Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters, although I wish I did.
Rating: M for mature content.
Forgotten Memoirs – Departures
I'll Miss You.
Was the last thing he said to his father, then everything fell to pieces…
A seven year old walked quietly in the early morning, though one could be forgiven for mistaking the boys age. The black mask, not only carefully concealing the lower half of his face, it also served to disorient ones view of him. Anyone could mistake the youngest Chuunin in Konoha to be a very small ten year old, or a very large five year old.
Currently Hatake Kakashi was on his way to meet his overly hyper Sensei. Every morning since becoming a Genin had the masked boy waking up at the crack of dawn. From there his Sensei would either train him, or they would have to perform some mediocre tasks. Such tasks consisting of pulling weeds in an old woman's garden, which the child loathed, or to his favorite mission to date, taking dogs for a walk.
Most mornings the boy merely wanted to train. Although some times the training would become tiresome for the child, his Sensei often had him performing chakra and stamina exercises. Due to his young age, the boy had trouble keeping up with others in terms of drawn out battles.
"Even if you can perform a Jounin ranked Ninjutsu, it won't matter if you collapse from exhaustion the next second Kakashi," His sensei had said to him one day in response to the young boys' complaints.
So, from that day foreword Kakashi never complained about a training exercise being boring. He had learned his lesson about questioning his Sensei, in that you'd get embarrassed off your pants if you went against him. Just ask the boy next door who had been picking on the Chuunin.
Kakashi cringed at the memory of seeing the fourteen year old crying and running home after his Sensei was through humiliating his neighbor. Although in retrospective, Kakashi would have done a lot worst if his Sensei hadn't gotten there first.
Coming upon their usual meeting place, a small bridge that lead to the village entrance, Kakashi sighed as his Sensei had yet to arrive. Kakashi was usually earlier than his Sensei, due to his father insisting punctuality and no rule breaking. Being the dutiful son that he was, in risk of being severally punished, Kakashi had always done all that he could to follow the rules. A side effect of this was that he would be so early to schedualed meetings, not even the Hokage would be there before him.
Simply put, Kakashi would be bored out of his young mind while waiting for others to show up.
Kakashi, being one to never waste his time, decided to start on his training. The boy jumped onto the bridge's railing and quickly gathered his chakra to the soles of his feet. Once he had felt that he had the sufficient amount of chakra, he walked the bridge. One would never see this however, because Kakashi was currently walking the underside of the bridge.
This exercise was too easy of course, the young boy scoffed because he'd been tree walking since he could crawl. Deciding to take one more step, the boy created several Kage Bushin replicas of himself. Trying to control the amount of chakra he was putting into each clone, just the way his Sensei had taught him.
"Using too little chakra would result in no clones at all, and using too much would result in wiping out your chakra reserves," His Sensei explained to him when he had taught him the Jutsu. Little did his Sensei know was that the young boy practiced the jutsu to exhaustion at home every day.
So when four more Kakashi's appeared underneath the bridge, the young boy couldn't help but grin. Surely his Sensei would recognize how much progress he was making.
The boys' concentration, and inner praising, was so great that the appearance of his Sensei went unnoticed. The Jounin, figuring out where his student was hiding by following the presence of the boys overwhelming chakra, decided to scare the boy a little.
Kakashi's limited chakra did nothing to hide the fact that it was blinding to the people who knew how to look for it. That being said, his Sensei decided that scaring the wits out of his student would be the best way for the boy to learn how to hide his chakra.
The blond man did a few hand seals, creating four copies of himself and Henge'ing them to look like Hidden Mist ninja's, and promptly stated to himself, let the torture begin!
Kakashi was happily smiling for his small achievement. Then all four of his clones disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Cursing his carelessness, Kakashi looked for the source of the kunai that had appeared out of no where to destroy his Jutsu. Discovering his attackers in the guise of five unknown shinobi, each marked with the crest of the Mist ninja. Each smirking at him as they hovered on the river's flowing water.
"Who are you?" Kakashi growled under his breath.
"Is this all the great Konoha has to offer to guard its village?" His disguised teacher scoffed, "And here we thought we'd have to work to actually kill the patrols."
Kakashi tensed at the word that signified that these intruders were aiming for death. "I warn you, leave Konoha and I won't have to beat you all till your snot runs through your eyes!"
That was a rather creative jibe, must be all those books he keeps reading. His Sensei mused to himself, "And what is one whiney brat going to do about five grown ninja?" The "Mist" shinobi countered.
Kakashi smirked while he gathered his chakra to his chest, forming the seal of the tiger at the last second as he released his technique, "Katon! Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" the boy shouted as a fireball erupted from the point of his finger tips which were near his masked face.
He gathered chakra to his finger tips to act as the fire starter to avoid burning his mask off, his Sensei commended while dodging the rain of fire directed as him. When he was finally able to make sure that none of his clothes had scorch marks, the blond Jounin discovered that the boy had escaped, "Damn brat and his diversionary tactics," The Sensei grumbled.
Kakashi was on a full sprint to the guard tower, knowing better than to take on five ninjas by himself. He hadn't expected for the fire jutsu to hold the Mist ninja off for very long, however he didn't expected them to reappear right in front of him in a matter of seconds.
"You're going to pay for that brat," One of the ninja's mused as Kakashi skidded to a stop in front of the group.
These men are too strong, Kakashi's analytical mind already coming to the conclusion that was apparent on the intruders faces.
None of his current Jutsu's would do him any good here, so there were only a few more bets left to try. Bluff and hope they were stupid enough to believe it, or fight and die an honorable death for his village.
Kakashi gathered his courage and his chakra. The boy raced towards the older men, propelling at them with a chakra induced leap, and succeeded…
…In getting slapped away like a rag doll.
That was stupid, Kakashi and his Sensei simultaneously thought.
On to the next option.
"If you people don't stand down and leave…" Kakashi growled as he got back onto his feet.
"Yes, yes we know, you'll beat us till our eyes bleed snot," One of the ninja's snorted, "Some how I don't see that happening."
"Actually," Kakashi scoffed, his mind racing for new possibilities to get himself out of this mess, "My father will kill you all," Kakashi said with such certainty that his words shocked the blond Jounin.
"Don't you know kid," One of the disguised clones started, "Momma boys like you die on the field first!"
Kakashi was about to reply to that taunt when the man who was insulting him exploded to in a torrent of smoke.
"What the!" One of the other men shouted as he too was turned to smoke.
Kakashi stared in horror as he heard and felt something loud crash behind him.
Anger seeped from the person behind him in waves, pure hatred rolling over Kakashi in sickening waves. The murderous aura scaring the young child to his core, never had he felt such a raw killing intent before.
The young boy gave a shudder, even if the person behind him had taken out the enemy ninja, he was scared of someone radiating with such a terrible quality. Turning to find the identity of the one who saved him nearly gave Kakashi a heart attack, because it was the man who he admired the most, even more than his Sensei. That man was Konoha's White Fang, Kakashi's father.
"Kakashi," His father breathed quietly, "Thank you for holding these men off, let me handle it from here," The murderous intent doubled in power, which did nothing but scare the shit out of the blond Jounin. The elder Hatake smirked behind his black mask as he cracked each of his knuckles, a manic grin appearing on his visage.
"Um…wait a minute-" He tried to protest, but one of the two remaining clones was ripped apart so fast it was invisible to the naked ye. Oh crap! He's pissed off.
"I heard you call my son a Momma's boy," The silver haired man said quietly, sparing his child a glance before taking out the remaining clone with a flick of a kunai, "I regret to inform you that I'm the only parent left to care for him."
Kakashi stared at the horrified expression on the intruders face, noticing that it looked strangely like his Sensei's face.
"Father! Wait!" His quick mind coming up with what had transpired, "This is a mistake-" He tried but was interrupted by the elder Hatake.
"There's no need for explaining Kakashi, just stay quiet and watch carefully," And watch the young boy did.
He watched the disguised Mist ninja blanch several shades as his father approached, watched for a painful ten minutes as his father beat the living hell out of his Sensei, watched with relief as the his father finally stopped pounding his Sensei's cranium in as the Jounin's Henge dispelled, and watched as his father blanched more than his already pale skin would allow.
After the blond Jounin recovered enough of his wits to explain that he was merely training his student, the elder Hatake had enough grace to apologize.
"Still, that is no way to train a subordinate," The White Fang said scathingly to the other Jounin.
"Sakumo, I understand where you're coming from, but you and I both know that Kakashi is different than other students," The blond said, trying to avoid another beating from the other man, "Kakashi requires hands on experience or he'll never be able to fully grasp his lessons."
Sakumo smacked the younger man on the head, "That does not mean you attack him disguised as enemy ninja!" The older man seethed, "Don't think just because your Sensei and I go way back that I won't take it easy on you…"
Kakashi started tuning his father and his sensei's argument out of his conscious brain. Something told the boy that if he heard his father lecturing his Sensei, he'd lose all respect for his teacher.
"…And further more!" His father continued, "If you do anything like this again, I'll rip your spleen out!"
With the deafening threat, this usually signaled that his father was done lecturing. Kakashi mentally removed the imaginary ear plugs in his brain.
"Sensei, are you okay?" Kakashi asked a little worried for his teacher.
"Yeah, I'm fine," The Jounin waved off his pain a little, for what little pride he had left. The old freaking fart head bastard doesn't hit that hard, he convinced himself, even as his brain was starting to turn into a nicely sized migraine.
"Kakashi, I was on my way to the bridge to catch you before you went training," His father said suddenly, going to his son and placing a large hand on the boy's shoulder.
Kakashi visibly slumped at his father's actions, "You're going away again aren't you?"
The one who would eventually become Hogake watched as his student tried his best to hide his obvious disappointment, the young child's emotions only becoming a problem when his remaining parent went away on missions. He mentally reprimanded himself for calling his student a Momma's boy.
"Alright, Do your best father," The young boy said as he grinned, he wasn't sure if his dad saw it or not, but he went on, "I'll miss you," he said quietly. It was the closest thing the boy had said to his father that resembled those three words that strikes emotion whenever it's used.
I love you, was heard all the same by the elder Hatake.
Sakumo gave his son a quick hug, and Kakashi hugged back. "I'll be back soon," Father said to his son. Kakashi nodded and watched as the older man made his escape.
"Let's go training," The Jounin said soberly, not used to seeing so much emotion out of his student or his student's father.
Kakashi, Sakumo, and the Jounin-Sensei never realized that Kakashi was at the beginning of the end, the end of the semblance of his childhood.
X
The source of light in a long tunnel was possessed by a youth. His skin made translucent like moonlight from the lack of sun. Home was the darkness now, the boy living and thriving in this void like environment.
The obsidian hate that had transformed into his life could be solely blamed on the slaughter of his clan. No one could guess how the youngest Uchiha would have turned out, had his brother, Itachi, not murdered his family in his steep to gain.
However fate had happened and Sasuke now resided with one of Konoha's most hated missing-nins, his current Sensei, Orochimaru. If that's what you could call their relationship.
Sasuke's former Sensei was in Konoha, the village which he was no longer tied to. He knew his place was with the Sound, no matter how much he wanted to see his former friends. This was all for power, and he would not get it from any other outlet except from Orochimaru.
Tsunade was a healer, and the Hogake. That woman would have no time to train a Genin to kill his older brother. Jiraiya was so much like Naruto, he and Sasuke would never get any training done. As if that old goat would give him any training in the first place. Then there was Kakashi-Sensei.
The Sharingan user had given a lot to Sasuke, and the boy was ever grateful for it. Sasuke knew that his former Sensei had given him special treatment, saying stupid things like "He reminds me of myself when I was his age."
Such sentiment was useless to the Uchiha. He didn't need it, and he did not want it. He only wanted power. And despite how skilled the Konoha Jounin was, Sasuke felt that he would never attain the level of power to kill his brother if he stayed in Konoha's care.
Which was fine for Sasuke, he was a natural born loner. He wouldn't need anyone for anything. And once he was done sucking the power he needed from Orochimaru, the boy would either leave peacefully or kill the old man. Then kill his brother. Those were the only things concerning the raven haired boy.
Even still, as he gained skills and went through teachings from the snake like man. Sasuke could never bring himself to actually call the man Sensei, or master. No one would be his master.
It was with that reasoning that Sasuke casually strolled into Orochimaru's meeting room late, with a smug look on his face as he turned to the pale man. "So what crap Jutsu are you teaching me today?"
"Hmmm," Orochimaru pondered, used to his next body's attitude, "I've taught you a lot already in these past two years, so much that you probably won't need training in learning the Jutsu's, it's more about testing your stamina at this point," The old man stated softly. As if he were training the brat carefully, which he was. After all, the boy's body would become his own one day.
"We've been over this old man, you just give me power, and I'll do the rest." The boy said with a glare.
"There is one Jutsu I have yet to teach you."
"And what Jutsu is that?" Questioned Sasuke, trying to hide the excitement in his voice.
"It's the technique I used to kill the Sandaime of our beloved Konoha," Orochimaru burst out in laughter as Sasuke's eyes bulged from his sockets, "And we're going to test this technique while on a mission."
"So, mission and training at the same time," Sasuke muttered, "You sound excited,"
"Of course I am," Said with a glare in his eyes, "Because we're going to use it to kill the ties that still bind you to Konoha."
X
"And how would reading books automatically make me a pervert?" Kakashi said rather grumpily to his traveling companion, the early morning hours not doing anything to brighten his day.
"For one, the adult's only material stamp on the back of the cover, second, you read that book over and over," The other man said loudly, "Only perverts have to read the same adult book five-hundred times to get their jollies!"
"So says the stalker who watches other people read their books!" Kakashi countered. Iruka visibly showed that he was insulted in the form of a deep blush on his face, which only made Kakashi want to insult the Chuunin even more.
"Of course I noticed that you're reading the same book Kakashi," the teacher said, trying to save himself some embarrassment, "You read it in public every day!"
"Is that your excuse for being a stalker?" Kakashi dead panned.
"You're such a pervert!" Iruka yelled, his blush deepening.
Stillness came over the group, and Sakura let out a sigh of relief. The other two had been going back and forth ever since they left Konoha.
"Other pervert," Kakashi muttered under his breath.
Sakura sighed once more as Kakashi and Iruka continued their verbal tug of war.
This is going to be a long mission... Sakura thought in a small pathetic voice, wishing the two old men would die on the spot.
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A/N: This one took awhile to write, but I got it done. I'm currently trying to stick with a one week update schedule. Hopefully I can deliver it.
Concerning the lack of Yodaime's name. Since it has not been revealed in the anime or manga, I have decided to not use it in this fic. So Sensei it is! lol
Anyway, any type of feedback is greatly appreciated. Till next time.