An Inch of Gold

31

Author's Note: As usual, unedited until I can get to it.

_____

"No," Kakashi says, cold suffusing his entire body. This—after everything—is too much to believe. "He's dead. I watched him die, right after he..."

Right after he gave me his eye...

His students are watching him with surprised and curiosity, while their future selves have expressions on their faces like they know exactly what he is thinking of. He must tell them the full story one day, because that's the only way...it can't be the other thing that they're implying.

But Future Sakura's eyes soften sympathetically, and Future Naruto looks troubled, and Future Sasuke's face remains serious. It is to him that Kakashi looks for confirmation. He would not make light or lie about something to do with the Sharingan; Kakashi knows that much, even now.

Questions explode in his mind, and his heart clenches, the first thought ripping through him one of guilt: did he leave Obito to die? Did he let Rin transplant his eye and leave him crushed and dying, without even a proper burial?

"Naruto..." Hinata says, warningly, the veins on her forehead thickening as she continues to stare into the distance. The future Hokage winces.

"We don't have time for this," he declares. "Long story short, Kakashi-sensei, Obito didn't die in the war like you thought, but he was saved by Madara Uchiha—yeah, that Madara Uchiha. And he messed up his head a bunch and turned him into an international criminal mastermind calling himself Tobi, and he's responsible for pretty much every bad thing that happened in Konoha ever. But then you guys reunited, you got through to him, and he switched sides and helped all of us save the world."

There's beat a loaded silence.

Future Sasuke's right eye twitches, and Hinata sighs.

"Naruto..." Future Sakura growls through gritted teeth, clenching a fist. "You're supposed to be an adult now! You're not supposed to just reveal information like that, especially at a time like this!"

"Uh...sorry..."

"Wow, you really never change, do you?" Sakura says to Naruto.

"Tch," Sasuke nods his head in agreement.

"Oi!"

"At any rate," Future Sasuke says, "Kamui presents a problem to us, if Tobi is currently using it. Whatever time he is in, whether it's yours or even a little further on. If he sees anyone in there who shouldn't be, he might start investigating, which we can't allow." He levels a meaningful stare at Kakashi. "Beyond that difficulty, this information has nothing to do with the current you. Put it out of your mind."

And oh, the irony of his one-track minded student telling him to put something out of his mind!

Kakashi is tempted to ignore the directive, but at that moment Hinata murmurs, "Three minutes."

Time is too short for what he wants to know, and every word is another second wasted. If they survive this, if he still wants to know—if he can handle knowing, even for the short time he can remember it, he will ask. But for now, he cannot afford to divide his focus. His students—present and future—are depending on him.

"Then Kamui will have to be an absolute last resort," he says, because even a gambit with a high percentage of failure and possibility of running into...someone who shouldn't be there is better than outright failure.

Future Naruto says. "Then I've got a plan!"

"I hope it's better than your last one," Boruto grumbles. "That got you frozen in time, remember?"