Kakashi was fifteen.

He'd been in the ANBU for a few years now, doing whatever missions the Hokage gave to him and going on with his life as normal as he could do. His past still haunted him. Though the nightmares of his teammates deaths weren't as numerous, they nonetheless showed up now and again. Being in the ANBU helped to ease the pain in some ways, Kakashi would admit it. The missions were harder; darker. He had to throw himself fully into them in order to focus and concentrate on what he was doing, and in a way, although the missions meant he had to kill more people and there was more violence involved…it had helped Kakashi to cope with the anger and guilt that had been building up inside of him after everything that had happened.

Today had been no different. Kakashi had already completed one mission earlier in the day, and then he'd been assigned another one straight after; only this time he wouldn't be going ahead with it right away. He hadn't even been told what the mission was really about; the third Hokage had said he would be briefed later on in the early evening when he would come back. That fact in itself put Kakashi on alert, knowing this mission was unusual. There weren't many missions he did completely on his own, but evidently this would be one of them—something about what he would be doing was special, though quite what it was Kakashi couldn't tell. Still, he wasn't nervous about it; if the Hokage had assigned him the mission, then clearly he felt it was within his capabilities, and as such Kakashi headed back to his house, doing some errands and training a little for the rest of his day, casually considering what this mission might be about in the meantime.

But eventually the sun began to set, signalling it was time for him to leave, and grabbing anything he might need—making sure he would be prepared for the mission—Kakashi set off for the Hokage's building once more. A few minutes later and he arrived, nodding in greeting towards the Hokage as he went and stood in front of him, saying nothing more. The Hokage would reveal the information he needed to know soon enough, so there was no point pushing it any further—something that was proven a second later as the Hokage finally began to speak up, beginning softly,

"I know it seems unusual for you to be doing a mission on your own, Kakashi, but this mission involves reconnaissance—and an assassination. It would be unwise to send in too many ninja; and I know you can handle this. Outside of the village walls there is an estate a few minutes out, owned by a wealthy man named Daraku Aimi."

"He's the one I need to assassinate?" Kakashi cut in, only to narrow his eyes as the Hokage shook his head and continued,

"Actually, no. He hasn't been seen in a very long time. Although I am suspicious of Daraku, I have nothing to show he has done anything. But anyone who has gone past the area has reported seeing and hearing unusual things. People have been disappearing, and the bodies of several Konoha ninja have been found in the area. It's definitely the work of an assassin; and a talented one at that. With the way things are going, they're becoming very dangerous to Konoha. So I want you to take a look; see what's going on in there—making sure you're not spotted. At least I want you to figure out the identity of the assassin; if it's possible, for you to take them out—but considering their skill it might be better for you to get back up. You can decide further into the mission. Do you understand?"

Nodding in agreement with his words, the Hokage sent him off, and Kakashi instantly set off. Only stopping to check he had all the supplies he would need, Kakashi then swiftly headed towards the gates of the village while thinking about the mission ahead of him. He wasn't sure how long this mission would take. True, he could always quickly head back to the village if he needed anything, but in terms of completing everything, it remained a bit of a question mark in his mind. Kakashi didn't know how big the estate was, or the layout of the area at all, which gave this assassin a bit of an advantage over him. He would need time to collect information on the place and just what was going on, and considering the assassin was a person that was able to move from place to place—and no doubt at a pretty fast pace—tracking them down might be a little difficult.

But still; he had to stop anyone else from being killed.

Why was it even happening? It seemed like this Daraku guy was connected somehow, even if no one saw him. But what possible reason could he have for kidnapping people and killing Konoha ninjas? It didn't even appear as if he was trying to be particularly subtle about it. And with an estate this close to a ninja village, rather than some sort of hidden base underground, it wouldn't take long before somebody came calling. But maybe that was the point of the assassin. If Daraku felt he could rely on him—felt that he was strong enough to keep any ninjas at bay—then he felt he didn't need to hide. When Orochimaru had been performing his experiments, he had kept them more hidden than this guy, true, but when the Hokage had confronted him he hadn't exactly acted remorseful; he hadn't even run.

Wait—was Daraku doing experiments too?

It would explain why people were disappearing. He would need people for the experiments. But Orochimaru had done them to try and become immortal and learn all the jutsu in the world. Without knowing what Daraku was like, Kakashi couldn't make any assumptions. He could simply be kidnapping them and selling them off as slaves in some form or other—with an estate, he seemed like the kind of guy to care about money. But shaking his head, Kakashi continued on and focused on what was ahead of him. He'd know soon enough, after all. That was what this mission was about—finding out what was going on here. Maybe if he was lucky Kakashi might even find Daraku hiding out in a hole somewhere. From the sounds of things it was about time he came out of the shadows.

And as to this assassin…would he need back up? The fact that the Hokage had even suggested it to begin with made Kakashi hesitant. Generally the Hokage understood the both Kakashi's abilities and the requirements of the missions he sent him on, knowing whether or not he would need help, or just how much help he would need. Though for something like this…normally Kakashi would have said he could have handled it, but the Hokage had appeared hesitant. He'd said the assassin was becoming dangerous to Konoha…but just how dangerous? Who the hell was this person? They must have been hired from outside, but there was an endless supply of missing nins from the other ninja villages; there was no telling who it might be.

Though as the estate's walls appeared up ahead, Kakashi got the feeling he would find out soon enough. Immediately slowing his pace, Kakashi hid in the branches of a tree close to the wall, and began circling round. He had stayed off the path while heading towards the estate, not wanting to be seen, and now he made his way towards the gates—not to enter through them, but to see what kind of security they had. He was a little surprised, however, to see nothing there as he arrived, the doors wide open, scanning the area from his hiding spot. But gathering they wanted people to simply walk in—they needed people, after all—Kakashi circled back round, narrowing his eyes as he noticed that rather than guards at the gates, there were a couple of guards around the perimeter, and more further into the forest, ready to catch those who passed by.

Definitely knowing something strange was up now, Kakashi picked an empty part of the wall and began to make his way inside, checking carefully every step of the way for guards or traps. And as he finally landed on the ground inside and slipped into the shadows, Kakashi was beginning to understand:

This mission was certainly going to be interesting.