Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine!
Chapter 1
Kakashi wasn't really fond of being Hokage, that much was for certain. Paperwork wasn't his thing, and sitting in an office all day most definitely wasn't his thing either (although rereading the classic Icha Icha Tactics was always a plus).
Perhaps that's why the Kage Summit, which offered him a rare breath of fresh air outside of Konohagakure, felt like such a blessing. Of course, he didn't actually hate being Hokage—he had chosen to take the mantle from Tsunade with his own resolve until he could safely pass it on to Naruto. He just found it, well, inconvenient.
Perhaps Kakashi could take a slight detour to a nice ramen shop on his way to Kirigakure. He was starving, after all, and—
"I can tell what you're thinking, Kakashi-san. We are not taking a detour—we're already five hours behind schedule as it is." Shikamaru said, raising an eyebrow at the Sixth Hokage.
Kakashi narrowed his good eye at him, tilting his head to one side. "It's Hokage-sama for you, kid. And jeez, if we're already five hours behind, why not make it six? I'm starving."
"You can eat when we get to the Kage Summit, Kakashi-san." Shikamaru sighed.
"Fine." Kakashi huffed as he turned heel, "but you're paying for it."
Kakashi-san… Shikamaru thought, the food at the Kage Summit is being served to you.
xxx
Kakashi always stopped by Haku and Zabuza's graves at the Great Naruto Bridge if he was in the vicinity. Whether the two former criminals' decomposing bodies lay under the grassy earth, Kakashi wasn't sure—Edo Tensei had brought their earthen bodies back from the grave… but had it returned them? This he always wondered, but he refused to deface the two graves to find out.
He could hear Shikamaru grunting and mumbling incoherently in annoyance, but chose to ignore it. (We could be just riding a boat straight to the Land of Waves, but you insist on going through the Land of Waves. You know this place is dangerous. Jeez, imagine if we didn't make it back in time because we were, oh I don't know, dead.) Instead, he quietly closed his eyes as he knelt before the tombs. He still felt chills when he remembered how Haku had thrown himself as a human shield to receive Kakashi's raikiri. There had been no hesitation in Haku's eyes as the boy crumpled—and just for a moment, it was Rin and not Haku who was impaled with Kakashi's arm.
But Kakashi wasn't only visiting these graves out of years-worth of remorse. No, he had also come because of the vast respect that he held for the duo. Zabuza hadn't been a cold serial-killer—he had been a man tired of bloodshed in the Land of Waves. A man who dreamed for a better future. A man who cared about his young protégé with all his heart. A man with ideals.
A man who Kakashi would have liked to have met in a quiet, peaceful place like a teashop. Not on the battlefield.
A man who Kakashi would have liked to have befriended.
And Haku… that young boy of the infamous Yuki Clan who had matured far too quickly. His almost religious devotion to Zabuza had seem eerie at first, and Kakashi wondered if the boy had been brainwashed. Perhaps he had been, but Kakashi finally felt like he understood Haku's undying, obsessive devotion. Zabuza had been the only one to accept the young boy when everyone else shunned him.
That part of Haku reminded Kakashi of Naruto, somewhat.
Kakashi finally lifted himself up, dusting his knees as he gave on final look at the graves. His eyes trailed over to where Zabuza's sword Kubikiribocho had once been half-buried. Suigetsu, the bastard had stolen it… and now Zabuza's grave felt empty.
Kakashi's eyes widened. "Shikamaru, duck!"
He pushed himself towards his personal aid, toppling the both of them over. He shifted his gaze behind him, where a relatively tall person with a womanly figure stood. The newcomer had a mask that covered her whole face, and there were three kunais imbedded into the ground, just a few centimeters from where the mass of Kakashi-and-Shikamaru-and-a-tangle-of-limbs lay.
While this newcomer held three kunais in one pale hand, she emitted no killing intent. Kakashi squinted at the forehead protector on her forehead—the emblem of the Kiri. On her back was a sword wrapped in bandages, in the likeliness off how Kisame bounded the Samehada.
"What are you doing at this grave, Hokage?" The newcomer—a woman, judging by her voice and stature—challenged, pointing her kunais at Kakashi and Shikamaru.
Kakashi could tell that Shikamaru was going to attempt his shadow-binding jutsu—he silently raised a hand for Shikamaru to stand down. Shikamaru looked stunned.
Kakashi conscientiously touched his cap that had the word fire embroidered onto it. "I've come to pay my respects."
"That's all?" The woman asked, a hint of suspicion in her voice as she took a step back.
Kakashi nodded. "Nothing more, nothing less."
At that, the woman turned and put down something in front of the side-by-side graves. Before Kakashi even had time to process what was going on, she disappeared.
Shikamaru untangled himself from the Sixth Hokage, rubbing at his sore neck. "What was that for, Kakashi-san?"
Kakashi wasn't listening—he was too busy staring at what the female ninja had left at the graves.
A bouquet of white flowers.
xxx
The Mizukage kneaded her hands as she glanced at the one empty seat at the table. The Kazekage, Gaara, had his arms folded across his chest with closed eyes. The Raikage and the Tsuchikage, on the other hand, looked like they were about to explode.
"That damn brat." The Tsuchikage snapped through gritted teeth. "It's been thirty minutes since the Kage Summit was suppose to begin. No fucking respect."
"He's actually thirty-three minutes and twenty-seven seconds late. Oh, make that twenty-eight." Gaara spoke up, opening his eyes ever so slightly.
"That's even worse!" The Tsuchikage yelled in outrage.
"Calm yourself, Tsuchikage-sama," the Mizukage spoke up calmly. "The new Hokage has always been prone to being tardy, but he never fails to show up in the end. He will come soon."
Gaara turned to one of his sensors. "Alert us when you feel his chakra."
The sensor ninja bowed. "Yes, Kazekage-sama."
"I guess a little small talk while waiting for the Hokage's late ass won't hurt." The Raikage shrugged, as he folded his muscular arms in front of his chest. "I see you've gotten a new member in your company, Kazekage boy."
All eyes fixed onto a girl with dark hair and rather ill-matching thick glasses standing behind Gaara at his right. She looked stunned that the Raikage had mentioned her, but with an encouraging look from Gaara, cleared her throat. "My name is Hoki Shijima—I was recently given the honor to join the Kazekage-sama's guard."
"Say, girl, do you wear those glasses for fashion?" The Raikage gruffly asked.
Shijima looked mildly uncomfortable. "Ah, no, I wear them because of my… eyes."
"Consider contacts, they'll make your pretty face shine." The Raikage suggested in the same gruff, but slightly teasing voice. Shijima blushed faintly.
Gaara sighed in exasperation, before turning to the amused Mizukage. "Is your guard still empty of one spot, Mizukage-sama?"
The old Tsuchikage tilted his head. "It's about time she stopped mourning for a man who's already in his grave."
The Mizukage let out a forced smile, clearly displeased with the Tsuchikage's lack of tact. "Ao's absence is still very painful for the Kirigakure. However, I have indeed replaced Ao's place with a new ninja."
"Oh? And how come she isn't here with you?" The Tsuchikage asked.
xxx
Kakashi did his best to stroll into the meeting room as nonchalantly as possible. He was really trying hard to play it off cool, avoiding the angry and annoyed gazes of the other Kages as he walked to his seat in long strides. He had always been thick-skinned about being late back when he trained Team 7—it wasn't too hard doing the same with the other Kages.
Except for the fact that each one, save Gaara, was emitting killing intent. The Mizukage was the first to speak in a calm, yet austere manner. "I see you've finally arrived, Hokage-sama. Perhaps you'd like to enlighten us on why you are almost two hours late to the Kage Summit."
"Ah, well, I sort of took a detour." Kakashi laughed, before looking down a little sadly. A detour, to pay my respects.
The Tsuchikage rolled his eyes at the Hokage in disapproval. "Even the slug-woman was serious when it came to duties. Sometimes I wonder what she was thinking to choose you as her successor."
"Well, I agree with you on that one." Kakashi said jokingly, smiling under his mask. Perhaps he should have reacted a little more angrily, or a little more authoritatively to assert that he was equal to all the other Kages. Maybe he ended up looking like a little wuss. But his smile was in fact half-genuine, with no intention to act in an inflammatory manner that would end up pissing the other Kages off even more.
The Tsuchikage merely clucked his tongue. The Mizukage cleared her throat. "Well, time to get to business. A few months ago, we got reports in areas around the Land of Water regarding bandit attacks. While I believe that these bandits may have originated in the Land of Waves, it seems as if the attacks weren't only limited to the Kiri."
That was Kakashi's que to speak up. "Yes. Shikamaru here, and a few of my other jonin ninjas, also tracked several attacks around the Land of Fire that seemed to have been launched by those… bandits."
"They seem to be progressively making their way outwards from the Land of Waves." Kakashi continued, motioning to Shikamaru. The young man walked towards the Kage's table and unrolled a map dotted with bright red markings. "Shikamaru has managed to mark all of the attacks so far on this map, and create a probable correlation between these attacks. If you will, Shikamaru."
Shikamaru cleared his throat once, his usually apathetic eyes bright with concentration. "This group of bandits, who call themselves the Nameless, seem to be composed of missing-nin. We're not sure from where, but—"
"They're mostly from the Kiri, Konoha, and Suna." A soft, almost silky voice cut in at the doorway.
Shikamaru furrowed his brows in annoyance as he turned towards the source of the sound. If anything, he extremely disliked being cut off half-way through his sentences. It was okay when Temari did it—whenever she cut him off, it only mildly annoyed him in a sort of endearing way.
He squinted at the relatively tall woman. Her face was beautiful, alright—especially those large, dark brown doe eyes that looked so innocent. Her dark hair was up in a high pony tail, and she reeked of several different chakras that he couldn't differentiate which one belonged to her.
That was when he noticed a great sword strapped to her back. He turned to where Kakashi was sitting, his mouth agape as he pointed at the woman.
Kakashi was just as shocked as Shikamaru was, maybe even more, but not because he recognized this woman as the same person who had attacked him back at the Land of Waves.
"… Haku?" Kakashi whispered in disbelief.
A/N: Wow, i havent been to this site in a decade. this is actually a new acc, i forgot my old one sooooo... and i kinda forgot about this acc... but bless naruto for reigniting my writing spirit. i hope you enjoyed, and hope it wasn't too badly written... if anything i hate bad writing and what i hate worse are mary sues and horrible character development. We've barely seen our new "original character" BUT I hope I've laid out enough foundation for how Kakashi feels about the deadly Zabuza-Haku duo... haha... Everything has a reason! But I hope this wasnt too shabby ;-;