A little boy with shiny silver hair and green eyes sniveled, tears running down his face.
"Hey, look! It's The Freak with the White hair! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" yelled one of the three bullies that tormented him at the academy. They had followed him on his way home. He yelled at himself inwardly. His big sister Kimiko would've flattened them instantly. He on the other hand, was none for fighting.
Sotari Hatake was, as he and the bullies saw it, a wimp, and a disgrace to shinobi. His mother and father, along with his sister, frequently reminded him otherwise of course, and although at first, it was reassuring, it wore off quickly.
"Hey Freak! HEY!!!" yelled another one. Sotari ignored it, like his parents and sister had told him. He could feel the distance between himself and the bullies closing rapidly.
"Hey. Freak. You got any money on ya?" said one, a girl, the same age he was. He gulped, shaking his head as she turned him by the shoulder. He shied away from the girl. The blonde bully's name was Kiana and she had a habit of making bombs. He shook his head vigorously.
"I think he's Lying, Kiki." Said the other one, also female, with short cropped gray hair and bleach blonde highlights with a tuft sticking out in the front. She had terrifying violet eyes, and her weapon of choice, her gleaming sharp scythe, was strapped across her back.
"You think so, Ana? I think you're right. How 'bout you? What'cha think Shikiko?" Kiana asked, getting uncomfortably close to Sotari's face. The again, he wouldn't have been comfortable in the same country as this girl. Much less on a deserted street like this. Shikiko looked at the others and shrugged. Out of the three, Shikiko, with her facial piercings, bright red hair with a black rose in it, and her vortex-like crimson eyes, was the one who scared Sotari the most. The other two girls were loud, bossy, mean, and cruel; keen on either blowing you to bits or ripping you apart. Shikiko, however, would put you into some twisted, haunting genjutsu that would give you nightmares for months afterward and think nothing of it.
Unfortunately, Sotari knew from experience.
"HEY! CREEPS! LEAVE MY BABY BROTHER ALONE!" Yelled a very angry Hatake girl. Sotari sighed with relief, not noticing the "Baby" part of what his elder sister had said. She was sixteen, and stood tall against the other girls.
"What gave you the bright idea that you could pick on my little brother!?" She demanded. Sotari cowered behind her.
"Step Aside, Freak. The Kid was about to fork over some cash." said Kiana.
"Oh, No he wasn't!" Kimiko snarled. The look on her face and the small charges if electricity glowing green around her hands were enough for Kiana and Ana to back down, but Shikiko stood her ground and glared. The street was empty save for the small group, and the stagnant summer air was deathly still.
"Well?" Kimiko growled, saying some very not nice words to the redhead. Shikiko's eyes narrowed, then shot to the left as Iruka Umino and Kibamaru Inuzuka came around the corner. For the first time that day, Shikiko spoke.
"Next time. Hatake." she said before turning on her heel and walking the other way, the other two girls following her with scowls as Iruka's eyes met theirs. Kimiko didn't relax until Iruka and Kibamaru were two feet away from them.
"Next time, Sotari, I want you to run if they start to bother you. Run straight home." Kimiko said, still very angry.
"Hai, Aneki-chan." Sotari whimpered. Kimiko patted his shoulder and said hello to Iruka and, more importantly, Kibamaru, whom she had a crush on.
"Yo, Iruka senpai. Kiibs." the chunin stated. Kibamaru returned the gesture more politely, being quite shy, and Iruka repeated the greeting.
"Yo. Hey, Sotari-kun. Were they bothering you again?" Kibamaru asked, looking down the street. Sotari nodded, wanting either the world to end his misery and swallow him, or to just be home so he could at least take a nap and feel safe at home with his parents.
"I woulda had to hurt someone had you two not come around the corner." Kimiko huffed, putting her arms behind her head. "Ne, I'm taking Sotari home. I don't trust those three. See you Iruka-senpai. Ja, Kibamaru-kun!"
Iruka and Kibamaru waved as she disappeared in a swirl of leaves with Sotari, and Sotari immediately went to his room upon arriving home and stayed there. As he waited, he could hear his sister and his parents discussing what had happened; his mother's tsking noises, Kimiko's huffing and ranting, his father muttering about someone called Hidan and another person called Kizu. He idly wondered who they were as he waited nervously for one of his parents to enter his room. It would probably be his mother, he guessed. However, when his bedroom door opened, light gray walls shining with the new light, it was his father who held the brass knob.
"Sota?" Kakashi asked, using the nickname that Sotari hadn't enough in his ten years. His father came in awkwardly, not good at things like conversations, much less conversations with children. He tried, though, tried hard; and it comforted Sotari more than all the talks his sister and his mother had had with him. It let him know that his father thought he was worth the effort, though Sotari couldn't, not for the life of him, understand why.
"Hai, outo-san." he said with a small, nervous smile. His father grinned, the almost nonexistent but still barely noticeable tan line, from what Sotari's mother said was from a navy blue mask that his father wore before he was born, turning upwards as he did so. Kakashi sat down next too Sotari.
"You know, I had some pretty bad problems when I was a kid, and I'm gonna help you best I can, but I can tell you, I wasn't getting bullied... but that's besides the point isn't it?" he asked. Sotari nodded.
"It's not just that they're bullies. They're Girls! I can't hit them or anything. And putting that off to the side, I'm glad I have an excuse not to get physical . Those girls are scary! Especially Shikiko, the redhead." Sotari said, visibly shuddering. Kakashi laughed. The scary women thing he could relate to. He mentally named off all the potentially frightening women he knew. His wife: Nami, Minora Umino, Kushina Uzumaki, that actress lady from the land of snow, Ayame Ichiraku, Rin and Sakura Haruno, Yamanaka Ino, Sarutobi Tsunade, even Hyuuga Hinata could be scary sometimes. It was thanks to most of them that he'd gotten quit his tardy habit cold turkey.
"Yeah. Girls are scary. Right now I could pick at least seven or eight off the top of my head." Kakashi chuckled, wondering how on earth he coped with their tempers. Nami, he always endured, and then bought her something to apologize for making her angry... Minora... Usually he just apologized, and Tsunade he just steered clear of...
Kakashi stopped for a moment, realizing that none of those options would help Sotari because the girls were the source of His discontent. Not the other way around. He focused on his son again, who was staring wide eyed at him from his spot on the small daybed against the wall, the last of the orange rays of sun glinting off the boy's green eyes.
"Really? That many?" the ten year old asked. Kakashi nodded.
"Yeah. Sota, I think what you need to do is make them think that they don't scare you anymore, even if they terrify you. It's no fun for them if they can't get a kick out of you."
Sotari looked at his father despairingly. Of course he'd thought of that already. Problem was, he couldn't hold the front for more than two or three minutes. Those girls scared the living daylights out of him. There was simply no way.
"Dad, I've thought of that and tried it. Didn't work."
Kakashi looked a bit put out. But asked a second question.
"Did you try it more than once? Sometimes you need to work at something before it actually works, Sotari. I almost blew my hand off when I tried to perfect my chidori, and if it weren't for your mother, I probably would've died from blood loss and the fact that I was too stubborn to let her help me. Well, while I was conscious anyways." Kakashi laughed. Sotari nodded, thankful that it was a Saturday tomorrow and Kimiko had agreed to show him how to use the Ookami-henkan at team seven's training grounds. Unfortunately, however, his uncle wouldn't be there until late that night. Drat.
He loved it when Obito came over. Especially when he brought Sakka-chan with him, since she always brought him and his sister something nice. Last time it was a big box of chocolalate pocky. Sotari looked at his father, startled out of his musings by the hand that shook his shoulder, and the source of the shaking. His father was laughing at him.
"Spacing out again, eh, Sotari?" Kakashi asked, still shaking with surpressed laughter. Sotari scowled.
"Quit laughing at me! I was thinking." Sotari said angrily. He left out the fact he'd been thinking about Obito. He and his father didn't like each other much.
"About?" his father asked. Sotari didn't dare lie, his father was a shinobi after all... so he said as little as possible instead.
"About tomorrow being a saturday that I can spend in peace." he said matter of factly. His father raised an eyebrow, having guessed (rightly) what his son was thinking about, and smiled. His son was developing keen shinobi skills even if he didn't realize it. In infiltration, a plausible background is key, and telling the enemy something true, but not endangering to the mission at hand was a very good skill. You could seriously get killed for not doing that.
"Oh. Okay."
"Hey, outou-san, did you really almost blow up your hand when you were trying the chidori?"
" Hai. While I was doing it, I tried to control all of my chakra at once, focusing all the elemental chakra in my hand. I ran at a tree, and the repurcussion threw me forty yards in the opposite direction and into a tree. When I got thrown backwards, the chidori was only powered to about a third of its full capacity. If I had tried it full force, I would've blown myself up. Your mother was the one who saved my hand, life, and helped me perfect the move. I had to control the flow of my chakra instead of balling it up in one place." Sotari stared at him, then at his hand.
"hey, dad? Can you teach me the chidori? Please?" he asked. Kakashi blinked.
"I thought Kimiko was going to teach it to you?"
"I want to learn it from the creator. Just like she did." sotari said quietly. He looked nervously at his father, hoping that he hadn't asked too much.
Kakashi was looking out of the window, clocking the daylight left. He could teach Sotari the basics by sundown, if he was a fast learner...
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Kakashi was shocked at how quickly Sotari had caught in to the basics of Electrical chakra use and the basics of ninjutsu and juijutsu, the Uchiha fighting style that Kakashi had copied from Obito. He was even more astounded when Sotari created a perfect chidori without the sharingan. Not even Kimiko, his eldest, could do that.
"Wau, Sotari-kun. You've really got the hang of this!" Kakashi praised. Sotari grinned sheepishly as he let the chidori power down.
"Arigato, tou-san..." He said, quietly, not even having broken a sweat.
"We've still got time left, kiddo... How about I teach you one of my students moves? It uses wind chakra." Kakashi offered. Sotari's eyes brightened cosiderably.
"HAI SENSEI!" He yelled.
"Allrighty, then. The move is called the Rasenshuriken..."