Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto..
The Hidden Rain ninja looked at the man who had just killed him. As his hitai-ate slipped from his bloodied hands he whispered his last words that left his enemy numb.
" White Fang..."
Kakashi looked at the dead ninja before him and tucked the kunai back to his pouch.
' Baka ninja...' Kakashi thought as old forgotten memories rushed back to his mind.
...Blood all over the floor, dead man lying there with a broken katana beside him. Sensei yelling Kakashi's name somewhere close. Running to the seven-year-old boy, crouching next to him and taking him away from his father, away from that memory...
" Are you alright Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura's voice broke Kakashi's thoughts and he noticed his genins looking at him with worried expressions on their faces.
" I'm fine Sakura, lets go, our mission is over." Kakashi said and was about to jump to a close branch.
" Kakashi-sensei, who is White Fang?" Naruto's voice reached him and made him stop.
" A very stupid man, who did nothing good in his life." Kakashi said after a while with a strange voice.
Sakura and Sasuke heard pain and anger in his voice and tried to prevent Naruto from asking any further questions, since the subject obviously didn't please their sensei.
" He must have done at least something good. What did he do?" Naruto asked while dodging Sakura's punch and Sasuke's hands.
" Killed himself." Kakashi's reply came with a dull and grey tone.
His genins looked at his back stunned and with their brow's frowned.
This obviously wasn't a good subject to talk about.
" Why did the Rain ninja call you White Fang?" Sakura asked with a whisper.
" Enough with the questions. Lets go." Kakashi said and disappeared into the woods not caring if the three followed or not.
The Genins ran after him and the way back to the village was silent.
Three days later Sakura, Naruto or Sasuke couldn't find their sensei anywhere.
After visiting Tsunade-sama and asking from her, they finally found out that Kakashi was sick and was in the hospital in quarantine, not having any visitors for a week.
Very suspicious and they didn't believe it.
They had Gai-sensei replacing Kakashi and they sparred with Neji, Tenten and Lee.
After a week with Gai and his youthful students they finally asked Gai where Kakashi was.
Gai looked at them with upset face.
" Ah yes, he's in the hospital for few more days. My poor eternal rival is sick with something unyouthful and dangerous. Or then he is just trying to avoid my youthful decision of our next blooming rivalry contest..." Gai complained with a tragic voice.
" Gai-sensei, who was White Fang?" Sasuke asked suddenly and Gai froze in the middle of his 'good guy pose'.
" Has Kakashi told you about him?" Gai looked surprised and rather shocked.
" He hasn't told us anything important except that, that Fang-guy killed himself and did nothing good." Naruto yelled in frustration.
" That's meanly said about him..." They heard a voice.
" Ero Sennin!" Naruto yelled and pointed an accusing finger towards a man who emerged from the bushes nearby. Everyone remembered that there was a hot spring nearby, so the Sannin's motives were obvious…
" Stop calling me that brat." Jiraiya yelled.
" Jiraiya-sama." Gai greeted and the Sannin nodded.
" White Fang of Konoha did a lot of things in his life that affected your sensei, and he was almost as good as the legendary Sannins." Gai said with a proud tone in his voice and Jiraiya smiled.
" Just almost..." Jiraiya chuckled and held his thumb up.
" But..." Naruto started but then he saw something far more interesting.
" Look." He pointed to the forest line.
A fast shape moved from branch to branch making his way towards the Hokage's building.
It was a man, his clothes were black apart from his white armour and white wolf-shaped Anbu mask on his face. Spiky silver hair gave him away though.
" Kakashi-sensei..." Naruto whispered in disbelief.
" Oh no..." Gai muttered and he and Jiraiya exchanged looks. Kakashi was supposed to be in the hospital…
" Why is Kakashi-sensei dressed in ANBU gear?" Sakura asked and turned to the older men.
" Well... you see... Kakashi takes S-class missions once in a while to..to..." Gai started but then he wondered why did the eternal rival willingly take those suicide missions? He had never really found out.
" It's a habit of his, don't bother asking why, nobody knows for sure. It's probably Kakashi's way to ease something. He has taken more S-class missions than any other jounin." Jiraiya said as he watched the man jump out of sight. Probably to Tsunade's office.
" That suicidal habit began after Yondaime died and Kakashi was left alone... You have to understand that Kakashi has his reasons to seal away his past, away from you, us and especially from himself." Gai said and looked at the genins.
" Everyone of us has a tragic past." Sasuke muttered and Gai looked at the Uchiha smiling sadly.
" Kakashi lost his family few years younger than you lost yours, but at least you had some sort of friends to keep you from falling a part. Not that you are that type which falls apart… Kakashi was feared by most of the villagers, especially after his team..." Gai said, but before he could finish Jiraiya stopped him.
" Gai. Kakashi might want to keep something of that info hidden."
" Then you know about Kakashi's past?" Naruto asked. " Why did the villagers fear him?"
" Because of the blood in his hands... Because he is a genius." Jiraiya saddly said and then pulled Gai with him and started walking with him to the nearest bar. He needed a drink, big one, before the Copy ninja would come and kill him.
" Lets go to sensei's place." Naruto decided and dragged the two other genins with him. (That would be a funny sight… Naruto dragging Sakura and Sasuke, they aren't the type to be dragged around…)
Kakashi didn't open his door and so Naruto went off to his balcony followed by Sasuke and Sakura.
The room was dark, they couldn't see anything but dark spots in the carpet and a bloodied katana leaning to a chair.
" Blood... We shouldn't be here…" Sakura whispered as she saw the carpet.
There was a bone white wolf mask in the table and it was mostly blood red as was the white armour lying on the chair.
The genins were scared half dead when Kakashi opened the balcony door.
" Come in." Kakashi's voice was back to it's calm tone. He seemed a bit dazed though.
Kakashi sat back to his bed as his students carefully entered the room.
Kakashi was untying the white laces covering his legs.
" Sensei, are you hurt?" Sakura's voice came to Kakashi a bit echoing.
" I'll live." Kakashi muttered as he got rid of the blood stained laces and threw them to the floor.
" But..." Sakura whispered as Kakashi turned his face to look at her and they got a good look at him. His face was covered by blood as was his mask, his blood or some other's, even Kakashi wasn't sure.
" I'm fine Sakura, I've been in worse condition than this and survived. And what are you doing here anyway?" Kakashi's voice sounded drained and tired. 'It must be the blood loss,' Kakashi thought to himself.
" We saw you when you came back and decided to see if you're okay." Sasuke said and Kakashi smiled a bit.
" There's a medic kit in the right cupboard, could you bring it to me, Sakura?" Kakashi asked and Sakura got up from where she had been sitting.
" Are sure you're okay sensei?" Naruto asked as he saw a flash of pain in Kakashi's eyes as he reached for the hitai-ate in the table next to him. It wasn't covering his left eye, which left the Sharingan exposed and drained his chakra.
" Yes Naruto. It'll just take some time for me to recover. That's all." Kakashi answered and took the medic kit from Sakura and opened it.
" How did you get yourself hurt so badly?" Sakura asked as Kakashi cleaned and tied up a wound in his left leg.
" Have you ever fought against five high level missing-nins and gotten away with it uninjured?" A grumpy voice asked and Pakkun appeared beside Kakashi and gave him a paper.
" From the Hokage." The little dog added to Kakashi who frowned as he read the note.
" I'm sorry, but I have to go again... Gai will be your sensei for a while." Kakashi said to his genins, who looked at him shocked. Kakashi put on his armour and took the wolf mask from the table.
" But Kakashi-sensei, you are barely able to walk." Sakura yelled as Kakashi walked slowly to the door.
Kakashi put his mask on and looked at the children behind him.
' How naive and innocent they are,' Kakashi thought smiling to himself, ' I never had that luxury.'
" Life of a shinobi is for the village and when the village asks, you go." Kakashi said out loud with a hint of coldness in his voice and Pakkun nodded. He remained on the bed where he had appeared.
" Who are you going after?" The dog asked as Kakashi opened the door. The little dog hadn't read the note.
Kakashi stopped and Pakkun seemed to understand why Kakashi didn't answer. The Uchiha kid might snap, so Kakashi remained silent.
" Finally a lead of him, but you have not recovered from you're previous fight with him. He's too strong for you even though you have the Sharingan..." Pakkun muttered ignoring Kakashi's silence. Pakkun was a bit too blabbering kind of a dog for Kakashi's taste.
Sasuke stared at the dog and Kakashi was gone in a blink of an eye.
" Who are you talking about?" Sasuke asked silently. Sasuke had a pretty good hunch on who's name was left unsaid.
" Your baka brother, he almost killed Kakashi the last time they fought, Kakashi is still injured from that." Pakkun said, it was probably okay now to say it. Pakkun knew that Kakashi didn't like little children begging to be taken with him to possible suicide missions. Sasuke would have asked to get along.
" But how can sensei still be injured?" Sakura asked as she watched Sasuke's temper rise slowly.
" It wasn't anything that can be healed, Itachi has Mangekyo Sharingan. Third level of the mirror wheel eye. He can attack people mentally. Remember? Kakashi was out for a month after his fight with Itachi, so was Sasuke. They were mentally too drained and Tsunade recovered their mental stability with some jutsu." Pakkun explained.
" He can show people their worst nightmares... What did he show Kakashi?" Sasuke asked surprisingly calm. Sasuke still remembered his brother's attack on him few months earlier and knew that he was still too weak to defeat the older Uchiha.
" He didn't talk about it, but I think that he saw the night his life was shattered." Pakkun said quietly as if fearing that Kakashi could hear him.
" What happened?" Naruto asked. He didn't quite understand.
" It's up to Kakashi to tell you, but I can say that the Hatake family lost two geniuses that night. Kakashi has been torn between the past and present ever since." Pakkun said and disappeared in a puff of smoke, Kakashi must have summoned him again.
A/N: Don't know if this is any good... There's a lot of this story on my computer...should I continue?