I sadly, do own Naruto, or else I would have renamed it Kakashi!
Pleeeeeeeaaaaaaassssseeee! REVIEW! It won't take long to say yikes or yay!
TO TWO NICE PEOPLE WHO REVIEWED:
Jemuil: Thanks alot for the encouragement! I'm finishing it up at home, and then updating every so often... when I can get alone time on the internet!Grrrr... too many siblings!
Lingching:-( Yes, yes, Kakashi is V., V., V. alone for a while but given time, Sakura and Naruto will come back into his life, as per the manga. If you haven't figured it out, this fic takes place between the 2? 3? years Naruto and Jiraiya are gone...
Enjoy!
White Fang, Lightning's Howl: The Secret of the Hatake Clan
The Day of Change
"Father! Father! I'm home!"
There was nothing but silence answering him.
"Father? Father?"
Kakashi was worried. His father was supposed to be home today.
Running into his study, he stopped dead, heart in his mouth. His father lay dead in his study.
Kakashi, trained shinobi that he was, couldn't miss the details. The room showed no signs of struggle. The hand on the hilt. The tilt of the blade. The note.
Vision going black, Kakashi's world swam in tears for several minutes.
Why? Wasn't I reason enough to live?
Crawling to the bathroom crying, he threw up his lunch in the toilet before running to the Hokage. To the doctor. To the police.
Suddenly, he found himself standing at an assembly. They were whispering. His acute ears could hear them.
"Look…"
"I can see him!"
"It's that kid!"
"They say…"
"… killed himself…"
"Suicide!"
"Coward."
"… never followed the rules, couldn't complete a mission…."
It was a conversation he heard everywhere. Everywhere. Even now, in his head.
Finally! A genius to revive the glory days of the Hatake!
Ha! Revive the glory days! The selfish act of his father did nothing to revive anything! Because of what happened, he was alone. The burden, dreadful as it was, lay on him now. And the name of Hatake was mud. If he had completed the mission, many lives would have been saved.
If I am to make things right, this is the path I have to take. Nobody, he glanced at Obito and Rin on either side of him, is going to stop me!
True power lies within you!
Kakashi opened his eyes slowly. It was still dark out, but the sky was beginning
to lighten. Hidden under several bushes back against the rock, he had drifted off into an uneasy sleep. One more man to take down and his mission would be done.
Another accomplishment to allot to the name Hatake.
Foolishness really. After all these years to remember! Would he have treasured the words of his father as he did, if his father had lived?
The stress of the past few months must have worn him down more than he would admit. Sasuke leaving, gave him the taste of betrayal he felt when he found his father dead. Naruto leaving, gave him the taste of sadness he felt when word came that his sensei had died. Sakura leaving, gave him the taste of failure he felt when he saw his teammate die before his eyes.
Really, what's with the contemplation, Kakashi? He asked himself. Why the heck are you talking to yourself like this? This isn't normally your style. What happened to the man who floated alone along a sea of isolation?
What is the question.
See….
There were these two genins who exemplified a wise saying….
What makes a shinobi is not his jutsu but love, loyalty, courage and hard work.
I must grow stronger.
