey, it's-"

"Shouta," 

"Yeah. How did you know it was me?" Shouta asked surprised. He hadn’t talked to her in years. Not since his foster father died. He just hadn’t wanted to deal with his own regrets.

There was a light laugh that warmed him. "Shouta, how could a mom forget? I remember all of you boys. I do my best to keep as updated as I can on you. I see you in the news sometimes." 

Shouta rested his phone against his chest and looked up at the sky. 

"Shouta?"

He lifted his phone back to his ear, "I'm here, Mom. How are you doing? How is your health?"

"I'm fine. My knees aren't what they used to be, but I hear you are teaching at UA?"

Shouta smiled, "I am. I'm married now too, and I have a son." 

"Oh, Shouta! That's wonderful!"

Shouta smiled and toed the ground. "Would you be interested in having lunch with me today?"

"Yes, of course."

##### 

The front door opened and closed loudly. "I'm home," Hitoshi announced. 

Hizashi leaped to his feet and hurried to greet him. Shouta approached him at a much more subdued pace. 

Shouta smiled at seeing Hizashi cradling Hitoshi's head while petting his pale hair. Hitoshi looked absolutely resigned at that moment. They locked eyes and he could hear Hitoshi silently pleading for help. Shouta smirked at him. "Did you enjoy your work-study?" 

"He had me pick up trash."

"An important skill for any teenager. Perhaps you can show off your newfound skills by taking out the trash."

"Shou, he just got home!" Hizashi complained. "Do you want to go out for dinner? Celebrate your successful work-study!"

 "We don't know if it's a success yet or not. I haven't received his written review from Edgeshot."

 "Of course, he passed," Hizashi rolled his eyes.

"Actually, can we just have dinner here?" Hitoshi requested. 

 They hadn't planned to make dinner at home, so they didn't have the makings. "We'll order take out at Mako's," Shouta recommended. 

Hizashi agreed and said he'd go off to get it. 

 Hitoshi grabbed his bag off the floor and headed to his room. Shouta followed after him. 

 "Did you miss me too?" Hitoshi asked, his voice was light and teasing. 

 "I did," Shouta responded seriously. "I was going over your individual lesson plans." He was going to try for it. "And I was wondering if you have figured out how your special eye relates to your quirk yet?" 

"You mean this one?" Hitoshi pointed to his purple one. 

Shouta sighed, so Hitoshi was going to play dumb. "Yeah, that one."

"Pretty sure it's a secondary quirk that forces people to quack like a duck." 

"Hmmm, I'll fix your quirk registration; Brainwashing and Duck hypnosis."

Hitoshi laughed and Shouta couldn’t help but crack a smile. He could be patient like Hizashi suggested. When Hitoshi is ready to talk to them Shouta will be ready to listen. He wasn’t going to let his regrets hinder his relationships any longer.

"I was thinking, how do you feel about forcing Hizashi on a camping trip?"

Chapter Text

Hitoshi dropped his bag on the floor. "I'm home," he announced but was greeted by silence. He pulled out his phone and checked the time. His foster parents should be home. It was nearly dinner time. Did they go out for dinner?

Hitoshi put his slippers on and frowned at the disarray of the other slippers. He stepped up into the living room and found the coffee table was littered with papers, a few empty jelly packets and three coffee cups. He lifted one and saw multiple dark rings in the cup and a bit of cold coffee left. Hitoshi gathered the cup and the empty jelly packets and brought them to the kitchen. Likewise, the kitchen was in a similar state. The trash was overflowing with takeout boxes, dishes were piled in the sink, and nearly every mug they owned was dirty. What the hell were his foster parents doing while he was gone?

Hitoshi started working on the dishes. He washed, dried, and put them away, all the while waiting for the door to open and having to explain why he was home early. He could tell them the truth: Edgeshot ended up with a mission and he decided to end the work study early. Hitoshi didn't have his provisional license yet, so he understood, but it didn't make for an interesting story. He'd miss out on that irritated look on Aizawa's face when his eyelids dropped further down and then he'd pinch the bridge of his nose and call him a problem child or a brat.

Hitoshi wiped the inside of the mug. He could say he was late so often that Edgeshot sent him home, but Aizawa might actually believe that. He wasn't looking to get in trouble. He broke Edgeshot's weight bench while lifting all the weights he could find? Nah, that was just dumb. He was made to wash dishes and mistaken the dish soap for the dishwashing detergent. Bubbles were everywhere and they had to call the washing hero? Hitoshi snorted to himself. That would probably work.

Hitoshi finished the last of the dishes and fed the cats. They still weren't home yet. Must be a hot date. Too bad he was home to ruin the ending for them. He debated on calling them, but it would be funnier to simply surprise them. Make them question what day it was. He opened the fridge and pulled out one of the cartons of take-out leftovers. He didn’t bother to heat it up, instead wandered back to the living room.

Hitoshi plopped down on the couch and Tempura was suddenly there demanding his attention. He ran his hand along her spine and followed up her tail. Her tail quivered and she did a quick turn so he could pet her other side. Hitoshi smiled and did as he was asked. He'd always preferred dogs to cats but that didn't mean he wasn't happy to pet a cat that was happy to see him. "Do you know where they went?" Hitoshi asked.

A laptop laid closed on the coffee table, but files and papers were scattered about. Apparently Aizawa was on a case. It wasn’t uncommon, but the cases he was normally assigned didn't typically interest Hitoshi. He opened his takeout box and pushed the cat's head away from it. He scanned the papers to see what he was working on when a familiar name jumped out at him.

Uchiha Sasuke

That couldn't be right. He put the box down on the floor and started gathering the papers.

Haruno Sakura

No, that wasn't right. "Subject attempted to escape through the use of cloning." What?

He flipped through more pages and found one with her photo. Her bright pink hair and green eyes were just as he remembered. Her hair was long and her cheeks full like they had been in her genin days. This wasn't right.

He pulled more papers.

Uzumaki Naruto

How? How were his students here? Konoha was mentioned. The leaf symbol. Part of a cult? Children raised to fight from a young age. The leader of Konoha is referred to as the Hokage.

He picked up another.

Hatake Kakashi.

There was his face staring back at him, his familiar shock of silver hair that drooped to one side, one grey eye half-mast and the other closed showing off the long vertical scar he’d gotten when he was young. There was no mask on his face revealing the mole near his mouth and otherwise plain looking face–a face that was no longer his own. A face he should not be seeing in his new life.

What the hell was Aizawa doing? How did he find out? How did he get these images? Was it a quirk? Did they somehow look into his distant past and make these notes?

Hitoshi swallowed some air and held it in his chest. He was being ridiculous. There had to be a reasonable explanation. He didn't know what the hell kind of reasonable explanation could be provided for this, but there had to be one. Detective Tsukauchi’s name was written all over this. Hitoshi figured that would be a good place to start. Luckily, he happened to know where he could find this detective.

Hitoshi got up and kicked over the takeout box, spilling the contents and scaring both cats. He cursed and had to stop to clean it before he could leave.

*****

Hitoshi ran all the way to the precinct. His lungs burned with the need for oxygen. He missed the days of being Hatake Kakashi, being able to run faster and farther with what felt like no limits. Fuck his mental quirk. Except for in moments like this when it's about to come in real handy.

Hitoshi had to stop and catch his breath. He would bring too much attention to himself if he ran in there out of breath. His plan was to go in and mind control the officer into buzzing him into the back. He would likely get stopped and questioned about why he was there. He wasn't old enough to pass himself off as an officer. He could say his dad was here. It wasn’t a total lie. He was pretty sure at least one of his foster parents was there.

Hitoshi took the steps up to the precinct one at a time, his hands buried in his pockets. He flipped his hood up over his head to try to cover his noticeable silver hair. He walked to the counter and a female receptionist greeted him. There were others around. Two people seemed to be waiting in the lobby and Hitoshi could see at least one other person with the receptionist. He needed to make this inconspicuous.

"Do you know my dad?" he asked casually. His quirk buzzed, waiting to catch.

"I can't say that I do—" Hitoshi latched on.

"He goes by Eraserhead. Is he here?" Hitoshi leaned against the counter.

"Yes."

"Buzz me in the back. I need to talk to him, and he won't pick up his phone." Her hand was already reaching over to the button to unlock the door. "Thanks," he ended cheerfully and quickly left before his quirk ended. He was definitely going to get in trouble for that.

Hitoshi hurried down the hall, trying to make it look like he knew where he was going when he didn’t. The place seemed to be a maze of sorts. Perhaps to confuse any escapees?

"Hey kid, what are you doing back here?" An officer approached him. His tag read Haburashi.

"I'm looking for my dad. He's not answering his phone and I believe he is working on a case here," Hitoshi decided to explain. The receptionist hasn't sounded the alarm yet and he didn't want to push his luck further.

"Who's your dad, Kid?"

"Eraserhead," Hitoshi answered quickly.

"Eraserhead? Seriously? He's gay though."

"It's called foster care," Hitoshi supplied him.

"That makes sense. I can go bring him to you. You can wait in my office."

"I really need to see him. He's not answering his phone. Neither is Present Mic," the anxiousness in his voice wasn't faked and seemed to be exactly what he needed to convince the detective.

"Alright kid, come with me."

It wasn’t often Hitoshi was this lucky. He followed Officer Haburashi down the strange halls until they stopped by two doors close together. One said the interrogation room and the one Haburashi knocked on was the observation room.

The door was opened, and Yamada made a startled noise that sounded like a chipmunk's whine. "Hitoshi! What are you doing here?"

"Hitoshi?" He heard Aizawa before he appeared next to Yamada in the doorway. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be at your work-study with Edgeshot."

"I broke his weight bench. Who are you interrogating?" Hitoshi tried to peek around them, but both of his foster parents were crowding the door.

"Now is not the time, Hitoshi," Aizawa said firmly.

"How about I take you home?" Yamada suggested reaching for him.

Hitoshi side-stepped away from Yamada's reach. "Is it Hatake Kakashi?"

They both stilled. “How do you-"

"The file was on the coffee table. I saw the names. Is that who you have?" Hitoshi pressed.

"This isn’t something you need to worry about, kiddo," Yamada stepped out of the room.

Hitoshi saw his opening and wasted no time slipping through the vacant space. Aizawa yanked him by the shoulder. But it was too late. Hitoshi saw what he was hoping wasn't true.

For a moment Hitoshi didn't know where he was or who he was. Was he supposed to be the man in the chair or the kid behind the glass? Was he 15 or 24? Was he Hitoshi or Kakashi?

"Hitoshi." Aizawa's voice grounded him to his young body. "Do you know him?"

Hitoshi walked out of Aizawa's grasp and touched the glass. "You could say that."

"How do you know him?"

Kakashi seemed to stare back at Hitoshi, except he was blindfolded. "I used to be him, Shouta."

"Come again?"

Hitoshi frowned as Kakashi repeated his registration number to a group of frustrated officers.

"Hitoshi." Yamada put an arm around his shoulder and gave him a kind of side hug. Hitoshi looked up at Yamada, whose expression was pained. "Do you want to tell me what you mean?"

"You wouldn't believe me," Hitoshi sighed, and his shoulders slumped a bit.

"Try having a little faith in me,” Yamada encouraged.

Hitoshi looked back at Kakashi. Did he want them to know? He wasn't just Hitoshi. Sometimes he didn’t feel like Hitoshi at all. Yet other times he didn't feel like he was Kakashi. Yamada led him to one of the chairs and they sat close together and watched the interrogation.

They listened to Kakashi rattle off his registration in response to every question. Hitoshi felt his stomach churn and bubble. He wasn’t sure how to start this, what to say. He wasn’t sure what he was risking by coming forward with all of this.

"He showed up suddenly," Aizawa said behind him. "He had three kids in tow. They seemed to fall from the sky just before the tomato bank blew up. Then they attacked Fatgum."

Hitoshi absorbed the information. He didn’t think anything was going to be shared with him. "Did they hurt him?"

"The girl did, but he'll recover just fine."

"Sakura? How old are they?"

"Twelve," Aizawa answered.

Twelve. Just genins. He only trained them for a short while. Then he lost Sasuke, and that had served as proof he shouldn’t be teaching youth. Kakashi then shuffled them off to different and better teachers. They had so much talent and he knew they would do better with anyone other than him. His luck nearly killed them in Wave after all.

They fell back into silence and Hitoshi rubbed the fabric of his sleeve between his fingers. How does he tell them? If they knew who he was, would he have to give them up? He could feel Yamada looking at him. They were waiting for him to explain himself. He’d rushed over here because of some names on the coffee table. Hitoshi had to tell them something.

"Did you know them well?" Yamada asked.

"Who?"

"The kids, Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke."

"No, I don't think I did. I should have. I should have tried harder with them. I was just," Hitoshi shrugged, moving the weight of Yamada's arm.

"You were barely more than a toddler yourself, Hitoshi."

"That's not-you don't get it. I wasn't." Hitoshi took a deep breath. "I was Hatake Kakashi."

"You keep saying that" Aizawa cut in. Hitoshi turned to look back at him. His dark eyes bored into him. "What does that mean?"

"Reincarnation. I remember my past life. I always have. That is me. Was me.” Hitoshi gestured towards the glass, his past-self sitting just beyond it.  

"You're saying you were that man in that room over there and what...died?" Yamada asked.

Hitoshi nodded. “Then I came here."

"How did you um...die?"

"Fighting for my home."

"That's a lot to unpack," Yamada said. There was a lack of inflection in his voice that had Hitoshi worried. He shouldn’t worry. This had always been a temporary arrangement. Aizawa and Yamada were only temporary.

"You don’t need to unpack it."

"Wait, so he's not a leader in a child soldier ring?" Aizawa interrupted.

Hitoshi stilled and stared at the ghost-like reflection of Aizawa in the window. "What gave you the idea he was?"

"You," Aizawa answered blandly.

Hitoshi twisted to look back at Aizawa again. They held each other’s gaze but as much as they were trying to communicate, they simply weren't understanding. Like a foreign language without a translator. "What did I do?" he finally asked.

Aizawa gave him a bland look, "Do you really not know? You have a history of being a CHILD vigilante. You hide weapons throughout the house. You draw strange symbols on everything-"

"Not on everything-"

"You fight exceptionally well with minimal training-"

"I was in karate club-"

"And your emotionally stunted behavior with your classmates."

"Like you're one to talk," Hitoshi glowered. Apparently those two had been more observant than he thought. "How long have you been playing with this idea?"

"Since you started living with us," Aizawa said blandly.

Hitoshi felt the sharp sting of offense. He was not that obvious about everything, and he had never been a child soldier. "Well now you know, you were wrong. I was just a shinobi in my past life."

A cold look encompassed Aizawa's face. “That's not what he said. Kakashi stated that those kids were not children, but soldiers. I can’t imagine you escaped the same fate."

"I am Kakashi," Hitoshi said firmly. "Was," he amended. Because he wasn't Kakashi anymore. He died and came here. To do what? To be what? He had been no more successful at being a son or student than he had been the first go around. Shinsou Hitoshi was just as much of a curse as Hatake Kakashi. It was innate in him.

Aizawa shook his head. "I don't see it. You two are nothing alike."

How were they nothing alike? Hitoshi couldn't spot a difference between them, and he would know. He knew himself better than anyone!

Hitoshi shrugged off Yamada’s arm and stood to his feet. "I want to see him," he declared.

His foster parents shared a look, but Hitoshi didn't care to translate it. He turned and wretched the door open. Aizawa and Yamada hurried after him, but neither made a move to actually stop him. They could. Aizawa had his capture weapon on his person, but didn’t use it. Instead, they followed behind him.

Hitoshi walked into the interview room, and everything stopped. Tsukauchi rose to his feet, his gaze shifting from his foster parents to him. "Eraserhead?"

It was a strange visual, like an out of body experience but somehow upside down. His lower face was exposed but a thick blindfold covered his eyes. Was he here or was he there? His body moved without his consent. Lifting his chin, his shoulders flexing within his restraints. His arms were bound tightly across himself. Yet he could move freely.

"Hatake-"

"What?" he responded.

There was a moment of silence and he felt a hand on his shoulder and Yamada’s voice against his ear. "He's talking to the other one."

Hitoshi was 15 again and decidedly not a shinobi, but a hero in training. "Right," he murmured, trying to keep his act together. He felt everyone was staring at him and willed the color from staining his ears.

"Hatake," he hesitated and then tacked on ,"-san."

"Registration-"

"What mission were you on before you somehow showed up here? They're 12, surely it was a dumb one like the daimyo’s missing cat. Was it the ostrich mission? That one was a pain in the ass. Perhaps Wave? It went to hell in a handbasket."

"Wave." Hatake cocked his head and seemed to focus on him. "You know of Wave."

"The Land of Waves, it was a poor nation, but the bridge solved their economic issues. Gato was the issue. He hired Zabuza to terrorize the villagers and assassinate the bridge builder," Hitoshi filled in.

"Gato? The shipping tycoon? He sent Zabuza?"

"Had you just arrived at Wave?" Hitoshi asked, trying to gauge when Kakashi was from.

"Hmmm, you seem to know a lot." Hitoshi easily recognized the suspicion in his drawl.

Of course, Kakashi was suspicious. He couldn't see that they were the same person. Not yet. Not with that blindfold on. He was likely going off sound and smell to determine who was where. But if he saw him, then he would know they were the same person.

Hitoshi reached for the blindfold, but his arm was forcefully shoved down. He looked up at Tsukauchi, standing to his left, his face was tight but he was looking over his head towards his guardians.

"Why did you bring him in here?"

"This is the quickest way to get answers," Aizawa answered the detective.

"We have protocols, Eraser."

"What do you want me to do, sign a consent form?" Aizawa asked sarcastically.

"I want Ike-san here at the very least, for Hitoshi’s sake," Tsukauchi argued.

"I can handle Hitoshi just fine. Hitoshi can handle this. There is no reason to drag a shrink into this."

"Shouta," Yamada chided him.

Hitoshi rolled his eyes at all the arguing going on around him. Did they not realize his other self wasn't even remotely secure? He didn't need Hitoshi to remove his blindfold for him. He could do it himself. But he wasn't going to, was he?

While the adults were arguing Hitoshi reached out again and yanked Kakashi's blind fold up. The world twisted hard, and the colors began to run. The sounds of birds filled his head pecking at his brain until it suddenly snapped back. The illusion shattered as quickly as it came upon him. Sharingan against sharingan and somehow Hitoshi prevailed.

Kakashi seemed equally surprised that his attack had been thwarted. Of course, no one else in the room noticed it, they just yelled Hitoshi’s name for removing his blindfold in the first place.

Hitoshi expected recognition. He expected a dual revelation. Like staring into a mirror. Except Kakashi was glaring at him and his sharingan morphed into the mangekyou but once again the genjutsu shattered before it could fully develop.

Kakashi did not recognize them as one and the same.

"Hitoshi?" Yamada called to him. Again, Hitoshi suffered through the reminder that he was not Hatake Kakashi, a self-sufficient and deadly shinobi. He was Shinsou Hitoshi, a teenage student who’s reliant on his foster parents. The gap between what he was and what he is had never been larger.

"How did you-"

"Where did you get that eye?" Kakashi cut Hitoshi off.

Hitoshi went quiet and Yamada felt the need to speak for him. "Hitoshi was born with it. Isn't that right?"

"Same place you did: Obito. It carried over with me for some reason. I guess Obito wasn't done watching the future," Hitoshi kept his eyes locked on Kakashi's.

The ground dropped and his stomach plummeted after it. His very bones rattled and cracked, spilling marrow onto the floor. Unable to support himself he fell to his knees and gasped as his pink marrow splashed onto him. His fingers twisted as they groped for a weapon to use. His chin was yanked up to see his own face twisted into a sneering rage. The hand moved and steel like fingers bit into his jaw. He was going to break him. He could practically taste the electricity in the air and hear the scream of birds.

"You think you can use Obito against me?" The venomous words dripped onto his tongue, corroding his words. They sat like stones in his throat, piling up and suffocating him.

"Nnn," Hitoshi shuddered a sound but the word would not form.

"Who are you?"

Hitoshi’s lungs spasmed desperately for air. He tried to grab a hold of the hand clenched around his jaw, but his own hung uselessly beside him like a weight.

Hitoshi’s head jerked to the side as the hand was yanked from his face. Hitoshi looked up to see Aizawa holding his capture weapon with a white-knuckled grip. His face was pale, almost sickly. Yamada was using the wall to try and force himself up, but his breath kept hitching.

Kakashi sneered up at him, exposing sharpened teeth. His hand was wrapping the capture weapon further around his hand. Aizawa was going to die. He was going to kill another one of his precious people.

He swore he would never do that again.

Dad

Rin

Obito

Kushina

Minato

Sakura

Naruto

Tenzo

Gai

Aizawa….

"I'm you!" Hitoshi shouted. "Can't you see it?"

"See what-" the snag, the pull and he had him.

The corrosive atmosphere dropped, and the air rushed in like water from a broken dam.

"Release the capture weapon," Hitoshi ordered Kakashi. He shakily stood up out of the pile of vomit he had apparently been kneeling in. Kakashi released his hold on the weapon. "Go back and sit in the chair."

Kakashi moved and Aizawa released his hold on him. Once Kakashi was sitting, Aizawa recaptured him, strapping him to the chair that was bolted to the floor.

"Hitoshi leave," Aizawa ordered, his voice strained.

"He's going to break your capture weapon. He's too strong for something like that."

"I don't want you in here when your hold on him breaks," Aizawa growled.

Yamada gripped his shoulders, but Hitoshi shrugged him off. "Hitoshi-"

"You can't stay in here," Tsukauchi said firmly. He too was deathly pale. "We'll get a better way to restrain him. Eraser, do you have him?"

Aizawa nodded with a grim look on his face.

"He'll kill you," Hitoshi said quietly.

"I'll be fine, kid. Go."

Hitoshi stepped back. He could feel his hold waning. "He'll kill you."

Tsukauchi shoved him forward and into Yamada. The jolt caused his hold to snap and Kakashi was in control again. They all seemed to still for just a moment. Kakashi looked down at the capture weapon surrounding him and up at Aizawa who was holding the other end.

"No!" Hitoshi yelled and wretched himself from Yamada's hold as Kakashi emanated a searing white electricity that traveled up the scarf. Aizawa went rigid and then began convulsing where he stood. Tight violent jerks violated his body and the sound of birds drowned out his screams.

Hitoshi's heart stuttered to a stop as Aizawa crumpled to the ground lifelessly. Yamada left Hitoshi's side and rushed over to Aizawa's body. Yamada yelled to Tsukauchi to get help as he started chest compressions. A blaring sound rang through the room.

Hitoshi caught Kakashi's eyes, the man still sitting in the chair, seemingly unconcerned about the chaos he just caused.

They were not the same.

Hitoshi was shoved to the side. He killed him. Aizawa's dead and he killed him! His ears buzzed and the voices drowned in it. Yamada leaned his ear down to Aizawa's chest. People were bustling in, pressing against Hitoshi as he was shoved against them. Hands grabbed onto his arm. Kakashi stood and Hitoshi knew Yamada could not fight him off. He couldn’t attack in these tight quarters. His vision was blocked by a body, and he was yanked through the door.

Shouts erupted behind him he turned in time to see Kakashi materialize beside him, grab ahold of him, place him under one arm, and then take off in speeds he was only capable of in his dreams now.

The gates were already down but they were not an issue for someone who could simply kamui them away. Hitoshi cursed. This wasn't good. If he survived this, Yamada and Aizawa were going to ground him for life. His heart suddenly clenched. If they were alive.

Officers were yelling for heroes to be alerted. Kakashi stopped at the area where his genin were being held. It was strange to see their childish round faces again after so long.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto cheered loudly.

Kakashi duplicated himself. And each of his duplicates attacked the steel doors with a series of well-placed kicks until the doors broke.

"Heroes are on their way!”

"He released the kids. We need to lock them down!"

Kakashi didn’t seem all that concerned about all the shouting. "You three had a room with a view. How nice of them."

"What do you plan to do?" Hitoshi asked as if he didn’t know. His quirk buzzed in his throat waiting to hook, but he was ignored. Kakashi jerked and dropped Hitoshi. He ran through a series of hand seals and then slammed his hands on the ground creating an earth wall. Hitoshi heard thudding as bullets struck the wall. Hitoshi scrambled to his feet.

Naruto stuck his face into his own. "Ne, Sensei, who's the kid?"

"Not now Naruto," Kakashi said lightly.

Hitoshi shoved Naruto's face out of his own. It was nice to see him again, but he didn’t want to see him that closely. He needed to brush his teeth.

Hitoshi heard crumbling behind him and found the wall completely missing. Damn… he missed those abilities. He could rival All Might if he was still Kakashi.

But Friend-Killer-Kakashi wasn't a hero.

Neither was Hitoshi. He couldn't even stop them from leaving. And now he was going to be trapped behind some dirt wall waiting to be saved while Aizawa was-

Kakashi walked over to Hitoshi and reached for him again. Hitoshi backed away but Kakashi was so damn fast he had wrangled him under his arm again. Fuck it all.

Hitoshi watched as the ground disappeared and Team 7 leaped out of the building to the next. People spotted them down below. Heroes were bound to be on them in minutes. If Hitoshi could at least slow them down…

"Do you even know where you are going?"

Hitoshi clicked his tongue in annoyance. Had Kakashi figured out how his quirk worked already? Fuck his intelligence. It was overrated anyway. It never served him well when it actually mattered.

"The heroes are going to be on your ass any minute. What are you going to do, kill them? Because that's how you solve all your problems, isn't it? Obito was annoying as fuck so you just let him die under a damn rock. Minato was always in your business, why not let the kyuubi kill him off. Kushina was so damn loud she had to go, too? You did nothing to protect them. How about Rin?"

Hitoshi knew better than anyone what buttons he was pushing. He wanted to hurt Kakashi. So it wasn't any surprise to him when Kakashi chucked him onto the other building. Hitoshi skidded along the roof of the building on his side until he hit a metal ventilation pipe. He whined as he sat up, his arm was bloody, and shoulder and hip felt like they were on fire. Kakashi marched towards and Hitoshi scrambled to his feet. Kakashi reared his fist back and Hitoshi screwed his eyes. Could he survive a hit? It sounded like an explosion next to his ear as the shinobi's fist slammed into the ventilation pipe.

Hitoshi shuddered as Kakashi lowered his masked face to his ear. "That could have been you." The threat hung in the air, and he gathered Hitoshi up again and led his team out.

The group never encountered a hero. Maybe they had been too fast? They would certainly be hunting them down and they would be found eventually. Hitoshi had his cellphone on him. It would help them locate him.

They were outside of the city though, in a forest. That would make it much harder for them to get tracked down. Kakashi stopped on one of the trees and the genin stopped too. "You three check the perimeter," He ordered. They nodded and took off, leaving just the two of them. Kakashi jumped down and put him on the ground.

Hitoshi took several steps away from Kakashi, putting a bit of distance between them. Kakashi watched him with a lazy eye, his other closed. At some point, Kakashi had put the mask that was attached to his shirt back on. "I hate you," Hitoshi spat.

Kakashi seemed completely unmoved. So, Hitoshi continued, "You were never good enough. All those ranks and accolades mean nothing when you fail every time something important is on the line. You have one job! One fucking job. Protect your precious people and time after time, you get them killed."

"You don’t know anything about me," Kakashi said quietly.

"I know everything about you. I was you. Until I died and ended up here. You wanna know how you die Kakashi? You die as a failure. You were supposed to protect Naruto. You were supposed to keep him out of the village. Instead, you bring him back when the entire village is being razed to the ground. He's dead now because of you! The entire village is gone because of you! You were kicked out of the afterlife because no one wanted you there. They're ashamed of you. Minato-sensei, Rin, Obito, even Dad. They were so ashamed of you they wouldn't even show their face. Instead, you're here. You're me. A nothing and a nobody. Detested by society and they have every reason to, even if they don't know why. I had one good thing going for me. One. And you…I, fuck."

Yamada was doing chest compressions. Aizawa's heart had stopped. Kakashi had killed him.

"Tell me what happens to Naruto," Kakashi demanded.

"No, no you deserve to lose him," Hitsohi sneered. "To suffer your failures."

"Then I guess even now I haven't changed."

Hitoshi stilled at the accusation. He looked at Kakashi who was finally looking at him with recognition. No, they were nothing alike. He refused to be Hatake Kakashi.

"I'm Shinsou Hitoshi, and I have never killed a friend. In fact, I'll be a hero, just like my foster parents."

"I don't think we can ever be anything like that," Kakashi scoffed.

"You can't, but I can try." Hitoshi proceeded to explain Pein's invasion of Konoha. All the intel he could remember. He wasn't doing this for Kakashi, he was doing this for Naruto. He was doing this for Aizawa and Yamada. They deserved to see him become something they could be proud of. Hatake Kakashi could never be that. But he was Shinsou Hitoshi. He could be whatever they wanted him to be.

The genin returned at one point, but Kakashi sent them off again to collect firewood and set up a camp until Hitoshi was finished.

"You should try talking to Sasuke," Hitoshi said suddenly at the end of his explanation. "That hatred will consume him."

Kakashi turned to look at Naruto and Sasuke bickering several feet away. "Did it do that for your Sasuke?"

Hitoshi nodded his head, "I lost him, and the other two never forgave me for it. Not that they would say anything like to my face. But the team fell apart because I didn't try to keep it intact."

Kakashi didn’t say anything. Hitoshi wasn't really expecting him to. But Hitoshi had nothing to add so they fell into an awkward silence. Sasuke shoved Naruto onto the ground and Naruto launched himself back at him. The two were rolling in the dirt with Sakura yelling at them to stop.

"Obito," Kakashi started hesitantly, "before he died, he called Dad a hero."

Hitoshi searched Kakashi's face. He silently willed him to continue, because Hitoshi had no idea where he was going with that statement.

Kakashi let out an embarrassed huff. “Maybe Obito had wanted us to become a hero like the way he saw Dad. Maybe that is why when you died as a failure, you were reborn with that eye. Obito still believes you can become a hero, and he's determined to see you do it."

Was this true? Was that why he was born into a society of heroes and villains? He looked down at his hands. "If that's true, I ended up with a really shitty quirk to make that happen."

"Quirk?"

"Like a kekkei genkai. I can brainwash people. If they respond to my questions, I can force them to do simple commands. People here are born with all sorts of abilities, but they are limited by that ability too," Hitoshi explained.

Kakashi nodded, but Hitoshi knew he didn't fully understand. It didn't matter. He needed to get him home. "How did you get here?" Hitoshi asked.

"Kamui. I used it on my students by accident. We ended up in this strange place and I kamui'd us again, landing here," Kakashi explained.

Hitoshi nodded and folded his arms as he thought about it. "If we do the reverse, I imagine you would end up where you are supposed to be. I'll kamui you guys and you'll have to figure it out from there. We should do it soon, because they can track me."

Kakashi looked alarmed. Hitoshi pulled out his cellphone. "This will ping off towers and… send them a signal about where I am." Hitoshi didn't want to get into an explanation of cellphone towers and technology that was beyond anything Kakashi knew about.

Kakashi stood to his feet but didn't call for his students right away. "That man with capture weapon-"

"Don't, you didn't know. Not yet anyway," Hitoshi didn't want to hear him apologize. An apology wasn't going to bring Aizawa back. He would have to find a way to live with what he did. And find a way to be a hero through it all.

Kakashi looked resigned and then called his students to him. Once they were close enough together, Hitoshi didn't bother to warn them before he sucked them into the vortex. They shouldn't have come and interrupted his life the way they did. Maybe it wasn’t the heroic thing to do, but screw it. No one would know.

Hitoshi's eyes stung and he closed it as he felt a thick substance slowly make its way down his face. He swiped at the bloody tear and started to head back towards the city. Hopefully, a hero would give him a lift, so he didn't have to walk all the way back.

Hitoshi didn't get far when a voice called out to him above. "Heyo!" Hitoshi stopped and looked up, seeing the red winged hero, Hawks. Kakashi must have really freaked them out to send the number 3 hero after them.

"Where are your friends?" Hawks asked.

Hitoshi shrugged, too tired to really answer him. "They left, I guess."

"They did a number on you, some friends huh?" Blood still streaked down his arm from when he skidded across the roof. And the eye on that same side was still sluggishly oozing blood.

"Eraserhead?" Hitoshi asked instead.

"In the hospital but alive. I'll take you there."

******

Yamada greeted him enthusiastically. Apparently, he had been told that Hawks had him, because Yamada was at the hospital entrance. He practically crushed him with the hug he gave him, but Hitoshi didn't have the heart to make him stop.

"How is Aizawa?" Hitoshi asked.

"He's fine now. But you need to be looked at. What did he do to you?" Yamada walked him further into the hospital.

"I'm fine. Let's go see-"

"Not until you're patched up. He won't go anywhere. I have the car keys and I took his phone and wallet. He's trapped." Yamada looked very proud of himself.

Hitoshi sighed himself to get swept by a nurse with Yamada following him every step of the way.

There was a lot to talk about, but he was glad he would have the opportunity to do so. Aizawa wasn't dead, and Yamada had greeted him with open arms.

Hatake Kakashi and Shinsou Hitoshi were two different people and that was thanks to Aizawa and Yamada. They saved him. Hitoshi hoped that one day he could be a hero that would make them proud.