Prologue

This was a solo mission, a solo mission that this particular ANBU was perfect for, this mission was practically made for the guy.

A few days before the Third Hokage had summoned this particular shinobi to his office, the elder man explained the outline of the mission and what was expected of the ANBU, this was a very important mission and if he was to fail there was no knowing what would happen. With a few hurried words of wisdom and a reminder to stay safe the old goat waved the ANBU away with a smile; how could he always do that, be all serious one second and then be happy the next.

The ANBU let out a rare smile of fondness as he hid in the prickly bushes just outside the boarder of the village, he watched the entrance with well trained eyes for any movement the enemy might make while he waited.

This was a small inconspicuous village that was hidden in the Land of the Forests; in the Forest of Bewilderment to be exact, but the few sightings of this place soon rose suspicion within the surrounding towns, as the village grew from nothing it went from only a handful of houses to having a giant wall built around it overnight, within the wall there was only a small opening were the entrance was.

The grey haired ANBU crouched down in the thorny bushes a few meters away from the entrance and waited, this was a recon mission, the elder man had explain that because of his speciality this ANBU would be perfect to gather the information that was needed. The mission sounded easy and simple but that was never the case if an ANBU was sent on a regular Jonin mission, his job was to infiltrate the village and find out if a missing nin by the name of Ayumu was inside, once he had any information on his whereabouts the ANBU was to send word back to the leaf village and then wait for backup to arrive.

It had only been three minutes but it felt like an hour since the ANBU had sent his four legged partner in for a quick snoop around, as he waited petulantly a shadow creped across the opening of the village, as fast as lightning the ANBU had his kunai at the ready and was about to strike when the owner of the shadow popped out the opening and looked around. It was a small light brown miniature pug dog, his dark brown ears priced up as he listened, his black nose twitched and his dark eyes squinted in the darkness as if he was looking for someone.

"Pakkun…over here" The grey haired ANBU whispered as he raised his head slightly for the four legged animal to see him. The small pug dog looked up to see his partner before rushing over without making a sound, his leaf village headband glinting in the soft moonlight.

"There you are Kakashi" The dog panted as he pawed at the dirt beneath him, his blue vest now a mess of thorns and ash.

"Well?" Kakashi asked as he removed his porcelain animal mask from his face, his red sharingan eye watched the pug as he rolled around trying to get the ash off his fur.

"It doesn't look good, the place is empty and burned to the ground but there is something strange about it" Pakkun replied as Kakashi helped him to remove the sharp thorns.

"What is it?" Kakashi asked removing the last thorn from Pakkuns thick brown fur and flicking it away with long slender fingers.

"It's better if I show you" Pakkun said quietly, his paws softly padded in the dirt until he was turned to go the way he had just came; his front paw raised and ready to go.

"Wait..." Kakashi hushed as he slowly looked over from his hiding bush, he heard something but it was so faint the didn't know if he really heard it "...did you hear that?"

Pakkun looked up at Kakashi confused as his ears picked forward, had the stress finally got to his master. The two just sat there hidden in the undergrowth as they stayed silent, both Kakashi and Pakkun listened out for a few minutes, the only thing they could hear was the soft whisper of the wind rushing though the trees; Pakkun was about to give up when a dull thud reached their ears.

"Yes I did" Pakkun trailed off in disbelief as his eyes looked towards the noise, who else was there and why didn't he smell them before? The thuds became more frequent and heavier as someone moved towards the only exit, the smell of ash and death hung heavy in the air and then they saw who it was.

A pair of green irises peered out into the moon lit night making the red sclera behind the green stand out that little bit more, his head was covered in a huge white hood with a black mask covering the bottom of his face, the only visable part was his unique eyes. His huge muscular body was covered in a baggy dark blue t-shirt and light blue bottoms with a white sash wrapped around his waist. The silver headband was mounted on a black material that wrapped around the top of his head, the metal glinted in the light to show he was a missing nin from Takigakure the waterfall village.

Pakkun looked up at his partner in question as the missing nin fled into the shrubbery to the left of the entrance and disappeared into the night.

"We have a mission to do…" Kakashi replied as he gave one more glance over the bush "…he can wait for the time being" Looking both ways before kneeling back down Kakashi creped out of the bush he was hinding behind and tiptoed to the opening.

While watching their step the two made their way slowly into the burned down village, even if the place was empty they still had to be careful; who knows there could be traps everywhere. By the state of things this village could have only been empty for a short while, the piles of ash that had once been houses were still soldering as the debris crumbled away; so if Kakashi had to guess it could've been only thirty to forty five minutes since the fire had died down.

Kakashi causelessly followed Pakkun as he lead the way though the piles of ashes and burnt to the brink structures to what had to be the weirdest thing Kakashi had ever come across in all his life. In the middle the burnt to the ground village was a small hut, a hut that looked like it was newly built. There was a singular wooden door into the small building but there wasn't a window to speak of, the walls were bathed in the bright sliver moonlight as Pakkun sniffed around the sealed wooden door.

"I can smell blood and salty water in there, I think someone's inside with maybe a small animal…" Pakkun said as he continued sniffing at the miniscule gap "…I'm not sure what though"

"It's ok, thanks for the help Pakkun" Kakashi watched as the small pug sat by the door with a doggy kind of smile, suddenly a puff of smoke engulfed the small brown dog and when it had cleared he was gone.

Kakashi glanced at the spot his doggy partner had disappeared before he concentrated on the problem at hand, the door. The thick wooden door was locked from what Kakashi could gather and it had been sealed with what looked like a complex paper bomb, whoever was inside no one wanted them to come out.

With a few hand signs and a bit of waving Kakashi managed to rip the door out of place the threw the thing into the air, the wooden block flew for only two seconds before it blew up, the splintered wood then rained down upon the shinobi as he took a look inside.

Kakashis dark eye squinted in the low light that the open doorway was providing to see a small child huddled into the corner of the room. The sliver moonlight poured into the small space behind the ANBU helping him to see inside better but the young male wished he was blind from what he saw, Pakkun did say he could smell blood but it was astounding to think that with this much blood could come from one small child. There was blood splatter all over the walls and floor, from where he was standing Kakashi could see every movement this child made from the moment the first spot of blood was spilt.

The child in question was huddled out the way in the corner of the small hut, their own blood covered from what Kakashi could see their small naked body from head to toe, their hair was matted with the thick red liquid as they cowered away from the stranger. The moonlight that flooded the now open door kept glinting off the thick sliver chains that were attached to the wrists and ankles of this poor child; Kakashi could hear the snuffles of the child's tears as their body shock with fear.

With his sharingan Kakashi did a quick sweep of the place, he couldn't see any traps but he could now tell that the child was a young girl. Kakashi had to take a deep breath to calm himself down, he felt physically sick seeing this poor girl in this state and his blood boiled; how could anyone do this to an innocent child. Taking one more look around and finding nothing out of the ordinary the shinobi took a step forward, his boot made a dull thud on the blood spattered wooden floor that alerted the child's protector.

A small red fur ball jumped up from behind the young girl and stood before his master in the way of the so called intruder, he tried to bark menacingly at Kakashi but it sounded more like a pitiful yelp as his hackles raised.

"Stay away…" The small blood covered child screamed as she snuck further into the small space "…don't come any closer"

The puppy once again barked at Kakashi as he took another step forward, when he didn't listen the puppy leapt to protect his mistress and his teeth sunk straight into the top of Kakashis left thigh. The male ANBU looked down to see the puppy that was trying to bite a chunk out of his leg when he noticed something glint around the puppy's neck, a collar and name tag.

"You must be Naoki…" Kakashi inquired softly as he stroked the growling puppy on the head "…it's ok little one, I'm here to help" With a small tug and a lot of soft reassurance from the ANBU the small dog let go, he still growled and grumbled at the intruder but from the way the small dog was being held he couldn't sink his teeth into him again.

"Stay away" The small girl cried again as she tried to cover herself the best she could, her small body trying to get even further away as she shuffled back.

"I'm a ANBU black Op, I'm based in the Village hidden in the Leaves…"

"Your from the Leaf Village" The girl whimpered softly as she kept her eyes to the floor, her voice was gruff from disuse or most likely screaming.

"Yes I am" Kakashi confirmed as he knelt down and gently placed Naoki on the floor beside him, with his new freedom Naoki shock himself off before padding off to sit with his owner.

"I…" The young girl stated "…I want to go home" She slowly turned her face towards the ANBU or where she thought he was. Once she was fully facing the ANBU the child's face was hit by a bright beam of moonlight allowing Kakashi to see her fully, he was horrified at what he saw and Kakashi couldn't help when his heart soften for the poor, terrified girl.

"Don't worry…" Kakashi whispered as he gently tried to wipe the blood and tears from her face with a clean cloth"…you're safe now, I will get you home"

A.N. A new and improved prologue. I had an idea for a new story that would invole my OC Mami but it won't work in this story, so I have changed this one about a bit for the two storys to work together. So long and enjoy.