What is up everybody, I am back! I am super sorry for the long wait for this one, but to be completely honest it kinda kicked my butt. I re-wrote it several times and was never quite satisfied until I got to what we have now. I hope you guys enjoy, and I promise the next one wont take as long.
Please don't forget to review, your feedback is always appreciated!
"Well that was anticlimactic."
Obito Uchiha turned his back on the defeated blonde who lay unconscious at his feet.
"I had hoped for a bit more from Sensei's son, but like most things in life he was disappointing." he thought to himself as he unsheathed his katana and walked back over to where he had left the wounded Uchiha child.
"Now where were we?" the man asked rhetorically as the tear filled eyes of the genin turned from her beaten would be savior to the masked murderer.
He stopped next to her and brandished his sword. "Ah yes, I remember now."
It was then that he felt it, a foul, sinister chakra that he had felt only once which burned his senses and brought an instinctual almost primal fear to his brain.
The masked uchiha wasn't quick enough to evade the now clawed hand of the previously unconscious Naruto.
Obito grunted in pain as he turned and swung a backhanded strike aiming for the child's head. His fist hit nothing but air as the small boy seemed to disappear from his previous spot only to reappear a few yards away crouched on all fours like a beast.
When the Uchiha managed to get a look at him he was surprised at the state of the boy.
The blonde was covered in a bubbling almost translucent red cloak of pure chakra. His eyes that were once a kind blue were now blood red orbs that called for destruction and pain. His hair had grown thicker, and the man could just barely make out what appeared to be thick black lines peeking above the edges of his mask.
The boy let out a guttural growl like an enraged dog and blurred into motion.
In the blink of an eye he was inside Obito's guard punching and slashing with his claws with no form or recognizable style, just pure mindless rage. The jinchuriki's fury only grew as he found himself unable to land even a single blow on his masked opponent.
"You'll have to do better than that if you want to hurt me boy." the Uchiha drawled almost lazily as he used the power of his Mangekyo Sharingan to evade every wild blow.
The boy jumped back to get some distance and underneath his mask Naruto's fang filled mouth curved into a wicked smirk.
Without warning a sharp lance of bubbling chakra erupted from the ground behind the Masked murderer finally catching him off guard.
"Shit!" He yelped followed by a grunt of pain as he felt the malevolent chakra sear across his lower back for a moment before he was able to once again activate his kamui.
The feral child once again rushed forward to continue his attack but he was brought to a sudden halt as a glove covered fist buried itself in his gut hard enough to re-break the ribs that the Foxes chakra had already healed.
Blood and spittle flew from the boy's mouth coating the inside of his mask as he hung limply on the older man's outstretched fist.
"I'm done playing around brat, that beast gives you a boost but you're still a thousand years too early to be facing me."
The masked villain then grabbed the shocked boy by the back of the neck and slung him thru the air before his momentum was stopped by the trunk of a large oak tree as a sickening crack was heard upon impact.
More blood flew from his mouth as his back connected with the hard wood of the tree, and as he slid to the ground the swirling oppressing chakra began to recede until it was gone completely leaving a gasping, barely conscious Naruto in its wake.
Obito looked over and noted with some surprise that he was still awake.
"Still not out, well color me impressed yet again. But I'm glad because that makes this next part sooo much sweeter."
He then walked over to the downed Uchiha girl and picked her up by the front of her shirt before tossing her at the young blondes feet.
"She's the reason you came here right?" He asked gesturing to the crying brown haired girl.
When Naruto didn't answer, the older man lashed out with a sharp kick to the boy's side.
The young Hatake yelped in pain as his assailant questioned him again.
"I asked you a question kid, it's not polite to ignore people. Now, did you or did you not come here to save this girl?"
Naruto just weakly nodded, unable to form words due to the intense pain in his abdomen.
"Why? Do you know her, is she someone important to you?" he asked again with an almost mocking curiosity in his voice.
At this point the girl locked her terror filled eyes on the beaten and bloodied form of the blonde jinchuriki and just for a moment swollen blue met scared brown.
Naruto looked back to the masked man who had caused so much pain and with a sort of defiance in his cerulean eyes managed to gather enough breath to respond.
"She's… Konoha,...needed help." he coughed harshly before finishing " That's enough."
Obito nodded sagely as he absorbed the boy's whispered answer.
"Ah I see, hero complex," he paused as he shook his head in an almost chastising manner
"That's the thing that irritates me the most about this village, you all act so high and mighty all the time, as if you're some great and noble heroes fighting for a just cause as one big happy family."
He scoffed bitterly. "But I know the truth, let me show you what happens to heroes kid."
He drew his blade once more and held it aloft above the two wounded children.
"They always lose."
Suddenly he thrust the blade downward and Naruto shut his eyes preparing for the blow that never came.
Then he felt something warm splash onto his face.
He opened his eyes and was frozen in anguished shock as he watched blood well up and spill out of the mouth of the Uchiha girl who now had a katana firmly planted through her chest.
He watched horrified as her wide fear stricken eyes frantically searched for some form of escape from the pain she was in before they fell to rest on his face, and she feebly reached her arm out towards him as if begging the blonde to save her from her fate.
But it was too late. Suddenly as if seeing the flame of a candle get blown out, life left her eyes and for the first time Naruto watched as someone died right in front of him.
Unable to do anything else, the exhausted and bloodied blonde just sat there and wept as he cursed his weakness.
"You see kid, if you hadn't have stuck your nose in where it didn't belong her death would have been swift, but no you had to try to be the hero and all you did was get her hopes up and then crushed them with your pathetic failure.
Upon hearing that Naruto scowled furiously and felt that foreign warmth begin to sear through his veins again, before it was stopped courtesy of the masked man palming his face and slamming his head into the tree three times in quick succession.
"Ah ah ah, none of that now, the fox has already had enough play time tonight."
He then grabbed the boys bloodied chin tilted his head so that their eyes met, and just like that night eight years ago he looked into the red irises of the nine tailed fox and forced it into submission.
The boy now once again felt himself sinking into unconsciousness as he felt blood pouring down the back of his head. His last thought before the darkness took him was of fearful brown eyes and booming voice spewing foul curses.
"Dammit Naruto, what have you gotten yourself into?" Kakashi thought to himself as he raced across rooftops following Bull to where he had left his son.
It had taken a few minutes for the silver haired man to ascertain exactly what the large dog had wanted from him, but eventually he was able to remember enough of the code the Ninken and Naruto had worked out to get the gist of the situation.
His son had apparently stumbled upon something of the not good variety while on a walk through the village. The most he was able to get from the big bulldog was that there was screaming and blood.
Kakashi had quickly called an end to his and Anko's spar and he sent her to warn the hokage while he set out in pursuit of his boy.
Bull finally came to a stop just outside the walls of the Uchiha compound and began sniffing around for Naruto.
Kakashi sent chakra to his nose and was assaulted by the coppery smell of blood oozing out from behind the compound walls.
He could also smell his son. His stomach dropped.
Bull began to whine as his nose led him to the same conclusion as the jounin.
Naruto had gone into the compound.
He immediately summoned Uhei, the fastest of his ninken.
"Head to the Hokage's office and give him our location. I've already sent Anko ahead of you to warn them. Tell them there is a high likelihood of casualties and that they'll need to send the medical corps."
The greyhound nodded and responded with a "yes sir" in a soft female voice.
"Run swift Uhei, Naruto could be in danger." Upon hearing that the ninken grew a determined look in her eye and took off like a shot in the direction of the Hokage Tower.
The masked jounin then turned to the other ninken.
"Come on Bull lets go get our boy."
The massive canine growled in what could only be fervent agreement and the two leapt over the wall of the compound following their pup's scent.
They arrived in the scene just in time to watch a shaggy haired man in an orange mask slam Naruto's head into a tree and say something about the nine tails..
Time seemed to slow down for Kakashi as his sharingan took in the battered visage of his son as his head bounced off of the tree he was collapsed against and lolled lifelessly to the side.
In that moment something inside of the Hatake patriarch snapped.
In moments of intense rage most shinobi would grow wild and reckless, much like a wild beast as they allowed their emotions to overtake them.
But Kakashi Hatake was no normal shinobi.
Instantly Naruto's broken form was replaced with a murderous Kakashi via a substitution, who then summoned a sealless chidori and thrust his lightning covered hand through the heart of the masked man who DARED to touch his son.
The assault did not stop there, before the masked man was even able to register the arm through his chest he was met with a chakra enhanced haymaker to the face which sent the impaled shinobi flying off of the livid Hatake's arm and skidding along the ground.
Knowing he had struck the man through where his heart should be he left the now dead shinobi laying on the grass and rushed over to where his substitution had deposited his son, who was being licked by a whining devastated Bull.
The concerned father fell to his knees beside his son and began to apply all of the field medicine knowledge he had picked up over the years.
He activated the diagnostic jutsu he had copied from Rin before that day and quickly ran his hands along the blonde's battered body.
The results made him feel sick. Every time he moved his hand a new injury was found.
Broken ribs, internal bleeding, concussion and most worrying what seemed to be some sort of spinal injury, mostly likely from impacting that tree he was slumped against.
"Oh baby, what did he do to you?" He whispered in disbelief at the vicious beating his son had obviously taken.
The jounin was then brought from his despair as he heard a groan sound out from the ground behind him.
He turned and watched in utter shock as the man he had just impaled through the chest struggled to his feet and leveled a venomous glare from his now visible Sharingan eye from where Kakashi's fist had broken off the top right corner of his mask.
"Kakashi Hatake." He spat out as if the words burned his mouth to speak them.
He wasn't able to speak another word as Kakashi was on him in an instant, a kunai in each hand as he slashed and stabbed at the now backpedaling dark haired man.
Finally after a few minutes of an assault too fast for normal eyes to see the Leaf shinobi scored a hit, or so he thought as he suddenly saw his hand seemingly melt through the other man before he had to bring up his other hand to block a strike at his throat.
The jounin had never seen a technique that made someone intangible like that, so he was unprepared for the man to suddenly step through him and attempt to slash him from behind with his now drawn Katana.
Quickly shaking off his surprise, without turning around the silver haired man reached over his shoulder and parried the blow with his kunai and then dropped forward onto his hands and lashed out with a donkey kick to the villains chest.
Obito was so surprised by the unorthodox move that he was not able to use kamui in time to avoid the blow and had the breath knocked from his body.
While still on his hands Kakashi spun around and attempted to sweep the murderer's legs out from under him but his attempt failed as the other sharingan user regained his composure and slipped through the attack once again.
The konoha jounin then had to quickly roll away from his squatted position to avoid a downward slice of his enemy's blade which luckily ended with the sword being buried in the ground instead of the silver haired man's chest.
But Obito was not done as he left his sword in the ground and quickly ran through a set of handseals ending on the tiger sign.
"FIRE STYLE: GRAND FIREBALL JUTSU!"
Kakashi had neither the time nor space to dodge the massive fireball so he instead went back to an old reliable.
With a precision borne from hours upon hours of constant practice the Hatake Patriarch slammed both hands to the ground and willed his chakra to take a familiar shape without a single hand seal.
An earthen wall immediately sprung up between the enraged father and his enemy's attack.
Obito watched warily, waiting for the first sign of his former friend to appear through the smoke of his failed attack.
Due to his growing fatigue and his focus on the smoke he failed to notice the two hands silently break ground behind him bearing a kunai in each grasp.
The Uchiha criminal sensed the attack just milliseconds before it connected, but it was too late.
With a scream of pain and rage Obito fell forward as both of his achilles tendons were severed.
Behind his writhing form Kakashi Hatake rose from the earth like some sort of vengeful gazed down on his crippled opponent with cold calculating eyes shining with barely restrained malice.
The wounded masked murderer glared up at the expressionless face of his most hated rival.
"Kakashi Hatake, I-urk"
Whatever he was going to say was cut off as the silver haired ninja slammed his heel down onto his chest in a vicious axe kick. Kakashi took a vindictive pleasure in the feeling of the downed assailant's ribs breaking.
"I don't give a damn what you have to say, I care not for the words of dead men and you were as good as dead the second you laid a hand on my son." the Jounin spat coldly to the now wheezing Uchiha.
Through the haze of pain Obito's lone eye widened in shock upon hearing Kakashi refer to the blonde as his son.
Without another word Kakashi called lightning into his right hand, and prepared to strike his downed opponent.
"I'll take him through the skull this time, no dodging that." he thought darkly
Just as his Raikiri began to descend he was stopped by a familiar voice calling out to him.
"Captain stop, we need him alive!"
He cut off chakra to the technique at the last minute, but still brought his fist down in a devastating punch to the man's already broken mask.
Suddenly his old friend Tenzo was standing by his side decked out in his full anbu gear.
"Captain, Lord Hokage has ordered that any and all enemy shinobi found are to be captured and brought in for questioning."
Kakashi didn't even bother looking at him, still staring hatefully at the man on the ground.
"He tried to kill my son." he stated in a tone that belied no mercy.
Tenzo turned to look at the injured Blonde currently being worked on by the medic he brought with him before glancing uneasily back towards his former mentor.
"I know Captain, but the Hokage's orders are absolute." he said gently trying not to set the man off.
It was at this moment that the injured man regained his breath and began using it to taunt his assailant.
"Oh was he yours, I should've figured as much since he was so pathetic."
He received another punch for his words, but continued anyway.
"It's fitting though that piece of shit like you would be raising a monster like him." his broken mask now revealed part of a blood stained smile as he finished.
"A murderer raising a monster, what a perfect pair."
Kakashi lashed out with another punch but this one slipped through the man's face instead of connecting.
"Shit! Tenzo restrain him!" The jounin yelled knowing what was coming next.
But before the Anbu could perform a single seal the injured man was already beginning to vanish.
"Until next time, I can't wait to play with little Naruto again." the now disappearing man taunted menacingly as he vanished into thin air.
The elder Hatake quickly forced chakra into his nose and ears, trying to glean some sense of where the man had gone, but found nothing.
It was as if he ceased to exist, there one moment and completely gone the next.
"DAMMIT!" The wall of the building closest to the furious shinobi cracked as he slammed a fist into it.
Tenzo instantly called for a team of Anbu to search for the escaped shinobi, but Kakashi knew they wouldn't find him.
Naruto needed him right now, giving in to his anger would solve nothing right now.
"A shinobi does not give into emotion."
The whispered phrase was like a mantra of sorts that brought the buzzing of his mind to a stop as he hurried over to his son.
As he arrived the medical nin looked to be prepping him for transport.
"How is he?" he asked quietly to the kunoichi who looked to be the one in charge.
She made sure the boy was securely fastened to the stretcher before she turned to his father and answered.
"Not good, we've done all we can here. He needs to be taken to the hospital for surgery. Two of his broken ribs have punctured a lung, and there seems to be swelling around his brain from the injury to the back of his skull. The injury that concerns us the most though is to his spine, his spinal cord has sustained heavy damage from two vertebrae splintering through it."
She watched as the silver haired man showed no outward sign of hearing her other than a clenching of his fists. Figuring she may as well get it all out she continued.
"His left lung was shredded by bone fragments, and if that swelling isn't taken down it could cause permanent brain damage or even death, and that's not including the possible long term effects from the spinal damage. To be completely honest with you, if he wasn't a jinchuriki he'd be dead already, the beast's chakra seems to be attempting to heal the injuries, but it isn't enough. If he can make it through the surgery he should survive, but at this time we don't know what the possible long term effects to his body will be if he does."
She trailed off as she saw the lifeless look in the man's eye.
Every word was a kunai into Kakashi's heart.
"We are taking him now, you should follow."
She then turned and continued barking orders to the other medical ninja carrying Naruto.
Without a word the jounin followed as they rushed his son to the hospital, his body moved on auto pilot as he kept replaying the medical ninja's words over and over again in his head.
His son, his little Naruto could be crippled for life, would already be dead were it not for the bijuu sealed in his gut. If the fox saved his son's life today, then he reasoned that monster or not he would never say another cross word about it.
Without him realizing it they arrived at the hospital and as his boy was rushed into surgery he was ushered into a chair in the waiting room. He didn't know how long he sat there staring listlessly at the doors leading into the surgical wing, before he felt a firm hand grasp his shoulder.
"Kakashi," Guy started, in a solemn voice not at all matching his usual exuberance.
"I came as soon as I heard my friend, have you been given any news?"
Unable or unwilling to speak Kakashi just shook his head and continued to stare at the door they had taken Naruto through mentally begging any god willing to listen for his son to come waltzing back out those doors with a grin on his face.
Guy just nodded and without another word removed his hand from the distraught father's shoulder and took the seat next to him.
While he couldn't stop his best friend from suffering he could make damn sure he didn't have to suffer alone, not again.
The two jounin sat in a tense silence for another four hours before the door they were staring at swung open and a tired doctor stepped out.
Within seconds Kakashi was standing in front of the man with guys standing a few paces behind him.
"Is my son going to be ok?" The words had an almost pleading tone to them as if the masked jounin were begging the doctor for good news.
"He is stable, the surgery was as successful as we could hope for and his life is no longer in danger."
Kakashi sagged in relief as if a thousand pound weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
The doctor pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and gave a small smile as he let the man relax for a moment before continuing.
"The surgery itself went even better than expected, thanks in no small part to your son's "Special Circumstances". By the time we actually opened him up much of the lung had already been repaired, and the cranial swelling had almost completely receded as well. The only truly difficult part of the procedure was removing the broken fragments of his vertebrae from around his spinal column and even that was made easier by Its regenerative capabilities. Every time we removed a shard his tissue would just slowly knit back together. It was remarkable!"
It was at this point Guy could hold his tongue no longer.
"YOSH! YOUNG NARUTO"S YOUTH SHINES THROUGH!"
Kakashi was too relieved by the news to even scold his rival for screaming in a hospital, though the man did receive several dirty looks from the surrounding nurses.
"Can I see him?"
At this the doctor gave a quick nod.
"Yes of course, but only for a moment. He will have to be moved to recovery for a few hours so that we can monitor his condition and we don't allow visitors there, but you can come and see him for a few moments while we prepare to relocate him."
Kakashi nodded in understanding before the doctor turned and headed back towards the doors he had emerged from, while motioning for the Hatake Patriarch to follow.
"I shall go and inform the hokage of the good news my friend. Give young Naruto a youthful hug for me" Guy said, thankfully in a much softer voice than before, he then sped out of the lobby headed in the direction of the hokage tower.
It was a quick walk to Naruto's post-op room, and upon opening the door Kakashi had to quickly remind himself that the Doctor had already said his boy was going to be fine when he saw him hooked up to several machines and seemingly covered from head to toe in bandages.
The silver haired man rushed to his bedside and quickly grasped his son's hand which happened to be one of the few parts of his body not covered in some sort of medical equipment.
He sat there for a few minutes just rubbing the blonde's hand and whispering sweet words of comfort and relief as he watched the steady rise and fall of his baby boy's bandaged chest.
"I can't believe I almost lost you buddy," he let out a shaky breath before continuing.
"You are soooo grounded when you wake up."
It was with much reluctance when after a few minutes Kakashi finally released his hand and stepped back to allow the nurses to wheel Naruto over to the recovery wing.
"He should be out of recovery and into a standard room by morning, so if you'd like to go home and get some rest now would be the time to do it." The aged doctor said kindly, encouraging the obviously emotionally exhausted man to get some sleep.
The jounin appreciated the man's gesture, but shook his head before responding.
Thank you Doctor, but I'd like to be here when Naruto wakes up so I'll just wait out here."
The surgeon chuckled a bit before nodding.
"I figured you'd say something like that. Well I tried, I'll send someone out to notify you as soon as we move him again.
Kakashi thanked him and was given another nod in return before the older man turned and followed the nurses into the recovery wing.
Once the doors had shut and he was finally alone the emotionally exhausted father leaned his back against the wall and slowly sunk to the ground.
Kakashi could say with one-hundred percent certainty that even though his own life had balanced on a razor's edge more times than he could count, he had never been as terrified as he was tonight.
Though filled with relief at the doctor's report he still wouldn't be completely at ease until his boy opened up those big blue eyes and asked for ramen, and God knows that's the first thing Naruto would do.
But now, without his mind completely consumed by fear of his son's untimely demise, the jounin was able to ruminate over the info he had gleaned from the Anbu on the way to the hospital.
The entire Uchiha Clan was dead at the hands of Itachi and that masked bastard, with the sole exception being Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto's classmate and Itachi's younger brother.
This was terrible for several reasons. First was just the needless loss of life of an entire family, one of the founding clan's of the village. Innocent men, women, and children all dead due to the whims of madmen.
The second was the political ramifications.
The Uchiha were a feared clan, their Sharingan was legendary in battle and their presence alone had staved off many attacks from would-be invaders.
WIth rumors of war already on the lips of the nations, a severely weakened Konoha military would be the proverbial blood in the water. Shinobi numbers were already diminished from the nine-tails rampage eight years ago and now with the loss of the Uchiha the Hidden Leaf was the weakest it has ever been.
It didn't help matters that the village no longer had any of it's big deterrents. Minato Sensei was dead, The Sannin are widely known for either being traitorous or constantly traveling, and while Lord Third was still strong for his age he was years past his prime. At this point it's only a matter of time before one of the other Kage decide to take advantage of this weakness and go for the throat.
"Honestly the only big name we have left in the village is me." The thought came without any braggadociousness or pride, it simply was what it was.
While Konoha had several skilled shinobi, none of them had a reputation as large as his. The Copy Ninja Kakashi was a name recognized in almost every village from his time under the Fourth, and his mission record following his sensei's death.
The jounin's mind was then brought back to the conversation he had had with Shikaku a few years prior. The conversation that had started him on his current path of training and preparation, the path that ended with him one day replacing Sarutobi as Hokage.
Kakashi gave a weary sigh and forced himself to his feet, a sense of determination filling him.
After working through it all in his head the solution was clear. Konoha needed a deterrent, something that would cause the other villages to think twice before baring their fangs at the Land of Fire. Someone who foreign shinobi would whisper about around campfires, a boogeyman of sorts.
There was only one logical answer. When it comes to baring fangs, nobody does it better than a Hatake.