CHAPTER 16: Hospital Delusions

Sakumo sat beside Kakashi's motionless body. His nervousness was evident in his posture, the constant tapping of his feet, fidgeting fingers, and his fast-paced breathing. He will also jolt at the slightest sound, it showed when Hiruzen came into the room to visit.

The sound of the sliding door made him grab his kunai pouch and his body flickered to Hiruzen's location only to retract when he realized he almost slid his leader's throat. He immediately apologized to Hiruzen, but Hiruzen didn't mind.

Sakumo is a seasoned shinobi, but he is also a broken man, well most ninjas are but he lost his wife and he doesn't want to lose his son too. He's not in the right mind now, he's defensive, guarded, worried, and is only relying on his instincts to function. He hasn't slept for days.

Kakashi has been in a coma for a week and hasn't woken up, making Sakumo fear the worst.

"Sakumo, how about you get some sleep? Hmm?" Hiruzen suggested as he tapped Sakumo's shoulders, but he stubbornly refused, which caused him to frown. "Sakumo...your son will be fine. He's strong. He's not weak." he said as he tried to mitigate his worries.

"I know he's not weak. I know he's strong, but after the conversation, we had before, before he became like this. I, I don't think I know my son well enough."

Hiruzen became intrigued and asked him to go into detail.

"Well, my son said that he had a dream that he had a dream about me, and um...he ugh." he stopped midway as his eyes, his head, began to be in pain. Hiruzen told him that he needs to rest, but Sakumo still denied the suggestion until Hiruzen told him that it was an order.

Sakumo, no matter how much he wanted to deny it, couldn't say 'no' to that.

The Hokage's words and commands are law. Sakumo although acknowledged as someone very powerful he was still beneath the Hokage in terms of power.

Besides, he respects Hiruzen so he did as he was commanded to. He walked away and looked back at Kakashi. Hiruzen gave him knowing eyes, telling him that he will look after him. Sakumo nodded and left.

After he left, Hiruzen looked over at Kakashi and whispered to him, telling him that he needs to get better because his father is worried about him and that when he finally does get better he shouldn't immediately return to training.

He should rest for a few more days and spend a little bit more time with his father. Hiruzen said all of this out loud in hopes that he could hear him, after all, Kakashi was quite similar to Sakumo when he was younger. A prodigy, stubborn, reckless, and arrogant.

He chuckled at the reminiscent and did the hand signs for a shadow clone to watch over Kakashi, before leaving to go back to the office.

Meanwhile, Kakashi's soul was resting inside his mindscape. He was at peace. He felt that he was sleeping on a comfortable, cotton, fluffy bed that felt strangely familiar.

He has never slept on this bed before, nor has he ever let his guard down this much, so he jolts awake. Eyes scanning, ready to kill. However, the more he looks around the more that he realized, that the room he was present in didn't possess any threat nor did it have any people in it.

He tried to focus, spread, and hide his chakra to find out if there is anyone present in this house but quickly realized that the place he was in was so big, that it couldn't even be comparable to Konoha. It freaked him out.

The palace was beautiful. White marbled floors, sometimes even black, white concreted pillars and ceilings that had foreign beautiful paintings that seemed to explain its history uniquely and intricately.

In short, it looks like something you'd see when you time-traveled to ancient Rome except the ceilings, and pillars were as tall as skyscrapers, and the place itself was bigger than Russia. It was massive.

'Did something like this ever exist in Konoha? I don't remember. Damn how am I supposed to escape from this execution palace, or did I die again.' he thought to himself. However, he wondered why he was so calm about it, he knew he was and is suicidal but he had a timeline he wanted to save.

A purpose. So why? To answer his question, he is stuck in his mind that he or past self-created. It is Princep's home.

Kakashi couldn't sense any chakra but he could see using chakra. The weirdest thing about this place was that, even though this place didn't have any chakra signatures present it seems to have boosted his chakra reserves, the longer he stays. 'Useful, but it won't be useful when I'm dead. Or at least I refuse to believe I am dead.' he joked.

He then felt the unusual energy behind him. He immediately body flickered behind the white-robed man, kicked him down, had his knee on both his hands, his hand on his neck had his kunai is positioned right in front of his eye.

The man didn't move, flinch, or respond when Kakashi was interrogating him. He laid there, doing absolutely nothing. He wondered if this was some sort of trap so he jumped away from him, but the man just flipped his body and continued to lay down? Kakashi was confused at this point.

Kakashi looked around, searching for his comrades but he didn't sense that strange energy anywhere. It only radiated from this monstrous place and this man. If he didn't appear right behind him and hid somewhere around this place, he would've been difficult to spot because this entire palace oozed with this otherworldly energy.

"The energy you're referring to is called Mana." the man said, causing Kakashi to go back to a defensive stance but then realized that it was way too obvious that he was interrogating him, so he just nonchalantly walks over to him.

"Really?"

"Mhm."

"..."

"..."

"So what is 'Mana' and your name? I never got your name."

"Princeps. That's my name," he says without any retaliation, which made Kakashi curious. This man didn't look strong but for him to just lay down without any sort of guard said a lot, or he was just a complete idiot that was too overconfident with his skills.

"If you think I'm an idiot who's way too overconfident with my skills, you're wrong. I'm not that arrogant, you know," he said. Kakashi was bewildered by not only his answer but what he looked like when he stood up to properly face him.

He looked like a Hatake and an angel! Princeps had glistening silver hair, much like himself except he had a small bundle of long, straight hair tied right underneath his spiky silver hair. He also wore a white upper garment with gold leaves, vines, and koi fishes embroidered onto it.

He wore a black skirt, a red waist skirt, and a light blue sash wrapped around the waist skirt. A small green jade also hung on his clothing.

"Who are you?" Kakashi asked, completely forgetting that this was an AMBU type of interrogation. The suspect would never answer such questions unless they are innocent.

"Me? I'm you."

"Huh?"