Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend. - Albert Camus
The streets were filled with people and from a distance you could here the everyday noises of people going about heir business. The sounds of carts with goods for stores being hauled up and down the roads, the everyday civilian go about his/her business with their family, various foods stalls fizzling with food on the stoves, children running around laughing and playing ninja.
From the tallest building in the village you could see all of that, even hear it if you opend a window. This was the view from Sarutobi Hiruzens office, overlooking the village he had a small smile on his lips due to his thought. He was thinking about current and past great ninja, and how many of them were from this very village. For instance the Shodai Hokage, Hashirama Senju, the very man who founded this village with his friend Uciha Madara, and was also famed for his mokuton release. Then you had the Nidaime Hokage, Tobirama Senju, who had been Hiruzens sensei when he was growing up, he created several jutsu. Two most famous would be Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and Edo Tensei no Jutsu, however they were only created for the soul purpose of war and were late deemed dangerous thus being outlawed. Then you had the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, being a modest man in his own thoughts he doesn't like to think to highly of himself, but he wasn't elected hokage by Tobirama Senju right before his death for no reason. He was indeed strong, a top tier shinobi in his prime, but now he thinks himself a little less then that, he was widely known as the professor because he had a somewhat vast knowledge of jutsu and how to efficiently use them. All in all despite his age he could still pack a punch. Then you had the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato, how he had died still eludes Hiruzen for he was the strongest shinobi to be produced in this village in the last three decades or so. He was famous for being the fastest shinobi alive, he studied one of Tobirama Senjus most used jutsu, a space time jutsu. He perfected the jutsu, and made it a part of his battle strategy, the jutsu revolved around kunai with seals on them. He would throw the kunai and could instantly teleport to the kunai by activating the seal, that technique along with his very own jutsu, one he made himself from scratch wich took him 3 years, made him one of the deadliest shinobi alive. The jutsu he made was named rasengan, the user conentrated a mass of chakra in the palm of his hand whilst compressing it. The sheer power of the jutsu when thrust against an opponent would send them flying back with internal damage if the user felt nice, the most interesting thing about it was that it wasn't even a finished jutsu.
Now he was thinking about hiw own students, The Toad Sage Jiraya, The Slug Princess Tsunade Senju and The Genius Orochimaru. They were dubbed 'The Three Legendary Sannin' by none other then Hanzo of the Salamander, he deemed them worthy for holding their own against him in battle and gave them the title of sannin. He also told them to get stronger, so that they could have great battle in the future before he let them go. They are each legendary in their own way, Jiraya being a force to be reckoned with has the toads fighting with him in battle and his use of Sage mode makes him a strong fighter. He was also the teacher of the Yondaime Hokage. Tsunade is widely known as the best medic nin in the elemental nations and the worst gambler, and her chakra enhanced strength can crush just about anything. She can also summon the slug Katsuyu, to help heal in the thick of battle. Orochimaru is mostly known for being a genius, at a young age he impressed his elders with his intellect and aptness for jutsu. He was however changed when his parents passed away, then he became obsessed with jutsu and set a goal for learning them all. He also started kidnapping children to experiment on, most of wich ended in failure and loss of the childs life, but some were succesfull. Upon his experiments being discoverd he defected from konoha and became a missing nin.
And then there was Hatake Kakashi. Hatake Kakashi at an early age showed high promise for the shinobi arts, training vigorously under his father. As the years passed and he was in the early years of the academy his father passed away. Cause of death was suicide, his father had abandoned the mission in order to save his comrades. This lead to him dishonering himself and his name, and that drove him into depression and he took his own life. This changed Kakashi immensly, Kakashi became ashamed of his father and cursed his death as cowardly and Kakashi was determined to live by the ninja guidelines. Now under the guidelines of mission first, Kakashi cared little for others. He thought there was no need for friends, his mind was set on being a tool rid of emotions. He graduated the academy early in a single year at the top of his class, he was later put on a team with Nohara Rin and Uciha Obito under Namikaze Minato. As time passed a war started and the team progressed in form of teamwork, Kakashi got a promotion, and they were given a mission wich Kakashi was to lead. The mission was simple in Kakashi's eyes, they were to destroy Kannabi bridge, atleast it would have been simple if not for one of his teammates getting captured and the other wanting to rescue her due to personal feelings. Kakashi tried to stop his teammate, but he didn't wanto hear any of it, and instead tried to change Kakashi's mind. He told Kakashi that he considered his father a hero, who chose to save his comrades instead of completing the mission. After Obito left to save Rin, Kakashi contemplated Obito's words about his father and then he thought about Rin's prior kindness twoards him, wich in turn made him change his mind and set out to find his teammates. During their search they encountered some enemy shinobi, during the encounter Kakashi lost the use of his left eye and Obito awakened his clan dojutsu 'The Sharingan' wich helped them win the fight. Continuing their search for Rin they came to a cave and found her bound to a post under a genjutsu, they released her from the genjutsu and proceeded to walk out of the cave. However outside the cave an enemy shinobi performed a earth jutsu that made the cave start to collapse and on their run out of the cave Obito sacrificed his own life for Kakashi. Seeing Obito half crushed under the rock broke Kakashi and Obito gave his left eye to Kakashi as a promotional present. Obito made Kakashi promise to protect Rin from danger and had them leave him there to die. The current emotional turmoil in Kakashi's head made him snap at the enemy group of shinobi outside the cave and killed them all. Some months later Nohara Rin was captured by Kirigakure and made the vessel of the bijuu Isobu in the hopes of unleashing it in Konoha, Kakashi managed to save her but were surrounded by kiri hunter nin. Trying to fight of the hunter nin, Rin jumped infront of Kakashi's assassination jutsu Raikiri, because she knew the plan that Kirigakure had fore her. Staring into Rin's eyes Kakashi felt his head spin and his eyes tearing up, she did mouth some parting words, but only Kakashi knows those. He passed out shortly after and awoke with all the hunter nin dead around him. And he was found by Konoha ninja and brought back. For a long time after the events with Rin, Kakashi was having a hard time coping with the fact that he was now alone, both his teammates were dead and he didn't know what to do with himself. Kakashi discarded his nindo for something else, bushido, way of the warrior. He joined Anbu and asked for a long term mission in Tetsu no Kuni, so he could Learn bushido from a master there. He was taught bushido from Mifune the leader of the samurai, Mifune imparted on Kakashi all he knew. Within 6 years Kakashi had mastered all aspects of bushido, he found that bushido was a much kinder way of life then nindo.
This was the man standing behind him, with a mini-Kakashi next to him. Hiruzen turned around eyeing both of them, more so the mini-Kakashi. He was truly an identical copy. Deciding to dig a little Hiruzen spoke up ''Why ?''
Kakashi looked at Naruto to his left whom just looked back at him with a lazy expression on his face. Still looking at Naruto he said ''It's time, I have spilled my fair share of blood through the years, I have lost a fair share of friends and teammates. Besides I promised the man that taught me bushido that I wouldn't use my skills playing ninja.'' turning to Sarutobi with an eye smile.
With a heavy sigh Sarutobi spoke ''I guess it can't be helped then, I can't force you to continue. I Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage, hearby relieve you Hatake Kakashi of your shinobi and anbu status of the leaf. If you would please place your mask and headband on the table.'' Kakashi wasted no time and complied, taking out his leaf headband from a satchel on his back and unclipping his anbu mask from the left side of his waist he putthem both on the table. ''You know technically I wsn't a shinobi.'' he said before stepping back to Naruto. ''It doesn't really matter, only I knew you dropped nindo for bushido, none of your comrades knew that, if anyone knew you wouldn't have been allowed to be on active duty as an anbu by the village. I couldn't let that happen, you were instrumental Kakashi.'' clearly the wrong answer since Kakashi seemed agitated by his words and spoke his mind ''That's exactly the problem, I don't want to be the instrument to kill any more, If I am to be an instrument it is to teach young minds about bushido and not to discard their own emotions for the mission and abandoning their comrades, instead make strong bonds. Bonds that can shape these nations into something else. Hopefully putting an end to the pain and suffering that is breeding hate through out the lands.'' Sarutobi was regretting his choice of words, he knew he didn't fancy the ninja life.
''What are you going to be doing now, you mentioned teaching young minds.'' Hiruzen peered at his former number one anbu agent. ''I have enough money to live contently the rest of my life. But, I have a plan, it involves opening a school for orphans, to teach them how to read and how to write, aswell as bushido. I want to give a home to those that don't have one.''
''I'm guessing then, that he'' Sarutobi said pointing at Naruto who looked even more bored on the verge of sleeping standing up ''Is going to be one of your students then'' Kakashi simply replied ''Yes Hokage-sama, I found him scavenging a battlefield to protect himself, this boy was dealt a bad hand in life, and I aim to change it'' They both looked at Naruto who was still fighting sleep in a standing position ''And how will you do that, simply teaching him bushido, to read and write won't change much.''
''I'm going to adopt him'' that caught Sarutobi's attention ''What ?'' he asked slightly confused and shocked ''I said I'm going to adopt him, shoulder his pain and give him a home and a reason to live.''
Getting over his slight shock, Sarutobi just chuckled. ''You know, you didn't turn out so bad Kakashi'' Kakashi was a little puzzled at the statement ''Your father would have been proud of you, as would your sensei.'' That made Kakashi more confident in his choice, over the years he had come to forgive his fathers suicide. It wasn't cowardice, he was a brave man who dared defy the way of the ninja. But in the end was crushed by the hate of others, that was also a reason for stopping his career as a ninja and turning to teaching orphans and embracing bushido. Maybe one of them would end up changing the world for the better.
''Well, I'll help you set up the school, where were you planing on building this school ?''
''Thank you Hokage-sama, I was thinking maybe the outskirts of the village. That's where the peace and quite is.'' Kakashi turned to leave after pushing Naruto out of his sleeping stupor when he stopped as the hokage spoke a final time.
''Two more things Kakashi, firstly what's the boys name and secondly what will you name the school ?''
Pointing at the boy ''That's Sakata Naruto, as for the name of the school, hmm... How about School of the Ten Thousand Flames ?'' with that he bowed and turned to leave with Naruto.
'Bushido School for Orphans, huh ? I guess it can't be helped., bushido is really sticking with him' he thought as he looked at the backs of a young adult and his adopted son retreating out of his office. Chuckeling lightly he turned to gaze out over the village once again with a smile on his lips 'A small storm just arrived in my village, I can barely wait to see how it develops'