Hey there!
Here is Chapter One as promised! And as always I do not own Naruto nor do I make money off of this fic. Remember send love and hate! I'm okay with either!
-UM
Where Loyalties Lie: Chapter One
Six years later a white haired ANBU captain watched as a little girl with blonde pigtails walked through the market, eyes cast downward as the villagers hissed and pointed, they never actually spoke of the Nine Tails, but they called her a monster, which was just as bad. As he watched her mournful tread to the ramen shop (the only place that would happily accept her) he wished he could have made the death of the women that took the light out of her eyes a little more painful.
When Kakashi took his sensei's daughter to the orphanage he was assured by the Hokage himself that the Headmistress would keep her mouth shut about the Jinjuriki girl she was forced to care for. And for a while she did, but on October 10th two years after the Kyuubi attack, the Headmistress had a plan of her own. She knew that by spilling the secret of the Nine Tail's vessel she was committing treason, she knew that it would result in her death, but she also knew that she was dead inside anyway. The day that the Kyuubi no Kitsune attacked the village was the day she lost her only son, so on the anniversary of her son's death while the village mourned their beloved Yondaime, and praised the "death" of the Demon, she told the truth. And in doing so she successfully alienated Hatake Kakashi's most precious person, he wished he could have made the women suffer, a quick kunai to the throat was not, in Kakashi's opinion, a fitting death for trash such as her.
Once Naruto was sitting on her usual stool, bowl of ramen in front of her, he flashed a few quick signs to his partner, Cat, telling him to guard her, and Shunshined into the office of the Hokage.
"You summoned me Hokage-Sama?" the lazy ninja asked, "You know Tenzo and I are on guard duty, right?" Sarutobi Hiruzen may have been a genius, but Kakashi swore the old man was slipping somedays, that's the only reason he could come up with as to why he was summoned while performing the most important job in the village, Uzumaki Naruto guard duty.
"I know Hound, but something came up.", he nodded to the scroll in front of him, "S-rank Assassination. Everything you need to know is in here." The Sandaime watched as his most trusted ANBU Captain directed his attention to the scroll, Sharingan blazing. The young man's eyes suddenly snapped up meeting the tired eyes of his Superior with a mutinous glare.
"The target is nowhere near the Hidden Leaf.", the young man appeared to be calm but his emotions got the better of him, his internal rage leaked out, betrayed by his words.
Hiruzen sighed, nodding at the man in front of him.
"Send Itachi."
"Impossible. He's out on another S-rank assassination. The one you refused."
The white haired man huffed, "Shisui?"
"I did say this was an S-rank assassination right?" the Hokage's patience wearing thin, "that boy is far too loud. It has to be you Hound. No exceptions."
"This mission" the dog-masked man spit out, "This mission will take two weeks at least. And that's only if the information in this scroll is actually worth something."
"The inf-"the Hokage's words where cut off by another man's.
"This information is worth a lot more then something, it came from me, brat."
Two sets of eyes shot towards the voice, a tall man stood leaned up against the window sill, a smirk on his marked face. The Hokage and his Captain blinked rapidly at the man in shock, neither realizing the man came through the window at some part during the argument.
The dog masked man, determined to have his way, turned back to the Sandaime. With his carefully collected composure finally slipping he pressed his palms flat on the desk in front of him, mission scroll crushed underneath his right hand and scowled at the man before him.
"How do you expect me to protect her when I'll be gone for weeks?"
Killing intent laced words caused the Hokage to stand, he pressed his hands to the desk in similar fashion. "You are toeing the line of insubordination, Hound. You leave in an hour. I suggest you get to it."
"Aye Hokage-sama. But for the record, I don't like this." Hound instantly stood at attention, turning to leave.
"Oh, and Captain?" the masked man paused, "You aren't the only one that can protect Naruto, she'll be fine."
The man nodded before realizing he was indeed a ninja and Shunshined away.
Sarutobi Hiruzen stared at the swirl of leaves for a few seconds before sitting back into his chair, trying to rub his everlasting headache out through his temples.
Jiraiya walked from his spot on the sill breaking the silence, "That boy gets broodier by the year." The toad-sannin concluded.
The Hokage snorted, "You don't know the half of it."
"Tell me something Sensei- I felt the killing intent he was leaking, where does Hatake's loyalties lie?"
If Hiruzen was being totally honest with himself, he really didn't know where the young man's loyalties truly lied, it's a question he asked himself on numerous occasions. On paper Hatake Kakashi was the perfect Shinobi, very few knew how far from perfect he was. On one hand he was respectful, he took his missions seriously, his rank as an ANBU Captain was a source of pride for him, his comrades obviously meant more to him than his own life, and on multiple occasions he risked life and limb to protect his village, his will of fire strong. The name Hatake Kakashi was well known amongst all villages' civilian and shinobi alike. There wasn't an enemy bingo book that didn't have his name, as well as his nicknames, Sharingan no Kakashi and The Copy-Nin, listed as an S-Class Ninja with a kill on sight order. But the Sandaime Hokage knew that this ninja was mostly an illusion. To give the infamous white haired man credit, Hiruzen had to admit to himself that the Copy-Nin was strong, his rank of Elite Jonin well deserved, he was (mostly) respectful, and he really would put his life on the line in exchange for a comrade's. But there were many things about the man that were lacking, he was habitually late to- well anything, he argued with superiors, he was awkward in just about any social setting, he was irrational when certain parties were involved and lastly he was 100%, completely, totally, irrefutably loyal to one bright eyed, blonde haired little girl. All of the above making the Jonin a chronic pain in the Sandaime Hokage's ass.
"Well Jiraiya," the Hokage said, effectively breaking the silence. "The only thing I'm certain of is that Kakashi is unequivocally loyal to one Uzumaki Naruto. Taking a stab at the rest I'd say he's loyal to the dead: second, myself: third, and then-maybe the village." The contemplative toad-sage nodded slowly in agreement. "But…" Hiruzen sighed, "But…if any of the last three turned on the first one, I'm willing to bet he'd cut those ties in an instant to protect her."
Thinking over what his former sensei said carefully, he didn't doubt the older man's assessment in the slightest, and he couldn't decide if that bothered him or not. Jiraiya was, without a doubt, the most loyal of the three Legendary Sannin, both Orochimaru and Tsunade had left the Village Hidden in the Leaves, the fact that Kakashi was more loyal to a single person than that of the village should set off red flags, but he couldn't bring himself to fault the Hatake heir, this was about his God-Daughter's safety after all. So no, when pressed the Copy-Nin's loyalties didn't really bother him, but, he could at least admit this to himself, that maybe, just maybe he was a little bit biased.
Against his better judgement Sarutobi Hiruzen placed Naruto in the academy early. She wasn't being trained by her clan like many other early placements were but she was begging him, and the man affectionately called Jiji by the little blonde, finally caved. They decided when Naruto was four (they being himself and Kakashi) that it wouldn't hurt for her to have a little more training, however they did decide that she would repeat the lessons until those her own age were accepted into the academy. The Hokage flat out refused to let her graduate early, even if she showed promise, not wanting her alienated even more, and Kakashi deeply agreed with that sentiment.
There was however, two issues with this plan, one that neither the Hokage nor his ANBU Captain anticipated. The first problem was the council. As expected many vehemently disagreed with the Sandaime's decision, not wanting Naruto to gain Shinobi skills, thinking that such skills would be used against them one day. Hiruzen had an argument ready, one that they couldn't disagree with, at least by putting the Jinjuriki in the academy they would know five days a week from 8am to 4pm, exactly where the girl was. No longer would the village be wasting precious ANBU time searching for the evasive child. Plus, the Hokage concluded, if they trained her, he could have sworn he tasted bile when making this statement, if the academy trained her the village could possibly "use her as a weapon later". It didn't take long for the council to agree after that.
The second issue, the one that the Hokage didn't anticipate, but he admitted that he should have, was that of the instructors. By the time Naruto entered the academy just about everyone, apart from Naruto's own generation, knew about the Nine Tailed fox sealed inside her. The instructors completely ignored the blue eyed little girl, causing the other children to be wary of her, not that they'd have been allowed to befriend her anyway, their parents would shut that down quickly. The Sandaime hoped that after a few months her treatment would change, once they noticed how sweet a girl she was how could they not accept her? But it had been two full years of disgusted glances, isolation, with many tearful visits to the Hokage tower, and nothing had changed. This was the year that Naruto would finally be allowed to move up in her lessons, this was the year that children her own age were entering the academy, this was the year that would change, and Sarutobi Hiruzen was making sure of it.
Naruto really, really, really did not want to go back to the academy this year. Everyone ignored her, the children weren't allowed to play with her, and even though she was a student there her instructors Tayuya-Sensei and Kidoumaru-Sensei tried their hardest not to teach her. Of course she picked up a few things but she had to train at home with no guidance because the two Sensei would not allow her to pick up even a training kunai. She couldn't even ditch class because the minute they realized she wasn't there the ANBU were out searching. In order to get a little bit of attention she started pranking people, and Naruto soon found she excelled in it. She became somewhat of a class clown, making the other children laugh at her, and her Sensei scream at her. It wasn't the best attention possible but hey, they weren't ignoring her then.
The day before she was supposed to start her third year in the academy she found herself in the Hokage's office crying and pleading with him to drop her from the ninja program. Naruto knew that Hokage-Jiji had more important things to do than console her crying form, she knew because his assistant kept coming in reminding him of his duties, but honestly she couldn't bring herself to care, she wanted to cry and be held by someone that cared for her.
"But Jiji," she wailed, "they all hate me, I don't wanna go back there, please don't make me."
"Naruto, listen to me sunshine, the Academy will be different this year," he promised while rubbing soothing circles on the crying child's back. "The other students won't be older than you anymore, they'll be your age."
"It won't- it won't matter, Jiji!" the blond said, somehow crying even harder than before. "Tayuya-Sensei and Kidoumaru-Sensei won't let the other kids talk to me!"
"Well Naruto…" the Hokage started, "That won't matter either because they will not be your Sensei any longer."
As soon as that statement crossed his lips the petite blonde girl in his lap abruptly stopped crying. She looked up at him with bright blue, watery eyes and hiccupped.
"R-really?" Naruto asked, voice nothing more than a whisper.
"Yes, sunshine, you have two new Sensei this year."
She hugged the Hokage tight then, effectively squeezing the breath out of him, then proceeded to jump off his lap running for the door.
Before she could make it across the room the startled man found his voice again, "Young lady where are you off to so quick?"
Naruto whirled around to answer him eyes no longer watery, huge smile adorning her tear tracked face, "I have to go get ready Jiji!" She exclaimed, "Classes start tomorrow." And with that she was off again, running into the Sandaime's disgruntled assistant as she flung open the door, causing him to drop the documents he was holding, which of course flew everywhere. She heard the assistant curse and the Hokage laugh as she rounded the corner of the hallway to the stairs, smiling all the way down.
I was always kind of upset with Kakashi in the manga/anime, even though I adore is nonchalant, pervy self. But I feel that he should have made more of an effort in Naruto's young life. So here is Kakashi wishing that he could be more than just a shadow in the young girl's lonely life.
I also have quite a bit more written for this. I should be posting more today. After that posts probably won't come as fast, I did a lot of writing this weekend and although I'd love to write this much all the time it probably won't be possible. I Have a lot of ideas for this one and I am going to try my hardest to not let this fizzle out. Having said that I really hope you enjoy! Remember, reviews are the best! -UM