The White Fang meets his end.

Tanmaki Kazuki felt distinctly uncomfortable upon approaching this secluded forest. Dense and dark as it was, spanning kilometres from one end to the other. Should he fall in its confines, here on the very edges of Konohagakure, it would take some time to recover him. Kazuki knew what lurked in the Hatake forest, and greater shinobi than himself knew better than to approach without prior notice.

The wolves that walked its grounds did not tolerate company.

He readied the staff fastened to his back. Put his fingers through the loop of shuriken on either hand before entering quickly, speeding high above ground.

One did as his Lord demanded, self-preservation be damned.

But perhaps the wolves knew he came in peace. He travelled unencumbered, for all that flashes of white followed him from one end of the forest to another. Easily keeping up with his speed.

Kazuki felt distinctly like prey being chased down.

He spotted the compound ahead, wide and spiralling over the grounds. Once they'd housed over three dozen Hatake.

Now they housed one.

Kazuki touched down smoothly, leaving the safety of the trees to touch down on the grounds. Shuriken ready to throw in case of attack. Staring back at the forest, the shadows did not reveal any creatures to his eyes, for all that the growling and snapping of jaws could be heard clearly.

Kazuki smirked slightly at that, mostly to cover up his relief, all bark and no bite then.

He walked around for a while. Compound large and confusing enough to leave him stumbling around like a genin. He didn't know what kind of seals were up here, but they were decent enough to cloud Sakumo's location. Kazuki had to meander through the smarting, thick fog of Hatake chakra as he searched for the man room for room. Entering what looked like a kitchen, he wondered at the film of dust covering its surface. Clinging to his fingers as he dusted some off.

Leaving the kitchen, he headed right down another spiralling corridor. Footsteps creaking on the sensitive wooden floors. Finally he could hear some signs of life. Sakumo's deep voice murmuring something to himself beyond another door. Kazuki reluctantly steeled himself for what he suspected he was about to face.

"Sakumo-dono, it's Tanmaki Kazuki come to check up on you," he warned. Better not to enter a man such as Sakumos' room unannounced. He enjoyed living. "I will enter now."

The sight that greeted him was worse than what he'd expected. Had the Yamanaka not been monitoring the man?

Hatake Sakumo shivered from where he was sat, crumpled, hands fisting into his blankets. Leaning against the wall of a thoroughly ransacked room. "I am a failure." He hissed, hoarsely. "I have failed in my duties." He spat out, eyes wide and unseeing. Speaking to himself, the man did not seem cognisant of his surroundings. Kazuki entered further into the room warily, gathering some chakra in case he would need to dodge or escape.

Sakumo continued whispering to himself, that affable, powerful man - one of the strongest men of their generation.

Reduced to this shivering pile.

Kazuki had no idea things had deteriorated thus far. Perhaps he should have seen the signs earlier. They all should have. No matter that this happened frequently enough, this seemed tinted with an added edge of delirium.

The way Sakumo had cringed from leaving his secluded compound. Whispering of his comrades dereliction, devastated as he recounted curses Kazuki now knew were nothing but his minds demons whispering to him again.

All of it spoke to another one of his fits, and he'd been improving so much lately.

Kazuki frowned, hands palming over his face. This Hatake had been like this since his youth, swivelling between periods of happiness and mania, only to fall into pits of despair - restless and frenzied before falling down depressed. Unable to rise or even speak before eventually recovering.

One of their Villages strongest protectors was the strangest man Kazuki had ever come across. Kazuki tilted his head upward, spotting the vast amounts of kunai pinned to the ceiling.

Hatake Sakumo had failed his mission, and all of his comrades had died. Now Iwagakure had declared war. Spectacular failure that it was, it was simply a cover Iwagakure was using to fuel this war. Both sides were aware of this.

His Clan head had informed him of what must be their true intentions. This was nothing more than an attempt to cull Fire Country's rapid expansion into the outer territories.

Kazuki walked around the room slowly, movements telegraphed clearly as he searched for a candle to light up this dreary room. Not that Sakumo seemed very present, but that was a danger in itself, Kazuki had seen him skewer men half-asleep.

None in the Village blamed him. None that Kazuki had spoken to claimed to have been able to succeed in that misfortune of a mission. Outnumbered and deep in enemy territory. Much less survive it to come back. Hatake Sakumo was hailed as the pinnacle of shinobi to this day. He was a strong candidate for their next Hokage.

Sakumo, shivering and out of his mind - swore up and down at his own failures. Ripped wounds into his skin and apologised to people that were not there.

When the man had spoken to his own son last, Kazuki didn't know. Last he'd checked the boy lived with his sensei, Sakumo gone for missions for months on end to return for a day or two. Skulking away to join Orochimaru wherever he was posted. From what he'd heard the child seemed to admire his Father in absentia.

Kazuki cursed again at Orochimaru's absence, unsettling as that man was, he was the only one who could calm Sakumo from one of his frenzied fits. Could coax him out of this pathetic state. The man looked foul, unwashed and barely clothed. Face bereft of the mask he knew Hatake traditions dictated he could not show to anyone outside of his 'pack'.

He gave up on the candle search. He'd be unlikely to find anything in this mess. He crouched down, a respectable distance away, trying to make contact with his comrades dilapidated form.

"Sakumo," he prodded, as sternly as he could, "do I need to recall Orochimaru?"

For all that he knew he could not. Orochimaru had been sent off for border patrol. Now that they needed it more than ever, he'd heard rumours of Iwa-nin spotted around the borders. Orochimaru wouldn't be recalled unless their Lord had need of him.

The man flinched from his shivering position. Rising to flash those desperate eyes at him, Kazuki struggled not to avert his own eyes from his bare face. "Please," the man begged, voice hoarse from misuse. It sounded like the pleas of a man on his death bed.

Kazuki had been sent over to see if Sakumo would need to be put under surveillance one more, he ran his eyes over the disaster of a room, food strewn about and furniture ripped apart. Considered his desperate tone, and realised what they would need to do. Sakumo should have known better. "You know I can't, Sakumo-dono."

The man's face crumpled, breaking out in uncontrollable sobbing. "Of course, he knows too, doesn't he?" Sakumo gargled out, hands fisted in his hair.

Kazuki averted his eyes.

"We'll send your son over soon though, he made Chunin recently, you know?" Kazuki laughed, still incredulous at that piece of news. That child was only six years old. "You Hatake really are freaks of nature."

The man only moaned in response to that, sobbing into his clenched fists. Shoulders hitching and shivering. Kazuki held back a sigh at the sight, patting himself off from the fine film of dust now covering him. The compound was less of a maze upon exiting, he left the room in embarrassed relief.

Kazuki exited through the sliding doors and summoned for a messenger crow, chakra flickering for the one closest to this secluded forest. The wind brought a refreshing breeze, he took a few deep gulps - tenseness easing slightly with the fresh air. Back braced against the building as he waited.

He would have to inform Sandaime-sama of this. Hatake was deteriorating again, and he was a danger to himself and other when he got like this. This detached, out of reality state of his.

Perhaps his kid could be of some use right now.

Finding some sense in that he flickered again for a second crow. Mini-Sakumo might be able to speak some sense into his Father for the time being.

It wasn't long before he spotted two crows in the distance. Pure black and flapping closer steadily. He extended his arm for the two to land on, their sharp talons tickling his skin through the fabric.

Fingers reaching to touch the seals on their fragile bodies, pen and parchment popping out as he did so. He flailed for a minute, probably looking ridiculous as he penned messages using one arm and his thigh.

The moody little crows pulled his hair when he didn't pull out any snacks for them, nipping at his fingers as he smacked them away. Kazuki figured they were spoiled enough by the rest of the shinobi population. He'd seen a few crows looking a bit rotund as of late.

He pulled a cigarette out of his pocket, he'd been allocated two for this month. Stupid medic-nin forbidding him from any more. He scoffed, planting himself on the soft grass. Apparently cigarettes were for civilians only. He ought to file for discrimination. Then again, he pouted slightly, it was easy enough to picture his Mother smacking him into the ground if he went to the Clan head with a complaint like that.

So Kazuki sat for a while, feeling distinctly like a Nara as he watched the clouds above. Cigarette smouldering in his fingers. But still retaining a modicum of weariness as streaks of white blitzed through the forest from time to time. He'd seen what those Hatake wolves could do for himself. Staying away was what smart little shinobi did, and no matter what his Mother said, Kazuki was a smart little shinobi.

He didn't have to wait long at all before he spotted white hair in the distance. Pint-sized child approaching faster than he'd expected. Draped in a proper little shinobi uniform, messy white hair a mirror of his Father's. Perhaps his face was a match too, now that he'd seen the Fathers. He'd have to make sure to apologise too Sakumo for that later, when the man returned to himself.

Hatake Kakashi landed smoothly, easy and quick on his feet as he bowed and saluted in greeting. Uniform covered in white hair. Entirely too serious expression bafflingly adorable - for this was a six-year old. Kazuki smiled back indulgently. "You can go inside, kid. Try and speak some sense into daddy, yeah?"

The child face went pinched at that, fists clenching slightly. Though he nodded readily enough, sending a final, silent nod Kazuki's way.

He watched the child walk into the building with the fluid grace of a shinobi, footsteps quiet and smooth. Kazuki couldn't contain a smile at that, this kid was something else - he'd likely surpass that Father of his one day. He brought the cigarette up to his lips, taking another easy drag.

Not even a minute had passed since the childs entrance before he felt a shiver down his spine, tasting a sharp tang of ozone in the air.

The sliding doors exploded outward, sizzling chakra grasping for the outside world. Wood splintering and scattering around.

Kazuki managed not to choke on his cigarette by the grace of the Gods. Instinctively reaching for his staff as he pivoted out of reach before processing what he was seeing.

Little-Sakumo drenched in blood, deep and dark and red. Sakumos' grown form draped around him like a cape, his face slacked, pale and unseeing in death. The ground pooling with ridiculous quantities of blood. Wolves started howling in the distance, furious and loud.

He dropped to his knees at the sight, limbs weak with sheer disbelief. Mouth flapping open like a fish, with no words to be found.

Hatake Sakumo, alive a mere twenty minutes earlier, now skewered on the blade of his own tanto.

Kazuki dragged his eyes away from the dead form of his friend, meeting the eyes of the child frozen in the doorway. "Father said he needed to cleanse us of the shame," the child whispered, quiet but somehow resounding. "I do not understand?"

Those haunted eyes staring into his own, as he could find his answers there. Kazuki flinched, pinned under the stare of a child delirious with shock. Sparks and ripples of electricity jumped around his small figure, sharp and dangerous. Kazuki made a choice he would regret for the rest of his days.

He left that child with his Fathers' cooling body, and ran for back-up.