Kakashi's Tale

"No, listen! I'm being serious! I know this sounds insane, but please, just hear me out! The story of Naruto—it's about a boy who overcomes hardships, makes friends, and ultimately becomes the Hokage. You were a part of that story, fighting against your past, mentoring others, and becoming a hero."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow, interest piqued. "Continue."

"Your past, it's filled with loss and the burden of your childhood friends. You lost Obito, who sacrificed himself for you, and Rin, who jumped in front of your Chidori years ago. Because of all that, you were traumatized, joined the Anbu alongside Yamato and more, and eventually became a Jōnin to help Team 7 grow. I know all this because it's all been written down. And now I'm stuck in a loop of it, forced to relive the same day over and over!"

Finally, she took a deep breath.

Kakashi couldn't be more cool in his demeanour as he asked, "You believe this? That you're in a virtual world and now in a time loop?"

"Yes, I do!" she exclaimed. "And I can't communicate with anyone outside."

Kakashi took a moment to absorb her words, then settled on a conclusion. "Alright. If you're serious about this—if you believe you're trapped in a loop—then how can I help?"

Jada stared at him, momentarily speechless. "You... you really believe me?"

"Of course I do," he said in an earnest tone. "You're my student. If you're in trouble, I'll do whatever it takes to support you."

Jada was ready to tear up at the unexpected response.

"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei. I really appreciate it. There are four bad guys we have to defeat today. Afterwards, maybe we can change something. Just promise to stay close to me, okay?"

"Alright," he nodded. "You lead the way."

As they set off toward the village center, Jada felt a renewed sense of purpose. The events played somewhat the same as before, with Jada unleashing her techniques and Kakashi moving fluently beside her while being guided.

If he hadn't believed her before, he most certainly did upon discovering the warehouse instantly and seeing her predict their enemy's actions.

After their victory, the two retreated to a quiet corner of the village.

"Let's stay awake," she suggested. "If I go to sleep like last time, I'll just end up in another cycle."

"Sounds good to me," Kakashi replied.

They then settled against a tree trunk, sharing stories of the many events that should unfold in the shinobi world.

"Where can I start?" she began. "Okay… Kakashi-sensei, you were known as one of the most skilled shinobi in the Leaf Village, hence why Hiruzen opted that you be the sensei of Naruto."

"Seems like I'm reliving the past," he managed with a smile.

"Exactly! In your first mission, you gave them that bell test. At first, you were unimpressed with their skills and thought they were too self-interested to work together. But the moment you saw them fighting as a team, when they decided to help each other instead of competing individually, you saw their true potential."

"If they had just listened to me," Kakashi chuckled, "we wouldn't have had to go through that."

Jada pressed on, unfurling more of the narrative.

"You then went on to the Land of Waves, where you encountered Zabuza. It wasn't like this time. In your story, it was the first time you revealed the Sharingan to everyone, and anyone who watched that scene thought you were really cool…"

"People where you're from really say those things about me?"

"Well, yeah. It's "cause you are. Sadly, Haku sacrificed himself to protect Zabuza after you tried impaling him with the Lightning Blade."

Kakashi's smile faded as he considered those memories. Last he heard, those two were taken down by Arthur. Now he's hearing that he was the cause of their deaths.

"Hard to imagine them gone..."

"It's okay," she pressed. "You carried those lessons into the Chūnin Exams, facing Orochimaru and those who threatened the Leaf. You also fought to protect your team and friends. But during the finals, the village lost Hiruzen."

"So that's how Marge and Will managed to beat Orochimaru."

"Yeah… They knew the story well. Even better than me."

Kakashi found that hard to believe considering what he was already hearing. "What happened next?"

"Well, you faced Itachi and Kisame, where you took on his Tsukuyomi and nearly lost your mind. Like, you were trapped in a genjutsu for… I forgot for how long, but it wasn't short."

It's here she touched his heart deeply by stating what his father, Sakumo, had believed about his son.

Kakashi suppressed a chuckle. "If I didn't know better, I'd think I actually did something with my career as a shinobi."

"Don't undersell yourself!" she urged. "You became the Sixth Hokage after the Fourth Shinobi World War and helped rebuild and guide the village. Seriously, Kakashi-sensei! You made difficult decisions for the good of everyone and mentored your students' children."

He listened the more with a smile, unable to suppress his overly intrigued behaviour.

"And that's not all!" she pressed on, explaining Obito's past and how the Akatsuki functioned.

All of it was absorbed and accepted. Such was the maturity of Kakashi Hatake—when he knew something was right or someone was in trouble, he did his best to understand where they were coming from.

And with that exchange, he assured her that they would end this loop together.

"That's what teamwork is all about, right?" he reminded with a smile.

"Right!"

However, just as Jada began to feel a sense of normalcy return, a blinding flash erupted in front of her eyes. And then, with a jolt, she stood once more at the entrance to Takumi Village.

"Are you alright?" Kakashi asked in the same line he had spoken before.

The endless loop had begun again, and she knew she had to find a way out. It was one thing to be able to speak to Kakashi and reveal to him everything, but what good was it if he couldn't even recall anything after?

…

Inside the laboratory, Arthur stood with his back to the screen displaying the vitals of Hoshikaze. Brie, perched at a nearby workstation, furrowed her brow as she noted down readings.

Hoshikaze was a remarkable feat of engineering—a near-perfect replica of Arthur, possessing a similar level of strength, agility, and fairly high chakra that Arthur himself wielded.

Yet something was distinctly incomplete. The clone had potential, but Arthur sensed that it lacked a long lifespan. There was no telling how long it would last. Perhaps months, years, or even days due to its accelerated growth rate.

"Stabilization is solid," Brie noted. "I've never seen a real clone before. It's almost… alive."

Arthur only surveyed Hoshikaze, currently confined within a transparent chamber. Its body was hooked up with wires and electrodes. Behind its back was a Flying raijin mark, a sign that it will always be subservient to its creator.

Arthur himself was still recovering from his illness. It was a trivial matter compared to how he initially felt.

Suddenly, he felt an unsettling tug, a strange sensation that bore no relation to his lingering sickness. He felt it again, sharper this time, until eventually he understood what was happening: one of his Flying raijin marks had vanished from the world.

Those marks were deemed permanent with only a select few who could erase them.

"Brie," Arthur called out. "Stop the tests…"

"What's wrong, my lord?" she asked in confusion.

Without him saying another word, she turned to the chamber and activated the controls. Then the chambers opened, allowing Hoshikaze to remove his monitoring wires and step out.

"I have a mission for you," Arthur said. "One of my marks disappeared, so I need you to investigate Takumi Village to find the cause."

Hoshikaze didn't even flinch, agreeing to the mission, an action reminiscent of Arthur himself. It was uncanny and yet strangely reassuring to see the clone respond with his own composure.

"Are you sure things will be okay?" Brie asked, hesitating as she assessed the implications of sending Hoshikaze out alone.

"Yes," both of them replied, freaking her out a little.

"Um… I wasn't talking about Hoshikaze's safety; I meant you… with Rin."

Though she could have been more specific, Rin was the last thing on his mind right now. Because of the events that unfolded in the Rain Village, he had to erase her memories.

What was really concerning was that the Akatsuki had seen his face and were fully confident that he was alive. While they knew what he looked like from his profile when he was back at the Leaf Village, they had a fresh appearance to work with and could even blackmail him by revealing to the world he wasn't dead.

The last thing he needed was for more ninjas to recognize his face.

On the borders of the Land of Rivers.

Hoshikaze appeared, having been teleported by Arthur. Slowly, he reached for the black blindfold that he often wore and wrapped it over his eyes.

As he began to trek towards the village, he felt a ripple in the air. The closer he got, the more evident it became.

It wasn't long before he spotted something extraordinary: a distorted barrier gradually expanding. He paused, forced to assess this unexpected phenomenon.

'It's growing…' he thought to himself, analyzing the strange barrier.

From his approximation, he was only a couple of miles from the village, yet the barrier had already extended far beyond it. His mission was clear; he needed to enter Takumi Village and understand what was happening within.

'Smoke jutsu…'

Before making any hasty decisions, he decided to take flight. From this height, he had a clearer view, and it only heightened his confusion.

He saw what appeared to be frantic movement from the citizens below—like scenes played out in fast motion—and then, as if controlled by an unseen director, they reset back to their original positions.

'Interesting,' he thought to himself.

Every reset seemed to quicken the pace at which the citizens moved, like a speed-up reel in a film that had also snagged in the projector.

'Every minute out here could equal something different in there,' he deduced, noting how the repetitions seemed to increase incrementally.

A minute in the outside world might translate to half a day—maybe even longer—circling within the distorted barrier.

His attention snapped back to the ground as he sensed two familiar figures among the rest: Kakashi Hatake and Jada. They repetitively returned to the same spot near the village entrance.

This was troubling in more ways than one. Once Hoshikaze understood, it was clear that Jada was trapped inside this time loop—a loop that center-staged her interactions with Kakashi.

The lone, jazzed notion: Jada seemed different with each cycle, indicating she retained her awareness, unlike the villagers who were enslaved by the loop's strictures.

He watched her using different tactical maneuvers each time they returned to the reset. Her motions were quick and precise, an indication that she wasn't aware of Hoshikaze watching from the air, and for good reason—he chose to remain undetected.

Perhaps because she was a player like Arthur, she was able to maintain a memory of her past actions, while the villagers—mere NPCs—were bound to the scripted world, unaware of the cycles they were trapped in.

From above, he also saw that she was fighting what looked to be the Four Celestial Symbols Men.

'So she was sent here to stop that event,' he correctly analyzed.

She had come to prevent the four antagonists from capturing Gaara's One-Tail, the ingredient for reviving Seimei. Yet knowing this didn't quite answer the question: how was he going to erase the loop?

To test a theory and the mechanics of the distortion, he decided to throw a kunai into the barrier. It cut through, landing just at the barrier's edge. As predicted, the kunai didn't disappear on impact; instead, it suspended mid-air.

He noted that it fell at an agonizingly slow pace, far slower than the much faster pace below.

The answer became clearer—this barrier was encased in a manipulation of time. Hoshikaze expanded his sensing range and discovered something more interesting: this was Jasper's chakra signature.

Little had Arthur or Hoshikaze known that when Jasper used his Time Travel technique, it created these time distortions. Since it was left unchecked, it had grown considerably, consuming the entire village.

Who knows what will happen if no one does anything about it?

Deciding the risk was warranted, Hoshikaze made his decision. He flew closer to the barrier and crossed its threshold.