Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any shape or form, but I do own the original characters and plot I create.
Author's Note: Now, I know what some of you might be thinking. Childhood friend of Kakashi? What? Yes, I am well aware that Kakashi didn't really do friends when he was a kid. However... I simply couldn't resist. Besides, some of the little flashbacks give a bit of insight as to why Kakashi does some of the things he does
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Chapter One
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Golden rays of light fell onto the lone figure standing before the Memorial Stone. His messy silver hair rippled in the breeze. A sigh escaped his lips. He reached out a hand to trace the names of his teammates. His finger lingered over each letter before traveling to the next. "How long has it been, Obito? Rin?" His voice was sad and quiet, not meant for anyone's ears besides his own. He sighed again before tracing the name of another lost comrade. This one didn't have the same sense of guilt of the other two, but the raw feeling of loss was exactly the same. With a silent goodbye, Kakashi turned away from the stone to receive a new mission.
"Do you think I'll make a good shinobi, Scarecrow?" She stared into the sky, searching for an answer to some unknown question. Her burgundy hair fell down her back as she leaned her head upward.
He looked at her with his dark eyes and smiled. "I think so." She looked over to him sitting beside her, smiling in return.
"As long as you have faith in me, Scarecrow, I know I will be."
The skin on the back of her neck began to tingle with fire. Her head tilted to the left then the right, trying to work out the burning without touching it. Giving up, she raised her hand to put pressure on the spot this sensation always stemmed from. Pressing firmly, she felt the cool of her hand wash the burning away. The remnants of the forgotten memory she had barely grasped slipped away from her as the infuriating tingling subsided.
Shima was annoyed.
There was a darkness in her mind that she could never illuminate. Each time she tried, the strange burning would set her neck on fire. It was beginning to become a nuisance. What did the burning have to do with the memories she didn't even know she had? She sighed.
Genbo stopped walking. His head turned to look at his student. "What is it?" His haggard voice brought her back to the present. He narrowed his brown eyes at her, his brown hair sticking up.
"Tell me again why I have no memories dating further back than my fourteenth birthday?" She looked directly into his cold gaze. He wasn't one for questions, but she didn't really care.
"Head concussions can do that to someone, even a ninja like yourself." He continued walking, signaling that that was the only answer she would get. His steps were light for someone as large as him. She put her remaining questions aside, following her teacher in silence.
The trees swayed gently in the wind. Birds chirped in the skies. Listening closely, one could hear the sound of water flowing nearby. The forest was a second home to her. Her first was coming into sight. The large, imposing manor darkened the distance.
Scarecrow. That name hovered in her mind.
Zaku sat patiently in an oversized chair fit for a king. This man was no king. She gazed at him suspiciously. Every time they met she had to force away a chill crawling up her spine. She kept her breathing even, her eyes still. Fear was not an option, not a possibility.
The man before them was a very powerful ninja, but also a very lazy one. If he deemed a task unworthy of his time he'd send his lackeys to do it for him.
"Shima, it's so wonderful to have you back home." His voice was ice to her ears. She was among his favored shinobi. He wasn't secretive about it. "I've missed you." The words made her bones chill.
Just looking at him, no one would be able to tell how deadly and merciless he could be. The way his loose black hair was tied up and his slender form all made you think he wasn't so bad. But a good look into those pale crimson eyes and one could see all the terrible things he was capable of.
"A young man by the name of Koj has something I would like to possess." He played casually with a strand of his hair. "The scroll has a technique that I have yet to collect. He'll be guarded by elite ninja, but I'm sure that won't be any trouble. Bring both Koj and the scroll to me." He threw a picture of their target to Genbo.
Shima and Genbo bowed their heads. "Yes, Master." She felt sick at calling him that, but there was nothing she could do. She didn't want to bring another man here to be tortured. They turned to find their target.
"Oh, and one more thing," he smiled, "no one besides the target is to live."
Outside of the manor, Shima let out a heavy breath. "He gives me the creeps!" She pushed a hand through her messy hair, frowning. Her hands grasped the match in her hand. She shifted through her pocket to find a cigarette. Genbo tossed her one as he saw her frustrated face. She lit it up without hesitation. Blowing the match out, she took a long drag of the tobacco.
"He pays well. You like those expensive cigs, don't you?" Genbo tightened the rope tied around his head. He zipped up the tan, sleeveless overcoat they both wore.
"I guess." She pulled the bandages around her neck up to hide the lower half of her face.
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"Did you pass?" He waited outside patiently, hoping to hear good news. He watched her sad, slow steps. She stood in front of him with her head down. Tears were threatening to spill over. She shook her head; no. "It's because you always get too excited." He put a hand on her head, rubbing softly. "I'll help you pass the next one." He smiled at her, but she could only see the movement of his eyes.
Kakashi watched the fire dance within the fire pit. It flames curved and swayed. The flames reflected in his dark eyes. They had been walking since noon. He was tempted to pull out his book, but refrained in front of the client. Guy was boasting about the score of 44 to 43 loudly. When Kakashi began ignoring him, the fellow Jounin challenged him to another battle once their mission was through. Asuma watched them both with uninterested eyes.
"Are you sure it is wise to stop?" Koj, their client, fiddled his thumbs nervously. He was a scroll maker from a distant land. He had asked the Third for an escort to the Hidden Village in the Sand. It was a B-ranked mission, nothing too exciting.
"What are you so afraid of, Koj? We will protect you." Kakashi looked at the client who was practically shaking in his skin. The man was frightened.
"Dangerous men want the scrolls I make. Techniques long forgotten have been rebirthed by my hand." He held his bag tightly.
Kakashi grew silent.
The sun was rising. The sky was turning a pretty blue. The trees were silent as they were caressed by the morning breeze. It was a quiet morning.
His hands were shoved into his pockets, his fingers brushing against the cool of a kunai. Just in case. His head was tilted slightly. He could hear his comrades' step with care. Their client walked as if he had lead in his shoes.
The shinobi sighed. He wondered how long it would take to finish a chapter of Makeout Paradise. No, he thought. This isn't some low grade mission, he couldn't fool around. But the book's weight in his pocket seemed to tempt him with every step. He needed to get to the next chapter. Another sigh escaped his lips.
Kakashi scratched the back of his head once… twice… three times. His head tilted down. A cough burst from his throat; his hand covered his mouth. His grip on the kunai tightened. He counted to three. He reached into a compartment on his belt. One… two… three… he let it drop out of his hand. Asuma grabbed Koj. A smoke cloud surrounded the party. The client coughed.
Kunai flew out of the cloud. Each one was easily dodged by the enemy. One, two. A man and a woman stood in the path ahead. Kakashi inspected the enemy. The man was large with spiky brown hair, dull brown eyes. His face was rough, weather-worn. He had a scar under his left eye; a bit of facial hair on his chin. The muscles in his arms were visible. His tan overcoat was sleeveless, going to his shins, zipped all the way to his throat. He wore black pants underneath, a large sword rested on his back. Two blue, metal-plated wrist guards were on each arm.
"Impressive. You caught onto our presence quick." The man's voice was rough. He sounded like he had a sore throat.
The woman hit the man's arm with her elbow. "Let's not make conversation. I want to get this over with." Her voice struck a chord in Kakashi's mind. It was familiar.
The woman was shorter than him. Her burgundy hair was short, choppy. It went no further than her chin. From the bridge of her nose down, her face was covered in bandages all the way down to her neck. She wore a matching sleeveless overcoat, the same type her companion wore. There was armor covering her entire forearm.
Kakashi couldn't even begin to think about why this woman's voice was so familiar as he watched the woman flash out of sight. He contemplated which one out of the three she would go after. She could take out him and Guy to get to their target or she could go straight for Koj to shorten the duration of their encounter. It seemed the woman wasn't keen on dawdling, so he assumed she'd go for Asuma and Koj's clones.
He was proved wrong when he felt the woman's presence on his back. What was a little disturbing was how suppressed her chakra was, eliminating any chances of recognizing it. It was there, he could feel it, but it appeared to be the chakra of a mere civilian. With her speed he knew she was more than that.
Spinning to dodge the slice of her kunai, Kakashi let his own meet hers in a clang. The woman's eyes were perfectly blank as she twisted another kunai into her free hand. Now blocking two accurate kunai's oncoming slices Kakashi found the woman was talented with the weapons. His body twisted, dodged, spun but the woman just kept coming at him with those blank violet eyes. Violet eyes?
Blowing a fireball at her that she dodged flawlessly, Kakashi tried not to let his thoughts distract him from the battle. It was a dangerous thing to overthink in the midst of dodging and dealing blows, but there was just something telling him that this was wrong. For that reason he unknowingly didn't deal out any killing moves.
The woman also seemed to be keeping it to knock-out moves. Not once did she aim for his throat or his heart, easily the most fatal areas. Her feet met his stomach in a double mule kick sending him several feet back. Before his body smashed into a tree, he replaced himself with a tree log. Behind her Kakashi felt that the way she moved so gracefully for a trained killer was something he had seen before.
Pushing her back with his full force, she slammed into the ground on her hands. The rest of her body didn't meet the ground as she used the momentum from her fall to flip back onto her feet. Blows were dealt, dodged, taken, but they were making no progress. The two of them were too equally matched. Kakashi went for a kick, the woman jumped over it effortlessly. She went to slice as his torso, he ducked in time. They were getting nowhere. This battle wouldn't end in who could defeat who; it would end when one of them tired out first.
Guy was thrown back with lacerations on his arms and legs. It was surprising for him to be injured at all with the incredible speed he possessed. The man had appeared to be too large for swift movements, but that was apparently not the case. With that sword of his he was only a little slower than the woman, without it he'd probably be as fast as her.
The man was weathered; Guy hadn't been injured without dealing his own blows. But when Kakashi managed to throw the woman back into a tree, his own injuries seemed to be unimportant. The man charged him with several swipes at Kakashi's neck. Blocking a blow to his chest the Copy-Nin's arms were sliced up. Ducking the blow for his head, Kakashi swept the man's legs out. He barely registered when the woman stepped in between them with ease.
"This man is my opponent, Genbo. Your opponent is over there." The words she said were lost on Kakashi's questioning ears. That voice… The violet eyes, the burgundy hair, the voice, that way they moved in sync. It was adding up to an impossible notion. It was impossible. Wasn't it?
Once the man went back to Guy, who now stood with a grim set of his lips, Kakashi took the first strike. He had to know. Positioning his kunai, he struck upwards seconds before the woman dodged. While his eyes were still trying to make sense of what he was seeing, Kakashi failed to dodge the chakra-infused fist hitting him square in the stomach. The ground met his shocked body with a loud thud that he didn't pay attention to. His eye was wide as he met the gaze of the woman. Her bandages were ripped from his attack, revealing her face. Blood dripped down her sliced cheek, but his eye focused on her eyes, the shape of her face, the small scar on her neck that he had witnessed being placed. It was impossible. She was supposed to be dead.
The way she could suppress her chakra, the way they couldn't best one another in hand to hand combat, the way he had felt she was familiar. It all made sense, but it wasn't possible.
"Shima?" The name left his lips with confusion lacing each syllable. His voice seemed to linger in the air. For the first time an emotion showed on her face by sign of the narrowing of her eyes. The air grew tense as Guy and the man named Genbo stopped their battle. The Green Beast of Konoha looked like he couldn't believe his ears. He knew how impossible it was just as much as Kakashi did.
But there she was right in front of them. Shima Himura, kunoichi of Konohagakure lost in battle a little over ten years ago. Their comrade was a rogue, but that didn't even faze them. The only thing in their minds was how was Shima alive?
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This fanfiction is before Team 7 has been formed. Kakashi is twenty-four and has just recently left ANBU.
Thanks for reading!