Disclaimer:I don't own Naruto - the characters belong to Kishimoto

AN: This idea...basically just came to me one day when I was in AP Stats and refused to leave me alone until I wrote it. Now there's easily 5 other ideas biting at my heels and demanding to be written.

xD

So, anyways...this is probably going to be the first in a completely unrelated series of short fics (that were originally only supposed to be drabble-length).

Summary: Kakashi has seen many things in his life, but he does not see Uzumaki Naruto when he looks at the whiskered, blue-eyed blond genin on his team.

I. Ghosts

He couldn't look at the boy. He couldn't not look at the boy.

Hatake Kakashi had seen many things during his lifetime as a shinobi – his father, dead from his own hand; Obito, dying underneath the rockslide; Namikaze Minato, facing his death with proud accepting eyes as he sealed the Kyuubi; Jiraiya, proud powerful perverted shinobi who had taught Minato who had taught him – but he did not – could not – see Uzumaki Naruto when he looked at the blond-haired genin.

He had tried to see the boy – tried and failed so many times that, in the end, he had given up and turned his attention away from the boy-who-did-not-exist. It was easier, less painful – because when he looked at Sasuke, he did not see the painful mix of faces and personalities that dragged him back to the past.

(Once, he had looked at the boy – a silent promise when his sensei had announced the news with bright blue eyes and an easy smile – with eyes that were not blind. That was 12 years ago, before the Kyuubi no Kitsune had attacked Konoha and taken more than just the lives of shinobi he had known.

He had looked at the boy again, after he had been in the Academy for one year – and he had seen Obito in his place, wearing goggles, playing pranks, and perpetually cheerful with a bright smile. He had seen the boy who had once been dead-last in the Academy, the boy who had died first and given him new eyes to see through.

When he looked at the boy again, after hearing the tales of his new perverted jutsu and accepting the boy as part of his genin team, he did not see Uzumaki Naruto. He saw the boy who could have been in sensei's sensei, still the dead-last of the Academy. He saw the boy with the volatile temper, the boy who could never keep quiet and angered his female teammate while challenging the Rookie of the Year. He did not see Uzumaki Naruto – instead, he saw the childhood version of Jiraiya, overlaid on top of Obito.

He looked at the boy again, after hearing how he had promised to bring back his missing teammate – and he saw his father, who had ruined himself by refusing to obey orders and instead going back for his team. He turned his attention away from the blond boy again and let Jiraiya take him – he did not want to see Hatake Sakumo, child-Jiraiya, and Obito looking back at him in the shape of a blond genin.

More than three years later, he would look at the boy again and see the reincarnation of his sensei in the place of the boy – promising to become the next Hokage, toad-summoner and wielder of the Rasengan. He saw the same messy blond hair and bright blue eyes and he turned away again, refusing to look at the boy.)

He could not see Uzumaki Naruto, no matter how hard he tried.

Instead, he would slip and look at the boy by mistake – and he would see Namizake Minato staring back at him, overlaid on top of his father, overlaid on top of a child-Jiraiya who was overlaid on top of Uchiha Obito. He would turn away again, eyes forever blind, and turn his attention to something else.

No matter how hard he tried to prove otherwise, Uzumaki Naruto did not exist to him. To him, the name Uzumaki Naruto meant a blond boy who was not real, a fusion of the ghosts of his past. He had looked - truly looked - four times - and each time, he had failed miserably. He did not look at the boy again.

So...please review and tell me what you think? This is probably the shortest thing I've ever managed to write without being forced to cut it short and it's a bit of a deviation from my standard angsty!dark!fics that I specialize in now.