AN: The plot bunny bit me and wouldn't go away. So I wrote it, edited it, had my sister look it over, let it sit for a few weeks, and finally posted it. Like most of my work, it's an introspective one-shot, approximately 1,700 words. It is in keeping with the manga theme of "underneath the underneath." SPOILERS for Sasuke's defection and a tad of Kakashi's back-story. Please read and review.

Disclaimer: My characters are never this complex. Ergo, you may assume that they do not belong to me.

Somewhere underneath everything, Kakashi was a five-year-old boy who wasn't quite sure what to do with the kunai in his hand. This lost little boy did not understand death or killing or honor or rules. He liked to play with puppies and listen to stories told by his father. He laughed often and smiled more.

Over that boy he was a seven-year-old chuunin who had to find rules to live by in order to make life make sense. This chuunin was an efficient shinobi, an orphan with no friends. If he stuck to the rules (remember the mission, show no emotion, be on time…) then anything bad that happened wasn't his fault. This chuunin remembered the sight of his father's body, spread on the floor in its own blood. His father had killed himself for honor, because he rejected the goal of a mission in favor of saving a teammate. Kakashi would not make the same mistake. He would uphold what honor he had. The mission was everything. He wore a mask to his the fact that he no longer smiled. His mask separated him from the world, and he preferred it that way.

This chuunin was hidden by the thirteen-year-old jounin who bore a borrowed sharingan at the cost of his best friend's life. This jounin knew the value of friendship. He loved Obito, and Rin, and the Yondaime. He almost managed to remember that he was still young, barely more than a boy. Before Obito died (why must it hurt so much?) he taught Kakashi that he had to protect his teammates. The jounin learned that being a shinobi was about more than weapons and the mission. It was about sacrifice and love, about putting the village above your own needs because you believed in the village and wanted other people to live happy, full lives.

The jounin was hidden by the ANBU. This ANBU had lost everyone he cared about, except the village itself. His best friend, his female teammate, his teacher, not to mention his long-dead father and mother. All he had left was his devotion to the village, a borrowed sharingan, and his nin-dogs. ANBU Kakashi was a fierce and efficient shinobi, much more fearsome than the chuunin with the same attitude had been. He was not afraid to kill. Nor was he afraid to die at his hokage's order (what was the point when you had stopped living long ago?). He would do anything required by the mission. He used chidori and his summons, simple techniques and hundreds of jutsu stolen with the sharingan. He was called the Copy-Cat Ninja, and his reputation was wide-spread.

Closer to the surface than the ANBU was the teacher. Surprisingly, Kakashi liked teaching. He took pride in the progress of his students. He concerned himself with their teamwork, their chakra control, and their personal lives. He took interests in their interests and eagerly watched them grow. And when Sasuke defected and all three sought other teachers, he felt the sting of guilt (Why hadn't he seen it coming. Blind. Blind and stupid). He had failed them as a teacher, but even then he didn't stop hoping for their success.

Right on the surface, Kakashi was a lazy, perverted jounin. He read erotic novels in plain sight, he was always late, he told terrible lies, he was absent-minded and careless. He took pleasure in pissing others off. He participated in ridiculous contests with Gai. He disrespected almost everybody.

For those who did not know how to look "underneath the underneath," Kakashi was hopelessly immature. What they failed to realize was that he was merely making up for lost time. Having already been required to act as an adult when he was five, having lost his father at a young age, having never had childhood companions…this was his way of reaching for that lost child. Gai took the place of non-existent friends; his porn took the place of his father's stories; and his lazy, carefree attitude made up for his responsible childhood. It was also his tribute to Obito (who told crazy lies when he was never on time, loved to play pranks and tell jokes, and had little respect for authority). It was his nod to his sensei, who loved life far more than could be understood. It was his promise to Rin, to actually live for himself.

People knew Kakashi wore a mask, but they were so concerned with the physical one that they never tried to discover what was underneath the lazy, perverted exterior.

Underneath it all, Naruto was a tiny boy who was hurt and lonely. He cried himself to sleep at night and just wanted one person to look at him with love and affection. He wanted a hand to soothe away the nightmares of fire and blood, a voice to sing him to sleep, a smile of pride to tell him he was doing well. He yearned for someone to make the cold stares and the harsh whispers go away. He liked chocolate ice cream and rice balls, the color blue, and green plants.

Buried almost as far down, Naruto was an independent little boy who was determined to take care of himself since no one else would do it for him. Ramen was cheap, so he decided it was his new favorite food. (It helped that it was also quick and easy to make, since there was no one to teach him to cook.) Orange clothing was cheapest, so it became his new favorite color. He kept his apartment organized and clean, did his own laundry, and set his own alarm to wake up on time for school. He studied jutsu and fighting styles and trained in his spare time. He would take care of himself.

Above that, Naruto yearned for acknowledgement. He wanted someone to recognize his strength. He wanted people to be impressed with his skill. He decided that to be acknowledged, he would become the Hokage. Then people would see him and respect him. He wanted Sasuke to acknowledge him as an equal, he wanted Sakura to acknowledge that he was her teammate, he wanted Kakashi to acknowledge that he was a good student. He wanted to prove himself to everybody who had ever doubted him.

On the surface, Naruto was a prankster, an idiot, the academy dead-last, a screw-up, and a fool. He was loud and obnoxious. He made up stupid jutsu and pulled crazy stunts. He never seemed to master the basics, but he pulled difficult techniques out of nowhere. He was idiotically confident and stubborn. He was also lucky, coming through impossible situations with no more than bruises and a smile.

Nobody cared to look beneath the surface, because they thought the only thing there was the fox.

Buried where he could forget about it, Sasuke was a little boy who loved his brother with all his heart. He wanted nothing more than to be just like his aniki (Will you help me train, aniki?). He loved his brother better than his parents, or aunts or uncles, or anybody else in the whole village. He lived for the times when Itachi would ruffle his hair or smile kindly at him. The fact that his brother was their father's favorite didn't matter because he sincerely believed that Itachi loved him the most, too.

The little boy was covered by the eight-year-old who found his brother over the dead bodies of their parents (Why, aniki?). Disbelief and grief gripped Sasuke's eight-year-old heart and never let go. He wanted it to be a nightmare that would go away when he woke up. His trust was shattered when his brother not only told Sasuke he had killed their parents, but showed him, making him watch it over and over again. The eight-year-old was terrified and sad and lonely.

On the surface, Sasuke was the brooding avenger. He was pretty and smart and fast. He mastered the sharingan, used fire jutsu, and learned the chidori. He lived to kill his brother, and to do that he had to be stronger. He would take whatever path was necessary to gain that strength and accomplish that goal.

Everybody was too proud of their little avenger to care what else he was.

Underneath the surface, Sakura burned with determination. She wanted to be strong, to protect her family and friends. She wanted to be confident in her own abilities, and stand up for herself when someone insulted her. She wanted to do the protecting, instead of being the protected. She took delight in doing something right. She was grateful to Ino for being kind to her, and remembered their friendship. Despite her temper, she had a big heart and hated seeing people hurt.

What she showed everyone else was a rather quiet, intelligent, self-conscious girl. She chased after Sasuke and turned down Naruto and Lee as lacking. She grew her hair long and wore a red dress. She cared what other people thought of her and detested her "large forehead." She acted like a model kunoichi at times. She mastered the theories of being a ninja with ease, but lacked the stamina, endurance, and drive to really compete with the boys.

No one suspected she was more than she seemed, because she seemed so normal.

On the surface, Team Seven was falling apart. The boys bickered constantly, everybody played favorites, and their communication was lacking. Their teacher was lazy, their genius was antisocial, their female was more interested in catching her teammate's eye than improving, and their last member constantly needed saving. On a good day, their teamwork was almost nonexistent. On a bad day (of which there were many), they were more likely to try to kill one another than to accomplish the mission.

But underneath it all, Team Seven was a family. They were closer than siblings. They knew each other in a way that few other people could. They had saved each others lives. And even when they wanted to kill each other, the assumption was there that they would still save one another without a second thought. And even though they may not be like most teams, it worked for them.

Whether other people understood or not, Team Seven simply was, and that was all that mattered.