This is wonderfully written, and such a well thought-out, introspective piece. Even though you've come up with understandable reasoning for why Kakashi treated Naruto like he did, that still does NOT excuse his actions, or the Third Hokage's, or Jiraya's, or his Academy instructors. I've rarely come across a story with a more shamefully neglected orphan than Naruto. There is no justifying the actions of all those who knew Minato and Kushina, who just had their sacrificial son stuck in an orphanage that obviously neglected him and failed to teach him anything, then threw him out as a small child to live on his own. Still, all those in the know, including Kakashi, did nothing to help the unwanted boy, not one of them took him under their wing, looking out for his education, development, as well as his mental state and well-being, or just offered him any affection or genuine love. The only way he got any attention at all was to act out, so he'd be sent for a lecture from the Third. If Kakashi thinks he felt bad and lonely because he lost friends in past battles, (deal with it, Kakashi, you and your companions were ninja, you knew it was an occupational hazard, it's not like they were greeting-card designers or something), then what did he think the poor little neglected, hated, orphaned Jinchuriki child felt like, left alone to raise himself. Then everyone from his peers to his teachers to his jounin sensei mocked and berated him for being so dense and useless. The village of Konoha didn't deserve to have Naruto among them, they didn't deserve his love, or his incredible desire to protect them all. He grew as much as he did by his own personal drive to improve himself, as neither Kakashi or Jiraya really bothered to teach him very much compared to what they should have taught him. It's extremely sad that the one reason why Naruto wanted to become the Hokage one day was just because he wanted to be respected, he wanted to be acknowledged, an indictment against the Leaf village and everyone in it, regarding how lonely and neglected Naruto was as he grew up as a child. The fact that Kakashi chose to favor, pamper, groom, preen and train the spoiled, black-hearted drama queen Sasuke instead, should be something Kakashi never lives down. And what could he have possibly seen in the over-the-top desperate fan-girl with no great talents or skills, just book-learning, Sakura? She showed far less promise than Naruto, and still we rarely ever saw Kakashi doing anything to tame her violent and cruel streak where Naruto was involved, or to make her a better team player. He allowed her to moon over Sasuke to the point that she was a detriment to the team, and yet it was always Naruto that he criticized over everything.

I wish the canon material had shown Kakashi taking time to re-evaluate his behavior like in this story, and that he recognized his failures with his team of genin, so that he could've taken steps sooner to protect and teach them more before things got so serious and deadly. Again, lovely story, but I'd love to be able to tell Kakashi that by the time he figured out he'd put all his efforts on the wrong genin, and decided maybe he should bother to care about his old sensei's son and started actually training Naruto in Shippuden, it was too little, too late.

"Most of you probably recognized this as a reference to 'Murphy's Law', a Law of Nature that – despite not having official recognition in the science world (though the Murphy in question was an engineer) – has nevertheless found its place in the lives of exasperated, impatient, and downright klutzy people everywhere. If there is anyone not familiar with this law, it is essentially as follows: 'Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.'"

You know who the Murphy who coined "Murphy's Law" is?! Tell me!

(Pardon me for accidentally applying this review to Vis à Vis chapter 1, you're more than welcome to delete that copy.)

This is good, but it contains one common problem that ... I don't like: Kakashi's sole focus on Sasuke after the preliminaries is entirely justified by the simple fact that he had a binary choice: prevent Sasuke from fighting Gaara by any means necessary, which wouldn't have gone down well in a whole bunch of ways, including the "keeping him loyal" direction, or try to give him enough so that he had a chance of surviving against that, at the time, monstrously powerful, bloodthirsty, and insane Jinchuuriki.

(Note that a prospective Naruto vs. Gaara match later would require the latter beating Sasuke, and the odds that wouldn't entail maiming or killing him would be low. Kakashi could also prevent Naruto from engaging in that fight with less severe repercussions; heck, allowing the two Jinchuuriki to duke it out in the arena would be flat out insane, given that Kakashi knows what a trigger of believing Sasuke to be dead is for Naruto.)

Okay first off. Amazing work. You nailed your description of Naruto. That what most fans consider his weaknesses are in actuality his strengths. Not just that but the writing itself was well done too.

However, I do have a problem with the idea that Kakashi neglected Naruto's training. Cannon never showed Sasuke or Sakura ever receiving extra attention except for when Kakashi taught Sasuke Chidori. This had more to do with the fact of WHO Sasuke was facing. If Sasuke didn't get Kakashi's undivided attention he would have died.

Additionally, the manga shows Kakashi and Jiraya talking about training Naruto in the gap between the second and third part of the exam. Kakashi knew all along that Naruto would be trained by Jiraya.

Nice.

Kakashi's always been one of my favorite characters. I think you captured him well in this.

A very good and interesting fic. I do like your take on Kakashi and why he taught Naruto so little in part one focusing instead on the other two.

Personaly i attribute it to Kakashi's brilliance and lazyness. Kakashi was SUCH a fast learner and is just such a GENIUS that he had no idea where to start or what to do, so rahter than find some way bring Naruto up to speed he focused on Sasuke because the Uchiha was so much easier to teach.

Aww...

Well that certainly makes sense as and is a fitting answer as to why kakashi didn't pay as much attention in the beginning. Aaaand! I love your characters! Out of all the fanfics I've read, yours is the most in character I've ever read. And I've read a lot.

Love Kakashi's soul searching.

Thanks for writing.

Well done.

Thats all I can realy say about this fic; it has class, stile and most inportently makes you understand everything [you'r] Kakashi is. Kakashi is most defonetly a well written three dimenthional carictor (A rerety on this sight) for you show us what he is to others (first) what he is truly like and why he is like this (seconed) and that philosopher's stone of any carictor what he is to himself/his humanety (thred).

I don't realy know what I can fearly critasize you on for this realy is a good pice of work but I'd sajest that you could look deeper into why he is what he is; his father, obito, his sensei his other loved one's... what did thay do/what part did thay play in his past to make him the way he is, what exspereansis did thay give him that couresed him to become so lost in the road of life (sor couldent resist lol).

well that's all, grate fic and pritty spot-on on the carictor L.O'Fluna... dislexsic sor for the spell's _

"And unlike a certain dark-haired someone I could name, at least his angst doesn't make me want to roll my eyes and vomit theatrically. Kakashi has class."

Bwahaha...XD

It's kinda weird how some people resent Kakashi because they thought he was playing favorites with a certain emo.

I just love it. Kakashi was also my first Naruto love:D. I like that even though there's angsting he's able to get over himself and DO something. It makes me feel like punching something when characters whine -coughSasukecough- while never doing anything productive. Thank you for the story.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks Kakashi isn't just an ass.

I always thought the way he just shipped NAruto off was weird, but once Minato and Obito we're introduced it explained everything.

And Sasuke-the little prick-really needs some sense beat into him. I'm really really glad I'm not the only Naruto fan that doesn't fawn over him.

hehehe

I have to say, after reading a couple of your stories, you're really good.

This is one of the best, most realistic, and most well rounded takes I've ever seen on Kakashi. I don't think he could be described any better than this.