Disclaimer: Naruto? Don't own it. Original characters and storyline. Yep.
Act 1: Way Of The Leaf
Once somewhere deep in the Fire Country, there was a large ninja village plagued by a nine-tailed fox demon. It appeared, seemingly out of nowhere and wreaked havoc on the inhabitants of the ninja village. Its fur was a dark orange stained with streaks of crimson from its spilled blood. Its giant tails, rumored to cause tsunami's and crumble mountains, was busily warding off shinobi fighting to the death for their survival as well as their home village's. It was a fight that they couldn't win no matter what they tried. Every wound they made closed up almost immediately and with the demon's nearly limitless supply of chakra, it was a struggle just to get past his menacing aura. They send in their strongest, only to have them batted away like flies.
Then their leader appeared riding on a toad large as a building with a newborn baby boy in his arms. Konoha's 'Yellow Flash' narrowed his eyes when he looked at the havoc the demon wreaked. The respected ninja put the infant down, and started forming seals in a sequence many of his subordinates didn't recognize. Then, in the midst of the raging battle, the monster stopped in his tracks, staring wide eyed and terrified at the young shinobi with his hands in the final seal. Confusion followed. Then the demon's gigantic body shuddered, only to fall to the forest floor black as charcoal. Its body decayed almost immediately and the wind carried its remains in its currents.
The ninja celebrated, too busy to notice that their leader had fallen, and the newborn baby boy with a strange seal on his stomach. He didn't move nor cry but just laid there surveying the scene of battle as the first thing to behold in his short life. His virgin eyes looked curiously at the bodies littering the battlefield, many of them ripped apart and broken beyond recognition. He cooed. Then, the sight of the fallen hero himself. The fourth Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village, the Yondaime. The strongest Hokage ever produced by the village, the man that lived his life serving others was dead. He cooed again as he felt his tiny eyelids give way to gravity after the taxing changes his body had undergone.
Chapter One: To replace a mask
The elderly Sandaime Hokage looked down on the crib of the blaring infant. The boy had been found next to the body of his deceased successor and had been brought to him by a sole surviving ANBU out of a team of five. He sighed to himself as he and the ANBU stood alone in that very chamber staring at what was doomed to be a nasty reminder of tonight's events. Yondaime had given him strict orders which he were to follow to the letter. He didn't like any of them. First off the boy was never to know of his heritage. Big mistake, but I have to honor this." He thought to himself.
Second he was to be seen as the hero of Konoha, bearing the soul of the great nine-tailed fox demon Kyuubi. "This will never work out, word has already been spread throughout the city that this child actually bears the demon's soul. They will see Kyuubi in him no matter what." It was obvious to him that the Yondaime had too much trust in the people of Konoha.
Thirdly the child was to be named Uzumaki Naruto. "This name holds no meaning, but I guess it was made up to make sure that he will never find out who his family is…or rather, was." There would be complaints. He knew that for sure. Then there would be threats on the child's life if he did not take care of the matter properly. But there exists no means to properly rob an innocent child of his right to live. Besides, he had given his word that he would take care of the child as if he was his own. That was a big one to live up to, but at least old Sarutobi had the intellect to see the child as a person as opposed to the closed-mindedness he saw in so many of the Konoha youth today. He sighed again as he turned to give orders to the ANBU still standing at the doorway as if he was afraid to come any closer to the cursed infant. His body armor was cut up and he had blood on his hands and face. None of it was his. His wolf-mask did nothing to hide his messy brown hair now adorned with blood. He made a pitiful figure.
"Takemaru-kun" His voice carried a commanding tone. The ANBU's position shifted from uncomfortable to rigid.
"Please take little Naruto here to my house. Feed him with a bottle of warm milk and make sure he's warm and clothed for the evening. Then I want you to guard him until I return."
"Sandaime-sama…I don't-"
"Please Takemaru-kun, you're the only one right now I can trust with this matter. Emotions in the village are too heightened for anyone else to accept this task."
"…the seal might've backfired. The demon might break lose."
"That seal was designed by the Yondaime Hokage, a terribly gifted shinobi. Any seal he made is bound to hold, besides, if it breaks, do you really think that it would make a difference whether you're standing right next to him or across town?"
He saw truth in that statement and reluctantly accepted the task given to him. He took the baby in his arms, looked at his whisker marks, then at his sky-blue eyes, sighed, and teleported him to safety. Sarutobi nodded and left the room to take care of his people, his village, once again.
The following day, all the villagers and shinobi were gathered to hear what decisions had been made. First they were notified that the Sandaime had been reinstated as Hokage due to the Yondaime's untimely death. There were gasps and most people were shocked to hear about the rumors to be true. Then they were told about the demon's end and the seal on the infant named Uzumaki Naruto. He explained Yondaime's last wish for the people to see Naruto as a hero bearing a demon for the safety of all of Konoha. But ignorance clouded their minds for most of them thought it was a lie fabricated by Sandaime or that the Yondaime had no knowledge of what was supposed to happen to the demon-bearing child after the sealing. In their misery and lack of a scapegoat to blame their suffering, they turned their hatred towards an innocent boy, already cursing his name. Protests were heard and people were already demanding his death or exile. The Hokage didn't budge and instead he created a law for everyone who knew the truth. They were never to tell anyone of the younger generation about the demon sealed in Naruto. They were never to discuss about it neither openly nor in private. And above all, they were never to tell Naruto about it. Those who broke that law would be punished severely. The threat held and nobody undertook action against it, but it still didn't sit well. Sarutobi stressed that the main thing to focus on was regaining their power for they were severely weakened by the demon's attack. And so the matter was left unresolved and pushed into the back of their minds to fester.
As the Hokage returned home late that night, he immediately went to see Naruto. To his surprise Naruto was quietly sleeping in Takemaru's arms, who told the Hokage that he cried unless he was constantly held. It was a heartwarming sight to behold as Ookamishi Takemaru, someone who suffered more losses than anyone due to the demon's attack, accepted Naruto as a fragile creature that needed warmth and comfort.
He dismissed Takemaru, who gave Naruto a silent goodbye, and took the boy. Already he was planning out his future, as the Yondaime would've wanted him to.
"Why this child Arashi? What bond does he share with you? A son perhaps? You always were excellent at keeping secrets, even from us experienced shinobi." He thought bitterly of the young and stubborn Hokage who sacrificed both his life and that of an unknown infant for the good of the village.
"How am I going to explain this to you? Perhaps you will one day understand that its karma."
He sighed as he placed Naruto in his crib with a frog plushy he picked up somewhere. He felt confident that he could raise the child as a competent shinobi. The boy's psyche would become a different problem. "Let's just hope the villagers don't do him any harm."
Life was pretty boring for 20-year old Hatake Kakashi. He was a simple shinobi trying to live a simple life. To everybody in his village he was either the 'genius copy-nin' Hatake Kakashi or the prodigal son of the legendary 'White Fang', Hatake Sakumo, but when he was at home he felt like he was neither. At home he was simply Kakashi the ninja or Kakashi the bookworm or, more often than not, Kakashi the open pervert.
Said pervert was lazily strolling through Konoha's streets deeply engrossed in his reading. He passed a vendor selling ramen, undisturbed by the scuffle going on inside. In the back of his mind, a couple of words, colors and objects were carefully being taken in consideration, but mostly he was imagining the different colors, objects and how much of it went into who/what/where/how and when, described in his little pornographic novel. He couldn't help but chuckle as a light blush creeped onto his face. Meanwhile the other 5 of his operational brain that wasn't occupied already registered the colors yellow, blue and orange, noted the smell of ramen, sweat and stink bombs, and calculated the speed and trajectory of the orange-yellow-blue object. After calculating his own speed and the odds, that little 5 percent send a signal to his legs to sidestep. All this resulted in a little boy tripping over his own legs landing face-first into a bowl of freshly stolen ramen, and Kakashi chuckling again over a particularly perverted scene and, for a large part, still not noticing what the hell went on around him.
To his credit, said paragraph truly was a magnificent piece of ecchi writing that would later result in an award banned in 4 countries, making it one of the most controversial pieces of writing since 'Angst for the simple mind' by an unnamed shinobi who was rumored to ruthlessly mass-murder his entire family because he didn't feel loved enough.
It took a while for Kakashi's brain to label the recent events as 'semi-important', so he'd look up from his reading even if just for a bit.
"On your feet gaki! Luckily for us we have competent shinobi to keep tabs on you, you monster!"
Kakashi gave the fuming vendor a look that screamed 'hn? me?'. If said vendor did see it, he ignored it in favor of giving the boy a scolding that would put a sailor to shame. The boy didn't seem fazed in the slightest bit, and instead glared defiantly at the vendor. This enraged the man to the point that he raised his hand to strike the five-year old. His arm crashed into something made out of a material bordering on 'extremely hard'. It was a trained shinobi arm. Said trained shinobi arm's owner looked at the vendor with his exposed right-eye in a happy crinkle.
"You don't want to hit an innocent child would you?"
A vein popped on the vendor's forehead and he had a hard time controlling himself. It wasn't so much the fear of shinobi that 'encouraged' him to calm down, but more the reputation of the copy-nin who was well on his way in exceeding his late father's memory. Of course being a famous highly trained genius assassin allows you to be polite, courteous and a perfect gentleman while scaring the shit out of anyone.
Naruto's thoughts on the mystery man coming to his rescue were simply, "so cool…"
"This 'boy' needs to learn not to take food that doesn't belong to him. This is the gratitude he shows this village after-"
"The rule is still in effect urite(merchant)-san."
The merchant gritted his teeth together while counting to ten. He closed his eyes and opened them to glare at the boy. He spoke through clenched teeth
"I expect you to pay for that bowl brat. You haven't heard the last of me."
Naruto smirked at him making it clear just who the victor was that day.
"How much did the food cost?" Kakashi inquired.
"More than he can aff-"
"Here's 20. Keep the change."
The vendor blinked and greedily stuffed the bills down his pockets. He gave Naruto one last glare before he stamped back to his stall to serve his waiting customers.
If Naruto thought he was in the clear, all that changed when Kakashi picked him up by the back of his shirt and hoisted him over his shoulder.
"Ano…What are you doing?" Naruto was dumbfounded. First the vendor refuses his money, and then even after he swiped a bowl of ramen from some other customer he dropped it. Not only did he almost got hit again after that but when that threat was gone, some mystery cool ninja just picked him up like stray litter without so much as telling his name or where they were going for that matter. Besides, he was still hungry. The ramen gods weren't on his side today. His stomach agreed with him as it let out an unsatisfied grumble that made Kakashi sweatdrop.
"Have you ever heard of Ichiraku Ramen?"
Naruto tried to turn his head to try and get a feel of the ninja's expression that went with that emotionless inquiry. He only succeeded in looking at the man's back and noticed he was reading.
He couldn't tell… Normally there was some kind of resentment against him in every person he'd meet like a cold glare or being pointedly ignored, but with this guy he just couldn't tell what he was thinking.
"He's so cool…" Naruto thought again.
"Oy, gaki. I asked you a question."
"Eh? Oh err…no I haven't."
"The owner likes me plus the ramen is decent if you like that kind of thing." He nonchalantly flipped a page with his thumb. Naruto was amazed at his strength. The man hadn't even broken a sweat all this time carrying him around.
Finally Ichiraku Ramen came into view, or from Naruto's vantage point, fresh ramen could be smelled a block away. The boy started salivating greedily.
When Kakashi entered the shop, he didn't know what to expect. He didn't know he had a miniature black hole on his back, nor did he know he was about to lose half of last month's paycheck in one visit. He didn't know but he sure as hell was about to find out.
30 minutes later---
Kakashi looked sadly at his empty wallet like it was ambushed and ravaged by nuke-nins.
"When I said I'd treat you I didn't mean you could eat me into debt."
"Fwah fa zhat? Fhebt? Fha zhat?" Naruto turned to a sighing Kakashi with half a bowl of ramen stuffed in his mouth and the other half hanging out of it.
"Please stop eating."
Naruto slurped up the remaining noodles and jumped off his eat revitalized.
"That hit the spot!" He said as he patted his belly. Suddenly he gave the ramen chef Teuchi a serious look.
"You…make the best ramen in the village. From now on I am your loyal customer!"
Teuchi, his daughter Ayame and Kakashi all looked at the kneeling five-year old with mixed feelings, torn between gratitude and amusement. For a five-year old orphan he was quite friendly with strangers. Not to mention expressive.
"Hey kid…"
Naruto looked up at Kakashi who was busy gazing at a bird outside of the shop.
"What is it mister?"
"We're going." He answered as he stood up and walked out of the shop after greeting the owner and his love-struck daughter. Naruto trailed behind him like a faithful puppy.
"Where are we going?" he asked him. "Are you gonna teach me to be cool like you?"
"We're going to see the Hokage."
Naruto simply nodded and continued following Kakashi, wondering what the old man wanted from him.
Konoha had enjoyed a long-lasting peaceful time. This was partially due to the fact that the Sandaime was an excellent Hokage, and partially due to the talented shinobi born these days in the village of the Hidden Leaf. This little fact kept the Sandaime quite busy most of the time, but there were times when he shoved aside work, damned the consequences to hell and took the afternoon off. Usually that would be provoked by him spying on everybody and nobody in particular in his glass ball. This afternoon however he was busily spying on one of his most favorite persons in the village. Sometimes he spied on him out of worry, but fact remained that Uzumaki Naruto's antics were amusing half the time and downright hilarious mostly.
His accidental meeting with Hatake Kakashi drew chuckles from the elder. Those two were probably two persons completely on the other side of each other's spectrum. They differed like night and day, and yet he could still see a connection beneath all their layers. After all, Naruto needed someone to look up to, and Kakashi needed someone. Period. Before he decided what he thought needed to be done, his mind was already going over the particulars of his evil plan. Being the most powerful and influential shinobi in the village was important work, but times like these it was a position he was both grateful for and abused the hell out of.
"Hokage-sama."
Sarutobi looked up from his musing to see his assistant standing nervously by the door. He couldn't help but wonder what the nervousness would be for, until he remembered who he expected any moment.
"Hatake and Uzumaki?" the assistant nodded. "Send them in." he said and dismissed his assistant with a lazy wave. Said assistant happily complied and resisted the urge to make warding-off signs at the demon child when he backed away cautiously.
Kakashi was reading his book; nothing else could really be expected from him, while Naruto nervously shifted from one leg to the other occasionally glancing at Kakashi. The Hokage gave them both a warm smile that instantly put Naruto at ease. If the Hokage was mad at him he wouldn't be smiling anyway.
"Naruto-kun, would you mind waiting in the hallway for a minute?" The boy nodded and went out the office. The Hokage turned to Kakashi.
"Kakashi-kun…"
"Hokage-sama?" He adjusted his footing since he was probably in for a long lecture.
"How long have you been a jounin?"
"Probably 6 or 7 years Hokage-sama."
"When do you plan on leading your own group of genin?"
"To be honest, I have no particular need of that."
"Ah but it's customary isn't it?"
"Hai…" Kakashi answered narrowing his eye. He didn't like the direction this conversation was taking.
"So you agree?"
"Hai I agree its custom-"
"I was hoping you'd change your mind" The Hokage said with a smile and an amused twinkle in his eye.
"Wow hold on I didn't change anything I don't want to teach a bunch of idiot kids trying to playing ninja."
"Hmm I see…" Kakashi sweat dropped.
"Is he demented or something? One moment it seems like he'll do anything to persuade me to take a genin team and the next he's brushing it aside like it's nothing."
"I have to say I agree with you, having a bunch of rookie ninja under your wing and not only teach them the way of the shinobi but help them grow too would be more troublesome then, say, just looking out occasionally for one boy."
"Okay point taken old man, now let's hear it."
"Uzumaki Naruto."
"…fine."
A small smile played across the Hokage's lips. His plan was unfolding neatly, just the way he liked it. The fact that Kakashi hadn't even resisted intrigued him as well.
"That doesn't mean that I've given up on you teaching. Consider this…training for the near future."
"Hai Hokage-sama."
Sandaime stood up and walked over to the door. Kakashi eyed him warily. When the elder peeked out of the door, he saw a mischievous Naruto jump back in surprise. Clearly the boy was eavesdropping, but the confused look on his face gave away what he had overheard.
"Could you come in for a minute Naruto-kun."
He nodded sheepishly and entered the Hokage's office once more. This time he noticed the pictures of all the previous Hokage's hanging behind the Hokage. They all looked pretty cool. Even the old Sandaime's picture. Kakashi was once again busy skimping the pages of his novel, but he kept sneaking glances at Naruto when he thought the boy wasn't looking. Naruto inwardly noted that these glances weren't the usual cold and distant ones but instead they were that of interest.
"First let me introduce you to one of Konoha's best ninjas, Hatake Kakashi."
Kakashi turned to Naruto with his eye closed in a happy crinkle. He gave the boy a 'Hey what's up kid.' And a lazy wave that immediately brought a big smile to Naruto's face.
"Ne…are you going to be my friend?"
Kakashi chuckled and crouched to eye-level with Naruto. "Sure I'll be your friend. And I'll look out for you as much as I can too."
"Yoshi!" Naruto yelled as he jumped in the air in victory. I have a cool ninja friend, now everybody's gonna want to play with me!
Kakashi sweatdropped and the Hokage chuckled at Naruto's antics. Suddenly both turned serious as the Hokage tried to get Naruto's attention.
"Naruto, Kakashi will be checking up on you once or twice every month. If things go well maybe we can increase the time you two spend together. Other than that he's still a ninja of Konoha and he still has his missions to do so you can't expect him to take care of you."
"I understand Hokage Oji-san. The village needs the money from these missions right? That's why I'm going to be a ninja too! And I'm going to be greater than the greatest." The bright boy answered with boundless enthusiasm.
"Is that so?" Kakashi asked him. "Do you know that the strongest ninja in the village is the Hokage?"
The boy swiveled his head around in pure shock and pointed accusingly at Saindaime.
"If you're supposed to be the best ninja in the village then I'm definitely going to be stronger than you."
Sarutobi could only smile as the boy declared his goal. He took off his hat and stared at it for a while seemingly lost in memories.
"If you do intend to surpass me…then you'll need to work hard Naruto-kun. I don't let just anyone take this hat from me."
Naruto only smiled in complete self-confidence.
Kakashi thought it would be a good idea to start off their first day together by getting to know each other better. He opted for a stroll around the village. Naruto opted for ramen. Then he suggested for them to maybe hang out at one of the many practice areas so they could talk and maybe get in some basic training for Naruto, since he wasn't familiar with the ways of the ninja yet. Naruto explained that they could do all that over a steaming bowl of ramen. Kakashi then tried to calmly explain that ramen isn't the best nutritious food for a boy Naruto's age to have. Naruto then very calmly suggested for Kakashi where exactly he could stick his nutritious food; a remark that almost made Kakashi drop his book. This was when Kakashi friendly advised Naruto to do some gruesome training exercises as a way of punishing him for his potty-mouth and him being fresh with his elder. That is how Naruto came to the conclusion that random cool-looking shinobi buying you ramen weren't always the friendly and fun-loving ones he'd always imagined them to be.
"73, 74, 75, 76." The boy grunted as he did his push-ups. Yes he would make sure to stay away from those types in the future. A tiny dark corner of his tired mind was already busy calculating the elaborate prank he was going to play on his tormenter.
"That's good Naruto only 924 to go you can do it." Kakashi remarked lazily not really paying attention to the fuming child.
"79, 80, 81, you're, huff, mean, 82, huff." Naruto tried to inform him between counts.
"Yeah, yeah keep pushing." Kakashi waved him off.
Naruto stopped and glared at him accusingly. Kakashi's eye only wavered slightly before he resumed his reading.
"How is this going to make me stronger?"
"Well first off it's helping you to get stronger arms. The stronger your arms are the harder you can hit, throw shuriken and all that. With stronger arms you can also support your bodyweight better on your hands and that's vital for a lot of Taijutsu."
Naruto didn't get it.
"Look, just do 18 more and I'll take you out for ramen okay?"
"Why?" dead-panned Naruto. This time Kakashi looked at him in surprise.
"Why do you help me? Everybody else but old man Hokage always hates me. Nobody talks to me and if they do…they're not nice to me…"
The mask Naruto wore for over a year now broke down for the first time since he put it up. Always he was hated. Never did anybody ever care about him enough to say a kind word to him or help him up when he fell. He was alone. He's always been alone as far as he knew. Now that it looked like there was someone besides old man Hokage who treated him like he always wanted to, he couldn't help but feel something wasn't right. He didn't want to lose what he had gained because his five-year old mind couldn't yet accept such a loss. His mask cracked and tears started rolling over his cheeks. Kakashi didn't know what to make of it, so he tried to tell him whatever he could about the truth of the matter without going against Hokage orders.
"Look Naruto…there's something about you that reminds people of a terrible time that we had in Konoha five years ago."
"Does it have to do with me not having one of those mothers or fathers I hear about?"
Kakashi grimaced. He couldn't even imagine being an orphan with everybody you meet hating you and nobody there to have even the slightest of a connection with. Growing up without a mother or father…life could be so cruel, he mused.
"For a large part, yes." he sighed. There wasn't anything he could think of to make Naruto feel better. He never was very good at consoling.
"People respect strong ninja like you right? Like that vendor does?"
"Yes they do…"
"So if I become a strong Hokage, will they respect me?"
"I guess so…"
"Then," Naruto sniffed and wiped his nose with his arm. "I'll be the strongest Hokage that ever lived." He said determined.
"And when I become Hokage, I'll make sure nobody gets hated in the village. Nobody will treat anyone like they treat me when I'm Hokage!"
Kakashi smiled hearing that fiery statement. It almost brought a tear to his eye. He placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder that made the boy look up in surprise and stop his crying.
"Even I can't do anything about you being hated, but I believe you can do it if you really want it."
Naruto smiled a true smile.
"But I can help you with the way people look at you."
"Huh?" was the startled reaction from the boy. "How?"
Kakashi rummaged in his backpack and pulled out a black cloth.
"With this." He said as he held it out "Put it on."
Naruto did so and noticed, upon further inspection, that it was a facemask almost identical to the one Kakashi was wearing now. When the cloth stretched over his mouth and nose he felt at it in awed wonder. Did he look as cool as Kakashi did now? Kakashi looked at the Naruto's face and showed his satisfaction in the fact that it effectively hid the whisker-marks on his face. He pulled out a small piece of mirror to show Naruto what he looked like, an action that was rewarded with a loud scream of joy from Naruto.
"I'm SO COOL!" he screamed bouncing all over the place before freezing dead in his tracks with shock written all over what was left to be seen of his face.
"How am I going to eat ramen now?" he murmured just loud enough for Kakashi to hear.
"Fufufufu, I have a special technique for that my young subordinate." Kakashi chuckled as he started walking off.
"What's a suportinut? Hey wait for me!" Naruto yelled after him following him to Ichiraku Ramen.
A/N
Well...that's the prologue to my new fanfic. It's going to be semi-similar to the original storyline with some changes. I'll try to keep Naruto as canon as I can because I like him like that, but expect some OOC-ness. Kakashi is, for the most part, only going to be there as a rolemodel for Naruto. I believe it's against Kakashi's nature to really open up to anyone so that won't happen anytime soon.
Stick with me on this one, I have big plans for this fic. Love it or hate it, at the very least Read & Review.