"Is a ninja a monster, a tool, or a person? And if a person, can he be a good one?"
~Umino Iruka
Not Over Til The Papework Is In, PII Ch 5
Prologue
Kakashi attended the fire pit at the center of the camp, knowing it would be the last he could afford to light on this mission. And even here in relatively safe territory, the Copy Nin didn't risk a jutsu-generated fire. Patiently, he waited for the flame to grow before adding a larger twig to the pit.
An older shinobi emerged from amidst the trees, dropping a weighty heap of dry wood by Kakashi's foot. "There. That should be enough to last through the night."
Clasping a large leathery hand on Kakashi's shoulder, he added, "That's a mighty decent fire you got going there. It's nice to see someone in the younger generation remembers how to do it the conventional way."
Kakashi watched as his mission partner settled onto the ground with loose-limbed grace. The elder leaned back on his hands, stretching his spine with the barest of groans.
"If your back is bothering you, Wataru, you should have said something," Kakashi reproved lightly. "I would have gathered the wood."
The jounin laughed, a deep rumbling sound that rose from his chest, "It has nothing to do with the wood, boy. Over fifty years of running missions... that'll tear up your back." The elder wistfully ran his fingers through his closely cropped mane, "As though the grey hair wasn't proof enough that I'm getting old."
"They say that silver hair is a sign of wisdom," Kakashi offered with a shrug, gesturing vaguely at his own hair.
"Huh." Wataru's smoky grey eyes assessed the other consideringly. "No, that definitely doesn't explain it."
A broad smile and friendly nudge followed this statement, and Kakashi grinned back in spite of himself. He fed more wood to the infant fire. Light from the flames flickered across the camp and played against the features of the two elite jounin.
Wataru's expression grew pensive as he watched the blaze. "Jokes aside, Kakashi, I am proud to be partnered with you for the last mission of my career. You're a good man. And a halfway decent ninja too, I suppose."
"So it's been said," the younger ninja replied self-effacingly. Leaning forward and resting an elbow on his knee, Kakashi asked, "And what will you do once you retire?"
"I'm not sure yet. All I know is, I've got to take the wife on a vacation. She is the reason I'm hanging up my flak jacket in the first place."
A fond grin stretched across his weathered face, causing the lines around his eyes to become more prominent. "Civilians… when you're young, they think it's fun and exciting to date an elite shinobi. Brag about it to all their friends, even. Then you age a bit and they nag you to death about doing something more reasonable!" Wataru chuckled. "I'm fit enough for service yet, but she wants me to retire anyway. I figure she's stood by me through all my crazy antics, long absences, and near-death experiences- I ought to let her have her way eventually, ne?"
By now the reluctant flames had been coaxed to a camp fire suitable for cooking. Both ninja planned to enjoy it. After tonight, their diet would consist of raw vegetation and cold military rations.
"What about you, Kakashi?" The elder piped up offhandedly. "I know the kind of missions you run, and yet you still live in that cramped little apartment. Genius like you must be saving up for something down the line."
Kakashi's brows drew together as he considered the question. Having become a genin at the age of five, he'd already spent over two decades in field service and was only just reaching the prime of his strength. In all that time, it had never occurred to him to plan for anything beyond that. "Mah…I'm not too worried about it," the Copy Nin admitted finally. "I probably won't live long enough to retire anyway."
On the opposite side of the country, another group of Konoha jounin darted through the trees.
"The encampment is straight ahead," Ibiki announced. To his left, he noticed the rookie of the team brushing her fingers along her vest and equipment pouches to check on her supplies.
Ibiki assessed the lanky brunette, finding her motions nervous and determined. To be expected, with this being her first mission as a jounin. Though not quite thirteen years old, Kiyo was a competent assassin. Her skills and disarming youth gave her an edge in her field.
The four-man cell arrived at their target: a semi-nomadic clan that recently settled within the borders of Fire Country. A tribe of hunter-gatherers, they supplemented their subsistence with outright thievery. The small border villages cried out to Konoha for protection from the bandits.
Attempts at diplomacy had failed. The nomads continued to harass the surrounding villages, refusing to desist from their pillaging. Neither talks nor treaties could persuade them to leave Fire Country.
Their blatant disregard for Konoha's authority could no longer be tolerated. This team of jounin was the Leaf Village's final answer. Their objective was a simple one: complete elimination.
For formality's sake, Ibiki asked if there were any questions. The mission and their intelligence on the clan's strength and fighting power had been reviewed during briefing.
The rookie hesitated before venturing a query. "What should we do with the innocents, Captain?"
Ibiki eyed her curiously, his scarred lips thinning into a frown. "What part of complete elimination did you not understand?"
"I understand all military targets are to be destroyed," Kiyo responded quickly, not wanting to give the impression that she was losing her nerve. The field of assassination was not for the squeamish, after all. "But this isn't just a military camp. It's also a village. What should we do with the children?"
"Kiyo, you are mistaken," Ibiki explained, "If you believe anyone in that encampment qualifies as a non-military target. Eliminate the adults alone, and the younger generation will carry a life-long hatred for our country. Those children will grow to be a potentially greater threat than their parents."
Another squadmate, an blonde-haired kunoichi in her late thirties, draped her arm around the rookie's slender shoulders and added, "Besides, kid, you should know better than any of us that children can pose just as much danger as the adults."
"In any case," the third added while adjusting his glasses, "Better to nip the problem at the root, than allow it to become a thorn in our side."
Kiyo felt vaguely unsettled as she processed her teammates' explanations - as though there was something more that ought to be considered- yet her mind found no fault in their logic.
She nodded her understanding. Ibiki nodded his approval at the quick acquiescence.
As there were no further questions, the four ninja slipped into the enemy encampment under the cover of night. Splitting up, they silently commenced their systematic slaughter.
The dark-haired adolescent stole into the first crudely built cabin. There, she found a middle aged man asleep on a cot.
Kiyo extended her empty hand. She coaxed her body's energy to her palm and molded it into the form of a pale blue chakra blade. As she closed her fingers around her newly created weapon, the words of her old Academy teacher rose up in her mind, unbidden.
"As ninja it's inevitable that, to protect those around you, you will have to take life."
Sensei paused in his last lecture to his graduates, his gaze sweeping over each of them before turning downward. He looked sad, very sad, and eight-year-old Kiyo frowned because she didn't understand why.
Umino Iruka had not been her sensei for over four years now, yet some of his statements were as fresh in her mind today as the day he'd spoken them.
Iruka-sensei had been a strict teacher. Loud, too. When he yelled, it rumbled through the Academy building. Yet in all the time she'd spent with him- from the day she stepped into the academy at age five, until she graduated three years later- it was the words he'd spoken quietly that ingrained themselves in her memory.
Sensei got loud when his class was misbehaving, or perhaps just underachieving. But when sensei got quiet… that was something different. Something serious.
"There will come a day when you will need to kill for the sake of our village. This is never easy,"
Kiyo's target shifted restlessly in fitful sleep, as though his subconscious sensed the danger. It took only a moment, and a quick slit of his throat, to ensure that he would never move again.
It was rather easy.
When Iruka finally looked up at them again, there was a new hardness in his gaze. "Yet, despite the difficulty of the shinobi life, there is honor in performing our duty..."
The blood had scarcely begun to flow before Kiyo was off, methodically searching the dwelling for another occupant.
She found it in the form of a sleeping toddler- blissfully ignorant of the danger lurking over his bed.
"Never lose sight of that, graduates," Iruka quietly urged. "When you're out on your missions, please, don't forget that deep sense of fulfillment that comes with doing what you must to defend your village and the ones you love."
Swiftly, Kiyo slit this throat also. The child passed from life to death with barely a gurgle.
This time the young jounin paused and stood over the fresh remains, waiting. For several long minutes, she watched the dark pool of blood spread under the chubby toddler body.
And yet, the promised sense of fulfillment never came.
"Sensei…you damn liar," she cursed, before moving off in search of her next victim.