Yay! I'm so glad people liked this story! I'm sure that I've been rather obvious concerning the 'secret' of the Hatake Clan - but oh well... It's only my second fanfic to date (and my 1st Naruto!).

Okay... well... I've been changing the description of this fic because... well, it's not totally angst-driven, not totally action-packed and not at all a romance... but there's lots of love... and, as you will see in this chapter, some attempts for laughs... so please bear with it.

Anyway... must stop blabbing and thank all those reviewers who were kind enough to review!

Jemuil: Glad you liked the journal. It was really touch and go. Thanks for the encouragement and excitement - it makes me hurry my writing along.

Twilight Silk: I update about once a week. And since I've (basically) finished this story already, it's just a matter of time - getting to a cafe etc etc etc...

kopykat kakashi: Thanks for your compliment - it's been a while since the public has enjoyed a little of my work... LOVE your name!

Twin Sun Leader: Thank you, thank you! I had to really think hard on Kakashi's character - from my episodes and stuff... alot of people make him horny, pervy, silly, angst-y (which of course I really enjoy!) but I'm trying for an understated normality... So yeah, maybe this fic will be a little bit odd... he's going to change - since that's all part and parcel of - well, I'm getting ahead of myself here...

ENJOY! REVIEW!

Naruto... (sobbing) does not and will never belong to me!


White Fang, Lightning's Howl: The Secret of the Hatake Clan

Friendship the Treasure

The words blurred before Kakashi, becoming smudges of black and grey on the paper. Through the years he had felt disgust, embarrassment, scorn, hate and anger for the man known as Hatake Sakumo. The man who was his father.

Now, he knew that his father was someone whom he could forgive. In a sense, understand. Pity. Feel compassion for. A man with a sensitive soul who placed honor as a high priority. He would probably be shocked at how laid back Kakashi eventually became.

Sometimes, you just have to let some things go, Kakashi thought. Who cares what others think? Those types of things are so variable. One day they love you, one day they hate you. It's too troublesome to keep up with the demands.

He smiled.


It's a good thing he never met Gai – they would have driven each other wild. Crazy guys who thrive on competition.

Standing, he placed the journal and the book in his pack for later reading, took up the sheet and reverently placed it over the desk.

Walked out of the house, down the walkway. The phantoms were happy. Waving goodbye. Many of the servants were dead now or old, retired. Happy with children. Living their own lives. The rest of the Hatake gone.

Kakashi hadn't been lying when he told Sasuke that he had no one left that was important to him – such as family and friends.

Actually, he had lied.

There was…..

Naruto. Sakura. Sasuke.

Gai.

Raido and Genma. Asumo and Kurenai.

Even Jiraiya and Tsunade.

I have been lucky, he thought.

"Ohayo! Kakashi-sensei!" Iruka called cheerfully, on his way home from the academy, after a late night of marking.

Kakashi smiled. He had forgotten Iruka. The guy he had so much fun teasing - annoying.

"Ohayo, Iruka-sensei!" he smiled. "Where are you off to?"

"Oh, for a quick bite to eat at the Ichiraku Ramen shop," Iruka sighed. "I've been running late all day."

"Those kinds of days I never get up for," Kakashi laughed.

"That I can believe."

Kakashi followed the chuunin into the shop.

"It just doesn't seem the same without Naruto," Iruka sighed.

"You're right there." Kakashi said. "It's quieter for one thing."

"Naruto was a good kid," the store owner said. "A great customer with a healthy appetite. My favorite kind of person."

He stared at the men meaningfully. Iruka sighed and ordered a bowl.

Kakashi just sat there.

"Well, aren't you going to order anything?" asked Iruka, curiously.

He had heard from Naruto of Team 7's attempts to see what was under Kakashi's mask. And even though he was a prestigious teacher for the Academy, he was an easy prey to curiousity especially when it came to mysterious jounin.

Kakashi shook his head. "Naw… not hungry." Then, as if to spite him, his stomach growled. "Ahahahah!"

"What a miser!" Iruka growled.

"Well, I guess one bowl won't harm anything…." Kakashi said.

The store owner nodded approvingly and started on the order right away. The assistant cooking girl looked at Kakashi with moony eyes.

"What's her problem?" asked Iruka.

"Ahahaha!" Kakashi said, blushing and sweating slightly. "I have no clue."

"Perhaps you have conquered a heart," Iruka said, teasingly.

Kakashi looked shocked.

"I did nothing! It's YOUR fault! You're in here more than I am."

"What?" Iruka asked, blushing red, confused. "That's silly, I'm nowhere near as mysterious and attractive as you are."

"I think you must be exaggerating," Kakashi said, shaking his head. "Impossible. I wear a mask all the time."

"Ah yes! But you see…. The mask makes it more appealing…."

"Seems like you thought about this for quite a long time, Iruka-sensei," Kakashi joked.

Iruka blushed and looked away.

"Don't flatter yourself. Your genins had a long talk about it with me one afternoon."

"Ahhhhhh! So that's why they behaved so oddly that one day! I couldn't understand what they were getting so heated up about."

The girl placed a large bowl of ramen in front of Kakashi.

"I thought I ordered the small bowl." Kakashi said, puzzled.

"You DID order the small bowl," Irukaagreed, puzzled.

They both shrugged their shoulders in unison.

"Lucky dog," Iruka grumbled. "Capitalizing on young love."

"Eh heheh." Kakashi chuckled softly. "Lucky me alright."

"Itadikamasu!" they exclaimed.

Iruka pulled apart his chopsticks and dug in, trying to behave unconcerned as Kakashi also pulled apart his chopsticks, seemingly in his own thoughts.

Iruka, the shop owner and the assistant girl cook stared at him out of the corner of their eyes.

"Iruka-sensei!" A voice yelled, followed by two pairs of strong arms.

Iruka found his face in his bowl.

"Raido! Genma!" Iruka spluttered turning around. "Look what you did! My supper! My face!"

"Yeah, yeah," Genma rolled his eyes.

"Sorry, Iruka," Raido said, being the more thoughtful and sensitive one of the pair. "Here, I'll order you another one. You can have my handkerchief too."

He paused.

The shop owner and the girl were standing frozen, hearts and stars in their eyes as they stared at an unconcerned Kakashi who was placing his chopsticks on top of his empty bowl.

Iruka drooped. Raido and Genma laughed.

'Kakashi! Good to see you!" Raido said.

"Ch." Genma said. "Lucky bastard hogging all the S-rank missions around here."

Iruka sighed.

Kakashi sweated at the sight of the two workers staring at him moony eyed.

"What's their problem?" asked Genma.

Iruka laughed. Leaning close to Kakashi, he said, "My problem, eh? I think you HAVE conquered a couple of hearts, Kakashi-sensei!"

Raido laughed. "Is that it?"

Genma rolled his eyes and ordered three bowls.

Kakashi sweated.

"I really think you guys –"

"Don't tell me I'm exaggerating. I'm not simple. I saw what I saw," Iruka exclaimed, his hot blood already getting a hold of him, he turned his chin up and shut his eyes in emphasis, wagging his finger – in full teacher mode. "The facts are the facts and there was a definite cause and effect."

"He's right," Raido said.

"You weren't even there!" Kakashi said, frowning. "You can have no opinion on the matter!"

"Ehhhh…. Your sensing skills must be going downhill then," Genma smirked. "Raido and I were watching you across the street."

"Stalkers," Kakashi muttered.

"Now, now," Raido said with a smile. "We just wanted to let you and Iruka have some….. alone time…."

"What?" Kakashi said. Eyebrows raised high.

"Too bad Gai wasn't here," Genma drawled. He took one of the three bowls and started to dig in. "Itadikamasu!"

Iruka and Raido, echoing him, dug in as well.

"Why's that?" asked Iruka.

"He'd have so much fun watching Kakashi lose his cool."

Kakashi's grey eyebrow slanted in annoyance. "I – am – not – losing – my cool."

"Anyway," Raido said, deciding to give Kakashi a break. "I hear that you've been getting a lot of missions nowadays. S-rank and all that."

"Well," Kakashi shrugged. "I've got to do something nowadays since my team has split up. It's only natural that the most difficult jobs be given to the best. Seems pretty wise to me."

"Ch. Glory hound," Genma grunted.

"Have you bumped into any Sound nins yet?" asked Iruka, with concern.

"Not yet," Kakashi said. "But I'm looking forward to it, after hearing how strong they seem to be…."

There was a tactful silence since Genma's last conflict with four of them was still fresh in his mind. The wounds he had received, although healed, still were new enough to haunt him.

Genma frowned.

"Either you were slacking off, Genma," Kakashi said. "Which is highly unlikely. Or you met something more than your match."

Genma stared at his bowl.

"They are devils," Genma said. "All four of them at once. It was crazy. Their chakra was so strong. They were monsters!"

Raido sighed.

"Be careful around them," Genma said solemnly. For once there was no mockery in his eyes.

Kakashi sat back.

Iruka thought about the genin team led by Shikamaru.

"It's amazing then to realize that Shikamaru and his team actually survived," Iruka said in wonder.

"They have grown strong," Raido agreed.

"They went all out," Genma said. "And some of them….. are gifted beyond anything we can imagine."

"And they had back up – the Sand team and Rock Lee." Raido pointed out.

Kakashi shuddered at the thought – as he had so many times before – of sending those genin after shinobi like those from the Sound. He still couldn't understand what the Hokage was thinking.

There was a respectful silence. Kakashi realized once again, the impact of realization hitting him hard. He sighed.

"Then, there's no way we can slack off in the next few years we've got," Raido noted. "Genma, we should spar more often."

"Eh eh eh," Genma's mouth quirked upwards with his senbon in a leer. "Sparring with you is my favorite activity! My place or your place!"

"Oh my," Kakashi said, raising his one visible eyebrow.

Iruka blushed red as a tomato and glared. "No perverted talk! You're burning my ears."

"Oh shush, Iruka," Genma jabbed the teacher with a finger in the side of the ribs, which made the younger man jump. "Keep on sounding like that, and we'll suspect you are really Ebisu."

"Genma! Stop it! I'm serious!" Raido banged his head on the counter.

"Seriously, Genma," Kakashi agreed. "He has a point."

Iruka nodded wordlessly, glaring at Genma and moving ever so slightly away from the jounin.

Genam looked at Iruka. "Yeah, Iruka. You're only a chuunin – you'll really need to prep up your weakling skills. Don't think Orochimaru's going to fall over listening to your lecture on the henge technique."

"Although," Raido said, with a twinkle in his eye, "I've heard that Iruka can be either sleep-inducing or scary…."

Iruka jumped up banging his fists on the table.

"I do SO have SKILLS! I just don't run around trying to impress people with them for quick sexual pleasures – like you guys do!"

"Uhhhh… count me out on that one," Kakashi said, waving his hands looking embarrassed at the thought.

"Huh, well, Iruka, why don't you go spar with Kakashi? I'm sure both of you could use the extra ….. training…." Genma quirked his senbon suggestively.

Iruka yelled.

Raido sighed.

Kakashi rose. Iruka, looking concerned, stared after him as the jounin walked without a word out of the shop. He glared at the other two shinobi, who in turn looked innocent and shrugged.

Kakashi was a private shinobi and an even more private man. People making comments about relationships especially in the crude way Genma was prone were often ignored by him.


"Uh…. Kakashi!" Iruka called after the silent ninja down the now deserted street. "I'm so sorry about Genma's comment – I –"

He blushed red. "I'm not wishing to –"

"It's okay," Kakashi cut in.

Iruka looked quickly at Kakashi's face and then away. The older man's face gave no clues away, as usual, as to what he was thinking.

"You don't have to leave…." Iruka trailed off. He paused. "I don't want you to feel chased away…"

"I can never be chased away," Kakashi said, wondering what Iruka was so heated up about. "Genma is Genma – an idiot – why do you care about what he says? He's just joking around."

Iruka's jaw dropped at Kakashi's nonchalance.


Kakashi isn't a prude? He didn't feel uncomfortable despite the evil (grrrr! That Genma!), perverted insinuations? Well... that's not really suprising considering he's the shinobi who reads X-rated books in public...
He felt relief wash over him.

"Ahhh… then why did you leave?" He asked.

"To train," Kakashi said simply and then, in a cloud of smoke, disappeared.