Hatake Kakashi: Facing the Demons of the Past

A/N: Yeah, this is my new and awesomely revamped Part I. Please notice the amazing new grammar and the lines. Yay for lines!

PART I

"Why did you do it," he asked. "Why did you have to kill her?"

"I didn't expect you to understand. Just realize that there was nothing you can do and get over it. Nobody cares about your promise to protect her. She's dead and nobody cares. Nobody but you," replied the girl harshly.

"Isn't that enough. Is my pain not enough to matter?"

"No. Just leave. You can't defeat me just as she couldn't."

"I'll defeat you. I will. You think that you're the most powerful shinobi in the world, but one day I will kill you."

"Whatever you say. I'll wait for the day we meet again and I die."

Before the girl could leave the boy cried out in pain, "Why have you betrayed me? Why have you betrayed Rin? And why have you betrayed the village?"

"When we meet again, I promise that you will learn everything," the girl said with a hint of remorse. "Just stay strong and don't let the guilt destroy you. It was never your fault."

Kakashi woke from the dream as though it had happened yesterday. "It was never your fault" echoed painfully in his head. It was his fault. It had been ten years since he last saw that girl but, despite her words, he couldn't stop the pain at knowing it was his fault. He had let Rin die. He should have killed that girl long before.

Glancing at his clock, Kakashi realized that he was supposed to have met his team at the training fields an hour ago. Sighing, Kakashi stood up and, shaking his head, got ready to meet his team.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura sat under a tree at the training fields. They were used to waiting for their sensei and it seemed that today was no exception.

"Hey Sakura, do you want to go swimming?" asked Naruto.

"No."

Sighing, Naruto accepted Sakura's first rejection of the day. She could be a little nicer, he thought, but kept it to himself.

Kakashi arrived a few minutes later and his team barraged him with questions. The usual.

"Well, you see, ummmmm…" Kakashi stopped, not having enough energy to make up an excuse.

His team stopped chiding him and stared. Kakashi never failed to give them a random and completely untrue excuse for being late. Something was up.

"Is something wrong Kakashi sensei?" asked Sakura.

"No, nothing is wrong Sakura. I just don't have a very good feeling about today. I mean, I staid up so late last night reading my novel and I'm sure we're going to get a really hard mission today."

"Really?" asked Naruto excitedly, "like, a super hard mission?"

"I think so Naruto," he replied a little mournfully.

"Sensei, if you don't want to do a hard mission today we can just refuse it. It's no big deal," said Sakura.

"No, I don't want to let Naruto down," Kakashi said with a smile that, despite his mask, his students were sure he had.

"Okay, let's go then!" shouted Naruto and Team 7 began their walk to the Hokage's office.

The Hokage assigned them a B-rank mission and, without even a complaint from Naruto, they set off into the forest. The goal of the mission was to discover the cause of some strange noises in the forest. Kakashi has a feeling it wouldn't be as straightforward as the Hokage said but he kept these thoughts to himself.

The team leapt from branch to branch as they neared the source of the noise. The sound was terrible, like fingernails on a chalkboard and a million drills buzzing all at the same time. They got closer and closer but eventually the noise became so terrible that they were forced to use earplugs to ward off the worst of the sound but even the earplugs couldn't completely get rid of the noise. Up ahead, Kakashi saw a small clearing and signaled his team to approach it with caution.

They settled in trees around the clearing as they resisted the urge to put their hands to their ears. Suddenly, Kakashi felt a small breeze behind him, and before he was able to turn around he felt a cold knife being pressed to his throat.

"What are you doing, Kakashi?" asks the voice of a girl.

Kakashi, recognizing the voice, gave a small gasp.

It was her, and she hadn't aged a day.