"Instead of sighing about the past, I'd rather be happy to face the present." – Oz Vesalius (Pandora Hearts)

[Chapter Summary: Kakashi is forced to move on.]

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"Tenzo, what am I supposed to do with a child?"

His kohai gives him a flat and steely look. "You love him."

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And Kakashi does love the child, but he can't help but see Minato in his blonde hair and bright blue eyes, or Kushina and Obito in his boisterous personality, or Rin in the way he treats certain things with gentle care.

It hurts so much, and it isn't fair to Minato's son—Naruto—either, because Kakashi feels like he's loving him for the people he reminds him of rather than for himself.

Tenzo thinks that's bullshit, and doesn't hesitate in telling him so. While Kakashi is thankful to his friend for all he's done and his vote of confidence, he isn't sure he's right despite what he tells him.

It's also tough, leaving the three year old in the care of somebody else so frequently when he's forced onto the battlefield, especially when Naruto turns his large blue (Minato's, just a few shades lighter) eyes on him brimming with unshed tears and Kakashi resolves to stay alive, if only for the child.

And of course he does. He goes, fights, kills, and returns injured but alive. And while the battlefront is hell, especially with shinobi staying behind to protect civilians and help rebuild the village, coming home is always worth it, because there's (for the first time in a long time) somebody at home for him.

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The moment Naruto turns five, Kakashi doesn't hesitate in telling him he's a jinchuriki. Doesn't hesitate in telling him that it's not his fault. Doesn't hesitate in telling him that he's still loved, and that he's a hero, not a monster. That the monster is the creature sitting in his stomach.

(The Sandaime had refused to give out Naruto's jinchuriki status despite Minato-sensei's wishes. While Kakashi loves his teacher dearly, holds him close to his heart, he agrees with the Sandaime, for Naruto would be hated and the status would paint an obnoxiously bright target on his back.)

Five is also when Kakashi begins training his protégé and he hates it. He hates it so, so much, because this is a five year old boy and Kakashi knows what it's like not to have a childhood, knows it hurts so much to be missing something everybody else has, and it hurts even more because he's doing this to somebody else.

("Naruto," he had said, "please don't change too much. You might be a tool for Konoha, but you must remember that you're human too. It'll be hard, but be both. For me. For you.")

Kakashi tries his best to keep two personalities—the Wolf one, when he trains him, and himself, the Kakashi one, to take care of him.

Frankly, it's exhausting, and it terrifies him exactly how much of a weakness for Kakashi that Naruto has become—it terrifies him that he wouldn't know what to do should the boy die, or turn his back on him. Hell, it very nearly breaks what's left of his heart into millions of tiny little pieces when Naruto gets hurt, if even only a little bit.

(He doesn't remember when "Minato's son" turns into "Naruto".)

("See?" Tenzo had said, and Kakashi could have seen hints of smugness in his kohai's dark eyes. "That drivel you were spouting about you not loving Naruto for himself—yeah, bullshit."

Maybe, just maybe, Kakashi can believe him a little bit now.)

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The first thing Kakashi teaches Naruto is to love his teammates, comrades, precious people, family. That they are worth dying for.

(Naruto had blinked and nodded seriously. "You're family, right?" he had asked, and Kakashi had simply dipped his head. The slight movement had been enough to convey what Kakashi had meant.)

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When Naruto has turned seven, he has already taken too many lives to count, and has a page in the Bingo Book as a chuunin-ranked ninja. (He's not as young as Kakashi was but it's too close, just a year…)

It disgusts Kakashi in so many ways and tears at all of his morals and the remains of his heart and makes him want to sob desperately at the same time he wants to rip whoever created fate to pieces for making Naruto suffer such a cruel one.

It also hurts so much because he knows Naruto hates it like Kakashi does but not possibly as much because Kakashi knows it's his fault.

Yet somehow through the bleak days, through the horrible assassinations, through the bloody days on the battlefront, Naruto retains his sunny personality and manages a smile for Kakashi, and he loves and hates it at the same time.

He loves it because Naruto is still a child at heart.

He despises it because if he were to die, Naruto would break. And it'd be his fault.

(He doesn't want to be a liability, not for anyone, especially not for Naruto.)

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For all that Naruto is a genius at fighting, he is still stupid.

("Who's the Shodaime, Naruto?"

"Uh… Tobirama Namikaze?")

So when the Academy begins another year, Kakashi enrolls Naruto into it.

It's not just for the education, and when he returns every day, Kakashi is satisfied to see that he seems so much happier, even if he has to hide his Chuunin status (subterfuge) and play the role of the dead last in the class.

("Sakura-chan is so nice!"

"I totally let Sasuke-teme win!"

"Kiba helped me prank the mean sensei today!"

"Hey, Hinata-chan turns red whenever I talk to her. Is she sick?"

"We got a new sensei today! He's only seventeen though, and his name is Iruka! He's so nice to me, and even though I'm not smart, he doesn't make fun of me like the old sensei did to me and Kiba and Lee-senpai and—"

It goes on.)

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When Naruto turns nine, he graduates with flying colors.

When Naruto turns nine, he is officially Kakashi's student.

When Naruto turns nine, he is a tokubetsu jounin. Kakashi hates it.

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The day Kakashi officially becomes Naruto's jounin-sensei brings with it a surprise.

"Assigned to Kakashi Hatake is Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Sakura Haruno."

…What?

"What?" Kakashi blurts out, shocked enough to let the word slip through his throat and embarrassingly, Iruka-sensei pauses and he and the rest of the jounin-sensei turn to give him quizzical looks.

He clears his throat awkwardly, flipping the matter in his mind. The Sandaime gave me three geniuses to work with?

"I'm—I assumed I'd be working with Naruto alone, but…" He laughs a little sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "It seems the Hokage-sama has other plans for me. I apologize for my interruption."

Sitting in his seat, Naruto waves his hands frantically in what Kakashi recognizes as ANBU hand signs. Kaka-nii, I'm with SASUKE! (The personal sign Naruto had given Sasuke was originally the middle finger but with a reproving glare from Kakashi, he'd sulkily changed it to the sign for duck combined with butt.)

Stifling a laugh, Kakashi shifts from one foot to the other and subtly signs back, Well, no need to hide that you're better than him now, hmm?

Naruto breaks into a grin, much to his peers' odd glances.

Iruka clears his throat, blinking in genuine confusion. "And might I ask why Naruto wouldn't be assigned to a genin team, Kakashi-san?"

"I'm sorry, but that's classified," Kakashi murmurs, shifting again. "And I had assumed… please continue."

Coughing slightly, Iruka nods, still looking curious, as he continues.

Once he comes to the end of the list and folds the paper up, Iruka announces, "Come down to introduce yourselves to your jounin-sensei."

With a loud whoop, Naruto jumps out of his seat and races towards Kakashi with a bright grin and Kakashi has a good (or bad) feeling about what's going to happen next.

"Kakashi-nii-chan!" singsongs Naruto as he tackle-hugs him and very near chokes him as he wraps arms around his shoulders, and Kakashi gets a very good look at the conniving smirk on the nine year old's face that frankly terrifies Kakashi more than it should.

All activity in the room drops from about sixty percent to zero in a second.

"Naruto, you're going to choke me," he wheezes after a few moments of pure silence.

"The Sharingan no Kakashi is your nii-chan?" Sasuke demands incredulously as Kakashi extricates himself from Naruto's grip.

Naruto grins.

(The sneaky, sneaky little shit.

He must've been waiting his entire time at the Academy to pull this on them.)

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"So," Kakashi begins, "let's introduce ourselves. Name, hobbies, dreams for the future, likes, dislikes, things like that. I'll go first.

"I'm Kakashi Hatake. I've got a few hobbies, quite a few likes, I dislike a lot… dreams for the future? Hmm…"

Naruto rolls his eyes. "Kaka-nii-chan likes reading, eggplants and miso soup—together, it's gross—he dislikes being interrupted when sleeping and reading, and I don't know… what is your dream?"

Party-pooper.

"Introduce yourself first, Naruto. And it's Kakashi-sensei."

"Whatever, nii-chan. I'm Naruto Uzumaki! I like ramen and Kaka-nii-chan! I dislike waiting for anything, especially ramen! I like pranks, especially when Kiba helps me! My dream is to be a good shinobi!"

Kakashi smiles a little behind his mask. "And you, pinkie?"

Sakura gives a huff and a glare, but the short and choppy pink hair kills the effect. "I'm Sakura Haruno. I like being right, and I hate it when certain people"—here she glares at Naruto—"interrupt my reading time. My hobbies are reading and hanging out with Ino. My dream is to become a good kunoichi that people respect because I've seen how kunoichi are treated."

A genius in mind, Kakashi muses. She and Naruto will make an excellent team. He pauses. If they learn how to be civil to each other.

"And you?"

Sasuke begins with almost as much enthusiasm as Naruto, "I'm Sasuke Uchiha! I like tomatoes and Itachi-nii-chan. I really hate it when aniki does that annoying forehead poke thingy. My hobbies are training with aniki when he has the time. My dream is to be a good shinobi like Itachi!"

…Wow. His life is centered around Itachi, huh.

"Itachi was my kohai in ANBU," Kakashi says mildly only to regret it the moment Sasuke's eyes light up and opens his mouth.

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They pass the bell test beautifully, and Naruto almost, just almost, touches the bells several times, only to growl in frustration when Kakashi dances out of the way, making it look so damn easy while reading a book.

(He's not actually reading. He's only doing it to infuriate his cute little students.)

(Where the hell did that cute comment come from?)

(Admittedly, they are adorable, especially when Naruto scowls and looks ridiculously like Pakkun, or when Sasuke puffs out his cheeks and makes Kakashi have this ridiculous urge to poke them, or when Sakura crosses her arms and tries to look mature but utterly fails because she's, well, adorable.)

Kakashi hides a smile when Sakura finally figures out that the point of the exercise is to practice teamwork, and he knows he was right in expecting her to figure it out.

The bells remain untouched but he passes them with new information on his genin to mull over for the next few days.

Sakura is the genius in mind. Naruto is the genius in body. Sasuke is an even mix of the two.

The Sandaime is betting a huge gamble on him, and Kakashi feels quite honored.

If trained properly, this team could surpass the Sannin and beyond.

Kakashi isn't sure if he wants that.

He knows his students want that.

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a/n: Hi.

Look, I updated. AMAZING.

This chapter is more or less a background for the story, so it's not quite… story-telling, if you know what I mean. The writing style here differs, if only subtly, and that's mostly because one is more poetic, one is more I'm reading a story.

Technically, both this chapter and last chapter can be considered prologues, as in setting the scene for the story. But they don't mesh together, thus making it two separate chapters. The story truly begins when Naruto is nine.

Also, I'm addressing some issues readers might have here:

One: Naruto is still an idiot.

That is because Naruto is an idiot.

In the Naruto franchise, that has been made very, very clear, and I do not intend to change that fact. Oh, certainly, Naruto will start out stronger, simply because of the training, but Naruto was intended to be the MC and the character that creates the need for the exposition character, aka Sakura.

I'm not going to suddenly make Naruto all perceptive and all-knowing and brilliant because he is not. At the very core of his being, Naruto is a cheerful idiot who does have his moments of genius but not all the time. And while he might be slightly smarter than he is in franchise, that's only because Kakashi is desperately trying to beat the stupid out of him.

This is an AU for one thing: the Naruto timeline is that of a war, and not of peace. I'm not changing the core of the characters. This story is how I imagine the characters will turn out if they were born into wartimes, if they're born at all.

Two: Sakura/Sasuke are not the same person as they are in canon.

That's because they aren't.

Sakura isn't an insanely obsessed fangirl who hates Ino and Naruto here because she has no time for that. She's growing up to be a kunoichi in wartimes, and I hate how her intellect is so downplayed in canon. She's smarter than Sasuke "Rookie-of-the-Year" Uchiha, as Sasuke himself has said before.

Sasuke isn't an angsting, broody asshole because his family hasn't been massacred. Read/watch some of the episodes/chapters of Naruto that cover Sasuke's childhood—he's a cheerful, immature, and adorable brat who loves his brother too much. He retains the core of those traits, but he has grown up a little due to wartimes.

The Uchiha Clan Massacre hasn't happened either because even Danzo isn't that crazy. He's not going to risk a coup d'état to slaughter a huge amount of the shinobi force that will be vital to the war effort. He'll wait until the end of the war, if he's still alive by then.

Three: Kakashi.

Well, the Sandaime gave him orders to take care of Naruto and turn him into a weapon.

Sure, if Kakashi had been his pre-Obito's-"death" self, he probably would've done it to the letter.

He's not his pre-Obito's-"death" self though.

He's just been through his teacher's death and Naruto's really the only thing he has left and in canon, he left him alone. If he had a choice here, Kakashi probably would've.

But he doesn't have a choice. And therefore, Kakashi is forced to move on.

I'm done explaining myself.

If you have any issues, please feel free to review.

Actually, please, please drop a review either way. Constructive criticism is welcomed with open arms.

*Please note that this is unbetaed. I do not have a beta and I do not wish for one. All of these chapters are written and proofread by one person (me) so please don't rip on me for one tiny little grammatical error.*