Their Thoughts

Prologue

Age 4-

"Ah, you missed your first day here? Well don't worry; it was just a week ago. Let me take you to your class."

The teacher led the girl to the classroom. She had missed the first day because of a scary visit to the hospital. The doctor had produced some scans of her heart and had concluded that it was weaker than a normal heart. Therefore, she shouldn't do any heavy physical activities.

Yet, here she was, already disobeying the doctor's orders by attending the Leaf Ninja Academy. The people here thought she had missed the first day because of a family matter. Not so; she had been training herself to make sure that no one found out her secret.

"Okay class, please settle down", the teacher spoke. The class volume went down as everyone noticed the new girl.

"You may introduce yourself now", the teacher smiled and gestured outwardly.

"Um, hi everyone, I'm Meika Najika." 1

"Well Meika, you may call me Rukasa-sensei. Why don't you take the seat next to that young man over there?" 2

Meika placed a tighter grip on her school bag and took the seat indicated. The boy next to her had his white hair parted to one side. The unusual thing about him was the mask that covered the lower part of his face. Only his cool black eyes were visible.

"Okay class, go to page thirty. Now, I want you all to take a look at…"

During the lesson, Meika noticed that most of the girls were staring at her in envy or glaring daggers at her back.

This guy I'm next to must be the class prince, so those girls must be the fan club. Do they have to give me those looks! Oh man, why am I in trouble now on my first day here…?

Later on, during break time in the yard, Meika was eating lunch with a girl named Rin and a boy named Obito. They were having a good time knowing each other when the fan club (as Meika had dubbed the group of crazy girls) walked over to them.

"Hey new girl, seeing that you just came here, you should know about the rules in this class", one of the girls said.

"Wait, who are you people?" Meika asked.

"Meika, why did you ask that question? Now we're in so much hot water" Obito murmured.

"We are crazy for one boy only. We are ….THE KAKASHI FAN CLUB!" all of the girls yelled.

"But who's Kakashi?" Meika asked. She immediately regretted asking that question. The girls surrounded her and began exclaiming out sentences.

"Are you crazy?! If you don't know who Kakashi is, then you must be living under a rock!"

"Kakashi Hatake is the greatest, handsomest and smartest boy in the academy!"

"His eyes are so beautiful that you can fall into their spell!"

"The mask he wears must be concealing his beautiful face! Oh, if only he would show his face to us for one minute!"

By this time, Meika was on her back on the ground in awe of how far these girls would go for this Kakashi person. Rin and Obito were nowhere in sight to help.

"Will you all pipe down? Your horrible noises are interrupting my reading."

The fan girls went quiet and turned around. The white haired boy was glaring down at them from a tree. Meika noticed the history book in his hand.

"If you guys can't give me a break, I'll- Oh, I see…"

He finally seemed to notice Meika. He carefully jumped down and held out his hand.

"Do you need help?" he asked. Meika took his hand and got up. The fan girls were green with envy at this small sign of affection.

"I think I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Kakashi Hatake. You're Meika-chan, right?"

"Yes, of course! Please to meet you, Kashi-kun!"

"You heard me wrong; it's Ka-ka-shi."

"Kashi-kun, am I not saying it right?"

"No! IT'S KA-KA-SHI!!"

"… Ka-shi-kun…?"

"What is so hard about saying Kakashi Hatake?!"

Everyone sweat dropped and watched them dispute over the right pronunciation until Kakashi threw his hands.

"I give up! You can call me Kashi-kun until you get it right!" he exclaimed. This was the first time the son of a genius actually gave up, which was a sight to see.

k3k3k3k3k3

Age 5-

"Hey, I got you something, Kashi-kun!" Meika yelled into his ear. Kakashi jumped and whirled around to face her.

"What are you doing here at my house?! Who told you where I live?" he demanded.

"Rin told me where to go. Anyway, I'm here to say congrats on your graduation from Leaf Ninja Academy. I'm amazed that you graduated with only a year of studying."

He chuckled and said, "Well, I studied my neck off to be able to do this." His hand went up and adjusted the shiny forehead protector with Konoha's sign on it.

"I got a small present for you."

She handed Kakashi a folded piece of paper. He opened up the paper and saw a drawing of himself with the protector on. It was drawn so that he had a hand in his pocket and the other hand was adjusting the protector up. He seemed to have a cocky grin on.

Damn, this is pretty comical…

At the bottom, it was written-

Congratulations on graduating from the academy! May you become a great shinobi

Your friends,

Rin, Obito and Meika

"Oh… thanks, Mei-chan."

k3k3k3k3k3

Age 10-

"Hey Rin, I must say, congratulations on passing the chunnin exams. Did Obito pass, too?"

"He better have; he ran to me for help every time! Meika, you were brilliant! What do you call that wind technique?"

"Hellish Inferno is the name", Meika smiled. She had tagged along with Rin to the hospital to check on Obito. He reportedly had a bruised up arm after getting it sliced by raining kunai. While Rin was healing him, Meika got revenge on the enemy. It was done beautifully while ending with 'Hellish Inferno'.

They were sitting in the waiting room when Rin gasped and poked Meika. Meika turned around and saw Kakashi coming into the waiting room. He was dragging his feet and he looked like he wanted to sleep but was resisting the urge to. His face was pale and down casted. He wasn't anything like the Kashi-kun she knew.

Rin cried, "Kakashi, are you okay?" She and Meika helped him to a seat. They tried not to show the fear inside of them.

"Rin-chan, Mei-chan, why are you here?" Kakashi asked wearily.

"Obito is getting checked out of the hospital today. But why are you here? You look really tired" Rin said, concerned.

Kakashi shook his head. "I'm okay, but my father…" his voice trailed off.

Meika had met Sakumo Hatake-san three times. The first time was when he was taking Kakashi home after he had graduated as a genin. The second time was three years ago, when Kakashi became a chunnin. Two months ago, he was proctoring the final test for the chunnin exam. Sakumo-san and Kakashi looked exactly the same, except that Kakashi was much younger than his father.

Sakumo-san, or White Fang, was a genius. He had the same amount of respect as the Legendary Sannin! However, there had been some disturbing news lately. Sakumo-san had to go on a mission for the Fire Country after the chunnin exams. From what Meika had heard, he had broken a huge rule. In order to save his companions, he had abandoned the mission, something that was always drilled into her head to never do. Because of this act, he was being shunned by the public.

"He… I came back home and I didn't see him at first. I thought he was in his room, so I went upstairs to see. Something just didn't smell right. When I opened the door, he was… lying on the floor. There was a knife in his chest and his clothes were wet with blood. He had committed… suicide."

No one said a word. Anyone committing suicide was a scary thing. That person, who had their whole life ahead of them, threw it away to embark on that final journey. It was simply… abominable.

Kakashi dropped his head into his hands. "I took him to the hospital, but it's too late now… he's dead, he's gone forever."

k3k3k3k3k3

Age 12-

Meika ran up the road to the front gates. She was going to see off Team 7, who was going on a mission. Since Kakashi had recently become a jounin, this was a special occasion.

"Hey Kakashi, Rin, Obito; look over here!" she called out. Rin ran to greet her. Kakashi and Obito weren't paying attention. They were having a heated argument.

"Kakashi, stop bonking me on the head! I was ten minutes late because I had to help an old lady with her baggage cart!"

"Obito, rule number 25 clearly states that a shinobi can never be late. Why are you still a ninja if you keep being late?"

"Hey, she needed help; besides, aren't ninjas supposed to help others?"

"Listen up Obito, if you keep being late, I'll have to-"

Crack! Crack!

Meika had had enough. Their argument had started to get loud enough to the point when she was close to insanity. In order to shut them up, she whacked them on the head. They clammed up and rubbed their heads in confusion.

"If I remember correctly, ninjas are supposed to be quiet!" she reminded them. The subjects of her annoyance glared at each other.

"Anyhow, I have to give you guys something." Meika handed out three small rectangular packages.

"I was ordered to give you guys these late deliveries. However, I have also decided that each of you gets a memory. All of the memories we share are precious, so I thought that a simple sketch would do.

"Hooray, Mei-chan's sketches are the best!", Rin cheered and hugged her.

"Hey Meika, I heard that you're going into the wilderness far from Konoha to train. How long will it take?" Obito wondered.

"I think it's about a decade… or more."

"It has to be that extensive? Whoa, that's a lot of training!"

"I'm more worried about your birthdays. Kakashi's birthday is September 15, mine is a month later, Obito's birthday is in November and Rin's birthday is in December."

"Hey, Kakashi's already thirteen. Why is he the oldest kid here?! When did we even start discussing about our birthdays, anyway?"

Kakashi suddenly spoke, "Have you seen our Sensei?"

Meika smacked her head. "So that's what I'm forgetting! He said he will meet you guys at Training Ground Three in two hours."

"Two hours? Hey, why don't we go have a snack at the teahouse for fun?" Rin suggested.

"I'll race you all!" Obito yelled and they ran like maniacs. The race ended with Obito on top of a furious Kakashi. Rin and Meika were powerless to help because they couldn't stop laughing.

Who could ever tell that this was the last time all of them would be together?

o0o0o0o0o0

A few days later, Kakashi entered his apartment. The thirteen year old boy felt a hundred years older than usual. All of that screaming, the blood, the battlefield itself was starting to take its toll on the boy's mind.

When he had decided to become a ninja, it was only because his father, his all-time hero, was one. He had only known about the horrible consequences after he graduated. Even though he would have loved to be something else besides a ninja, fighting and being a ninja was all that he knew how to do. At the academy, you weren't taught about how cruelly ironic and terrible war really is. You never learn about the consistent screaming, the blinding pain when you don't block an attack or even… the agony of losing a loved one forever.

Obito smiled at him. He didn't care that the whole right side of his face was crushed by a huge boulder. He didn't care about the blood running down his face or of the increasing numbness of death. He was happy that his friends were safe.

Team 7 had been running for their lives from a rock slide. Kakashi had suddenly fainted while running because of an intense pain in his injured eye. Obito had taken the boulder for him. The bastard took his death for him…

Kakashi looked at himself in the bathroom mirror. His right eye was its normal black, but his left eye was now an always active sharingan, Obito's dying gift to him. Kakashi silently swore to use the gift for good use.

As he unpacked his bag, he found Meika's present underneath all of the survival necessities. He opened up the package. His eye widened slightly.

Team 7 stared back at him. Sensei, Rin, Obito and he were in a group underneath a tree's shadow. It had been taken a week ago to "collect some memories", as Sensei had placed it. Kakashi traced a finger over the smooth picture frame before putting it down.

Meika's sketch was about a long ago memory.

It was after dinner at Rin's house. They were all four years old, still kids who had big expectations for themselves. They were relaxing on the rooftop watching the black sky and talking about their training.

Then the shooting stars came by and caught their attention. Laughing, they began making wishes on the stars. Kakashi vaguely remembered that he had wished for a way for them to stay together. (When Obito had asked him, he said that he had wished for some way to make Obito shut up forever.)

Meika had already left for the time being. It was going to take a long time for her to get back. Now, his primary concern was to keep Rin safe, as he had promised Obito. Besides that, he had to go over all the obstacles that the future had for him.

How will his life, and the lives he influence, change?

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!

1-Her last name, Najika, means 'rainbow'

2-Rukasa is an acronym. Can you guess which character this teacher's name comes from?