Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Naruto franchise and most likely never will. This is a fan-made story that is not at all canon. Also, a few jutsu used in this story were not created by me or the Naruto writers and are creations of certain writers on Gai-Online.
Authors Note to all readers of my other stories (if you have not read my other stories please skip): hello, me writing this story does not mean my others are off hiatus. Depending on how I feel while writing this story I may continue the other ones as well. Now, on to the story.
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Sakumo Hatake smiled sadly while looking down into two cribs through glass in the civilian hospital. There they were… his two sons, the sons his wife gave her life to bring into this world. He remembered some fathers' being angry with their children when they took their mother's life to come into this world, however Sakumo could not bring himself to feel this way, in fact he could not bring himself to feel anything but happiness laced with an underlying sadness. He was sure he was repressing the emotion, but that was what shinobi did wasn't it? If it wasn't healthy, why would it be in the basic shinobi rules?
He sighed as he realized that being a shinobi at all wasn't very healthy, but he shrugged it off as he looked down at his two sons, Kakashi and Ryoken Hatake. His wife had chosen to name one of the boys after her father, an Inuzuka that had risen to the rank of jonin before being killed by an explosion tag in the last war. However, he gave his other son his name based off of Hatake tradition, and decided that the woman carrying his two children in her stomach deserved to name the other. As he thought about his wife, Kagara Inuzuka, he silently cursed the rules of medicine in his home, the Hidden Leaf Village, Konoha.
She had not been a shinobi in her life, instead being a veterinarian for the Inuzuka Clan. Kakashi had actually met her when his dog, an old hound named Garzo, had been bitten by a poisonous snake that his comrade Orochimaru had accidentally brought into his home. They had hit it off after she healed his pet and the two went on a date, and then another, and then another, until eventually they got married and ended up having twins. Anyway, after he finished staring at his beloved children for a little while longer, he was going to ask the Hokage, the leader of Konoha, to allow wives and relatives of shinobi to be admitted to the shinobi hospital as well. He found it ridiculous that his wife had to die just because she did not have a hiati-ate on her head.
Now that he was done thinking about his wife, he turned his attention to his children once more to look at their features. Kakashi had been born 1 minute before Ryoken, so he figured he would look at him first. The first thing he noticed was the small tuft of silver hair on his head as well as his dark eyes that looked incredibly similar to his father's. He also had a similar face to Sakumo, looking a lot like he himself did when he was young. He chuckled slightly as Kakashi reached for him with wide eyes and a grin on his face, babbling away like he did not have a care in the world. Kagara would have been furious if she saw that Kakashi had almost no features of her, however Sakumo still wished she was there to convey her feelings. After he finished looking over his first son, he started to have second doubts about deciding to start their training as soon as they could walk. Kakashi just looked so happy, he would hate for that ever to disappear.
He shook off his doubts before looking over at his second son, Ryoken, and blinking before smiling again. His face was slender and his eyes were narrowed (like Shikimaru's), unlike Kakashi's, as well as being a chocolate brown. He still had his father's hair, but unlike sticking upwards like his father's, his small bit of hair was straight and smooth like his mother's was. He was currently seeing if he could stick his foot in his mouth while looking around the room curiously. His slender eyes eventually noticed his father and he dropped his foot as quick as his little limbs could (not very) before trying to get to his father. However, much to Sakumo's amusement, instead of babbling happily like Kakashi did, once Ryoken got a better view of him, it seemed like he was examining Sakumo.
Sakumo smiled at the two trying to roll around, much to the shock of the civilian parents and doctors. Children that age were not supposed to be moving like that yet, or at all really. However, children of powerful shinobi could usually move around more than regular children, and by age 1-2 they would be walking and talking in small words, probably at least. And Sakumo was indeed a powerful shinobi, many have trembled at his legendary name, The White Fang, and he was able to take on all three Legendary Sannin at once and still come out on top.
He was even considered a likely candidate for the Fourth Hokage, however he was not interested in the position and told the current hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, The Professor, that he did not want anything to do with the position, preferring to live with his family without having to leave them every day for an extended period of time. He sighed sadly at that thought, it seemed like that plan was shot all to hell now. Oh well, the best thing for him to do was to raise his children to be respectable and strong shinobi and, more importantly, good men. He would much rather have his sons be good men than good shinobi and would incorporate that into his training. As he thought that, the silver-haired man smiled kindly and waved goodbye to his children, leaving them to undergo the many tests of the hospital to see if they were healthy. As he began walking out towards the Hokage's office, he felt a tear fall from his eye and wiped it away with annoyance. There would be time to mourn later, he had to go to the Hokage's office for a temporary break from missions first, then he could allow himself to break…
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(1.5 Years Later)
"Dad! Wake up!" a young boy said as he tried to push his sleeping father out of his double bed, a difficult feat for a 1.5-year-old. However, this 1.5-year-old was determined and he was a Hatake, and they never gave up. Anyway, that is what he told himself whenever his brother tried to get him to tap out during their wrestling matches that his annoying father kept laughing at. Said father was muffling his laughter at that time as his second child tried to push him off the bed. Ryoken and Kakashi had grown very quickly in the last 1.5 years, much to Sakumo's relief. They could both walk as well as children a year older than them, if not more, admittedly Sakumo did not know much about civilian children. However, Ryoken was the smarter one at this time, able to talk clearer and knowing more words than his older brother. Kakashi made up for this with his strength and could walk much faster than his brother, not that Ryoken would ever admit this.
Said child was still trying to push his much heavier father off five minutes later, eventually standing on the bed, only wobbling a little, and rubbing his straight silver hair in annoyance. Eventually, he perked up and climbed down from the bed with a little difficultly and heading out the room with his best impression of Orochimaru's evil laugh. Sakumo sighed when he heard that, while Kakashi though the Snake Sannin was creepy, Ryoken seemed to admire the man after he saw his father spar with him. That had also inspired his and Kakashi's "sparring matches" which Sakumo would bring people over to bet on. Kakashi usually won, but sometimes Ryoken would surprise everyone with a trick that would knock his brother off his feet and to certain defeat.
Speaking of his brother, Sakumo hid his smirk as he heard Ryoken trying to quietly talk to his brother as they "ninja snuck" into the room. "Are you ure tis will work Ryo?" Kakashi said in his slightly broken speech.
"Of course it will Ka', when have my plans ever fa- fa- messed up?" Ryoken said, covering up the fact that he couldn't say failed.
"Ok Ryo, what you say," Kakashi said as the two "snuck" around the beg and climbed up it across from Sakumo's body.
"Ok on one, two, twee!" Ryoken yelled, forsaking the stealth as he and Kakashi both pushed on Sakumo with all their might.
"Whoaaaaa!" Sakumo said with incredible acting as he rolled over the edge and fell off the bed, only to be used as a trampoline by his children. He smiled at the two as they clumsily high fived at their apparent genius plan. Sakumo exaggeratedly smacked as he looked at the two, "What day is it?" he asked with a yawn as the two looked at him.
"It's the day!" Ryoken said excitedly as Kakashi nodded in excitement next to him.
Sakumo feigned ignorance and looked at the two in confusion. "What is the day?" he asked.
Kakashi looked angry and so did Ryoken as Ryoken, the designated speaker, said with a pout, "You said you would show us some ninja stuff today!"
Sakumo smirked at that. Before, he had forbidden Kakashi or Ryoken to watch him while he sparred so they would not try to do the things he did and get hurt. Kakashi had followed his exact instructions, like usual, while Ryoken had watched him in secret many times, including his one spar with Orochimaru. He kept himself from sighing as he thought about how Ryoken would be as a teenager if he was this disobedient now, but pushed the thought from his mind and stood up to stretch. He grunted as he felt something in his back pop before slouching and walking towards the backyard of their house, which was also the training ground used by the Hatake Clan when it was more than 3 members.
It used to be a powerful clan with many members who were distinguishable by their silver hair and powerful taijutsu and kenjutsu. However, in Sakumo's opinion, their greatest strength lied in their diversity since they frequently married out of the clan and incorporated all of the nature affinities the spouses had into their clans. The clan did not die out by being killed off like so many clans during the Warring Clan Period, the period where clans would frequently fight each other and there were no villages, but they instead gave it up willingly like the Senju. Most of the Senju had left the clan stating that the village was their clan instead and, inspired by this show of faith in the village, the Hatakes followed suit. In the end, there were 4 Hatakes left in the clan, including Sakumo's father, Reki Hatake who died when Sakumo was only 3.
Two others died in the Second Great Shinobi War which left Sakumo as the last Hatake and, determined to make his diseased family proud, he kept his name and was called the White Fang thanks to his efforts in the war. However, that was years ago and, as he looked at his two sons, he hoped that they would never have to carry the title of the last Hatake like he did. "Dad, stop spa- spa- not looking…" Ryoken said before breaking off as he blushed at not thinking of the right word.
"Spacing out son," Sakumo said kindly as his son pouted, much to the amusement of Kakashi. "But, you're right, I should stop spacing out, we are here after all," Sakumo said mildly as they came out into a wide-open field with a small lake in the middle as well as many trees covering the end of it. This place was where Sakumo had learned how to wield a katana, where he learned how to throw kunai, and where his uncle had given him the clan's heirloom that only belonged to the clan head, the White Light Chakra Sabre. Speaking of which, he turned to his children with a flourish, the straps on his headband flapping in the wind and a light in his eyes. He made a hand seal and in a puff of smoke another Sakumo appeared across from himself. They both drew their clan's heirloom and turned to the gaping Ryoken and Kakashi.
"Pay attention to this sword, for one day one of you will inherit it from me," Sakumo began. "Now, I will show you how a Hatake wields a blade, pay attention now, and back away a few feet." The children obliged, eager to see the fight and sat down a little while away with huge eyes and wide grins as Kakashi said something and Ryoken passed him one of his favorite stuffed toys while Kakashi handed Ryoken one of his. Sakumo sweat dropped at this and was about to say something about no gambling when his clone leapt forward, ready to stab Sakumo in the gut.
Sakumo quickly parried and kicked the clone away. Thankfully, it was one of his special clones that could take up to ten hits before dispersing so he could have a good workout in. "Now, now, not so fast," Sakumo smirked as his clone got up. The Hatake clan had many styles to choose from, the most powerful ones being the ones for two-handed katanas, but Sakumo's favorite was the Snake Fang Style, being made up of quick movements, parries, and jabs. Speaking of which, Sakumo quickly parried a jab form his clone and quickly slashed at it, frowning when it was blocked and Sakumo was kicked in the shin, dropping him as his clone swung to behead him. Sakumo ducked and punched the clone in the knee, before grabbing the falling clone by its sword hand and attempting to jab it in the stomach.
However, the clone grabbed his own sword hand with his free one and the two were caught in a staring match as they tried to pry their hands away from the other. Eventually, the two kicked each other away at the same time and quickly regained their footing before Sakumo threw two kunai at his clone. The clone quickly blocked them with his blade before widening its eyes once realizing it was all a diversion and leaping to the side a second too late, receiving a slight cut in the arm. "heh, heh, first bloo-" Sakumo finished with a wheeze as he was punched in the stomach by his clone, who had body flickered in front of him to catch him off guard. Before he could recover, he was grabbed by the hair and thrown into the ground, making a small crater. Sakumo opened his eyes slightly to see his clone preparing to jab his sword into Sakumo's heart and quickly cut into its leg, downing it.
Sakumo quickly took advantage of this and swung overhead, which the clone moved to block. However, Sakumo quickly body flickered before the clone and jabbed into its heart. Shortly afterwards, a puff of smoke appeared and Sakumo shivered as he received the memories the shadow clone transferred. He turned towards his children, self-satisfied, and frowned when he saw Ryoken looking at two toys in his hands with a smile, right until he was tackled by Kakashi. Sakumo sighed as he walked towards his children with a shake of his head, however, if someone looked closely enough, they could see he was smiling.
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(1 Year Later)
Sakumo smiled as he looked down from above at his young children. At 2.5 years of age, they were both able to walk without much difficulty and were able to talk in complete sentences. And people said his training exercises would never work, hah! Although, they might call shinobi child services if they saw how intensive the training was. Sakumo shook his head at that, he was trained to be a shinobi as soon as he could walk, so his children would as well, that was that. He smiled again as he saw the two who barely reached his knees looking so determined. He supposed it was time to get the training started.
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Ryoken smirked as he saw his father prepare to give a speech about how they were about to be trained to be shinobi. Ryoken looked to his side at the eagerly awaiting Kakashi and his smirk widened. Kakashi had been wanting to be trained by their father ever since he could think that far ahead, and so had Ryoken for that matter. However, unlike Kakashi he was not expecting to learn any cool jutsu or epic sword moves. No, he had overheard his father and his best friend, Orochimaru, talking about their training schedule the night before. They would be doing nothing but conditioning, learning shinobi rules, learning reflexes, and learning basic shinobi skills until Sakumo deemed them ready to join the academy. He said back in his day the final exam was the entrance ceremony, which Ryoken doubted but didn't say anything, so they would not be allowed to enter until they could do the basic shinobi jutsu.
Kakashi had asked what they would do at the academy then and Sakumo had then said that they would improve their social skills, make friends, and practice the skills they had learned up to that point before graduating along with everyone else in the academy. It seemed like a good plan to Ryoken, however Kakashi had just looked confused and asked why he would need other friends when he had Ryoken. Ryoken is still suspicious as to what Kakashi wants. Ryoken shook these thoughts out of his mind as his father finally began to speak. Like Sakumo, Ryoken had the habit of getting lost in thought a lot of times, Sakumo had been ecstatic when he learned that one of his children acted like him too since Kakashi was more like his mother.
"Ahem," Sakumo began in his usual dramatic tone, "Today begins your training to become a great shinobi known all across the land!" he said with a wide wave of his hand. Kakashi's smile grew as he jumped up and down in place, which amused Ryoken since he never acted like that anywhere but at home with his father. "However! Before you can learn the advanced teachings of the shinobi world, you must learn the basics. That is why you two will begin the day by running 10 laps around the training field. Go!" Sakumo yelled as he walked back to the porch on the back of the two-story Hatake home where he picked up a scroll on advanced lightning jutsu. When he didn't hear feet moving he looked up to see Ryoken with his mouth slightly ajar while Kakashi full on gaped at the man.
"What? Did I stutter? You'll never be shinobi at the pace you two are going, now shoo," Sakumo said while he returned to reading his scroll. Ryoken sighed before beginning to run around the training field, it would probably take a few hours to finish but Ryoken supposed they had to be conditioned somehow. Ryoken then turned around to see Kakashi still standing there and he walked towards him before grabbing his hair and beginning the laps. After a few seconds Kakashi got tired of being dragged and decided to run as well. "Heh, heh, I wonder how long it will take those two to run all those laps," Sakumo wondered aloud, knowing that it doesn't take long as long as the runner can channel chakra. Running without it will increase their strength and determination without chakra, though they will probably take a while…
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(Four Hours Later)
Ryoken wheezed as he finally collapsed at where he had started running all those hours ago. He turned his head to see Kakashi, who had gotten there a few minutes before him laid out on the ground as well. Ryoken was about to see if he was alright when their father came from the house with a kind smile and two cups of water along with two sandwiches. "Here, eat and drink up, I'll be back in about ten minutes, just relax here for a while," he said kindly as he walked back to their house.
With nothing better to do, Ryoken decided to look around and take detail of the things around him. For one, the house. It was a nice, old fashioned wooden house with many stylish beams and screens as well as a second story that held the library and all of the Hatake scrolls. It was quite large, however not nearly as large as the noble clan main houses. The first story had about 5 bedrooms, a dojo, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a dining room, a living room, a work space, and an entrance room as well. The second story held thousands of scrolls that were all catalogued very meticulously and could not be opened unless the reader was of Hatake blood.
Finished with his view of the house, Ryoken turned his attention to Kakashi, who was wearing the same clothes his father had gotten him for his birthday; a black, long-sleeved shirt, a green scarf, a lower face mask, and black pants with many pockets. His hair had finally grown a bit more and it was spiked up in the same style as his father's. Ryoken sometimes swore that his brother had been born with that mask on however, and Kakashi had started to wear layers of the thing to keep Ryoken from taking it off when he wasn't paying attention. Whenever his father told him to stop messing with Kakashi, he just said it was training for when someone else tries to take off his mask. Or, at least that is what he tells Kakashi when he gets mad.
Ryoken then turned his attention to himself and looked at the clothes he was wearing. He was wearing brown cargo shorts along with a white shirt that had the Konoha symbol in red on both the front and the back. His hair was starting to reach his shoulders and was straight. He was thinking of growing it out to put into a tail like one of his father's other friends, Jiraiya, did. He was about to find something else to think about while eating his sandwich before he saw his father walking out of the house with an evil smile and what seemed to be a bag of weighted kunai.
It was then that Ryoken had decided that his father was no more, and that a demon had taken his place. A demon who enjoyed seeing Ryoken and Kakashi suffer with a passion.
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(1.5 Years Later)
'Well, it seems it is time hm?' Sakumo thought proudly to himself as he overlooked the sparring match between Ryoken and Kakashi for the last time before the two went to the academy. Kakashi was currently wielding a kunai in each hand and Ryoken held two kunai of his own as Kakashi carefully watched Ryoken and Ryoken smirked in excitement. The past year of training had seen the now 4-year-olds improve beyond what Sakumo thought they would. The two were now skilled enough to pass the academy exam and could probably graduate early if they wanted to, though they still had much to learn.
The past 1.5 years had not only improved their skills, their personalities had changed as well once they learned what they were getting into and came to terms with that fact. Ryoken became even calmer and adopted Sakumo's teachings of comrades before anything else and was very kind like his father and quiet like his mother. Kakashi on the other hand had gotten less rambunctious and while he was still loose and happy around his family, he was much more reserved around others and had become even more serious. He also was a bit more reluctant to accept that he should forsake the mission to rescue his comrades instead, however he was eventually convinced.
He watched calmly as Kakashi knocked one of the kunai out of Ryoken's hands before being grabbed and shoved to the ground where Ryoken began his assault before turning back to his thoughts. He was worried, the shinobi world was beginning to fall into turmoil and he had just received a mission that could help prevent Konoha from getting involved at all. However, it was high risk and he was to bring along five other shinobi in case of confrontation, he just hoped that he could protect them all, he still remembered the last time he had to tell a man's family that their son died on a mission he was leading. He would never forget that mother's wail and the father's intense fury in telling him to leave. He shook his head to clear the fog, no, not this time, he would not lose anyone on a mission again, that was a promise.
"What are you thinking about this time dad?" Sakumo heard Ryoken ask as he and Kakashi walked up to him, each with fresh bruises and slight cuts. However, it seemed this time that Ryoken had won with the old clone substitution trick. He had taught his that trick himself, making it seem like he was in front of his opponent with a simple academy clone while substituting with a log or a pile of leaves behind him or her.
Sakumo smiled as Ryoken and Kakashi sat on either side of him. "Oh, nothing much, just thinking about the new mission I was given personally by the Hokage himself," Sakumo said in a bragging tone of voice. Kakashi shrugged like it was no big deal for his dad while Ryoken had his proud smirk on, sometimes Sakumo would compare his smirks with the Uchiha's grunts they both did it so much. "Yep, it's a pretty big deal, however I convinced him to allow me a day to get you two enrolled in the academy before I had to leave."
"Wait, so you mean?" Kakashi asked, too worried that if he said the full sentence it wouldn't be true.
"Yep, you two are going to be enrolled in the academy. Go get yourselves cleaned up, we're about to be late." Kakashi scowled at this while Ryoken did not even spend time making an expression, instead heading straight to the bathroom to clean his face off. Sakumo chuckled as Kakashi followed suit and then turned to look at the beautiful forests beyond the training ground. He needed to do well on this mission, if he didn't then his children may grow up during war. However, in the end he would do what he thought was right, like he's always done and he always will. With that thought, he got up and began to get ready to enroll his children in the academy, hopefully it would be enough to prepare them for the shinobi life.
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Well, that's that. Thank you all for reading this far and I really enjoyed writing this. Therefore, there will be more chapters in the future and I will be updating my other stories as well now. Thank you for reading and please rate and review to let me know how I am doing. Also, if anyone would like to make original cover art for this fanfiction it would be highly appreciated. Finally, this story will mainly focus around Ryoken with some appearances from Kakashi and others (mostly Kakashi) I hope you enjoy it, if you have any ideas you would like to see message me. See ya!
