not really, because pre-rebirth kako wasn't able to understand what Kashi said, what she was able to understand were his feelings, and pre-rebirth kako reassured him with songs and such, unless Kakashi is able to figure out a whole new language without a frame of reference, and only with scattered words here and there that can (maybe? probably?) mean reassurances, but without knowing the specifics, no, he won't learn English like that.

And after Kako is reborn her mental framework would be too complex and fast paced for a baby, so kakashi would not figure it out at first, that and later on dismiss most of her thoughts for gibberish or some sort of static, because there are a few scattered thoughts that can be understood, for the time that Kakashi learned of who is exactly his soulmate, he would know that Kako is not a threat, add the fact that Kakashi can control what to send and yup, not that much of a security risk.

I would argue that pre-birth Shikako (considering her love of anime/manga) would have realized that the voice in her head was speaking in Japanese and make a concerted effort to learn the language. If she did then I think Kakashi would have no problem figuring out her language.

So, we're not going with the soul bond was present in Shikako's previous life? My bad, I thought we were.

Both are interesting, maybe an AU where the soulbond existed before Shikako's birth. It does make things more complicated but it can also result in a lot of great things.

But I am honestly more interested in the telepathic link during Shikako's childhood. Like, her terror and fear at times like the Uchiha Massacre and Kakashi's wild theories about how she knew/suspected, or him being a complete wreck after a mission or a nightmare and then in the blank numbness of his mind little Kako starts singing this tune that he can't quite understand but it gives him back just a spark of hope. Or Kakashi not knowing who his soulmate is until their fight with Zabuza in Wave or something. I feed off angst. And Fluff.

Oh! Ooo, ooo, ooo.

Shikako's thoughts are in English but names aren't. Shikako as an infant isn't going to curb her thoughts which means the first clue that Kakashi gets to his soulmate's identity is the word: Shikamaru. Considering it's her twin, Shikako is going to be thinking it fairly frequently and also considering it doesn't have a homonym in English, it's going to stand out like a sore thumb.

Que an awkward Kakashi hovering around the Naras trying to figure out which one is his soulmate. Or going to hilarious lengths to avoid them because he doesn't believe he deserves to meet his soulmate.

Wait, that's so sad for Kakashi, Lady.

Preface, that I'm going to use 'feels' interchangeably with the idea that they each have an idea of how the other's feeling by the tone and timbre of their thoughts or even just the general impressions that transmit down the bond, since we don't always think in full sentences - how much feelings/pain/whatever actually gets directly transmitted through the bond is, I think up to personal interpretation/preference of the reader.

Okay, so, Prekako and Kakashi are soulmates, and they share a mind-bond. By my math, she's probably 4-8 when Kakashi's born. If we're going with the 'manipulates chakra' thing for activation on the Naruto side, then she's probably 7-11 the first time they hear each other. Unlike in Shinobi culture, we here on peaceful earth are very open about sharing with our soulmates. very few people have important secrets to hide, and none of them are children. When Prekako first feels her soulmate, she quickly, joyously responds. And, when she realizes they don't understand each other, she does her best to send formless happiness and excitement and interest instead.

Kakashi was Not. Prepared. No one expected him to manipulate chakra so young, so he only vaguely new about soulmates. He didn't know it would be like this. Though, even if they had known, they still wouldn't have been able to prepare him properly. Who shares so openly? Is his soulmate some especially naive civilian? Where the hell is she form that she speaks an entirely different language????

(He's a good little rule follower. He tells his father what he's been feeling, and what he's sent back, and they report it, but it's deemed okay. Luckily, he's a very regimented person. He learns how to control his very thoughts, how to carefully compartmentalize. He has not, will not, leak Konoha's secrets. That doesn't mean he can't appreciate his soulmate's nonsensical interactions in the safe, unclassified regions of his mind.)

But regardless, Prekako is interested enough that she keeps trying, and slowly... they bond. She gets gruff impressions of encouragement when she's trying not to let him realize her sadness (it's not like she can turn off her thoughts!) and he gets active worry and support when he goes blank. He gets cranky when pop-y songs get stuck in her head, but she feels a vague interest when she's singing along to the complicated, swelling ballads of Broadway or Disney movies. He doesn't have much equivalent to send back, but he picks up some of the ones with simple beats and words, and tries to send those back when she needs a pick me up. (It works, surprisingly well. How can you not laugh when you're nervous about a speech, but your soulmate tries to sing, "Letsu get down ta bizunesu ~ du di-fiiiii te huns! *da nana nanaNA! da nana... daNA!*" while clearly having no idea what the song is about, other than its motivating beat. Which, in itself is odd. Does her soulmate live under a rock? How does he not know the Disney classics???)

He has no frame of reference for English, but she can at least figure out he's thinking in Japanese. And she doesn't go too far out of her way to learn Japanese (are foreign language programs better in New Zealand than in the U.S.? I'll assume not) but she likes anime and her soulmate is Japanese, so she has incentive to at least try and pick a few things up.

(Oyasuminasai! She thinks very deliberately one night as she's going to sleep. It's 9 AM in Konoha and Kakashi very deliberately does not answer, in case she is some sort of enemy trying to figure out his location by the time of day, and crap she either knows or has the ability to learn his language, this is now a potential security breach and he has to report her. Luckily, nothing comes form it, but he does learn to be more careful.)

She's there trying to sooth him with a gentle tone after his father's disgracement, and she doesn't let up the stream of comforting words for hours during his distress at Sakumo's suicide.

He pushes her away, a bit, in his grief, but not completely. Even as he lets his exterior become the perfect, emotionless shinobi he thinks he should be, he doesn't destroy the little compartment of happiness in his mind that he's created for her, as he should. The guilt for that goes into a different compartment, with the easily ignored voices that say his behavior - both saving her and abandoning his father's ideals - is wrong.

Then one day, he feel's his soulmate's terror and pain and- nothing.

He felt his soulmate die, terribly and likely young and... did he really ever expect differently? After his father and Obito and Rin (and just a few months later, Sensei and Kushina)? Of course he goes into Anbu after that. There is no one left for him, not even the nebulous promise of his far-off other half and the few he might have reached out for - Gai, Naruto - are better off without him. The only thing left for him is the village and ideals his loved ones held dear. He can at least uphold those - that doing so will likely end him soon too is just a bonus.

Anbu - Root? - Hound is not one to allow himself emotions, but when he feels the gurgling happiness in the back of his mind that signifies he has a new soulmate - some happy infant, he didn't even know this was possible - he hates. (He fears, he wants, but such things have long been beaten out of the shinobi that is all he allows himself to be.)

Unlike last time, he contains himself, never willingly sending thoughts down the bond. He doesn't need to know her (doesn't need to care for her, to let her know for certain the ugliness of his thoughts.)

When her brain develops enough to put together coherent thoughts, he recognizes some of the words - from the language of his old soulmate. And it's so familiar, there's that instinctive moment of acceptance, of hope, before he remembers he's Hatake-freaking-Kakashi. Of course it's not her. She's dead, terribly, like everyone else. Of course he was somehow given a second, innocent, soulmate, only for her to, again be someone completely out of his reach. Except then she starts learning his language, much, much faster than than before.

And then she let's slip that her brother's name is "Shikamaru," while singing the boy an awfully familiar lullaby...

And because I'm a horrible, horrible person.. When I read what you wrote, I was inspired to write this.

Kakashi is on a mission, not a particularly hard one but still a mission. He hadn't been sent on any difficult ones since Rin's death. Sensei is worried about him at the way he demands to be sent on mission but he doesn't understand him, no one does except his soul mate that sends soothing touches whenever he starts to spiral. He doesn't tell her how much he means to him that she's there, he wishes he could see her - meet her. Then while he in the middle of a fight, he feels her terror scurrying from her side, her silent screaming like claws across his mind.

Kakashi takes a kunai to the stomach in his moment of distraction but he doesn't even notice it. He tries to reach out to her, wishing desperately that he could teleport to her the way Sensei could, but he can't; all he can do is stand there helplessly, trying to soothe her and praying whatever that is scaring her to disappear.

He hears her sobbing words that he doesn't understand but can guess. 'Please… someone. Help. ' She repeats the last word a few more times and then nothing.

Kakashi plunges his kunai in another bandit, trying to reach her but there is nothing left. There isn't even the presence of her left. He feels a hot, trickle of liquid running down his face and onto his mask. It's not tears, it's blood from a head wound he had taken whole distracted. The fight is over and the medic is patching him up, scolding him for being so reckless and distracted. All Kakashi feels is this gaping void in his chest that seems to flutter with each breath he takes that he does not deserve to take. Rin is dead and Obito is dead and now so is she. Why does everyone that he loves leave him? His eyes are dead when his team reports in for debriefing. Kakashi looks at his Sensei and thinks he can't do this anymore. If everyone he loves dies then Sensei would be better off without him. He kills the churning emotions in him and joins Anbu.

Ah! Orlha! No! (Orlha, yes!)

Mwhaha! This was great! I must be evil for enjoying this so much. Math, orlha, you are both great! Thank you so much for sharing. Now...for some Shikako angst!

If Shikako regretted one thing about dying, it was the fact that she left her soulmate. He had been going though a lot when she died. What he was going though, she didn't know for sure, but she thought some of those closest to him might have died. If that was true, then she regretted her death even more because it would have hurt him so much.

Sometimes, when being a baby was too much, this new life, she would try to reach out to him. But she always meet with nothing and she remembered she left him alone. Shikako hated a part of herself for that. For leaving him alone.

And for that reason alone, she was sure was why she didn't get another soulmate in this life. She didn't deserve one after abandoning her last one when he needed her most.

Oh, crap, Lady. Good point. And if she ever figures out it's the same soulmate she had before, she's going to think he's not responding because he's angry at her for dying! (Which, not totally untrue, but not in the way she thinks.)

There are so many hijinks with each realizing A) that they have the same soulmate B) that said soulmate is Hatake Kakashi/Nara Shikako C) that Shikako remembers her previous life, much less the Naruto manga.

That said, Kakashi being her soulmate pre-rebirth might actualyl be good for Shikako's self esteem and feelings that she 'doesn't belong' in the Naruto universe like the 'real' characters do.

It would be interesting if Shikako told Kakashi that she remembers her past life with him as her soulmate but doesn't tell him about the whole Naruto the Anime thing. He would definitely keep her secret in this case whereas Shikako might think he'd inform a superior if he knew she had future knowledge.

A bond so strong that it literally transcends dimensions.

~

This sensation shouldn't be familiar. Kakashi senses his soulmates as she passes on. Again. The far removed part of him notes that she's not as panicky as his last soulmate was when faced with death. The bitter part of him thinks that he's last life must have truly been heinous if he is loosing his soulmate twice. Mentally, Kakashi curls himself into a ball. There is nothing to do but wait it out. Soon she'll be gone just like his first (Just like Obito and Rin and Minato and Father and Kushina...)

Then everything changes.

The screaming stops as something forces itself through her, through their bond as weak as it is, and brushes up against his very soul. It felt ancient. Powerful. Like a Tailed Beast without the all consuming hate that poured off of them if that was possible. Was certainly shouldn't be possible is soulmate literally transforming into something that was certainly not human.

You would fight a god? The question wasn't directed at him, Kakashi had no idea who it was directed at, but he heard it all the same. It was tinged with his soulmates voice (both of them) and yet overwhelmed by something else. He re-evaluated his assessment. His soulmate was not transforming, no, she was being absorbed like a drop of water into the dirt. Kakashi wanted to reach out to her, to try and pull her away from whatever was eating her but he was afraid. What if he made it worse? Of course he was going to make it worse.

He didn't have to. Whatever came retreated from his senses in a burst. The only thing that it left behind was a strange longing. Cautiously, Kakashi reached out to his second soulmate for the first time ever. He needed to see if it had left her as well as him. He couldn't feel the foreign entity but he could feel how hollowed out his soulmate was by...whatever it is that just happened. In a moment of weakness, he sends out some soothing emotions. There was a shock of surprise at her end when she felt them and Kakashi quickly retreated again.

He fully intends to pretend this had never happened except he gets back to Konoha and his most fragile Genin is in the hospital and the report that he gets from Tsuande sounds way to familiar.

Ah! Briar! Yes! Very sad! (And man, feeling her dying twice, and the second time would just be a sudden cut-out, with no hint as to what happened.)

Voldecourt - Yes. I agree with that combo. Something about revealing the future knowledge tends to rub my interest the wrong way, but knowing that they're each the same soulmate (and that she remembers him) would do wonders for some of Kakashi's angst. It could be very fluffy... once they both get over their bags of neurosis and self-recrimination enough to talk to each other about it.

Can someone please write the scene where it is all revealed and start with Kakashi saying "You died." ? Pretty please?

Well...not what Briar wanted as apparently I'm in the mood to write angst...and sorry L's Cappuccino couldn't fit in your suggested angst...I did think about it though...so enjoy!

Shikako stiffen as she felt a sense of soothing emotions that weren't hers. She had felt such emotions before...just not in this life. The emotions lingered but they were fading again as the person who sent them wasn't keeping them up. Had...No she couldn't have imagined that. Not in the state she was in. But...she had lost her soulmate. Had lost him when she died the first time.

Naruto and Shikamaru were asking again if she was okay. She told them she was, because she had to be okay. She'll be okay. If she said she was enough. She'll focus more on being okay than on...than on her soulmate bond she...she shouldn't have.

That night as she laid in her sleeping roll, trying to go to sleep, Shikako did something she had stopped doing when she was two...in this life at least. She reached out for her soulmate. Feelings of curiosity, caution, hope, longing, and apologies. There was nothing. Just like the last time she had tried. Shikako cursed herself for even hoping. There was no way her soulmate was here, she had left him. Left him in the world Before.

It had been him, the one from Before. Gelel probably had something to do with it. A lingering. Becoming a god must have caused a brief connection with him or an echo. An echo was probably more likely. She doubt her soulmate would have sent her soothing feelings after she abandoned him.

Shikako curled into herself and ignored the tears that fell as an old wound she thought had closed, opened again.

Kakashi had snuck into the hospital room, which was a bit new to him. (Usually he was sneaking out of one, not into one.) But he couldn't stay away. Tsunade had informed him of what happened and...and...

A part of him was still very much in denial about what he had pieced together. He wasn't as close with his second soulmate as he had been with the first. And he had stopped getting deliberate messages from her about ten years ago. At least until a few days ago. He had nearly responded back to that, (she was so sad) but he knew better. He would just make everything worst. He always made everything worst.

Still, his mind kept pointing to him to the truth. And he didn't know what to do. He should run, run as far away as possible...but he hadn't even been there and she had...she had...

He remembered, in the early years, that he would sometimes get flashes from her. (He would deny it, even to himself, but he treasured those, even though he knew he had no right to do so.) But as she had gotten older...they had happened less often. (He missed those.) He had concluded that this time his soulmate had been trained as a shinobi, not...some civilian from some unknown country.

(Maybe this time she'll live. If he stayed far enough away, that is.)

He didn't want to believe it. Believe that...

"Kaka-sensei, you're late."

Kakashi flinched at her voice. Now that he had the pieces...

"Sorry, that was a bad joke," she rasped.

He really did not want to believe that his female student was his second soulmate.

In response to Briar's request.. Although I realise my 'you died' ended up at the end.. Oops! Oh well

Kakashi stares at Shikako, his jaw heavy with unsaid words. He had written off the time in Gelel as a fluke, but this time, this time he knew. He had been there, so close yet so far to protect her. He felt her gasp as she reached for the last of her chakra reserves, the touch of apologies as she fell. Shikako is his soul mate and she died in front of him. Tiredly, he runs a hand through his unruly hair, ignoring Sasuke's pointed looks. He swore to kill his emotions when his first soul mate died. Yet here he was panicking over his second.

No, not quite his second. Kakashi isn't sure what it is, but there is something about Shikako that reminds him of his first soul mate. He brushes a tentative hand against her mind and a song that his first soul mate used to sing to him springs into his mind. He hasn't sung that song since she died. Kakashi digs his elbows into his thighs, head hanging heavily down. Had it been any other medic at the scene, he'd have lost her again. Had it been anyone but Tsunade, he'd have lost her again.

'Kakashi -sensei? ' he hears her, not through her mouth but the touch of her mind.

'Shikako-chan? '

'Sensei, how... Do you know that song?'

He fumbles for a reason - at trying to explain an S rank secret about his ex-soul mate to his new soul mate when Kakashi freezes. She hadn't asked what song it was, she asked how he knew that song. 'You know this song?' he asks, scarcely able to breathe in fear what his mind has deduced turns out to be wrong. The hope that she is the same soul mate is too much to bear, but she smiles, her hand reaches out from under the blanket and curls into his. Shikako doesn't answer, she doesn't have to. Not when she picks the song off where he stops, 'if the sky that we look upon should tumble and fall.'

Kakashi palms his exposed eye, his lips are trembling not with grief but for the first time in his memories, with joy. "You died, " he finally says out loud. He doesn't care that the rest of the Konoha ninjas are looking at him strangely for gripping so tightly onto her hand.

"I'm sorry."

"Had it been anyone else but Tsunade, you'd have been dead. Permanently."

"I'm sorry."

He squeezes her hand, taking a deep, slow breath. 'I could have lost you again.'

'Would this be a bad time to tell you I remember everything from the past life?'

Kakashi groans loudly and from wanting to hide and protect Shikako from everything, he now wants to strangle her.

Omg guys, all of these are soo sooo good!

And that last line was great, had me laughing.

Mah! I have warm fuzzys now. Thank you so much for sharing orlha! And you're right the kyuubi attack would be another great angst scene...though...does the soulmate bound reconnect once she's born or when she starts playing with chakra? oh and if it's from when Shikako's born does that mean Kakashi's been having screaming 'I'm-in-pain' soulmate for that week in his head? And now I'm wondering if that happened, then does he rethink about the conclusion he came to about his soulmate dying? Is he now wondering if maybe she's been in a coma or something for the last several months? And if he comes to that conclusion of what happened, how confuse is he when he finds out it's Shikako who's his soulmate? After all she would be the 'wrong' age...

I am way too invested in this idea now...

And another though of Jiraiya somehow getting the information about Kakashi's and Shikako's odd soulmate bond and that their bond has survived death. Thus the newest Icha Icha is written!

Omg. I can imagine Jiraiya's book. Icha Icha Fate.

• He loved her and she loved him. She was a princess of the Stars and he was a shinobi from the Konoha.
• She's dying in a civil war and she is reborn as a child Konoha.
• He kills his emotions after she dies and becomes the Howling Stone Dragon assassin that is reputed to have over a thousand kills.
• She becomes a ninja and is taught by him.
• Then when she's 15, she almost dies and suddenly they realise that she/he is the same soulmate
• Insert needless porn
• They get caught by fellow ninja
• Outrage over him being sensei and she being his student
• They meet in secret in the woods (insert needless porn)
• She goes on another mission and almost dies
• He decided that if he can't be with her, then he doesn't want to be a ninja too.
• He resigns and spend his days by her bedside waiting for her to wake.
• She wakes and their families conceded. They move in together
• Insert needless porn
• Insert wedding then insert wedding porn.

What if it's normal to have a soulmate from another dimension, but you Never Meet Them, Ever?

Like, parallel universes, and this is the person most like you, or whatnot? But Naruto-canon has alternate dimensions, so it would make sense. They just never meet. It's not like your soulmate is a summoned animal either, it's another human, in another world, and there's no way to meet them.

It could be one of Orochimaru's goals, to eventually cross over and see this other dimension and meet his soulmate, but that could have given him the fire to work faster at it.

Orlha, that was super cute! I can see Shikako being so happy she has someone to talk to about earth with. Small things, like the plot of Star Wars and how she's stoked to own a light saber of her own. The Harry Potter books. Spaghetti and Meatballs. Shakespeare. Disney. Everything that she lost and misses. And then I have this image of Kakashi trying to make some food from her old world for her and failing utterly. I think being able to talk about the entire culture she lost would help Shikako a lot.