Masked Koi: Chapter 3. "Hatake"

Hatake Kakashi lived alone. At age eighteen, he had nearly no friends and his family was either dead or unheard from, or simply quiet.

The man sighed and allowed memory lane to take him even if he'd see the death of so many, just to see happier times.

When he was a child, he lived with his parents and two older siblings. His father was a distant man with a cloud of depression seemingly hanging over him. He rarely smiled and was often with his eldest child, a son. Kakashi grew up in a house of varying degrees of sternness.

His older brother Seiseki was a good example. He was a quiet boy with short straight silver hair and green eyes who followed his father's wishes to be the best shinobi the Academy had seen. And, he had. His specialty was genjutsu, getting the highest marks in his class and in Academy history. When Seiseki was a child, Sakumo poured all his time training him. However, Seiseki had an unpredictable temper behind his smile-less demeanor.

For Kakashi, he never had many rules governing his life. He was free to do as he wished, except for the fact his mother always wanted him by her side. He'd wondered why his mother hadn't wanted his older sister to be with her at the time.

In reality, she was a rogue entity, always running or hiding. She often came home caked in mud and leaves. Despite the fact her silver hair nearly never saw the light of day for more than an hour because of all the exercise and mud she delved into, she always smiled. Well, smirked. Kakashi could never distinguish her facial expressions well anyway.

Her name was Koi. She had a scary fascination with animals, particularly cats and fish. She'd often draw pictures of such subjects and hang them literally everywhere around the house. Their mother, Aiko, would scold her nearly every day, saying she can't keep getting dirty and tacking her pictures everywhere.

Neither boy said much in her defense. Kakashi's older brother often looked at his younger sister with pity. The two older Hatake siblings often fought because Koi hated him for piting her and Seiseki argued that if she didn't want to be pitied she should just stop whatever act she was playing and be normal and not a retarded girl. As Seiseki had said that, he'd raised a hand against his younger sister.

Koi never saw Seiseki as family after that. Late at night, when Koi was asleep, Seiseki would lie awake, wishing he'd never said that or hurt her. Koi rarely talked to him, and only did if necessary.

Koi often came home after that not caked in mud, but covered with bruises and cuts and a few singed hairs. She always smiled after that and her pictures grew more and more lifelike and realistic. She tacked all her pictures in her room and spent hours outside of the house and came back exhausted but happy.

Late at night one night, Aiko and Sakumo were talking in hushed voices. Kakashi couldn't sleep so he got up and eavesdropped. Sakumo was talking about something called a 'kekkei genkai' in reference to his nearly extinct clan, the Hatake clan. Aiko said something else even softer so Kakashi couldn't hear it.

The next night, Kakashi awoke to his side exploding in pain. Flames filled his vision and he began to scream. Seiseki managed to calm the boy, just four at the time, down. Sakumo was unconscious with blood gushing from a wound on his head. Seiseki dragged his father with his younger brother following into the bushes. Seiseki was also suffering from a wound, a broken arm. The two Hatake boys could only watch as their home burned down.

"Where's Nee-san?" Kakashi asked.

Seiseki didn't let his stony demeanor fall. "She's still over there, being stupid."

Something gold flashed brightly for a moment. Then, the fire disappeared leaving a lone figure in the distance. Seiseki raced over to the house and covered his mouth to not inhale the smoke and ash. He laid eyes on his sister, and she stood as if a string was the only thing holding her up.

"K-Koi…"

She turned her head and Seiseki stopped in his tracks as all the blood in his veins felt as if they'd frozen. Her eyes were not the normal black that she normally had. They glowed gold. Then, the light faded and she was unconscious before she hit the ground. Seiseki dropped to his knees and vomited.

As he tried to ignore the terrible acidic taste that lingered in his mouth, the boy looked for his mother. But she was nowhere to be found. Not even a charred body remained of their mother.

Their house had burned down to nothing, without a trace that it had been occupied with people and hundreds of possessions, ranging from clothes to paper and kunai to books and floorboards to glass.

ANBU were in the area within the next minute. Koi suffered from first and second degree burns, along with cuts, bruises and a broken arm and foot. Kakashi was more or less unhurt. The ANBU rushed the three injured Hatake to the hospital, leaving Kakashi to talk to the ANBU about what had happened. Kakashi had absolutely no idea how or why his home had suddenly burst into flames and to some extent, he didn't care. All he wanted to know what where his mother had gone.

A few years later, Seiseki and Koi became Genin. Seiseki didn't pass the Chuunin Exams, while Koi and her other teammate had. As Kakashi watched his older sister fight a lone Kumo shinobi, he saw that she was having a problem with her head. She placed a hand above her ear and gritted her teeth in pain. Then, the Kumo shinobi stepped forward with successive strikes until he was nearly about to kill her. If Koi hadn't managed to counter, she would've been dead. Her counter involved a strange bright light and then her opponent exploded, his blood staining her front entirely.

Sakumo eventually explained to her what was 'wrong' with her. Koi never told Kakashi and avoided the subject at all costs. Koi never forgave Sakumo for never telling any of them that they could be carrying a kekkei genkai so deadly and from them on saw him as a fellow Jounin and nothing more. Seiseki seemed to know what was wrong with Koi, but acted as if he wasn't bothered by it. Kakashi could see through his lie easily; he was terrified of his sister.

The village feared Koi. To some, she was hailed as the village's best taijutsu shinobi of all time, but to a majority she was a dangerous entity that needed to be restrained no matter the consequences. They didn't want her to blow up their children or their houses or anything else.

The following year, Seiseki passed to become a Chuunin. He was known as 'her' brother and a genjutsu master. He'd laid several traps for his opponent and managed to get his opponent to weave illusions around herself.

Then, the Third Shinobi World War broke out. In Kakashi's mind, it was all a blur of cutting down his enemies. Sakumo had given Seiseki his tanto, but Seiseki insisted Kakashi have it, seeing how he was the only one regarded well in the village. Kakashi didn't want to admit it, but he was right. Seiseki was only seen as Koi's brother, Koi being dangerous and feared, and Sakumo seen as a failure for failing a mission. Kakashi was the only one left untouched by his family's tainted reputation. So, he carried the tanto as a symbol of both his loyalty to his village and family, even if no one liked them.

Konoha morale was low, dangerously low at the time. Minato briefed his team on their mission late at night and at dawn, flashed away to help another part of Konoha's forces. As Kakashi's team passed over a stream in a bamboo forest, they were attacked and Rin was taken.

Just before the two boys were going to dart after them, a familiar voice had called out. It was Koi with her teammate, Shisui. Koi was carrying a Chuunin whose vest was dripping with blood. The side of Koi's head was caked with dried blood. Shisui forced her to stop and bandaged up her head. Kakashi swore he saw her blush a bit, but then she delved into an explanation. A series of bombs had gone off suddenly and shrapnel had hit Seiseki. Koi didn't explain the wound on her head.

More Iwa shinobi arrived. Shisui forced the others to leave without him and find Rin to heal Seiseki and Koi. Koi complied without hesitation, having faith he'd live. The three Konoha shinobi headed for where Rin was.

There, Kakashi had lost an eye, Koi had gained another gash on her side and a broken foot, and Obito had gained a new pair of sharingan. The three rushed into the cave and freed Rin. Koi narrowed her eyes at the girl's strange gait. Rin noticed and smiled sheepishly. She explained she'd broken her ankle. Then, the roof began to cave. Koi pushed her brother out of the way and tripped. A split second later, Obito pushed the girl he admired out of the way. Only Obito was visible to his teammates; Koi was a few feet back, completely crushed by the rocks. After Rin had transplanted Obito's eye into Kakashi's, the Hatake boy fainted. Rin pulled him up and out of the cave, tears making her vision blurry.

Rin healed Seiseki after that. She was spent on chakra, having barely enough to heal herself. Seiseki groaned and asked where Koi was. Rin haltingly explained that she'd died. Seiseki had limped over, not believing her. The pile of rocks wasn't enough until his fingernails had turned bloody from trying to pry away the rocks.

After that, Kakashi and Minato were praised as heroes. Koi wasn't remembered, except for her lacking skills when she didn't blow up any enemies or herself as last resort to make any sort of effort. Kakashi swallowed their hatred for his sister, the one who'd sacrificed herself for him. Shisui didn't say much about it either, as if he wasn't affected. Kakashi suspected he'd been silent because he probably dug up every rock looking for her and eventually found her body, mangled. Whatever it was, Shisui was hiding something but Kakashi was too grief-stricken to say much.

After the huge ceremony commemorating the dead, Seiseki abandoned Konoha one day. At that point, Minato had just been inaugurated as Hokage and forgotten about the teen and whether or not to mark him as a nuke-nin or not.

Sakumo retired after that. He resided in a small hut on the outskirts of Konoha.

One day, Obito came back. Rin, Kakashi, and Minato were shocked and almost terrified that it was a ghost. Obito managed to prove his being and sound memory of who Uchiha Obito had been until he was asked how he'd come back. He said he remembered being in a cave but that was it. It was as if his memory after that, a whole week of being gone and pronounced dead, had simply vanished from the Uchiha's mind. Rin and Minato eventually forgot about the Uchiha's forgetfulness but it lingered with Kakashi and left a bad taste in his mouth.

The eighteen-year-old Jounin brewed himself coffee to try to get his mind off of his dead mother and sister and possibly brother. His father kept his distance, leaving his son some room to breathe. That's what Sakumo had said, anyway. But Kakashi could see through his lie well; Sakumo was afraid to see his last son die too. He'd heard vague stories of how his daughter had died and was too horrified to really learn the truth.

Kakashi sipped his coffee, unsweetened. He respected the bitter bean and it woke him up. All he did day in and day out was earn money that he'd never spend from missions. He smiled to himself dryly. If Koi were here, she'd find a way to steal all my money and make it look like the money was still there until I'd try to pay for my bills.

"Tou-san, don't you ever get a nagging feeling that we're being watched?"

Sakumo looked at his son with humorous eyes. "What's your point? Don't tell me paranoia has finally gotten you. It got Koi a long time ago and then Seiseki."

"What?" Kakashi looked at the man with a raised brow.

"Sure. When Koi was little, her mind would always be racing with all these ridiculous conspiracies. After a while, she stopped talking about it and grin, as she always did. But I could tell that she was still thinking, still worrying, still plotting," Sakumo sighed and looked at the cenotaph with hateful eyes. He wished his daughter's name wasn't engraved on any sort of stone or death certificate.

"What about Nii-san?" Kakashi asked.

"Seiseki believed half of Koi's theories. I never did until they came true," Sakumo said. "So Koi never told you any of her stories?"

"No," Kakashi said, a twinge of bitterness in his voice.

"One of her more disturbing theories was being killed protecting you and Seiseki. Her limbs would be "halfway crushed to the consistency of egg yolk and she'd be silently screaming for air that would rush out of her lungs and far away from her as if a cruel reminder of humanity's fleeting existence". She was only four at the time. I have no idea how she came up with this but she must've been talking to the old war veterans," Sakumo said.

"You know, recently, Minato-sensei has gotten around to marking Nii-san as a nuke nin. He says that Kumo has claimed to have his complete loyalty. I can't believe he'd do that," Kakashi sighed. "I think it's a hoax, considering that it's Kumo, after all."

Sakumo's eyes looked distant for a moment. "Seiseki was never good at plotting much of anything, so I'd say that his change of heart is genuine. All three of my children had my lightning affinity, something extremely unlikely. Perhaps they've made use of his lightning considering that he doesn't have the tanto. You still have it, right?"

"Yeah. Do you think that he holds a grudge against Konoha for how they treated Koi?" Kakashi asked.

"I do but I'm not about to desert Konoha," Sakumo said, incredulous. He let out a bitter laugh. "As for your question earlier, no, I don't feel as if someone is watching me. Perhaps they're specifically watching you," Sakumo gave his son a smile.

Kakashi looked at him, skeptical. Sakumo placed a hand on his son's shoulder.

"Kidding."