Chapter 1: New Recruit
Kakashi could hear someone behind him – Minato-sensei based on the footfalls and the breathing pattern. He chose to remain motionless where he was, perched on a post of the white picket fence with a light breeze shifting his hair.
"We're watching the sunset." He explained without prompting as Minato sat beside him. The Hokage nodded once and together they sat in silence as bright colors filled the sky.
Kakashi's visible eye wandered over the rows and rows of granite markers, coming to rest on the two closest to him, side by side. One read Uchiha Obito and the other Nohara Rin. There were no further inscriptions, only the two names. The names alone were enough.
"Been on any interesting missions lately?" Minato finally asked with a sidelong glance at the young shinobi. Kakashi shook his head.
"Been on any missions lately?"
He shook his head again. Minato sighed and crossed his arms. Kakashi, recognizing the signs, braced himself for the impending lecture. "Kakashi, you can't go on like this. You've got to get money somehow – look, I've already paid your rent for you two months in a row. I'm not prepared to do so again. You can't neglect your duties as a shinobi to pine over those lost."
"So I should just forget about them then?" Kakashi shot back, "Forget Chidori and then take out my left eye and toss it in the river, is that it?"
"No, of course not." Minato replied sternly, "You must never forget them, Kakashi, but you must live on in their names. Because whether you like it or not, life goes on after people die."
"But they were my only friends."
"You think you're the only one who's lost friends?" Minato asked in an uncharacteristically harsh voice, "It's not your bad luck – it happens to every shinobi. Why do you think we teach you not to show feeling? Why do you think we tell you to put your mission above your comrades? Why do you think we warn you that forty percent of shinobi die prematurely? So that when it happens, you can get past the grief and continue your service to the village, that's why."
Kakashi clenched his jaw as he crouched on the fencepost and stared down at the kanji that was Uchiha.
"It's something that we all must learn the hard way." Minato said in a gentler voice, "But you've had more time than most. You need something to keep your mind busy alright?"
"Fine." The boy snarled, "I'll get a mission in the morning." It was an obvious dismissal, but his sensei didn't seem to get the hint because he stayed firmly on his section of the fence, fixing his collar.
"You know what I think would be good for you?"
Frankly, Kakashi was tired of hearing what Minato thought was good for him, but he held his tongue. This was, after all, the Hokage he was speaking to.
"I think you should enlist in Anbu." Minato suggested.
Despite his best interests to seem indifferent and aloof, this pricked Kakashi's interest. "Do they even take people my age?" he wondered. Like most people, he knew very little about the organization. Only that they were an unordinary group of nin that carried out unordinary types of missions.
"The general consensus among the Anbu is that age, gender, and previous rank make no difference. Currently, I believe the youngest member is ten years old and the oldest is over sixty." Minato answered. "Besides, you do realize that I choose the Anbu members. They have to be approved by a committee of course, but you'd get in no problem."
The sun had dipped below the horizon and dusk was settling over the cemetery as Kakashi chewed the inside of his cheek thoughtfully. Anbu might not be so bad – at least he'd be working with people who were on his own level. And he had been itching for a mission, no matter the face he put forth to Minato-sensei.
Minato saw that he'd won before Kakashi could even open his mouth to speak.
"Wonderful!" The Hokage exclaimed brightly, "And do come by for dinner tonight – Kushina's missed your company." With this, he raised his hand in the seal for his Flying Thunder God Jutsu and was gone with a bang.
…
Kakashi glanced over the many Anbu masks before him – he didn't really fancy any of them.
"Do I have to wear one?" he asked Nok - the Anbu who had been tasked with registering him. "I mean, you can barely see any of my face anyway." He gestured to his mask.
"Yes." Nok sighed in exasperation, "You have to wear one."
"Why?"
"Because it's the rule."
Grumbling, Kakashi swiped up the nearest mask – a catlike face with red markings on the sides. He strapped it onto his head and found to his surprise that it didn't inhibit his peripheral vision at all like he'd expected from the shape of the eye holes. It did smell like porcelain though.
"Great," Nok pronounced with an air of sarcasm, "Now, right or left?"
"What?"
"Your sword arm. Right. Or left?"
"Right." Kakashi supplied, not really sure why it mattered. Nok's only reply was to reach out to seize Kakashi's right arm. He leapt away reflexively, immediately on his guard.
"Skittish one, huh?" Nok chuckled, "I'm not trying to maim you or anything so relax. It's just that you've got to have the Anbu seal on you."
Kakashi hesitated, then bared his arm reluctantly. Nok made several hand seals that Kakashi recognized as fuinjutsu signs, then pressed his palm against Kakashi's shoulder. There was a sharp burning sensation but he resisted the urge to yelp and jerk his arm away, though the muscles in his arm twitched. In a few seconds it was over and Nok removed his hand to reveal a mark in the shape of the Anbu now adorning Kakashi's right shoulder.
"Uniform, check. Mask check. Tanto, check. Seal, check. There's one more thing . . ." Nok muttered to himself, ". . . oh! Right. The name."
"My name is –" Kakashi began, only to be shushed by the older Anbu.
"Shh – don't say it. As long as you're in this organization, it's not your name. It is the name of a Konoha shinobi, but not of an Anbu." Nok picked up a clipboard from the desk that paperwork was kept on. He read over it quickly. "Ro." Nok announced, "That's your new name."
"Ro?" Kakashi repeated, thinking that it sounded rather . . . short and insignificant. "Why Ro?"
"Because it's the next one on the list." Nok said matter-of-factly, crossing out something on the clipboard with a pencil. He tapped on his mask with the end of the pencil as he looked over Kakashi, now a fully outfitted Anbu.
"You do realize," Nok ventured carefully after a moment, "That we in the Anbu strive to remove any personally identifying marks whatsoever."
"Yes." Kakashi replied in a clipped voice.
"Well . . . the hair is . . . very unique. I'm afraid you're going to have to cut it."
Kakashi put a protective hand on his hair as he took a step back. "I won't." Besides the Sharingan, his hair was Kakashi's most valued physical trait and he was immensely proud of it.
"Everyone will know who you are in an instant. It stands out too much." Nok crossed his arms like a stubborn parent. Kakashi crossed his arms like a stubborn child.
"Plenty of people have silver hair." Kakashi replied indignantly.
Nok gestured to Kakashi's head. "But yours sticks up at an angle. Have you ever seen anyone else with hair like that? Don't be a little brat alright; cut it down to a more modest length."
"Touch it and I'll hurt you." Kakashi promised, watching the other nin carefully for signs of attack.
There was a brief starting contest in which Kakashi emerged victorious and Nok sighed in defeat. "Fine. If you want to have an enemy ninja show up asking for the Anbu with the upwards silver hair that's your business. But at least take off the hitai-ate so it won't stick up as much."
Deciding that it wasn't worth his while to argue, Kakashi removed his hitai-ate, though it really didn't lessen the effect of his wild hair all that much.
"Right," Nok continued, "I'm assigning you to the First Squad under captain Ichi."
"Ichi?" Kakashi asked, "Like the number?"
"Yeah. Most Anbu members belong to one of three squads. The captains of each squad are Ichi, Ni, and San, otherwise known as the Josan – the Elite Three. They are the best of the best; nobody can defeat them. Except the Hokage maybe." Nok explained, pride coloring his voice.
"I would not be so quick to put a name on perfection." A new voice entered the scene. Nok didn't turn around, seemingly unsurprised but Kakashi could see a middle-aged man with several deep scars entering the room with the aid of a cane. "We wouldn't want to . . . jinx anything . . . would we?"
The man caught sight of Kakashi for the first time, and he smiled in a way that was more leering than genuine. "Oh, is this the newest recruit?"
Kakashi chose to say nothing but only stand as the man inspected him from head to foot.
"Sakumo's boy, eh?" the leer stretched again, "I could tell by the hair. Looks like you've turned into a . . . promising young man." The way he said it made it sound like an insult, which really got under Kakashi's skin. Still he remained silent.
"Is there a reason you came, Danzo, or did you only want to provoke the kid?" Nok asked, his voice rather colder than it had been.
"I'd hardly call it provoking, Nok. I prefer the term 'testing.' But I digress. The Hokage has called a meeting in one hour and as the person in charge of Anbu records, you're to be there. There are going to be some . . . changes in the program.