Hatake Kakashi

Part One

" I miss my old friends

I miss the good times we had ."


While first impressions were important because, normally, people rarely got second chances to make that initial impact, neither Uchiha Toshiko and Hatake Kakashi were normal people.

Last of the respective clans, child prodigies, the two of them were different from the likes of the usual clan kid running around Konoha which perhaps was why fate allowed them to meet twice.

The first time had been on the night Toshiko's eldest brother had slaughtered her clan. No names had been exchanged; Kakashi, though an ANBU captain, and above the rank of simple clean up— genin corps members had already begun to be dispatched to collect the bodies —had been summoned to the bloody Uchiha district because Itachi had been on his team and in some way, the massacre laid on him.

He, the best of the best, should have seen Uchiha Itachi's betrayal coming.

"Hound," Lord Third said as Kakashi observed the massacre. Genin carried bodies that fit singly in the arms and bodies twice their size; all of them Kakashi recognized. "Find Uchiha Itachi's siblings and if alive, bring them to the hospital."

Kakashi nodded and though lines and lines of corpses laid before the ninja's feet— Itachi had slaughtered his kin so effortlessly —something inside the young man twisted.

He had seen how much Itachi had adored his two siblings. The thought of Itachi harming either of them was baffling even in the face of all the bloodshed.

Which is why Kakashi paused when he came upon both Uchiha Sasuke and Toshiko in the streets of the Uchiha district, because Sasuke, though visibly unharmed, laid with his closed eyes, unmoving in his sister's lap.

Itachi hadn't slit his brother's throat but he had done something to the academy student.

Toshiko, the youngest Uchiha, was covered in blood. It was obvious none of it was hers; she had slipped in someone else's.

Kakashi wondered, as he remembered how the girl would follow her father around, if it was his, or had Itachi killed their mother while his sister had clung to her.

Kakashi didn't think about how he had stumbled in his father's blood all those years ago.

Instead, Kakashi also wondered what Obito would say at the horrific sight before him. He had adored his clan, even if not all of them had adored him.

Toshiko pointed the tip of the shaking kunai at Kakashi. She practically threw herself over her unconscious brother as to protect him with her body.

She was tiny; Itachi had told him when her sixth birthday had passed if only because he'd had to miss the party. She was only slightly older than him when he had lost his father.

"Stay back!" Toshiko ordered, her eyes ruby red, Sharingan activated. One tome each per eye.

Kakashi put his hands up in the air to show that he was no threat; ANBU wasn't supposed to speak while masked, it was why each village's Black Ops division had their own variation of the standard shinobi sign language.

He took half a step forward when Toshiko had sent the kunai flying, slicing Kakashi's shoulder.

"I said stay away! I won't let you hurt my brother!" The Uchiha girl shouted as she set her brother's head down next to her. Her knees shook as she stood before Kakashi, arms out.

Everyone in the village knew the masks ANBU wore; Kakashi knew Toshiko knew what ANBU masks looked like and yet it was obvious she would fire some jutsu at Kakashi if he made any kind of move.

He supposed it made sense, she had known her brother was ANBU; Kakashi doubted the girl trusted anyone in the masks.

He then half wondered if Itachi had slaughtered his kin— if his sister had seen it —while wearing his weasel mask.

"Toshiko!" Kakashi turned at the worried— panicked —sound of Jonin-Commander, Nara Shikaku's, voice.

Nara Shikaku stopped next to Kakashi looking more tired than any Nara Kakashi had seen in his life; Kakashi didn't think he'd seen a Nara so distressed during his time in the war.

His arms stretched out and Kakashi saw the girl's bottom lip wobble. She did not, though, let her stance drop.

Everyone was a potential enemy.

"Toshiko, sweetheart, Hound-san, here, he's here to help. Hokage-sama here has instructed him to take Sasuke—"

"—No! No one is touching my brother!"

Tears were falling freeing down the girl's face. She was sobbing but still, standing in front of her brother ready to fight two shinobi she had no hope of beating to protect her older brother just for a few minutes longer.

"Ninjas who break the rules are scum but ninjas who leave a comrade behind are worse than scum!"

Kakashi wondered if that was a sentiment taught to Uchiha as children or if Obito and the girl before him were the odd ones out.

"Sasuke needs medical help sweetheart." Kakashi had never heard the man speak so softly. Kakashi watched as the Nara clan head kneeled down to the Uchiha girls height. "Toshiko, sweetheart, I promise you, nothing will happen to Sasuke when he's with the Hound."

The girl's arms didn't lower but her stance relaxed.

"Promise?"

"I swear on Shikamaru's life." And that was enough for the girl. Kakashi and Shikaku moved in tandem. Kakashi scooped up the boy while Shikaku wrapped himself tightly around the girl who let out such a loud, heartbreaking sob Kakashi had paused mid-step.

"They're gone!" She had sobbed in the Jonin-Commander's arms, "Mama and Papa—"

"—I know," Shikaku whispered, "I know, now come on Toshiko, close your eyes for me, we're gonna follow Hound-san and your brother."

0.0.0.0

The second time Kakashi and Toshiko had officially met— because while their paths had crossed in the years between the massacre and Uchiha Sasuke being placed in Kakashi's care they had never truly acknowledged one another —had been when Kakashi and the Hokage had been visiting the homes of Kakashi's students.

Sasuke's home had been the last Kakashi and the Hokage had planned to visit and though it was in the middle of the day— and Kakashi knew Uchiha Toshiko had been placed in school a year early —she was the one to open the door.

"Home today Toshiko-Chan?" The Hokage mused as he peered down his nose at the girl.

She was still so tiny, even after four years.

"I don't know what youre talking about Hokage-sama, I could totally be the clone and the real me could totally be in class."

Kakashi blinked; she knew how to make shadow clones? Her brother's file hadn't said anything about him being able to do that, just that he had an above average knowledge in weaponry and taijutsu.

The Hokage chuckled, "Of course Toshiko-chan. If you wouldn't mind allowing us access?"

"Of course sir," Toshiko hummed. Effortlessly Kakashi watched as the girl more than half his age bypassed a series of complicated protection seals so as to allow Kakashi and the Hokage into her home without any sort of harm coming to them.

"Shikaku-sama said you and Sasu-nii's new sensei would be coming around to figure out how to best teach him?" Though Uchiha Toshiko had been speaking to Lord Third she had been looking at Kakashi.

"Yes, if you don't mind—"

"—Sasu doesn't like anyone in his room. Hokage or not." Kakashi almost expected the old man to get annoyed with the girl and remind her just who he was, the same way he would with Kakashi or any other Konoha shinobi. Instead he chuckled.

"How else are we to get to know your brother?" The Hokage wondered.

"You could talk to him yourself," once more the Uchiha girl was looking at him while speaking to the Hokage.

"But how am I supposed to know how to speak to him, if I can't get a sense of who he is?" Kakashi asked. Toshiko blinked in his direction, her head cocked to the side.

"Shikaku-sama says you're a genius. Jonin by twelve, chunin at six I'm sure you can figure it out sensei."

"Did he tell your brother any of this?" Toshiko shook her head.

"Sasuke doesn't ask questions." That would be a pain; a student who didn't voice his troubles was so much harder to teach.

"But you do?"

"Yup. Life is easier if you take the path of least resistance first in order to get what you want."

Kakashi smirked under his mask. The girl's response was so Nara-esque it was easy to see why Nara Ensui had joked about the girl being his younger cousin's future wife; she already fit into the deer-lovers clan.

"And what if that path gets you nowhere?" Kakashi inquired.

"Ensui-san says then you better be able to fight for what you want," the Uchiha heiress said simply, like the answer was— or at least should have been —obvious.

"And what do you want Uchiha-chan?"

"My brother, to be safe," was her automatic answer. "Sasuke wants revenge for what Itachi did, he's sworn it and he won't stop until one day he's powerful enough to avenge our clan."

"And, you don't want that?" Kakashi watched as the girls lips pressed together; the Hokage leaned forward interested in the answer to Kakashi's question as well.

Her hands balled into fists.

"No." She didn't expand on her answer. Instead she looked up at Kakashi with wide eyes and an almost-pout and added; "But I know my dumb brother well enough to know he probably won't ever stop going after Itachi so you'll train him right, right sensei?"

"That's my job," Kakashi nodded. Though if he had his way his three soon to be students wouldn't be his problem in a few days time. The Hokage would never let Uchiha Sasuke or his late sensei's son Naruto be thrown back into the academy but hopefully by the weeks end— Kakashi could only cross his fingers so hard —they'd all be the problem of Genma or Anko.

"Yeah but, Ensui-san says you've never passed a team before."

Kakashi felt his eyebrow twitch. He had never realized how big a gossip the Nara's best assassin was.

"He has, has he?" Toshiko nodded. "Now, I can't pass your brother just because you asked me to Uchiha-chan."

"I wouldn't want you to, Sasu-nii, he'll pass on his own. I know he will, my big brother isn't a pushover!" The Uchiha girl declared. "But—" she added, "When he does sensei, promise me, you'll take care of Sasuke until he's no longer your student?"

"Promise me you'll take care of Rin!"

They didn't even look too much alike; Obito had been a half-breed from a branch family of the Uchiha clan, and yet when Toshiko looked up at him with a look of determination, all Kakashi saw was his teammate.

Bloody, crushed; young.

The need to run to the memorial stone and beg for forgiveness he knew would never come, filled the Friend-Killers body.

Kakashi found himself nodding. "Of course Uchiha-chan."

She beamed at him. Itachi had never shown Kakashi anything more than a tight, closed lip smile. Shisui— who Kakashi had know, if only barely before his death —had been the exuberant one and even then, Kakashi couldn't remember seeing the other Uchiha ever smile so widely either.

Obito was the only one.

Kakashi wondered— fleetingly —what Obito would think of his younger cousin. If he'd think she was sweet.

Kakashi could already tell she was, if not sickeningly so.

Itachi had been right, his sister was adorable.

"Thank you sensei!" Toshiko hugged him before he could stop her. His hand fell on her head; how many times had Minato-sensei pried Obito off him?

How much had Minato-sensei regretted it after Obito's last mission?

Kakashi let his hand rest on her head as thoughts of the bell test and memories of long ago swirled in tandem with his hidden eye.