It didn't matter that he was a shinobi or that he had first killed over a year ago or that his elemental affinity was lightening. At age 7, thunder storms were still loud and mysterious and scary.

He didn't have a mother. At least not anymore. He supposed that if he did she would be in here, stroking his hair and promising that it was ok and that no there were no monsters trying to get in through his window. But that would be worthless anyway.

What were reassurances that there were no monsters outside when he could see them with his own eyes? When he was that monster climbing through the window to some other man who was too long dead now to be troubled by it?

He knew that monsters were real. He knew they didn't simply hide under the bed nor did they charge head on. They snuck between trees and through windows in the dark. And the only reason he himself was not said monster tonight was the leg he broke training yesterday.

The thunder roared again, louder, as if to take vengeance for the brief silence. He remembered something his father once told him years ago, before he became a ninja, before his father fell on his own sword.

"Remember this, Kakashi. Silent men have thunder inside them. All men harbor some kind of storm, but, for these men, it rages and roars inside all the more fiercely, angrily, vengefully for their silence. Beware silent men. They are often the most dangerous. And do not become one yourself."

Despite his words, his father had become a silent man after his failed mission, his final mission. And Kakashi couldn't help but wonder if the same thunder awaited him. It didn't sound so bad in principle. Silent thunder. It had a sort of heroic, poetic ring. And what was wrong with being quietly dangerous anyway? Actually, it sounded like the makings of a good shinobi. And what did his father know? He died in disgrace as a failure, as scum in the eyes of the whole village, and didn't even head his own advice.

So there it was decided. Kakashi would be a silent man and thunder would roar inside of him. And the thunder storm raging outside was no longer scary but comfortable and familiar to his soul.