Hi! This is Kakashi323, here front and center (also known as Fang...Yah, just get used to my weird hypocriticalness...)!

I'm sorry that this chapter isn't very funny, but this story is going to be a lot more serious than my other fanfictions. (I have another account on this site, but I don't want my friends making fun of me for writing such a serious story and laugh). But don't worry, there will be funny bits too!

Umm...the only real warnings I have are usually explicit violence, and maybe later on in the fic the rating might have to change to M...(Hey, don't blame me, Kakashi is #!*% hot, you'd do the same too!) But for now, enjoy, and I hope you read to the end. (Which might take a while...I like the details...which really #!*% off my buddies...)


They were here. I could hear them coming up the stair. Hutched in the farthest corner of my room, I hugged my knees closer to my chest. I bit my lip to keep myself from crying, and squinted my eyes shut.

The screaming downstairs had ended in gurgles of blood. I didn't want to believe that my parents were dead. They were still fighting. They had to be! I kept this thought running through my head as the footsteps drew closer and closer to my door. My eyes flew open when the sound stopped outside. I could hear my breath coming in panicked bursts, my hear pounding ice-cold blood through my body. I crouched into the darkest part of my room even more, a kunai in my little fist, my only weapon. The door sprung open, and a ninja dressed in all black stepped into my room. I narrowed my eyes, and with as much force as I could muster, leaped out of my corner, kunai at the ready. It was a fruitless venture.

The man grabbed my wrist and twisted it as he moved the kunai silently from my hand to his. I yelped in pain as he brought the kunai down on my arm, leaving a deep, bloody wound. I dropped to the ground clutching my arm, ready to let out another scream when his hand clasped around my neck, cutting off my air. He hoisted my little body up off of the ground, bringing me to his eye level. I choked, grabbing at his hand.

"Pathetic…" he whispered through his masked mouth into my ear. He drew his hand back and threw me against the wall, jarring my back and shoulders. I didn't cry out because I was getting the last of my air jacked out of me from the impact. I fell to the floor, stunned, the edges of my vision dancing with sparks. It seemed like an eternity before I drew in a ragged, painful breath into my heaving lungs. The man walked towards me, and I closed my eyes waiting for the finishing blow.

It never came. The sound of metal slashing flesh, a gurgled cry, and the scuffle of feet were registered in my ears. Blood splashed onto my clothes and face. I opened my eyes in surprise.

The attacker was now running toward the window, followed by a yellow blur. His mask was torn off, a slash now running from his left temple to his right cheek across his face, dribbling blood. He looked at me, his eyes a sharp, brilliant green, before jumping out the window. His pursuer watched him run and vanish into thin air.

The other man turned to face me. His eyes widened in concern at the sight of me coughing my guts up on the ground. It took me a moment to realize that the man was my older brother. His clothes were covered in dry blood, and even some of his spiky, golden hair was tainted. I felt his arms around me and pull me into a griping hug.

Only then did I realize the magnitude of what had just happened.

"Minato-nii!" I cried, my small fists clutching the fabric of his shirt. Tears unbidden were coming to my eyes. Minato-nii held me close, one hand stroking my matted, dirty hair. He brought his hand away from my left arm, and his eyes widened at the sight of the blood.

"Kazuri! You're injured!" Minato-nii exclaimed. He quickly took the arm of my shirt and tore a strip from it. Pushing up my other sleeve from the wound, he bound the cut tightly to slow the blood flow. I wiped my tears from my cheeks with my good arm. Nato-nii hugged me again, his cheek pressed against mine.

"I thought I was too late…Kazuri-chan, thank the heavens you're alive."

I relaxed for the first time that night, safe as I could possibly be in his arms. Nothing else was going to hurt me tonight. The door slammed open, and I grabbed onto Minato-nii's jacket in fright. Two men, with Konoha ninja headbands around their foreheads ran in.

"Minato-san! Your parents! They're-" one of them started to say, but my older brother gave him an empty, mournful look.

"Minato-san….I'm sorry." The other sighed in agreement. Minato-nii stood up and faced the two men.

"The safest place for Kazuri right now is…Hatake-san's place. That's all that matters."

"But sir! The assassin is getting away as we speak!" the man on the right exclaimed.

"There's nothing we can do about that now! My little sister is all that's left! And I'm going to do all that I can to keep her safe." Minato-nii turned, and bent on one knee in front of me. He grabbed the blanket off my bed and wrapped it around my shoulders. Only then did I realize how badly I was shaking; whether from past fight of from the coldness of the room, I didn't know. Slipping one hand behind my lets and his other around my shoulders, Nato-nii picked me up off the ground and brought me to his shoulder. One of my shoes had fallen off in all the excitement, but I was too exhausted to care. Minato-nii moved quickly to the stairs, followed by the two ninja. Once downstairs, he ran to the door to the living room.

"Close your eyes, Kazuri-chan." He whispered in my ear. He opened the door; I meant to do as he said, but a little voice nudged me to look.

Blood. So much blood. An especially dark puddle came from the wall to my right. My eyes widened, and I clamped my mouth shut. A body was pinned to the middle of the wall by a large shuriken, blood running down it in rivets. Where the head should have been was a bloody stump. My eyes involuntarily searched the flood for the body part. My shocked gaze drew me to the body lying on the floor. His arm had been ripped off, and his clothes had been torn to shreds. But the thing that caught my horrified attention was that his head had been twisted three-quarters around. Next to his head lay the head of the woman's body. They stared at each other with wide open, agonized eyes. Their faces twisted in horror, their hair flung about, the puddles on the floor…all of it went away when my eyes locked onto the bigger picture.

These were my parents. The people who I loved with all my heart. My father's body lay on the floor. My mother's head lay separated from her own. Their eyes, which once held warmth and kindness, now were felled with panic and pain. Their mouths were no longer smiling and laughing; rather, they were grotesquely twisted into silent scream of horror.

"Kaa-san! Tou-san!' I yelled at the top of my lungs. I scrambled at Nato-nii's firm grip, trying to get down. I was frantic. I couldn't just believe my parents were dead. I wouldn't. Nato-nii held me fast in his arms as he rushed for the front door.

"NO! Put me down, put me down, put me down! Kaa-san! Tou-san!" I furiously hit at Minato-nii's shoulder, angry tears beginning to spill out of my eyes. Nato-nii's hands only tightened around my struggling body. He shoved the door open and rushed out of the murder scene, into the bitter cold night. Without the visual in front of me, my struggles became feeble and soon ceased altogether.

Nato-nii's voice whispered, "Its okays" and "Calm, Zuri-chans" and slowly, my breathing quieted, but the tears continued to run unhindered down my face. I wasn't going to forget the scene I had just witnessed for the rest of my life. I closed my eyes.

Drops of cold fell around me, and on me. Dimly in my mind, I knew that it was raining. Minato-nii was running now, the two other ninja were following behind. The wind blasted against me, and I shivered despite myself. My right foot was tingling with cold; I should have grabbed that shoe.

I opened my eyes to see building literally flying past my vision. Nato-nii was going fast…I could see behind Minato's back the ninja were trying to keep up with his speed to no avail. I laid my cheek against Nato-nii's ninja vest and curled up tighter.

I got used to the cold raindrops hitting the side of my face. A warm drop fell on my forehead, and I looked up through half-lidded eyes at Minato.

He was crying. My older brother was crying. The strongest person I knew, my idol, was hurting. I glimpsed our parents in my mind again, and realized that Nato-nii was shocked too. He shared what I felt.

That thought stayed with me even as he stopped in front of a house's door. Nato-nii didn't have to knock; the door opened to show a taller man in the doorway. He wore a headband, and a ponytail of silver hair cascaded down his back.

"Minato, you made it!" he sounded relieved. He moved out of the door frame for Minato-nii to pass. I saw him nod at the two followers, and they disappeared into the rain. With a snap, the silver-haired man closed and locked the door.

I was in a living room of sorts; it was sparsely furnished but for a blue couch and matching recliner chair and a wooden table low to the ground in the middle. A fire crackled in the fireplace, and slowly, I felt my body begin to thaw out. Minato-nii walked to the couch and sat me down on it. He removed the blanket from my body, and I fully felt the chill that had encompassed me from the very beginning.

"Get her closer to the fire; it looks like she's frozen." The silver-haired man said. Minato helped me over to sit in front of the table.

"She's a mess…Minato…what happened?"

My older brother proceeded to tell him the short version of what I had seen that night. I stared at the crackling flames, entranced by the never ceasing movement of each entwining, circling tendril of heat. I didn't pay attention to the noise of the conversation; my mind was on other things.

"-Parents?" asked the taller man, and I snapped into the conversation. I turned around to see Nato-nii shake his head slightly, his face a wave of pain.

I felt a twinge of it on my arm, and dimly recalled the kunai blade that had slashed through my skin. I got up from my seat by the fire and walked half-barefoot to Minato. He pulled me onto his lap, laying my head against his chest.

"No. Kazuri was the only one left. Even then, I was almost too late."

"It was a good idea to bring her here. She looks tired. I'll get Kakashi to come down here. He can take care of her."

Minato-nii nodded, and sat me in the middle of him and the other man. I was warm enough now, and I watched the older man get up with more attention than I had before. He went to a door and opened it, calling for Kakashi.

I absently wondered what this Kakashi person was like. Was he older than me? I was only four, so I assumed so. Kaa-san and Tou-san always bragged about me not being normal; they were going to send me to the ninja academy even at my age. I could do even the simplest of ninja techniques with relative ease, much better than most twelve-year olds at this time. They called me a genius. I felt like a freak.

I didn't want to go to the ninja academy for that reason. Yes, there would be people my age, but most of them would treat it as a daycare of something. Nato-nii was the only one I felt comfortable with. He wouldn't try to treat me like a stupid little kid. He was 18, a leaf jonin, and had an annoyingly amount of missions, but he always managed to make time for me. He was my best friend.

So when I heard footsteps on the stairs, and was the older man step aside, I grasped for his hand without thinking. Nato-nii squeezed back and gave me a reassuring smile. My focus was drawn to the floor, where a shadow was growing larger as the steps sounded softly. I held my breath, expecting a teenager that was a higher-ranked ninja.

A boy stood there. A small, young boy. He looked my age, four or five, and looked to be only a little taller than I was. Something about him made me feel more comfortable, even drew me to him. I let go of Nato-nii's hand, and hopped off the couch

"Kazuri-chan, this is my son, Hatake Kakashi."

Kakashi came closer to me, and instantly, something flared inside of me. I took a good look at this newcomer who intrigued me so. Kakashi had a cute face, in my mind. His small nose and straight-lined mouth seemed to fit his face perfectly. His hair was the most amazing silver; the same color as his father's but it somehow just seemed…right on him. It tilted to the left side of his head, spiking up in the most random places, but it seemed to add to his look in a positive way. I wanted nothing more than to touch. Just touch it. I didn't know why.

His eyes were what grabbed my attention last, but they held it the longest. They were an onyx, so deep I felt I could fall in and lose myself in them, so dark, it was hard to see his pupils. His eyelids were only partly open; a little more than halfway, and his lashes were the perfect length. Just by looking at this boy named Kakashi, I could see he wasn't an ordinary boy. He was like me.

"Hello." A voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and it came from none other than Kakashi's mouth. I realized I had been outright staring at him, and ducked my head in embarrassment. I didn't respond. Instead, I took a breath and raised my head to look face-on at him, and I swear, he almost smiled.

"Kakashi-kun, why don't you take Kazuri-chan upstairs and help her clean up? She's going to be staying with us for a while, so we had better put her up in your room for now." Kakashi's father said, he talked like he would to a much older person, which reaffirmed my theory on the boy.

Wait…Stay? I was…staying here? I whipped around towards Nato-nii who was still sitting couch.

"Stay? But…Nato-nii…I thought we were going to go home?" I asked. Minato shook his head slowly.

"Right now, this is the best place for you, Zuri-chan. It's safe. Now please, go with Kakashi."

I looked at the boy, still standing a little inside the doorway.

"But…you're staying too, right?" I asked. Minato-nii sighed. "Not right now, Kazuri. I have-"

My eyes got wide, and I ran to the couch and scrambled onto his lap.

"No! No, you have to stay! You have to! Nato-nii, Nato-nii, promise me you'll stay!" My voice grew desperate, but I didn't care. He needed to stay. I needed him to stay! Minato-nii wrapped his arms around me and hugged me gently.

"Only for a little bit. I have to talk with Hatake-san alone now, and then I to go, for a little while. Zuri-chan, you know I would never lie to you."

Blue eyes met my green as we looked at each other, until I hugged him again.

"You'll be back, right? Soon?" I asked, my voice muffled by his vest.

"Oh course." And that was all it took. He gave me a kiss on my forehead, and set me down on the ground. Only a little reluctantly, I walked back over to Kakashi. I turned around to see Minato's trusting blue eyes.

"Promise?"

Nato-nii laughed kindly at this, his mouth splitting into that wide grin I knew so well. "Promise."

PREVIEW


I shook my head violently, and turned to face down at my arm. The way Kakashi talked made me feel like a little kid. Alright, I was a little kid, but Kakashi couldn't be much older, so he had no right to talk! I was gonna watch whether I liked it or not, just to show him I was…stronger than I appeared to be.


AUTHOR'S COMMENTS

I spent a lot of time on this chapter...Had the whole thing in my head since...well...yeah...sorry if I use big words, I find that the fanfic is much more interesting with them in my opinion. You don't have to agree...just deal with it...

I pretty much just started writing this fic to do Kakashi some justice. He is arguably the best character in Naruto at this very moment, in either the anime or the manga.

Reviews are very much appreciated, and flames are even more so! I really want to increase my writing skills, and telling me how much I suck at this or that does actually help me. If you, the reader, also have ideas of what should happen next as well (Psh, I don't even know where the heck i'm going with this story), I will listen to your ideas and consider them to the extreme.

Thank you very much,

-Fang (My signature name for everything I do ^_^)