Born Weapons
Arc I
Face the Future
Chapter IV
Hatake Kakashi

"I'm a little lost," the boy admitted, "and everything looks so dark and so hopeless."
-The Sword of Totsuka

Hatake Kakashi walked the remnants of a battlefield, leaving bloody footprints in his wake.

The trees towered above him, hundreds of feet tall, soaking the ground in shade. A body at Kakashi's feet twitched, reaching out to him. "Water," it rasped, the ground beneath it slick with blood. Kakashi bent down, tilting his head to see the body's headband. Three open-bottom triangles, a stylized field, were engraved on the metal plate. Kusagakure, the village hidden in the grass. Kakashi flipped a knife into his hand and stabbed it through the body's throat.

It died quiet.

Kakashi continued his walk. Corpses littered the field but these, at least, were long dead. The stench of blood was so unbearable that he had taken to breathing through his mouth – but even through his mask he could taste it on his tongue, metallic.

Finally he found it. A corpse, smaller than the others, in a Konohagakure flak jacket. The red and white Uchiha fan was emblazoned on its back. He lifted its head by the chin to stare into the unblinking eyes.

They were red.

Kakashi exhaled through his nose, long and slow, and drove his knife into each eye in turn.

"Better safe than sorry?" Asked a feminine voice. He looked down to see that the corpse of the Uchiha boy was thrown atop a gently breathing girl, as if cradling her. Brown hair hung lank, drenched in blood. Purple tattoos marked pale cheeks. "Where were you?" She asked.

"I am not my father," he said, and the loathing raced through him, red hot.

"Where were you?" She asked again. "Where were you? Where were you?" The corpses joined in, echoing her words in her voices he recognized, even though he had not been there to hear them speak and scream and die. Then, in a whisper he could hear even over the chorus of the dead, she spoke again. "We were wrong," she said, and no longer was her voice a child's but a woman's, steeped in regret. "Look at what we've done to their home."

She tried to say more but her breath whistled out from a deflated lung. Kakashi looked down to see a fist sized hole in her chest, and then she-

He awoke from his nightly terror to the sound of someone coming up the outside stairs.

For a moment he lay in his bed, motionless, sweat sticking the sheets to his skin. He slowed his breathing and heart rate, straining to focus on the noise outside.

There. Footsteps coming up the rickety wooden stairs that led to his third story apartment. Two of them, both Shinobi based on the way they avoided making a racket. No – three of them, but two were walking in lockstep.

Kakashi rolled off the bed, hitting the floor without a sound. His feet, long since familiar with the anatomy of his floorboards, avoided the areas where the wood would creak under his weight. He danced through the trash and assorted weaponry that littered his apartment, pulling on his fatigues and the familiar, skintight mask that covered his nose and everything below it. A few scraps of autumn sunlight streaming through the blinds of the window over his bed provided the apartment's only illumination, but Kakashi's eyes were used to the dark.

There was a knock on the door, three authoritative raps. "Hatake Kakashi!"

Kakashi froze, watching the door. He plucked a knife from a nearby bookshelf – better safe than sorry.

"Hakate Kakashi!" Came the voice again. "It's Uchiha Sasuke!"

Ah. Well, now he definitely wasn't opening the door. Kakashi crouched low, waiting to see what the Uchiha heir would do if he just stayed quiet.

Sasuke banged on his door again. "He might not be home," another voice suggested. One of the lockstep Shinobi.

"Dammit, you're probably right," Sasuke muttered. "If the Hokage doesn't already know we're here, he will soon. We need to find Hatake-dono now." A momentary pause. "We'll go inside. If he really isn't in, maybe there's a clue as to where he went."

Shit. Kakashi bounded across the room, still entirely silent, eyes locked on a spring loaded trap nestled in the far corner of the room. He stretched up to his full height, just over six feet of gangly muscle, and plucked three shuriken from the midst of the trap. Such a device was an excellent deterrent for would-be assassins, but there was no profit in killing the Uchiha heir – even if he was breaking and entering. It would be a mess of paperwork, not to mention his head would be served to Uchiha Fugaku on a silver platter. And Kakashi could think of so many more pleasant ways to die.

His eyes swept over the myriad locks he had installed on the door, and he silently undid the ones he had bothered turning last night. If Uchiha Sasuke wanted to come in, he would come in, and Kakashi would prefer to not have to replace a broken window. The creak of metal told him that the knob was being turned, and he sprang into action.

By the time the door opened completely, exposing his apartment to the autumn sun, he was on the ceiling. Chakra aided his fingers and toes in gripping the wooden planks, and though the mask made it difficult to grip his knife between his teeth, he'd had enough practice to manage. The trap he had emptied triggered, the slightest twang of metal wire the only sign of its existence. Kakashi sucked in a breath, hoping no-one would hear. It wouldn't do to have their eyes on the ceiling.

Fourtunately, Uchiha Sasuke was occupied with another matter as he stepped through the threshold into Kakashi's apartment. Unfortunately, that other matter was the second spring-loaded trap nailed to the side of the bookshelf, which hurled three Shuriken at the Uchiha heir the moment he opened the door.

Kakashi winced. He needed to stop setting that stuff up while he was drinking.

Sasuke's eyes flickered to the spinning shuriken, and his hand darted up. He wore standard Konohagakure combat gloves, fingerless black cloth with a metal plate sewn into the back, and he put the armor to excellent use by knocking aside the first two shuriken and catching the third on one finger.

He glared at the throwing star for a moment, then shook his head and motioned to someone behind him. "Hatake-dono?" He asked, stepping gingerly into the apartment. Two Chunin goons followed him, shadows.

Kakashi watched them, barely breathing. One of the reasons he loved this apartment so much was that the construction above had warped the already uneven ceiling, and now there were always patches of deep shadow above the heads of unsuspecting guests. Anyone looking directly at him would be able to make him out, but when Shinobi didn't consider themselves to be on the battlefield, they tended to forget to keep their eyes peeled in all directions.

"He really lives here?" Sasuke asked, frowning at the mess. "It would be a pit even if he kept it clean."

Well, Kakashi couldn't disagree with him there. Sasuke nudged an empty take out box aside with one toe and grunted. "Fresh. He was here last night, at least," he said. "Fan out, see if we can find anything."

Sasuke stayed in the main room, which included Kakashi's bed and a living space, while the goons took either side of the apartment – one going into the bathroom and the other to the kitchen. Kakashi scrambled along the ceiling, prioritizing staying in Sasuke's blindspot, and swung through the doorway and into the kitchen while the Uchiha's back was turned. The goon was picking through his dirty dishes, his face a mask of weary resignation.

When the goon had stepped far enough into the kitchen that he could no longer be seen from the main room, Kakashi made his move. He let go of the ceiling with his hands, increasing the chakra flow to his feet and knees so that they would keep him anchored despite the pull of gravity. His upper body hung perpendicular to the floor, just behind the goon - and when the goon took an idle step backwards, Kakashi's arms snapped out, snaking around the man's head and neck. The man tried to scream, but by then Kakashi had him firmly in his grip, and all that came out was a strangled huff. He tried to struggle, but Kakashi lifted him bodily off the ground, so that his toes were inches above the floor, and applied just the slightest pressure to his neck with a tensing of his biceps.

That got him to stop thrashing, at least. Kakashi placed his mouth less than an inch from the man's ear and spoke, so softly that the goon would barely be able to hear him despite their proximity. "Hey buddy, hey," Kakashi said. "Relax. I'm not gonna hurt you much."

He could hear Sasuke and the other goon still shuffling through the apartment. Neither sounded like they were coming closer to the kitchen. "Here's the deal," Kakashi continued. "You tell me what your boss wants – very, very quietly – and I don't pop your head like a melon, yeah? Nod if you agree."

The goon kind of quivered for a second, unable to move his head in the midst of Kakashi's death grip. "Ah, right," Kakashi said. "Sorry. Blink twice if you agree, then."

Two blinks. "Smart," Kakashi said. "Quiet now." He eased his stranglehold ever so slightly, just enough to give the goon some air –

And of course, the goon screamed. He really only managed a gurgled "Uchi-" but it was loud enough that there was no chance the Uchiha hadn't heard. Kakashi swore silently as he heard shoes twist against wood, and squeezed hard.

The goon's head didn't pop like a melon – but Kakashi's arms and fingers had been expertly placed so that enough pressure would cut off a few choice blood vessels to his brain. The goon went limp practically instantly, and Kakashi covered up the sound of himself dropping to the floor by letting the goon's body land noisily beside him. He dove for the far side of the oven and rolled gracefully through a square hole cut into the wall at ground level. The hole was covered with a sheet, painted so carefully that it seemed a part of the wall itself – but like his earlier hiding spot, it wouldn't hold up to sustained scrutiny.

The hole led back into the apartment's main room, putting Kakashi directly under a large chair. Elevated furniture was uncommon in the Land of Fire, but he had gone out of his way to purchase some for this exact purpose. Sasuke was already in the kitchen by now, but Kakashi saw the other goon's feet as he rushed to join his master. Quickly, carefully, Kakashi emerged from under the chair, picking his way across the room. Getting to the window over his bed would require him to cross right in front of the kitchen doorway, but if he could reach the door –

"He's in the apartment!" Sasuke shouted. "Watch the doors and windows!"

The little bugger had gotten smart since the last time Kakashi had seen him. Admittedly, he'd also grown three feet or so, but that didn't make Kakashi feel any better as he squeezed himself under the futon to avoid the gaze of the remaining goon.

"Hatake-dono," Sasuke said, deliberate footsteps carrying him across the room. "We only want to talk."

Yeah, that was how they got you. Kakashi was old and experienced enough to know that words were just another Shinobi tool, deadly as any knife or shuriken. Still, any chance of avoiding them had pretty much gone up in smoke when the first goon had turned out so damn loyal. If he had just gone for the exit straightaway…but he had gotten greedy. Now they knew he was here, and it wouldn't be long before they started looking under the furniture. But he'd be damned if he made it easy for them.

A shuriken lay just beyond the lip of the futon, and so Kakashi's hand snapped out to grab it before anyone could notice. He spun the star shaped throwing knife on one finger, then with a flick of his wrist sent it sailing across the room, just over the floor. It buried itself in the wood of the far wall with a satisfying thunk.

Kakashi watched the goon's feet as the sound reached him. He started making his way over towards the wall, to investigate the source of the noise, but as he passed the futon Kakashi reached out and grabbed his ankle. The goon flailed, shouting, and Kakashi yanked the ankle hard towards him. The goon fell like a sack of bricks, his head bouncing noisily off the floor.

"Tatami-kun!" Sasuke was back in the main room now, making a beeline for his unconscious subordinate. Kakashi wove his fingers together in a pattern he had learned so long ago that it was practically second nature.

The lack of space under the futon meant that when the clone materialized Kakashi was actually overlapping with its illusory form, but that was fine. The clone sprang forward, acting according to the intent that had been in Kakashi's mind when he created it, and Sasuke cried out in surprise as he watched Kakashi emerge from under the futon and barrel directly towards him.

To his credit, he was fast. He whipped his foot up in a kick that would've taken the clone's head off, had it been more than an illusion. The minute his foot passed through the thing's forehead and it dissolved, Sasuke was casting his eyes around the apartment, looking for the real Kakashi.

Of course, by this time the real Kakashi was already sitting in the kitchen, his feet up on the table, one hand in a box of cereal. "Sasuke-chan!" He said, smiling merrily under his mask. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Uchiha Sasuke looked to the unconscious bodies of his men, then to Kakashi. His dark eyes burned with fury. There was a rage in the boy, that much was for sure – so like his father. But then he sighed, and the rage drained from him, and Kakashi was reminded of the ever cold, placid features of the Hokage. "Was all this really necessary?" Sasuke asked, taking the seat across from him. "You could've simply opened the door when I knocked."

"And you could've left me alone," Kakashi said, setting the box of cereal aside. "So I think it's only fair you suffer a fraction of my inconvenience."

Sasuke drummed his fingers against the table. "You haven't changed at all, I see."

"But you have," Kakashi said. "Quite the little Lord now, aren't you? Breaking into people's homes. And did I hear that you're trying to keep this visit a secret from your big brother?"

"I would prefer to have a chance to speak with you without the Hokage's interference, yes," Sasuke said.

"Scandalous."

"And I…apologize for entering without permission," Sasuke said, ignoring Kakashi's sarcasm. "If I had any other choice I wouldn't have come into your home." He cast a look around. "If you can really it call it that."

Ah, the Uchiha. Never missing a chance to be snotty. Kakashi yawned, stretching his arms high above his head. "Well, the apology is nice to hear," he said, "and I do get a kick out of knocking Uchiha goons unconscious, so I guess we can call us even on this one." He smiled, making sure it was wide enough to tug at his mask. "You really should find more competent bodyguards."

"I don't think it mattered who I brought here," Sasuke said, his voice even. "You would've made them like fools."

Kakashi laughed. "Whatever you came here to ask me for, you must really want it."

He thought that would be the beginning of Sasuke's pitch, but the Uchiha heir surprised him. "Did you know the Hatake are preparing to name a new wielder of Tsukiyojin?" He asked instead.

By the time Kakashi's rational brain had processed what Sasuke had said, his mouth was already speaking. "Who?" He asked, and there was no question as to how desperate he was for an answer.

Sasuke smiled, ever so slightly, and Kakashi cursed inwardly. Reacting like that had been stupid, giving away the upper hand. Now Sasuke had something Kakashi wanted, and he knew it. Fine. Kakashi wasn't so arrogant that he couldn't bow and scrape a little to learn who would be inheriting his father's sword.

Well, technically it wasn't his father's, though Hatake Sakumo had been the greatest wielder of the sword in recorded history. The blade could emit blinding white light at the wielder's command – which legend claimed was a result of it being forged of moon-metal, but which common sense explained by seals worked into the steel – and his father had been known from Water to Earth as Konohagakure's White Fang because of it. Only the greatest of the Hatake were permitted to draw Tsukiyojin – Kakashi had not even seen it ten years. If there was truly talk of naming another wielder…

Sasuke settled back into his chair. Amazing how smug satisfaction could radiate from an otherwise blank face, but he was Uchiha. "There are a few candidates being considered."

"A few?" Kakashi laughed. "They're desperate. There isn't a single Hatake worthy of holding that sword. Who're the lucky bastards? Shin? Rai?" Sasuke's eye twitched, and he knew he had the right of it. "Two for two, huh?" He leaned forward. "Shin's mediocre at his best and Rai…Rai has skill, sure, but no artistry. Tsukiyojin isn't just a sword. It's a brush that paints in white and red."

"An interesting turn of phrase," Sasuke said. "Are you a poet, Hatake-dono?"

Kakashi waved his hand dismissively. "Ah, I surprise myself occasionally." It had been his father, who had first compared Tsukiyojin to a brush. The man had had a passion for art of all kinds, though his greatest works had always been upon the battlefield.

Sasuke didn't seem quite convinced by his deflection, but declined to press the matter further. "If you really don't believe any of the Hatake are fit wielders, why not return?" He asked instead. "They would give Tsukiyojin to you in a heartbeat. They're eager to remind the world that the White Fang has been reborn."

Kakashi's voice was flat. "I am not my father."

Sasuke smiled at that, and Kakashi had to resist the urge to grind his teeth. "No," the Uchiha said after a moment, "but you are Hatake. A successful Jonin. A legend, even, in the right circles. And at any point you could've returned to your clan and taken your place there. Taken up Tsukiyojin. Hell, I'd bet they would even name you Lord. You could lead them into a new era. Make them truly great for the first time in living memory." Sasuke shrugged. "But instead you've lived a decade in squalor. Hiding from your responsibilities to your clan. Your family."

Kakashi took a long moment, breathing deeply. It did nothing to help. "You sit there," he said, his words sharp and clipped, "and assume I'm like you, Uchiha Sasuke. That I owe something to my name. This is arrogance. I owe Hatake nothing."

Sasuke said nothing.

"You say that I'm a legend in certain circles," Kakashi told him. "I say there's no need for such modesty on my behalf. By seventeen, I had fought Momoichi Zabuza and still had all my limbs. I was the hero of the Fifteen Day War. I had killed the Kazekage's ninth wife." He smiled tight, though it didn't show through his mask. "By seventeen, I was already a legend."

Sasuke said nothing.

"When negotiations started, my clan dug in their heels," Kakashi said. "They thought that my request to be traded was a fit of childish pique. That if I were given time to cool down, I would come to my senses and call the whole thing off. Time disabused them of that notion, and eventually they had no choice but to begin compromising." He held up a single finger. "But there was one thing they never compromise on. One point on which they never, not once, gave an inch. I would keep my name."

Sasuke said nothing.

"See, one of my first offers," Kakashi said, "was that I would marry into one of the Hokage's clans, take their name. Nohara. My clan wouldn't hear it. I would be Hatake Kakashi, and that was the end of it. Because they understood that their reputation, such as it is, was built on the backs of better men."

Sasuke said nothing.

"And never once, in ten years, have I been tempted to return," Kakashi said. "To give that clan the tiniest fraction beyond what I have already given them. Not for Tsukiyojin. Definitely not for a Lordship." He shrugged. "So I hate to tell you that you've wasted your time, but…well, no I don't. You've wasted your time."

Sasuke looked at him, his eyes flat, and then he said, "I will reinstate Hatake Sakumo."

Kakashi said nothing.

"He will receive a full Shinobi funeral," Sasuke said, "and his name will be added to the monument honoring those lost in the 4th Great War."

Kakashi swallowed, the boy's words ringing in his ears. He remembered the way his father's corpse had swung, lazily from the rafters. "You're a real son of a bitch, aren't you?"

"That's an interesting way to say thank you," Sasuke said. "But you're welcome nonetheless."

"My father was sworn to Uchiha, through Hatake," Kakashi said. "To your father, and your grandfather before him. He spent his entire life in their service. If you believe that he's worthy of honor in death-"

"You're not this naïve," Sasuke interrupted. "What I believe is irrelevant. Lords can't be in the habit of giving things away for free, or they don't stay Lord very long."

Kakashi laughed. "What will it cost me, then?"

Triumph flashed in Sasuke's dark eyes. "I want you to return to Hatake," he said. "I will help you fulfill any duties still owed to the Hokage's office under the terms of your transfer. After your father's reinstatement, you will begin training two of my Chunin."

"Ah, your mysterious new subordinates," Kakashi said. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised."

"Their names are Mitarashi Sakura and…well, Koji Naruto, but only for the moment," Sasuke said. "I can at least assure you that you won't be bored."

Kakashi rubbed at his chin. "I have two conditions," he said, even though his mind had been made up the moment Sasuke offered reinstatement. He wouldn't be much of a Shinobi if he didn't push for every advantage he could get. "Fist, I want autonomy in choosing my missions."

"And how do I know you won't use that to subvert the entire point of this arrangement?" Sasuke asked. "I won't have you taking missions to the far end of Earth to avoid your duties."

"You're so paranoid," Kakashi said, rolling his eyes. "If I promise to be a good boy, will that satisfy?"

Sasuke considered that. "You can have as much autonomy as I can give you," he said finally. "Even I have to take orders from the Hokage, sometimes. Your second request?"

Kakashi smiled. "I want you to join Naruto and Sakura as my third apprentice."

For the first time since the conversation had begun, Kakashi got a satisfying reaction from the kid. Sasuke's eyes widened, and his response was slow in coming. "I'm…already Jonin."

"Are you?" Kakashi asked, inspecting his nails. "Awful slow, for a Jonin." Frustration flickered across Sasuke's face, and maybe a bit of shame alongside it.

"Why ask for that?" He asked. "You really want three students to look out for, instead of just two?"

"Well, when you put it that way, it does sound like a pain in the ass," Kakashi admitted. "But I'm sticking by it. I could tell you that I'm a sucker for tradition…or that I'm interested in training someone so often called a prodigy…or that I hope I can curry favor with your father…but the truth is that I mostly want an excuse to hit you in the face a whole bunch."

Sasuke gave a long, slow sigh. "I'm going to regret this, aren't I?"

"Oh, almost certainly."

-OOO-

The Uchiha compound held its own training field, slightly smaller than those shared by the village as a whole but tucked away from prying eyes.

The prying eyes of the public, at least. They eyes of those sworn to Uchiha were another matter entirely. Servants and gathered at the edge of the field, pretending to wash and stitch and sharpen. Shinobi gathered beside them, not bothering to pretend.

Kakashi was surprised how little he felt, looking out over the compound that had been home as a child and was now home once again. The Hatake compound, like the compounds of all petty clans sworn to Uchiha, lay within the larger Uchiha territory within the village, and he had walked these streets countless times, spent countless hours training in this very field. It all looked so familiar. Some Lords enjoyed the constant renovation of their land, made easy with a few Chunin skilled in earth techniques, and a weeklong mission would see you returning to a home you scarcely recognized. The Uchiha preferred continuity, tradition. They had added a river that twisted lazily by at the edge of the field, a convenient spot for drinking and resting and water techniques, but other than that everything looked just as it had the day he had left.

His students stood before him, all dressed for battle – in the fatigues and high collared flak jackets of Konohagakure. Mitarashi Sakura, her pink braid swinging in the wind, watched him with bright eyes green as grass. Koji Naruto stood with his arms crossed, his face locked in a scowl, looking Kakashi up and down as if he might find some weakness in the Jonin's stance. And Uchiha Sasuke stood placid, eyes deliberately avoiding the crowd.

It was Uchiha Sasuke they had come to see. They were curious about Naruto and Sakura – and about Kakashi himself, of course – but nothing drew men and women to a training session like the chance to watch their prince in action. If Sasuke felt any apprehension about the chance he might get his ass kicked in front of those he ruled, he didn't show it. Kakashi supposed that was good. It was a lesson all Lords had to learn eventually, that power could and must survive the occasional display of personal weakness. The Shinobi life was one of learning, and learning demanded failure.

"Alright, listen up," Kakashi said, quiet enough so only his three students could hear him. "My name is Hatake Kakashi, and I-"

"We know your name," Naruto interrupted, making no effort to keep his voice down. "When are you gonna teach us something, you lazy bastard?"

"Naruto!" Sakura hissed.

"What?" The blond shot back. "It's been a week since he got here, and we're just getting around to introductions! I went to a funeral for some geezer who died twenty years ago and haven't learned one new technique!"

Sakura looked to Sasuke, as if hoping he might step in to control the situation, but the Uchiha didn't move a single muscle. Good. He understood that Kakashi was in charge here – that this was his situation to control.

"That geezer was my father," Kakashi said to Naruto, "and he would've laid you out on the grass for speaking with such disrespect. The proper form of address for me, as your teacher, is Kakashi-sensei."

Naruto flushed and stared hard at the ground, muttering something about not having known. Kakashi gave him a minute to stew in his own guilt and then spread his hands, smiling wide enough that the expression could be noticed even through the mask. "But I'm not so strict. As long as we leave family out of it, I think we can call each other whatever we like."

Naruto squinted at him slightly, unsure if he was being let off the hook or not. "I'll stick with lazy bastard then," he said, slowly. "No, wait! I'll think of something better. Something with a pun."

"I'm sure you will," Kakashi said. "But while you're doing that, I would like you to come at me. All three of you, in fact."

"Like…a spar?" Sakura asked.

"Ah, not exactly," Kakashi said. "Spar implies that both sides will get something out of it. This is more like a demonstration."

"Oh, that's fucking it!" Naruto said, both hands adjusting his forehead protector. "This guy is seriously pissing me off!" He charged, feet kicking up grass and dirt as he flew across the training field. Some of the Shinobi watching cheered, eager to see the main event get underway.

Kakashi watched Naruto as he ran. The boy wasn't particularly fast, even for a newly minted Chunin, and he cocked one fist back so early that he was basically shouting his intent to open with a right hook. By the time he was within striking range Kakashi had already settled into a comfortable defensive stance, knees bent, arms outstretched. He caught Naruto's punch, and then broke the blond's nose with a swift jab.

Naruto stumbled back, shouting in surprise, and suddenly Sasuke was rocketing past him. The Uchiha was faster, that much was for sure, and he feinted before committing to a kick, giving Kakashi less time to react. It didn't matter, of course. Kakashi stepped backwards, avoiding the kick, then stepped back in and forced Sasuke onto the defensive with a quick furry of punches. Sasuke battered one, two, three away, but then one slipped through his guard and the whole thing fell apart. Kakashi thumped him twice, hard, in the chest, split his lip with an uppercut, and then pivoted smoothly to intercept Naruto's next reckless charge. The blond leapt high, throwing a kick at the side of his head, but it was trivial for Kakashi to block the blow with his forearm. Naruto fell, landing heavily on his hands, and tried to use them as a base to launch a spinning kick from an oblique angle. It wasn't a bad trick, but Kakashi kicked one of his hands out from under him and sent the boy's chin to the dirt.

"Sakura, your comrades are getting their asses kicked," Kakashi sang, just as the girl made her first foray into the combat. Immediately, he saw why she had preferred to hang back. Of the three she was the slowest, and her punches, though well placed, lacked power. Her form was textbook, but she flowed from movement to movement just as the book had taught her, with no adaptation to the situation she faced. He turned aside a few of her punches then shot forward, catching her by the throat and lifting her up into the air before bringing her down hard to the ground below.

Footsteps behind him, three pairs. From the speed he could tell that one was Sasuke, the other two Naruto. He whirled to face them. Footsteps meant elemental clones, but what type?

Sasuke, the faster of the two, reached him first. He was more hesitant in his attack this time, trying to draw Kakashi in, distract him so that Naruto and his clone could do their work. Smart – he kept his head in combat. In a demonstration of combat, at least. But Kakashi wasn't about to give it to him that easily. He pressed the attack, slamming his elbow into Sasuke's cheek and then his knee into the boy's stomach. With Sasuke momentarily incapacitated he turned back to the two Narutos, eyes searching.

There. His nose, melting like wax from a candle. Telltale sign of a not-yet mastered water clone technique. It would be slower than the real Naruto, so Kakashi turned his attention to the second hyperactive blond, who was leaping at him with a savage roar – only to explode into a thrashing mass of electrical energy. Kakashi's eyes widened, and his hand made the one-handed lightning seal – pinky, middle and pointer extended – with only a moment to spare. His chakra guided the voltage through his coils down to the ground below, leaving him surprised but unharmed.

"Two different clones!" He shouted, throwing himself towards the water clone. "Impressive!" He rolled under Naruto's clumsy swing, sweeping the boy's leg out with one hand as he came up. The clone fell forward, arms pinwheeling, and Kakashi dropped backwards, driving his elbow into the jacketed back. The thing burst like a balloon, water soaking the grass below it, but Kakashi was already rolling backwards, feet coming up over his head and finding the ground again. "Not bad, Naruto!" He needed to watch the boy – it was far easier to discover the type of clone when they were being made.

Before he could locate Naruto on the battlefield, however, Sasuke and Sakura required his attention. They came from opposite directions, Sasuke deliberately slowing himself so that they attacked simultaneously. A good effort – they were all learning. Kakashi blocked Sakura's punch and leaned backwards just a fraction of an inch to avoid Sasuke's, then side flipped back towards Sakura. His heel caught Sakura's head in a brutal sledgehammer blow, throwing her back to the dirt. Somehow though, Sasuke managed to catch his leg with a kick as he came down on it, and a moment later Kakashi was joining Sakura on the ground.

"Out of the way!" Naruto shouted, diving towards Kakashi. The Jonin tried to roll but Sakura had a death grip on his flak jacket, and so he was forced to instead catch Naruto with his feet, guiding the blond over his own body and throwing him past. He snaked his arm around Sakura's own and twisted, forcing the girl to disengage with a cry of pain, and then only barely managed to dodge out of the way of several overhead blows Sasuke was raining down.

Kakashi sprung backwards, finding his feet again, eyes taking in the situation. Sakura was still on one knee, recovering. Sasuke was charging in again, refusing to give him a moment's rest. Naruto stood off behind, and with a single hand seal summoned three clones in a puff of smoke.

Not a scrap of elemental chakra to be seen. That made it easy. Yin clones were a potent distraction, but as long as Kakashi didn't let Naruto turn it into a shell game he could safely ignore the doubles. He kept the real Naruto in his sight as he countered Sasuke's assault. The Uchiha heir was absolutely refusing to give ground, and though they had only had three brief clashes prior, he was already beginning to predict and adapt to Kakashi's languid, reactive style. He low kicked, then hopped to the other foot and high kicked. Kakashi danced backwards to avoid both blows. The Narutos were drawing closer now, but the kid hadn't bothered to even try to swap places with one of his doubles. Kakashi could see the real one in the back, blood still dripping from his crooked nose. He turned back to Sasuke, sending him spinning with a left hook too fast for the Uchiha to counter, and then took off towards Naruto.

The first clone didn't even have time to blink before Kakashi sped past him. The second tried to skid to a stop, but couldn't shed momentum fast enough to get in Kakashi's way. The third stood directly between him and the real Naruto, eyes narrowed, fists raised. Kakashi didn't even slow. He'd sprint right through the double and catch Naruto before he could-

The clone-

Punched him in the face.

Kakashi's momentum kept him moving forward and he fell onto his ass, sliding across the field. It only took him a moment to spin until he was balanced on his hands and feet, body completely parallel to the ground. Something was wrong.

He saw the crowd watching – saw the servants laugh and talk among themselves as if they couldn't believe Hatake Kakashi had just run into a haymaker. The Shinobi though – they knew enough to be confused.

Naruto stood above him, cracking his knuckles. Blood from his nose dribbled off his chin, and when he smiled, there was a bloody red gash through the field of white teeth. "What the hell was that?" Kakashi asked him, still not moving.

"You should feel lucky, neh?" Naruto asked. "To be the very first to face my completed Shadow Clone Technique!"

The three Naruto's flanked him, and in an instant Kakashi saw it. All three stood on grass flattened beneath their weight. All three cast shadows. "Believe it!" They shouted in unison.

And then, they descended.

Kakashi dashed out of the way pulling shuriken from his pouch. Three shuriken flew in a wide arc, and the three "Shadow Clones" burst simultaneously into puffs of smoke.

They really weren't elemental clones. Sage. Kakashi almost called a stop to the whole exercise, to run through the implications of this, but then Sakura came towards him with a chain alive in her hands and he realized that he didn't want this to stop.

He was actually…kind of having fun.

The chain wrapped around his forearm, and when he tried to yank Sakura forward he found that she had anchored herself to the ground with the wall walking technique. Naruto roared and raced forward, forming the same handseal that had summoned his last shadow clones – the middle and pointer fingers of both hands extended, overlapping like a cross. Kakashi could've thrown a shuriken to force Naruto to drop the seal, but he let the technique finish instead. He really was curious. Elemental clones tended to excel on one field while being weak in others – earth clones were slow but durable, for example, the opposite of wind clones. But the shadow clones seemed to be perfect copies of the original, with all their speed, power and maneuverability. Not as tough as earth clones, but better in every other area – and they could speak.

Sasuke and three Narutos descended on him as Sakura held him fast. Well, Kakashi had been in tighter spots before. He pulled on the chain, and even if he couldn't dislodge Sakura from this angle, he could at least draw his trapped hand closer to his free one – close enough to form hand seals.

"Naruto! Get down!" Sasuke shouted, just as Kakashi felt the heat roar to life in his lungs. He exhaled fire, a stream of orange and red that engulfed two of the Narutos, who leapt in front of the third to block the onslaught of flame.

"Are you psychotic?" Naruto shouted, checking his clothes for anything that might have caught alight. "Are you trying to kill me?"

"I don't know about kill," Kakashi said. He pulled hard on the chain again, and this time Sakura didn't have to focus to resist. She came stumbling forward, so he snapped the chain into her face and then slipped his arm free. "Scorch you a little, maybe. First degree burns, at most."

"Fuckin…" Naruto muttered, gritting his teeth. He slammed his hands together and Kakashi darted forward, disrupting the seal with a well-placed jab. Sasuke closed in from behind, very eager to join in on the action, and so Kakashi obliged…by sidestepping his charge and letting him punch Naruto full in the gut.

"I hate you," Naruto wheezed.

"Less whining," Sasuke said, whirling on Kakashi and brining his hands up. "More fighting."

"You could at least say sorry!"

Kakashi heard the telltale clink of metal against metal behind him, and bent backwards to avoid a lash from Sakura's chain. "This is starting to annoy me," he said, plucking the chain out of the air and dancing towards Sakura before she could try to use it against him. She flailed at him, trying to force him back, but he juked the punch and slipped around her, winding the chain around both her wrists and then pinning her arms to her side.

Sakura gasped, struggling to break free, but she had neither the speed nor the strength for it. Sasuke came in again, but despite an excellent angle he couldn't stop Kakashi from intercepting his kicks with Sakura's face.

"Gotta stop hitting your own comrades, Sasuke," Kakashi said, not missing the frustration that flashed across those picture perfect Uchiha features. He hefted Sakura up into the air, and despite her very vocal protests hurled her in Naruto's general direction.

"Come on now," he said to Sasuke, motioning the boy forward. "When are you going to start taking this seriously?"

Sasuke bent low and rocketed forward, not even trying to hide the rage now. He came at Kakashi with a newfound ferocity, fury in every movement. His hands flashed through seals, and suddenly one hand was engulfed in lightning. He whipped his arm forward and the lightning flew through the air like a spear – but again Kakashi made the lightning seal, and again the electricity flowed through his body before dispersing into the dirt. "You've got to try harder than-"

Kakashi whirled, suddenly very much aware of a lack of footsteps behind him. If Sakura and Naruto weren't pressing into close range by now, it could only be because they had tricks up their sleeves.

Of course, he was right. A Naruto flew through the air towards him, having jumped the distance rather than run in order to mask the sound of his approach. His mouth was open in a soundless scream, and while based on the trajectory of his flight he was about to barrel bodily into Kakashi, he made no move to tackle or–

Kakashi's hands were weaving seals before his conscious mind was fully through that train of thought. He dropped to one knee and slammed his palms to the dirt, and the view of a quickly approaching Naruto was suddenly blocked by a rising wall of earth, as high as Kakashi was tall and as wide as his wingspan.

An explosion rocked the earth wall, blowing away grass and dirt in chunks. Fire clones too.

No, Kakashi most certainly wouldn't be bored with these three.

Still, they were entering the point of diminishing returns here, and so when Sasuke sprinted around the side of the earth wall, Kakashi finally started fighting in earnest.

Sasuke swung, but Kakashi nudged his elbow aside and worked his way through several of the most basic upper body katas. Five hits. Ten hits. Fifteen hits. Each blow struck true, Kakashi's fists practically bounced off the Uchiha's face and torso as he forced Sasuke to take backwards step after backwards step, until finally the boy could take it no longer and collapsed backwards into the grass. Kakashi drew a kunai, spun it on his finger once for effect, and buried it in the ground right beside Sasuke's ear. "Dead," he said.

Naruto and Sakura didn't look particularly eager to come at him after that, but to their credit they came. Sakura was dispatched with a single chop to the side of the neck, and Naruto was kept out of punching range with a liberal application of Kakashi's far longer arms. Kakashi finally managed to get a grip on the blonde's shirt and forced him to the dirt, at which point he landed three quick punches to Naruto's chest. Even through the armor of the flak jacket, Naruto was reduced to a coughing mess. Kakashi drew two more kunai, threw them each into the ground near his student's prone bodies, and said again, "dead."

Then he turned to the crowd and bowed low, right fist to left palm. It was important for an artist to acknowledge his fans after all.

The gathered servants and Shinobi responded with polite applause. Satisfied, Kakashi turned back to his students, who were currently in the process of picking themselves up out of the dirt and getting their wind back. "Not a bad first effort," Kakashi said, taking a seat in front of them. That got a few surly glares, which he was all too happy to ignore. "Let's get down to brass tacks then. Did we all learn something?"

"That you're a sadist?" Naruto offered.

"That you like putting on a show," Sasuke said.

Kakashi smiled at them. "Both true!" He said. "But answer the question I asked. I want to see if you can self-analyze." He pointed first to Sakura, since she had been relatively quiet the entire time. "You start."

Sakura took a moment to consider before speaking, which he appreciated. All too often Chunin would leap to words without worrying about thought. "I…wasn't very useful," she said finally. "I have weapons, techniques, but they're not much suited for schoolyard brawls." She shrugged. "I'm a scientist, first and foremost."

"No," Kakashi told her, "you're a Shinobi." He understood where she was coming from – becoming a scientist without first becoming a Chunin meant a life of coffee runs and compiling test data – but she had to understand the consequences of her ambition. "That is your profession. Your life. It's inevitable that you will face a situation in which you have to kill or be killed."

Sakura swallowed, but nodded.

"That's not to say that every confrontation has to be a schoolyard brawl," Kakashi said, "but in this line of work you won't always be able to choose the circumstances of your battles. You have to be prepared. You have to be able to adapt."

"I get it," Sakura said. "I mean, I understand. I always knew, I guess, that this, you know, was coming some day." Her brow furrowed, and she bit her lip. "I felt…slow. And weak."

Kakashi nodded slowly. "You were. But physical training will fix that."

Sakura paled. "Please don't make me run."

"Don't worry," Kakashi said. "There'll be plenty of push-ups, to combat the monotony."

"I'll fall behind on my research," Sakura said, burying her face in her knees.

"You will," Kakashi admitted. "I never said it would be easy. You're a newly minted Chunin though, these kinds of things happen." He turned to Naruto. "And you? Any insights?"

"I'm trying," Naruto said, "but I think back and…you're just a blur. And even when I could see what you were doing, I didn't know how to handle it."

"If lacking Heaven, seek wisdom. Be prepared," Kakashi murmured.

Naruto frowned. "What?"

"An old saying," Kakashi said. "What I told Sakura is true. You have to be physically capable. But," he tapped his temple with one finger, "Shinobi is a mental job too. You need to know what you're facing, and how to counter it. Very often the difference between life and death will be your knowledge. You have variety, at least, for a Chunin. A kind of variety, anyway, with all the clones. I saw water, lightning, fire and your…" he waved his hands, "shadow clones. I'm assuming they're some kind of yang expression?"

Naruto looked to Sakura. "It's a little more complicated than that," she said. "I have notes."

"I'd like to take a look at them," Kakashi said. "If Naruto is alright with that, of course."

"Yeah, why not?" The blond said.

"This isn't a decision to take lightly," Sasuke said. "The shadow clone is your clan technique now. You have to be careful with its secrets."

"Oh, yeah" Naruto said. "I keep forgetting to think about it that way." He crossed his arms, regarding Kakashi suspiciously for a moment. "I still think it's okay," he said. "Kakashi's our teacher, and if he can make the Shadow Clone better then it's worth the risk."

Well, Kakashi wasn't quite Kakashi-sensei, but it was a sight better than lazy bastard or its hypothetical pun equivalent.

Sasuke shrugged. "It's your decision, Koji-kun."

Naruto made a face. "Could you not call me that?"

"Even if I weren't heir, -kun would be a proper-"

"Not –kun, dipsh…" he trailed off, mouth working soundlessly for a moment as Sakura glared daggers at him. "I meant Koji."

Sasuke shook his head. "You're the one who has yet to come up with a clan name. It's been weeks."

"I can come up with plenty of names!" Naruto said, waving Sasuke off. "We just got our asses kicked together. You can use my given name."

"I'll take it under consideration."

Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Well, if Naruto has no objection to me looking through the Shadow Clone notes then I'd like to do so as soon as possible," Kakashi said. "I didn't think yang clones were possible, so I'm very much looking forward to the theory behind this one." He pointed at Naruto. "Speaking of theory, that's where you're going to be spending most of your time."

"Theory?" Naruto practically choked on the word. "Can't Sakura do it?"

"Well, that would very thoroughly defeat the point," Kakashi said, and now it was his turn to roll his eyes. "So no. It won't be all reading though. You clearly need to be walked through your taijutsu basics again…hell, we might just start you from scratch with a whole new style…and you'll want a crash course on small unit close quarters, seeing as you are the small unit."

Naruto nodded. "I guess that doesn't sound so bad."

"It will be, if I'm doing my job right," Kakashi said. "Which is no guarantee, admittedly." He looked over to Sasuke. "Do you have anything to share with the class?"

"Variety."

Kakashi waited, and after a few moments the Uchiha deigned to elaborate. "I have a few fire techniques," he said, "and a few lightning. The fire…not suited for combat with teammates in close proximity. The lightning, you were able to neutralize."

"It's a useful trick," Kakashi said. "Easy to learn, harder to put into practice into a fight. Variety. Sure. I imagine you master ninjutsu quickly enough that it shouldn't take too long to build you a solid foundation."

Sasuke grunted. Kakashi decided to take that as an affirmative. "That should be the lesson plan for the next few months, at least. Who knew this teaching thing would be so easy?"

-OOO-

As it turned out, "this teaching thing" was very much not so easy.

The four of them spent the rest of the day and well into the night training, running through the very basics that Kakashi had outlined in the wake of their spar. Sakura's program was simple enough, since it was mostly just exercise, and she had to leave early to take a shift at the lab anyway. Naruto and Sasuke were different beasts entirely.

Kakashi quickly discovered a disheartening truth – that when you were a genius, as he liked to consider himself, it made it difficult to understand the struggles of those who weren't supernaturally gifted. He ran Naruto through a few basic katas and left him to practice on his own, only to realize after an hour that the boy had absorbed almost nothing from his demonstrations and had spent the time drilling horrendous footwork into his muscle memory.

Sasuke was a little better in this regard, able to absorb large quantities of information seamlessly, but for the first time in his life he was working on techniques outside his comfort zone, and he quickly grew frustrated when he hit a roadblock. Kakashi, who had never really struggled with any ninjutsu technique that he wasn't in the middle of inventing, could do little but shrug his shoulders and suggest that Sasuke try again. But better this time, of course.

Eventually countless attempts at ninjutsu took their toll physically and Sasuke stumbled off to sleep, exhausted. Only Naruto remained, running kata after endless kata – until he too collapsed into the grass, gasping for lungfulls of cold night air.

"Well you certainly don't lack for spirit," Kakashi said, taking a seat beside the boy. He was exhausted himself, after all of that, but he'd be damned if he showed it. Power could and must survive the occasional display of personal weakness – but it never hurt to build a foundation of strength beforehand.

"I have…" Naruto panted, "so much."

Kakashi cocked his head and looked at him, but said nothing.

"Two months ago," Naruto said, staring up at the stars, "All I had was hope. Reckless…stupid hope. A year ago, I had way less than that. Almost nothing. Sakura…Sasuke…they've given me so much. I feel like I can't even hold it." He shook his head. "But I will. If I have to work myself to exhaustion every day, I will."

It was so strange. Like looking into a funhouse mirror, where everything was flipped upside down. How much had Kakashi been born with? How little had he understood the value of it all, until tragedy had forced the realization upon him? The thought gnawed at him until he forced himself to laugh. "All this from a boy who can't even choose a clan name."

"I said it already, didn't I?" Naruto asked, scowling. "I've thought of plenty of names. All I do is think about them…I have a ton of ideas, I'm just…" he lapsed into a frustrated, fragile silence.

"Worried you'll choose the wrong one?" Kakashi offered. "There are really no wrong answers here Naruto. I mean, there absolutely are, but-"

Naruto shook his head. "It's not that. I'm just selfish."

Kakashi frowned but said nothing. If Naruto wanted to explain, he would do so on his own time.

It took a minute or two, but the blond did speak up again. "I keep thinking back to the wedding," he said. "When Sasuke was talking about the Uchiha, and the Hatake, and the Mitarashi…and I remember thinking how much meaning there was there. All the Shinobi clans have so much history in their name. It's not just sounds and brushstrokes…it's a connection, back and back and back. It's a legacy. It's a…" he held his hands up, as if trying to grasp something. "A promise. And every name I think of is hollow. And empty."

"You're starting from nothing," Kakashi said. "That's not a bad thing. The clan is yours to shape. The promise yours to make."

"I know," Naruto said. "I know. It's for my kids, I guess." He frowned. "Too weird to think about. But…it's for the people that come after me. So they don't have to suffer a name that's actually a warning. I want that for them! That's why I say I'm selfish…because I don't want to be the one who has to build it all." His hands fell back to his sides. "I want the connection. Back and back and back. I want the promise made to me, for me to make in turn. Or else it's…it's not the same." He exhaled, long and heavy.

Kakashi considered this for a moment. Considered this boy, who had had nothing, and now had so much, and still wanted so much more. And then, against his better judgment, he spoke.

"Long ago," Kakashi began, "when the first Hokage founded this village, the other mighty clans raced to imitate him, creating their own villages. Only eight still survive. The four other elemental nations, the seats of the other Kage – and the four demilitarized zones that buffer the five nations. But there were others. In the early days, there were dozens."

Naruto watched him with eyes of deep blue.

"Few survived the early years," Kakashi said, "and even fewer the first Kage summit, which drew the maps for this new age. But…there were some. There was one, far to the east of here, in a strait that connects Tazuna Bay to the Sea of Clouds. And within this village, there was a clan."

"Kakashi-sensei, I don't really know what you're talking about," Naruto asked. "There's nothing to the east except Kirigakure and the Land of Water."

Kakashi shook his head, signaling for Naruto to wait. "The village fell," he said. "And the clan was scattered across the world. Some went east, to Water. Others came west – to us, and beyond us, to Wind and Earth. Some even went north, to Lightning. Never again would they bear their name…but they survived. And in time, this name that they had held and lost…came to mean something new. Something greater, maybe, than it had ever meant before. Any child could look to the ruins of that village and think that maybe it was the home of his ancestors. That he was descended from the clan that scattered." Kakashi sighed. "A clan for the clanless. A home for the homeless."

Naruto was silent for a long time, drinking in Kakashi's words. Finally, he looked back up to the sky, a look of deep concentration on his face. "What was the clan called?"

"The Uzumaki."

"Oh," Naruto said, "huh."

It was not until several minutes later that Kakashi realized he had fallen asleep.

"A man's got to have a family," Kakashi said, to the night and the stars high above. Then he sighed and slowly, laboriously, worked his way to his feet. Naruto was scrawny and undersized for his age, and it was easy to carry him to the Hatake compound where he and Rai were staying until construction was complete on their own home. He dumped Naruto on the front step – and since, miraculously, that didn't wake the kid up, he knocked on the door.

By the time someone answered, he was halfway out of the Uchiha compound.

Winter nights in Konohagakure were eerily quiet. Normally the air would be filled with the sound of cicadas, but for the few weeks out of the year that the village could be considered truly cold, a stifling silence drowned the cobblestone streets. Kakashi made his way across the rooftops, not pausing to greet the few Shinobi he saw out, running errands or passing away the hours of guard duty. He was exhausted, and he wanted nothing more than to collapse into his bed and sleep half tomorrow's lesson away.

But he did not return to the dingy apartment he called home. Instead he angled towards the base of the great mountain. It had been there that Konohagakure had begun, the village sprouting out of it like a fan made from gradually expanding semi-circles. The lack of centralized planning made the reality far more complicated than that of course, with streets twisting and turning and weaving back in on themselves, but the basic structure held true even today, over two centuries after the Founding.

But Konohagakure had not merely expanded away from the great mountain. A Shinobi had many uses for the privacy and security provided by underground structures after all, and so the village's earliest architects had also carved expansive stretches of tunnel into the mountain itself. It was said that tunnels and substructures that crisscrossed the mountain and land beneath Konohagakure was another village unto itself – a vast shadow village in which the true Shinobi work was done.

But of all those underpasses and hidden rooms, none were more ancient or secure than the ones to which Kakashi headed now. He skidded to a stop at the base of the mountain, long stretches of which were covered in paintings and carvings to mark the history of the village. In front of him stood Uchiha Madara in the glory of his prime – sharingan eyes blazing a vivid red, his war-fan held aloft, the heavenly black flame blazing around him. Uchiha Madara, who together with the first had founded Konohagakure. Uchiha Madara, who had established ROOT.

Kakashi cast a look around, to ensure he was alone. The only other person near him was the ROOT lookout stationed in a nearby tree, and Kakashi gave him a jaunty wave before turning back to the mountain. He wove hand signs slowly, deliberately, and then pressed both palms to the rock. Then, muscles straining, he spread the rock aside like a sliding double door.

The weight of the stone was such that he could only manage a crack, but that was enough to slip through. A great rumble echoed around him as the mountain's natural state reasserted itself, and for a moment Kakashi stood in infinite blackness – but then he touched his hand to the wall, and channeled chakra into the seals he knew were there, and suddenly dim light raced across the wall, illuminating a path forward.

Kakashi followed it for some time, deeper and deeper into the rock. Occasionally he was passed by others, Shinobi in cloaks and masks, but never did they acknowledge each others presence. The only sound was of soft footsteps, echoing down the tight hallway.

An iron set securely into the wall marked the end of his journey. He rapped on the door half a dozen times in a precise, complex pattern, and a moment later the door swung open. A Shinobi, his face covered by a blank white mask, watched him for a moment before stepping aside to let him through.

The room that Kakashi stepped into was large and well lit. One wall was covered in a massive map of Konohagakure, different parts of the village marked with different colors of ribbon in a pattern Kakashi couldn't decipher. A large wooden table in the middle of the room held more maps and various other papers. Sitting on the far side, elbows leaning heavily on the wood, was Shimura Danzo.

Danzo had a tanned, weather-beaten face and buzzed black hair. A pair of scars formed an x on his chin, and his right eye was hidden behind an eye patch – and he was old. As a general rule, career Shinobi did not get old. They died either in their prime on the battlefield, or just past it from injuries sustained in the line of duty. Those who managed to survive often became more feared in their age, for although the years could take a man's strength and speed, they bestowed an experience and perspective that could not even be imagined in youth.

Shimura Danzo had forged that experience and perspective into a knife, and with it he had cut away the rot within Konohagakure. He had led ROOT since before Kakashi had been born, the second most powerful man in Fire for over thirty years. Danzo's gaze settled on him, and Kakashi was seventeen again, Rin's blood dripping from his hands onto the cold stone floor.

"You're late," Danzo said.

"Apologies," Kakashi said, bowing respectfully. "Training ran long."

Danzo made a low, disapproving sound in the back of his throat. Then he gestured to the table. Kakashi took a seat, folding his legs under him, and waited for the man to speak.

"I do not want reasons to doubt your dedication," Danzo said. His eye was the surface of a lake that light couldn't penetrate. "I will not have you forgetting where your loyalties lie."

The response was automatic. "I am the empty vessel. I am the clay soldier in which the will of fire burns." And then, less automatic, "I am the Hokage's man, as ever."

Born Weapons will return in
Arc II
I Am A Monster