NARUTO: THE TALES OF HAKE

- Prologue -

By "TalesOf."

"The Land of Fire" the name given to the body of land surrounded by water in the west. "Konohagure", "the village hidden in the leaves" some names of the illustrious village in the Land of Fire. Many shinobi have lived in this village, many have desired it. This is the village led by the leader named the "Hokage". There have been many Hokages in the past, right now there have been five. The current Hokage is a Woman by the name of Tsunade. But for the prologue's sake we will go back to the 3rd Hokage, Sarutobi.

Now that you have heard the basics about this village, it is time for you to meet our main character. He was a boy that wore glasses and had slightly long, brown hair who goes by the name Hake Edakumi, of the Edakumi clan. The Edakumi clan is known best for it's outrageous ability to use their blood to paint patterns on their enemies and cause unbelievable things to happen, even for their enemies to come to their instant death. Most information about this clan is completely unknown, in fact, few even have heard of them, in fact, Hake was one of the last of his clan. Hake was a boy of only 9 when he had become a chunin. This was a tremendous feat, something that not many people could ever pull off until at least 12. But no, Hake had done this at the age of 9.

At the age of 9 he came to meet a personal hero of his, a teenager by the name of Hatake Kakashi. 7 years later Kakashi had stopped looking down on Hake as a boy, but rather he began to see him as an apprentice. That is, until the day that Kakashi had gone on to bigger and better things. "One day, Hake, you might even surpass me!" Kakashi would say with what appeared to be a smile under that mask that he had always worn. Hake had taken this to heart and tried his best everyday, through extensive amounts of training to the point of his hands bleeding, to do exactly as Kakashi had said that he would one day do. Though he was Kakashi's apprentice, he still saw himself as nothing compared to what Kakashi was capable of. He wanted Kakashi to stop saying that he would "one day surpass him" but rather that he would say, "Hake you really have grown, you are now even better than me," or better yet, " Hake, you sure have grown, why don't you fight me?" You may not understand why this is such a compliment to a shinobi. For one to take you in as an apprentice is to admit that one is better than you and that you could learn much from him. But for one to say that they want to fight you is a great honor, this means that you have finally owned up to that person's standards and are now a worthy adversary. But once again, Hake had been one-upped by Kakashi once again. For Kakashi had gone on to apply for the ANBU black ops. He was now an elite member of the village, capable of great things. Now, of course, Kakashi was about 7 years older than Hake at the time, but this was still something that bothered Hake.

As Hake wished his dear friend well and saw him off to his initiation into the ANBU he met a girl. This girl was a beautiful young woman, 2 years younger than Hake. Her hair was long and a mint green color. Her eyes were large and a deep green as well. They were hypnotizing to Hake. He stared at her- as she wished her friend well- for quite a while until she could feel his eyes looking at hers from across the room. When she finally turned to look at him, Hake had to immediately look away for fear of falling into her deep gaze once again. He saw out of the corner of his eyes, that she turned back and had begun to smile. He could not see clearly enough for he couldn't look directly at her again, but he was positive he could see her dimples begin to rise from the smile on her beautiful face. Hake began to turn red. This is out of line, you are here for your friend. She probably has a boyfriend already. You can't think of her like that. Don't even talk to her. You are not worth her time! Harsh thoughts indeed but this is something that you tend to think when you are a man in love. You begin to be doubtful. You doubt yourself. You doubt your appearance. You doubt the one you love. This was Hake's feeling exactly at the moment. Trying as hard as he could not to, he could not avoid the constant temptation to look back over at her. Finally the temptation overthrew him, all he wanted to do was turn, once again, and stare at her. Hake turned. She was not there. Where had she gone to? Where else, but to stand right beside Hake. Hake froze. "So do you always look at girls from across the room in such a way or was that just for me?" she asked rhetorically. Thoughts of how to return rushed through his head but all that seemed to come out was, "Why are you here?" A foolish question indeed, of course she was there to see someone important to her join the ANBU, just like himself.

"Probably the same reason you are here I suppose. So who are you here to watch?"

"My friend, Kakashi, the one with the silver hair and the mask."

"Oh him? He's pretty hard to miss!"

"Yeah, he's quite an odd fellow."

There was silence.

"So what is your name?" Hake asked.

"Yuri, what's your's?" Yuri responded.

"Hake, it's nice to meet you Yuri," he said, giving her a good handshake.

"So who are you here for, if I might ask?" continued Hake.

"I am here for my brother Toshimaru, he is the one to the far left with the blue hair and the big old sunglasses."

"The one whose hair looks kinda like a fan?"

"A fan?" Yuri giggled.

"Yeah! I wanna go over there and fold it up and put it in my pocket for if I get hot, later," Hake returned.

Yuri giggled then smiled, "You know, you say that your friend is an odd fellow. I think you are quite the odd one, yourself!" Hake smiled and chuckled for her to hear over the rising roar of applause for the winners of the title of ANBU.

Days passed. Hake's jonin sensei had seemed to all but vanish into thin air. Hake's sensei was a man by the name of Yogari Kayami, a man of little words and a big schedule of things to do. The jonin exams were commencing and Hake had no one to train with. His entire team seemed non-existent to him. They were always off on some kind of mission that required an advanced tracker ninja and a ninja that knew medical jutsus. That was always what they did, teamwork meant nothing to Hake, except that he desperately wanted to have some. Everyone was always leaving him behind. So Hake thought of a brilliant plan. He would train himself for the jonin exams, pass them flawlessly, and then become an ANBU. A few more days had passed. The jonin exams began. Long story short, Hake had trained well enough that part of his dream was fulfilled. He passed the jonin exams without flaws. Then there was the next step become an ANBU.

Three years passed. Hake was much older now, much wiser, knew the code of the ninja from back to front. Hake trained so well that he eventually learned to master the Edakumi clan's bloodline technique. He was ready, willing and perfectly able to be an ANBU. One day the Hokage had asked to see him. He saw him, Kakashi was standing with her, not with an ANBU outfit, rather, just an average jonin outfit. "Hake Edakumi, Kakashi Hatake has officially signed you up to be a sensei, he is fully confident that you will fulfill these duties perfectly and well. Kakashi, himself, has also decided to hang up his ANBU mask and become a sensei to future stars of the hidden leaf village. Kakashi smiled, "Welcome to the big leagues now, Hake. It seems you and I will be equals on the battlegrounds, in fact, someday, I intend to test your might against mine."

Hake was dumbfounded. He had finally reached his goal, his mentor wanted to fight him. But he was not satisfied, he needed more satisfaction, the only cure for this was to become an ANBU. But Hake had faced a difficult conflict, he was a sensei now, he could not be an ANBU. Hake was overwhelmed with anger for a moment until he came to the realization that it was only a matter of time before his students would go on to better things and leave him to himself. So he accepted his fate as a teacher, and he went to see Yuri. Since they first met, Yuri and Hake have become closer and closer. It was only a matter of time before he would finally build the courage to tell her of his love for her. She had been patient all this time, he would let her wait no longer. As he told her of his accomplishment she told him of her's. She had been assigned to learn the ways of a Medical ninja. They were going two different paths. Of course they would see each other a lot. But they wouldn't see each other as much. Hake was about to tell her but had to hold himself back. It was not the time yet. She had to wait for the perfect time, the perfect moment.

And so our story truly begins. Hake had a friend, a love, and two dreams. To become an ANBU, and to one day tell Yuri that he loved her. He was leading a new path in life and he would always have his friends with him. But Hake did not know what amazing things awaited him in the future. He would meet more than evil shinobi, he would have to face the worst of the worst and the best of the best. Decisions that would forever change his life. Good ones and Bad ones. He would see miracles, he would see horrors. But most of all he would see his own story unfold, he would see his life become a Legend. I am here to tell you, the Untold Tales of Hake...

End Prologue...