I do not own Hatake Hakashi, Umino Iruka, Morino Ibiki or any of the other characters mentioned here. Kishimoto Masashi does. BOOHOO! 'O
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Name: There are many stories circulating about how the scarecrow got his name.
Some say he made it up himself sometime 'cause it sounded 'hip', as Gai would say.
A suitable name for a suspicious character.
Others are certain that it is a remnant from his childhood when the other kids his age invented the not so charming nickname when he slid past them (in the newly built playground with it´s shiny new swings "I wonder what it's like to ride them..." on his way to the missionroom) in his chuunin outfit and their eyes seemed to burn a hole in his neck as he tried his best not to dash down the street as fast as he could. "They are only jealous"
One of the more humourous alternatives is that he should have scared the other kids in the hospitals incubationroom to tears right after he was born 'causing his father to laugh and call him his own little kakashi and that name had later on followed him through the years.
Whatever way it is -nickname or not- it is still a mystery.
Why would someone deserve or adapt such a name?
Especially since said someone is pressumed to be, infact rather handsome.
Noone really knows, and noone really dare to ask either.
Home: Kakshi lives in the jouninquarters of Konoha like the rest of the jounin-population without families. There he's got a small dreary apartment with one room and a kitchenette. It is very scarcely equipped with only the necessary things. Most of his belongings are still left in the abandoned family mansion. He never bothered with picking them up when he moved. The shadows hold so many memories. All you will find now is a desk, a stool, a chest of drawers, the complete set of Ichya Ichya volumes, Mr.Ukki on the windowsill, two photographs of his teams and a bed with the green quilt he got from his mother long ago and never sleeps without. Ofcourse he will never tell anyone where it comes from.
Mask: The beloved blue piece of cloth that constantly sticks to his face as if it were covered in glue has been there for as long as anyone can remember. The few people who have seen him without it can easily be counted on a hands five fingers. The reasons for wearing it are numerous. Almost as many as the guessings of the townsfolk. Truth be told, he dont even remember why he put it on from the beginning. But he has got a good supply of lies to pick from: It was protection from gravel and dust threatening to suffocate him while running along the countryside on missions. It confused enemies to not reallly know who they were up against. It's way scarier to fight someone if you dont even know how they look. It helped him keeping his diet... Prevented him from kissing all the pretty girls who were lurking behind every corner casting pining looks after him as he passed. It created a mystical aura that just suited him and pissed Gai-sensei off... But mostly he told people he wore it because he was so hideous to look upon that thay would have died from a single look. He didn't understand why no one ever believed him...
Books: Kakashis favourite readingmaterial is the Ichya Ichya-series authored by Jiraya. It is a highly perverted set of books given the x-rating for "non-appropriate content". However he is not ashamed of reading them in public and he always keep a worn copy in his waistpocket if boredom is suddenly taking the situation over as it tends to do a lot of the time. Sometimes he even reads serious books like "advanced weapon theory" or "common poisons and antidotes" but keep them hidden in a Ichya Ichya slipcover just for the fun of it. He finds it rather pleasant to dwell in the world of fantasy now and then as life often is all too colourless and uneventful. Maybe it is also a way to chase the feeling of solitude away by trying to absorb the feeling of closeness in the books and apply them on your own life. It rarely works, but it is worth a try anyway. Or so he thinks. Plus, no woman dares approach someone who are reading that kind of stuff in public. Problem with ogling fangirls solved.
Old teammates: When he was young he was part of a geninteam under the lead and protection of Yondaime; former Hokage of Konohakagure. On the team was also the girl Rin and the boy Obito. Rin was a medic-nin. She was the practical and logical one. Who settled the fights between him and Obito. Who took care of them and patched them up whenever they had gotten themselves into trouble. She always listened if anyone had something to tell and she was always there when needed.She was in love with him. But he was too selfcentered to notice. She would have been a great medic if she had lived on. Obito on the other hand was reckless and stubborn. Careless even, if you asked Kakashi. He was always running late, by hours, always lied about his whereabouts (he was probably sleeping the little sucker) and always started to cry when you reprimanded him. Uchiha Obito was the misfit of the family. Clumsy and stupid, he was always in the way. He was however goodhearted and kind. He always tried his best even if the task seemed out of proportions, and most importantly; he was a friend. Too bad Kakashi never realized before it was too late. Both Rin and Obito are gone. Obito died saving Kakashis life on that mission at Kanabi-brigde, giving Kakashi the greatest and the most painful gift he had ever recieved, his sharingan-eye along with a whisper that he should protect Rin. He had promised. And Rin... Rin died in a hospitalbed a few months later from a poisoned needle she had taken in watercountry. Kakashi hadn't been there to protect her that time and not even Tsunade had been able to save her life. It was by then he had made the decision: "I will never again let anyone on my team die"
Yondaime: Is the one who told Kakashi about teamwork. Who taught him about the life outside of the shinobiworld, because there actually was one. Believe it or not. Yondaime made him loosen up his rockhard imprinted principles of rules and regulations and made him understand that some things are more importans then abide by laws and orders. Friendship, for example. Yondaime is also the source where he learned the bell-test that he challanges all new geninteams to pass. The only ones who have ever made it through were Cell 7. Yondaime is dead too. He died protecting the village from the monsterfox by locking it up inside of the newborn baby Naruto.
ANBU: Kakashi was an ANBU for some years. It was Ibiki who picked him up soon after his team was dismissed. He had apparently been the "perfect choice" as he had no family, no team and no friends. Nothing to tie him to the village. Much as he hates to think about it it was ANBU that saved his life. Simply the reason to have a job to go up to in the morning (even though he was always atleast one hour late, in honouring of Obito) stopped him from just remaining in bed til he rotted away. He got out –or was pretty much forced out - by the new Hokage after a few years when he was no longer a hazard for himself and could continue with ordinary shinobi-work. ANBU was no place for a young man with a life ahead of him. ANBU was a tomb. It ate you up from the inside. He keeps his gloves as a reminder that he is better off now.
Affairs: he had one sporadic fling with a girl when he was sixteen because it seemed to be what was expected of him, according to the ladiesman Asuma atleast, but the relationship was a disaster and didn't last for very long. Both him and his shy little mistress was too afraid of happiness. Or was she afraid of him? His uncanny mismatched eyes and neverending missions. He couldn't tell and they broke up after a few months. Since then he's been single. It's not like he dont get any invitations though. He can hear people whisper behind his back as he passes by sometimes. He can even swear he heard giggles once from a shadowy corner when he sauntered by for a latenight walk. He knew he might be intriguing. Maybe even appealing if you pined after the brooding type, but he never really took any notice about the fangirls. Relations was just a hindrance.
Cell 7: His new – and first- subordinates in shape of a geninteam. At first he found them laughable, if not even despicable. Such nasty brats! They will never become ninja! As time went by he started to realize it was almost funny how much they resembled his old team. Was this a second chance? To make up for the previous failures? Do I deserve that? Sakura could have been Rin. Gentle and caring. Medic. Madly in love with the coldhearted prodidgy. Naruto could have been Obito. Loudmouthed, stupid and clumsy, but true to his word and dependable. And in Sasuke he saw himself fourteen years ago. Proud and stubborn, convinced everybody else were a nuiscance, he would run his race alone for his own dark reasons. But even though it completely freaked him out to have the responsibility for three children, he had – despite his best efforts- started to like the obnoxious little trio.They were his team now and he was not going to fail them.
Teaching: When the forming of new geninteams came up for discussion Kakashi thought ha was going to have another lazy, boring year. It was highly unlikely that the brats of this year would be any better then those of last year and pass the belltest. So sure, he signed up for a potential teacherjob. They were however better that usual and he fould himself having a whole new bunch of tasks and responsibilities. As time passed by he realised something had been missing in his life all those years. Life. The feeling of having something so... lively, around you was actually quite nice. And it was a welcome break to his boring sleep-ogle memorial-eat-mission-sleep routine.
Hair: Despite what some people think he does not use cement, steelwires, honey, spray or hair-jutsus to keep his bushy creation in place. It's narural to the last strand. It's nothing he could change even if he wanted to, It just grows that way. Ignorant of any tips of fashion or usualness. It's fun, to look a bit weird. It could always annoy someone and annoy people, one way or the other has always been one of his favouriteways to kill some time.
Icecream: One of his secret passions beside his somewhat illicit reading material is icecream. Waterice, soft ice, ordinary icecream. Topping or no topping. He find's it very difficult to pass by the icecream-vendor without stopping for a minute or two. Personal favourite would be pistachio with little pieces of nuts that always stuck between your teeth for hours afterwards making people stare at you like if you had developed three heads when you tried to get them out using a kunai or any other sharp object to carve with. Icecream is not part of the reccomended ninja-diet...
Hates: Kakshi hates snow. Snow is cold, it's sticky, it's blinding, it gets in your hair and eyelashes. Snow means winter, and winter is depressing. It was winter when his father died. When Rin died. It was days when other people ran around on the fields lauhing and building snowmans and having snowballfights, when their mothers made them hot choclate and wrapped them in soft blankets. When candles lit up the windows in the warm houses. He remembered seeing Iruka one winter with a huge green cap trying to catch the falling snowflakes on his tounge looking dissappointed but still laughing when they melted away before he got to taste them. He remembered himself wiping away a few tears that had chrystalized on his cheaks in the cold before waving back at the silly boy who tried to eat the devilish little flakes of ice. It's also harder to run in snow. You're easier to detect because it's harder not to leave any marks where you have been. Blood looks so sharp in snow. The awful way the warmth of someones life melts the snow away where it flows are hideous. The cold hurts, and drains you out. Snow is good for nothing. The only time he had been smiling at snow was when Naruto and Sakura had made a snowman who looked like himself wearing a hitai-ate obliquely at it's head. That had actually been cute.
Techniques: Kakashi had got two special abilities. Its his sharingan-eye and Raikiri. He secretly wishes he hadn't possesed any of them. Sharingan is the bloodlinelimt of the Uchiha-clan. Of Obitos clan, and it was Obito who gave it to him. When he lay deadly wounded under the boulder and bravely tried to smile he remembered he was was the only one who hadn't given Kakashi a present for he promotion. And convincing his cranky teammate he would give him something that was not only "useless baggage" he offered him his left eye in replacement for Kakashis own eye that had been slashed in the battle. Zabusa is the only man who have lived to see the infamous mirrorwheel twice.
Today, Kakashi still cant quite look at himself in the mirror without feeling Obito staring back at him. Its not I who should live. It's you... Raikiri is entirely his own. It's not a bloodlinelimit but it's very powerful. He was able to complete it after he got the eye because it requires the ability of seeing rapid movements. It's original name is Chidori, meaning 'thousand birds' because of the chirping noise it makes but rumor says Kakashi once cut through lightning with it, causing Gai to invent the name Raikiri instead. Lightnings edge. With Raikiri you gather such an enormous ammount of chakra in your hand that you can use the hand as a blade to cut through anything. Even stone.
Orochimaru would be the only man alive to have seen it and survived.
Friends: Even though he probably wont admi it even if you ask him he has got some friends. Some people who understand him that he hadn't scared away or pissed off too badly. There is Hokage. Even though she's constantly nagging on him for whatever reason she can think of at the moment, she cares. And he knows it. Jiraya is always a pleasure to banter with the few times he's around. Maybe try to get an early briefing about the latest Ichyabook. He never got one but It was definitely worht trying... And there was Gai, his eternal rival that he would rather chew his own arm of then admitting it, but there was undoubtedly more behind their ridiculous rivalry than just the will of beeing superior. Narutos academy-sensei Iruka was also fun to rile up now and then. The brownhaired young man with the strange nosescar was infact quite adorable. So genuinly caring about everything and everyone that the world just seemed a little bit brighter when he was around. The fact that he was blushing everytime his older collegue spoke to him was another reason for wanting to tease him. Even Ibiki, his old slavedriver and the scariest man he'd ever met – though he would never admit that!- was someone you could talk with too. Ibiki would never tell a secret if you gave him one. His head under the cap makes you sure of that.
Thinking back on the years and all that's happened it's not so bad as you could think it is. Sure, he has strayed a bit and gotten off track sometimes wondering if he really wanted to get back on it again. And yes, he's been battered and tattered along the way but in the end it was an okey life efter all.
There were things to be happy for and to appreciate.
His friends, his team, the village, his enormous ammount of knowledge and techniques. A wisdom he wouldn't have had without everyting that went wrong or backfired. He has taken countless lives in his days but he has also saved many. He's regained the will of living again, even if it seemed hopeless for many years, he smiles again – he has got Cell 7 to thank for that, they never seize to surpise him, neither in strenght nor pranks- a lazy afternoon by the river washing his feet in the cool water and a new book in hand is a hard feeling to match and all in all: life isn't so bad if you think about it.
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