Thank you for your kind reviews! They've encouraged me to write more, so here's chapter one, and the official start of the story.

Chapter 1

In the wake of the Kyuubi attack, the other nations were circling like hungry sharks scenting blood. The only reason why Iwa, their most hated enemy, hadn't attacked was because it would be costly on both sides, leaving both villages weakened for the other circling vultures to swoop down and prey upon.

And so the newly reinstated Hokage knew that he needed a show of strength. Konoha was always famed and feared for their legends and the quality of their shinobi rather than their numbers. The village had their clans; they had many strong A-rank ninja from the Hyuuga and Uchiha, and famous squads like the Ino-Shika-Cho trio. They had the Sannin, and although Tsunade had left the village years ago, the other two were still there. Sarutobi himself had a fearsome reputation, but that was all it was. A reputation. Only Onoki remembered facing him in battle. The new Kages of Kumo, Suna and Kiri were young; they had never seen him fight, only grown up with the stories.

Sarutobi knew they needed more. It was time for the new generation to step up and fill the many empty places left by their predecessors. And so, he turned to Kakashi, the genius of the younger generation. Although it hurt him to do, to send Kakashi down the dark path that Minato would have hated for him to tread, Sarutobi had no choice.

As the Hokage's assassin, answering only to the man himself, he was sent out again and again to track, hunt down, and kill the many enemies of Konoha. Whether they were dangerous missing-nin, traitors, enemy ninja, noblemen, or businessmen, they all died by his hand one way or another.

ANBU Hound was deployed to the Grass border where Iwa lay just on the other side. Him and his pack of dogs patrolled Fire country's borders day in and day out, intercepting all who dared to enter. Of course, Iwa would deny that they had sent any ninja into the Land of Fire, and Konoha would refute that they had sent anyone to kill them. Such was the way of the shinobi world.

It didn't take long for Iwa to realise that none of their operatives were reporting back. They had sent some of their best stealth specialists to sneak across the border, but unbeknownst to them, the Hound's dogs were deployed across every area, sniffing down scent trails before alerting their master about trespassers. ANBU Hound would then hunt them down before they could get more than a few days into Fire.

Iwa sent a team this time, hoping to gather information about the disappearances, thinking that a combat team would fare better than their solo stealth shinobi. However Kakashi had anticipated this, and was waiting for them.

Higurashi Arata led his team swiftly through Grass. He knew of the importance of their mission, and had impressed it upon them. They were to infiltrate the Land of Fire and eliminate the shinobi that had been guarding the borders, allowing their infiltrators to make it through quickly without having to forge a civilian background.

It was sunset when they crossed Grass's borders and into Fire. The shadows were lengthening and the winter air was cooling down even further. Red dusted the sky, painting the landscape in dim colours, and the wind whistled through Fire country's trees. They were all tense and on edge from being in enemy territory, and as such they were moving slowly and cautiously.

It started with silence.

Arata was the first one to notice something odd and held up a fist, bringing the eight-man Iwa team to a stop as they realised that the forest was empty. No animals, no birds, no sound. The wind had died completely and the ever-present sigh of rustling leaves was gone. The tall trees loomed threateningly over their heads, and the only light was fading as the sun disappeared behind the horizon.

Next came the howls.

A fierce, bloodthirsty cry came from far in the distance; the call of a rabid beast. The sound disappeared as soon as it arrived, the chill air seeming to ring with the sudden loss of noise. Just when the tension became unbearable, more howls ripped through the forest, suddenly so much closer than before. Plunged into silence once more, the Iwa-nin readied themselves for battle, shrugging off the onset of nerves.

And then there was blood.

"Mariko! Where are they?"

Instead of the location from the sensor kunoichi, a heavy 'thump' sounded behind him causing Arata to spin around. Their two sensors were lying on the ground, throats slit and bleeding.

"Fuck! He's got our sensors. Form up, and find the bastard!" Arata snarled fiercely.

The remaining six ninja closed ranks, rapidly scanning the trees. They searched for a sign, a sound, a scent. Anything. But all they could find was the looming of the dark forest, the deepening shadows, and patches of fading, blood red sunlight filtering down from small gaps in the canopy.

It ended in lighting.

The stillness was broken by a fierce electric screech, the chirping sound deafening after the heavy silence. A blur of black and red, and suddenly there was a presence in their midst. Arata spun, only to be greeted with the sight of a crouching, dark figure. His arm was inside his teammate's torso, a ball of lightning clutched in his hand. The blue-white orb illuminated a feral, bone-white mask, it's snarling face fearsome. The creature turned its head towards him, and his heart stuttered as he saw glowing red eyes peering from the eye sockets.

The monster stood up, freeing it's arm with a sickening squelch. Even as Arata gathered his chakra in preparation, he felt with a bone-chilling certainty that he would not be living to see the dawn.

After all, it was only in fairy tales that men triumph over monsters.

One tired fourteen-year-old Hatake Kakashi settled himself down for the night on a soft lump of grass found at the base of a tree. A blanket and a couple of his dogs snuggling into him saw him warm enough. He was exhausted, not only from the fighting he had done, but also from the preparations he had made beforehand. Pakkun, his best tracker dog, had caught wind of the Iwa team approaching the border. He had alerted Kakashi before taking off to position the rest of the pack. Kakashi had stayed to shadow the team invisibly until they reached the ambush point.

Bull, Urushi and Shiba, his three most fearsome dogs were placed at varying distances away from the ambush location. Kakashi had instructed them to howl in a certain order to create the impression that they were moving incredibly fast towards the targets. The rest of his dogs were around the area, scaring animals away and into hiding, creating an unnerving silence. Using the distraction of the howls, Kakashi would drop a simple genjutsu onto his targets, gradually causing the shadows to appear darker than they really were, and the sunlight to seem blood red rather than the warm orange it was.

By releasing his tight hold on his chakra by a tiny amount, he could see which ninja reacted to him, revealing their sensory talents. Eliminating them before they could alert the others was tricky, but he had managed. From there, he had ploughed through the rest of the combat shinobi with his chidori, a very useful jutsu that cut through the stone armour that Iwa-nin liked to cover their skin with. If they didn't have such tough skin, he would have simply eliminated them like he had done to the sensors, but once they had seen their dead comrades, they had all instantly activated their stone skin jutsu.

Another simple genjutsu anchored to his white mask activated whenever someone looked at it. It magnified whatever fear they felt, causing him to seem more intimidating than he really was. If he hadn't created the right atmosphere beforehand, Kakashi knew that his genjutsu would have been noticed. But the subtlety mixed with the natural fear people feel in battle allowed him to fool the Iwa jounin successfully, enabling him to kill them without too much trouble. After all, everyone knows that fear is the mind killer.

A mask lay beside him, blood smears covering it from the day's work, with matt black armour and a red scarf next to it. His scarf and colour of his armour weren't ANBU regulation, but Kakashi had decided that he needed something to make him different.

His mission was to craft a persona that the other nations would come to fear, and there is nothing scarier to ninja than the unknown. ANBU operatives are an old enemy, and so Kakashi, once known as the stickler for rules, had broken them and changed his appearance from the norm. He needed to become something different, surprising, and unique. The things that ninja can't prepare for are what get them killed.

Kakashi knew all about the importance of appearance. He had seen Minato-sensei use his soft and girly looks to deadly impact, shocking people when he displayed skills that didn't match his exterior. And so, as Kakashi lay down to get some rest, he took out his scarlet-red contact lenses and put them away. The sharingan is a known threat belonging to the Uchiha, and Kakashi had crafted the Hound to be something sinister.

Red eyes, on the other hand, could belong to anyone.

(Or anything)

Reputations can't be built alone. They need people to believe them, to spread them, and to embellish them. The day that the Sandaime deployed Kakashi to the border, he also sent out a coded message for his wandering student. The Toad Sage, Jiraiya of the Sannin received the message whilst drinking his sorrows away in a filthy bar in Lightning country. He took a moment to feel unhappy for his student's student, before sending toads off to his contacts.

When Iwa shinobi started disappearing, leaving only bloodstains as proof that they had existed, rumours sprung up. Not long after, people in the border towns of Fire started whispering about their deadly guardian against intruders. If one visited the bars of Grass, they would tell you of the hounds of hell that could be heard howling as they chased their victims in the dead of night. The farmers of Earth would whisper in muted tones the stories of the red eyes that watch you if you ever wander too far into the dense trees.

Ideas cannot be un-thought and words cannot be unheard. Rumours are just rumours when unsubstantiated, but the seeds were planted. Many remained sceptical, but that was ok. Because that meant they had heard the stories, and that was all Kakashi needed. The scared whisper in the back of the mind was enough for him to use, to breathe life into those fears. And he was very, very good at it.

Next chapter we'll be meeting Kurenai! Please review

Blackbird0~