AO3 LINK
Being thrown back in time and into an entirely different dimension is painful. His soul ripped out of his body and forcefully merged with another, one that is technically his own but different, shaped by diverging experiences and thoughts and personality.
Kakashi is torn from his home, finally peaceful and prosperous, and ends up in a home similarly peaceful and prosperous but oh so different.
The first thing he discovers is that he has the memories of the other Kakashi he was mashed into without his consent. And this Kakashi... Well, he never recovered. Not from his grief, not from his self-loathing, not from his isolation. He has no friends, Team Minato is alive and well yet has no part in his life whatsoever. He and Gai never truly build a bond, the Shinobi of the village tend to avoid him, and from what he can tell, everyone is of the opinion that he has no personality, no opinions, and is broken beyond repair. He is not included in conversations, he is not invited out for dinner or drinking or parties, and there is no one to think about his wellbeing. Not anymore.
Kakashi is... he’s done. He’s dealt with a lot in his life, and he cannot truly see himself staying in the village any longer. Especially not now, the village filled with walking corpses of his past, of a Team Seven who never had and will never have him as their jounin-sensei and likely do not even know his name. It will break him. He knows without a shadow of a doubt that if he stays in the village, he will break.
So, he packs his meagre belongings. There’s no Mr. Ukki, no bookshelf filled with bad literature, no framed photographs or handmade dolls or gifted scarves and blankets. He packs his weapons, what little non-perishable food he has, and other traveling necessities. He packs nothing of sentimental value because in this world, he does not have any.
He leaves, in broad daylight, completely unnoticed.
It takes a week before anyone finds out he is even missing, only because a random desk worker tried to assign him for a high-risk mission and he never showed.
