Happiness Lost, Rage Awakened

Chapter 5 is up and running. During this chapter, Scarecrow's powers will reveal themselves to a minimum.

"Speaking"

'Thinking'

"Demon/Entity Speaking"

'Demon/Entity Thinking'

'Jutsu/Demonic or Dark Jutsu'(Translation)

Enjoy!

I don't own Naruto or any of the dark creatures from Metalocalypse, Harry Potter, Fable, Soul Calibur, Lord of the Rings and Ninja Gaiden for future references.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Word had spread quickly of Scarecrow's actions towards the dead traitor, Mizuki, who had been caught stealing the Forbidden Scroll and killed by Scarecrow. The eyewitness reports by Sasuke, Sakura, and Hinata verified the details.

After that people were a little more fearful of the raggedy-nin. When they came across his way they would literally feel their spines shiver.

Now today was the day for the newly-instated genins to be placed in 3-man squads led by a jounin.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

(Konoha Academy- team selections)

As everyone was chatting amongst themselves, Scarecrow was in his usual thinking position.

The door opened and Iruka appeared.

"Everyone, it's time to assign teams." he announced.

Everyone waited in anticipation to see what team they would be in. After the first few genin teams were made, he reached the last few.

"Team 7: Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and… Scarecrow"

Both Sasuke and Sakura gulped.

"Team 8: Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuuga Hinata, and Aburame Shino."

Hinata looked a bit downcast. 'Then I won't get to see Scarecrow-san'

"Team 10: Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino, and Akimichi Chouji."

Ino despaired after being paired with lazy and the fa--. Well that word was considered a taboo.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Later, Team 7 was waiting in the same classroom after the rest of the teams had left.

They waited 3 hours for their new jounin sensei, but so far nothing.

"Where's the jounin?" Sakura asked, clearly frustrated.

Sasuke sighed. "No idea."

Scarecrow didn't say a thing.

Suddenly the door slid open and out revealed Hatake Kakashi in jounin attire. After the incident a year ago he quit being an ANBU captain.

He was currently reading a new issue of Icha Icha Paradise. His eye peered over to the new team. He saw the Uchiha, the fangirl, and the enigmatic raggedy-nin who killed a traitor in cold-blood.

'Something about that new genin actually sends a chill down my spine.' thought Kakashi.

"Ah… Sorry I'm late. I was helping an old lady find her cat when_"

"LIAR!!!" Sakura shouted.

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head bashfully.

"Well, meet me on top of the roof." and Kakashi 'poofed' away.

They met up on the roof.

"Now then, time to get to know one another. I want you to tell me everything that you are. Things you like, things you hate, and your dreams." Kakashi explained.

Sakura raised her hand. "Ano… Sensei? Can you give us an example?"

Kakashi nodded. "Very well." He took a deep breath before he began. "My name is Hatake, Kakashi. My interests are… I don't feel like telling you. My disinterests are none of your business. And my dreams are…well I don't have one." he finished.

'So all he told us was his name.' thought Sasuke and Sakura.

"Okay. Pinky you're up next."

Sakura grimaced at the nickname before introducing herself. "My name is Haruno, Sakura. My interests are spending time with my friends, Hinata and…" she stopped as she looked bashfully at Sasuke and blushed when he glanced at her. She continued.

"I hate Ino-pig and sexist guys!!" she exclaimed.

Then she showed a bit of her serious side.

"I want to be able to protect the people I care about, and not sit on the sidelines." she said with determination.

'Hmm, she actually wants to take this shinobi business seriously.'

"Your next." Kakashi pointed to Sasuke.

"My name is Uchiha, Sasuke. I have very little interests with exception of my friends, Sakura and Hinata. I hate ignorant bastards. And my dream… well it's more of an ambition and then a dream. First I seek to find a certain man and kill him."

Sasuke's face glowered then lightened a bit when he continued. "And then, I hope to fulfill my promise to a friend and be more compassionate and kind to others. Lastly I'm going to restore my clan."

'Okay, he's different from when he was last year.'

Finally it was Scarecrow's turn. The raggedy-nin slowly raised his head to face his sensei before speaking.

"My name is Scarecrow, the Master of Fear." He stated coldly.

"My interests are tinkering, phobias, and the inner psyche of man. My dislikes are liars, hypocrites, and parasites."

"And my goal is to spread and instill fear into those who deserve it and make them feel it." He finished.

The three eyed Scarecrow warily. 'Okay… Spooky.'

Kakashi coughed an *ahem*

"Anyway, let's begin with the test."

Sakura raised her hand.

"Demo…sensei, we've already passed our exams." said Sakura who was confused at what their new sensei was going with this.

"That was a merely a pretest. The real test is to place 3 genins together and…"

"See if we can prove our skills as a team." Sasuke interrupted.

Kakashi gave the Uchiha an eye-smile. "Exactly! Wow you're pretty sharp for a kid your age."

Sasuke didn't know whether to accept that as a sarcastic remark or as an insult.

They followed Kakashi into a training field. It was large and open, perfect for hand-to-hand combat. And it had it had dense thicket of woods surrounding the field, perfect for stealth and long-rage combat.

In the far right corner was a huge black memorial stone. On the left were three large wooden stakes.

"Now as Sasuke mentioned earlier, this is a test of how well a genin team can do in teamwork, such is the purpose of three-man squad."

"Now when it comes to me, I take teamwork very seriously. Which is why most of the new genin teams sent to me have a 66% of failing."

Kakashi took out two bells from his vest pocket and a timer.

"This is a test that will determine how well you all work together. The rules are simple; you have to snatch these bells from me before the timer runs out, if you fail you all will be sent back to the academy."

Sasuke's eyes widened considerably in shock, and Sakura gasped.

Scarecrow remained neutral, not that anyone could see his reaction.

Kakashi set the timer.

"Before I forget; if you don't come at me with the intent to kill, you won't pass."

The genin stood ready.

"Now, GO!"

Sasuke and Sakura shushined in different directions, while Scarecrow didn't move from his spot.

Kakashi was still reading his new issue of Icha Icha Paradise.

He tilted his eyes up to Scarecrow.

"You know, compared to the others, you're a little odd." said Kakashi

Kakashi was greeted with a momentary silence from Scarecrow.

"You know, you're really making this easy for me. I guess I'll go after your…" he was cut-off by Scarecrow.

"Do you know fear, sensei?" asked Scarecrow.

"Hmn?" Kakashi didn't know what he was asking.

"The origin of a scarecrow was merely to frighten the crows away from the fields of farm workers. But the truth of the matter is that the Scarecrow is the incarnation of fear itself. That is the most precious fact, because fear is the key factor in making people tick." Scarecrow finished explaining.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at his explanation.

"I'll, uh, keep that in mind." and he 'poofed' away.

-

Meanwhile, Sasuke was hiding behind a tree with a nylon wire tied to his fingers. He heard footsteps coming which did not sound like Scarecrow's.

'It's Kakashi-sensei.' he thought. He clenched his fingers, tugging the strings which were attached to a small mirror hidden in a few trees on the right.

Sakura was also hidden in the top of a tree. Across the clearing she could see something flash before her eyes. She saw the mirror she gave Sasuke to signal her when Kakashi was coming.

'Right, it's time.' she thought.

Right at that moment, the silver-haired jounin appeared.

He walked further into the clearing, until he tripped a wire.

Suddenly various kunai shot out of the trees and aimed right at Kakashi. He dodged them with relative ease and the knives landed right behind him.

"You'll have to do better than…" Kakashi was interrupted when he heard a hiss coming behind him.

He turned his head and his eye widened when he saw the source of the hissing: paper bombs attached to each kunai.

"Shit." he muttered under his breath.

*BOOM!!!*

Kakashi, being quick on his feet, managed to dash away from the explosion just in time.

'That was close. Perhaps I shouldn't underestimate them. And I should put away my book. That explosion nearly torched my precious novel.'

Just as he was putting away his book, Sasuke appeared in front of him.

The Uchiha threw a roundhouse kick which Kakashi blocked in time. Then, Sasuke tossed a punch aimed at Kakashi's head, but was caught by said jounin.

With one free hand Sasuske performed a few handseals.

Kakashi was shocked. 'No way, that takes up too much chakra.'

'Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!!' (Fire Element: Grand Fireball Technique) shouted Sasuke.

The fireball was considerably large as it burned and singed a considerable portion of the field.

Sasuke smirked at his performance, but that moment of triumph passed as he saw not Kakashi burnt to a crisp, but a log.

Sasuke gasped. "A Substitution?!"

"Yep." Kakashi's voice rang from behind him.

Sasuke turned only to find himself in an arm-and-headlock.

"That was pretty good Sasuke, but you can't go in on your own." Kakashi lectured the young Uchiha.

To his surprise, Sasuke smirked.

"I'm not."

Suddenly, the ground beneath Kakashi's feet rumbled and caved in.

Now his legs were stuck in place and couldn't move. This in turn made him lose his grip and let go of Sasuke, but not before a shuriken whizzed from behind and cut the bells attached to his vest.

Sasuke took this opportunity and snatched the bells in mid-air. Then he jumped away from Kakashi, who looked like he was in a pickle.

Sasuke grinned victoriously.

"Sakura, come out. We did it."

And she did. Sakura ran up to her teammate and friend. They gave each other a high five.

"Nice work with the traps, you always had a knack for them." Sasuke complimented the pinkette kunoichi.

Sakura blushed at his praise.

"Arigato, Sasuke-kun."

But just then, another 'poof' was heard.

The pair turned their heads to see that their sensei had vanished.

"A clone." Sasuke scowled.

Sakura was confused as to where he went.

"It doesn't make sense, why would he leave without congratulating us?" she pondered for a moment until the realization hit her harder than a ton of bricks.

"Unless it's because the test isn't over."

Sasuke looked at her incredulously.

"What?! But we got the bells, and using teamwork!"

"Not all of us." she answered.

Sasuke's eyes widened.

They both ran back to the main training field, to find Kakashi holding Scarecrow with a knife to his neck area. (Which was right above the piece of hangman's noose he wore over his head)

He gave both of them an eye-smile.

"Well now, that was some bit of teamwork back there. I'm impressed. Too bad that your teammate here didn't participate, otherwise you three would've passed with flying colors. Oh well, the bells, please."

Sasuke had no choice. He tossed the bells to Kakashi, which he caught.

But before the exchange could be done, Kakashi heard a low, venom-like hiss coming from Scarecrow.

He glanced over to Scarecrow to see him convulse a bit.

"Scarecrow…?"

Without warning, large, bloodied, bone-spikes shot out from Scarecrow's back and attempted to clutch Kakashi in its 'jaws'.

"What the..?!" Sakura and Sasuke exclaimed.

Scarecrow convulsed a bit more. Then they heard cracking and tearing coming from him.

They witnessed a horrible transformation occur within the boogeyman.

His arms legs and torso expanded slightly, making him taller by several feet. Then his feet got larger and burst through his boots, revealing clawed toes, covered in bloodied straw.

His hands expanded as well with the same results.

Finally his head started to twist convulse a lot more until his mask tore and his hat fell off. It revealed to be an insect-like head, much like a spiders except it had a larger mouth and fangs on the sides. It had two sets of 3 yellow eyes lined up parallel to each other.

What they thought was a person beneath that mask was actually a monster.

The monster tilted its head in Kakashi's direction and let out an unearthly screech.

"A genjutsu? I'll take care of that." and Kakashi shouted 'Kai!' to dispel the genjutsu.

But it failed.

"Nani?!

The monstrosity shot his arms into the ground and popped up around Kakashi, who tried to escape but was caught by his right leg.

The monster pulled Kakashi back down the hole and up back to it.

Kakashi was now in the creature's hands and came face-to-face with it. The creature let out another wailing roar. The breath on the beast reeked of death and fear, but also there was nothing to stare at within the maw, just…darkness

The creature's mouth began to unhinge its jaws and began to stretch up until its lower jaw reached Kakashi's torso.

Sasuke and Sakura saw something else that shocked and sickened them.

Scarecrow popped out of the creature's mouth! Well half of him was still buried in the monster's jaws, but the upper part of his body was still usable, meaning he had free movement of his arms.

He tilted his head to Kakashi.

"Now Kakashi, let's see what you're afraid of." he spoke in the same distorted voice he spoke to Mizuki before he met his demise.

And just like last time, he used only two fingers to do the job.

Kakashi struggled to get out of the monstrosity's grip, but it was futile. He closed his eye awaiting the worst. Instead, felt Scarecrow tap his forehead.

His eye snapped open only to find everything…normal?

He noticed that he was no longer restrained by that creature, nor was he facing anyone, let alone his students.

Then he spotted someone. From afar, it looked like a blur, until his eyes widened in shock at who it was. Someone he knew had been dead for years.

"Obito." He called the name of his deceased friend, Uchiha Obito.

He tentatively approached Obito, who looked exactly as he did when he died; 13 years old.

He touched his shoulder, getting the Uchiha's attention.

Kakashi was smiling underneath his mask. He didn't care if he was in a dream or not.

"Obito… I'm sorry."

But when he turned his friend over, he found out his dream was actually a nightmare. The clear, blue sky turned blood-red with swirling, black clouds. The once lush and evergreen trees died and leaves turned to ash. The ground beneath his feet became dry and dusty.

The second he saw his friend, he jumped away, horrified. It was Obito, but with half of his face was crushed, like it was when he was crushed by a boulder. His right left eye socket was without an eye.

Though he was blinded, he stared at Kakashi like he had eyes.

"Why, Kakashi? Why did you and Rin leave me for dead? Why did you steal my eye?"

Kakashi shook his head disbelievingly. 'No, no this can't be real!'

"Kakashi…"

His eyes widened profusely as he turned his head to find the source of another familiar voice.

'No…Not him.'

It was his sensei and father-figure as well as the Yondaime, Minato Namikaze. Only his was bleeding profusely from head to toe.

"Kakashi, you've failed me, and my legacy. I'm disappointed in calling you my student." The blonde shook his head disappointingly.

'No, no, no, no!!'

Just then, he felt something grab his leg. Kakashi tilted his head down, and saw something he never wanted to see a year ago.

It was Naruto… or what he recognized as Naruto. His most of his skin had been burnt to the third-degree, he was still wearing his pajamas and he too was severely bleeding.

"Why?! WHY COULDN'T YOU SAVE ME?!!" he screamed.

Everything started to swirl around the silver-haired jounin. Minato and Obito were walking toward him.

"WHY COULDN'T YOU SAVE US?!!!!" they shouted in unison.

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Kakashi screamed.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Back with Kakashi, he was just standing like a statue with a hunched over posture. His eye was the size of a dinner plate and his pupil was speck.

The monster that had restrained him broke down into a two dozen crows.

Sasuke and Sakura were shell-shocked and paralyzed with fear.

Scarecrow walked to the Jounin and picked the bells from his limp hand.

He walked to his teammates and gave them the bells.

"Take them."

Sasuke, a little wary of his scary teammate, he snatched them.

Sakura peered at her sensei. She then looked at Scarecrow.

"Ano, is he going to be okay?" she asked.

Scarecrow turned to face her. "He'll be fine. His sanity is bit…shaken, but he'll be himself…for the most part."

It was Sasuke's turn to ask. "What did you do to him?"

"I'm sure I told you all what my profession is."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke inquired.

"As I said before, I am the 'Master of Fear'. I simply showed him the meaning of fear and its impact." he explained.

"That's horrible!" exclaimed Sakura.

"Is it? Fear comes in all shapes and forms: Anxiety, Apprehension, Trepidation, or the greatest form…Guilt. Every single person living in this village reeks of guilt. Everywhere I walk I can feel their guilt lingering over them and eating from within them like a starved rat. Now I wonder, what could possibly be haunting them so much?" he asked with a false sense of not knowing.

Kyubbi was doubling over in laughter with his apprentice's acting skills.

"Anyway, he should snap out of it, in 3…2…1."

On cue, Kakashi let out a deep breath he had been holding for Kami knows how long. He fell on his knees and nearly tossed his breakfast, but held it in and swallowed the huge lump in his throat. He kept inhaling and exhaling a couple of shaky breaths and tilted his head up to see his students again.

Sasuke showed him the bells. "So do we pass?"

*BBBRRRIIIINNNGGGG*

The timer had stopped.

Kakashi had to push back the images and tried to get to rationalize what happened to him without including that little episode he had.

He had been beaten and his new students used teamwork against him like he had ordered and got the message of his exercise; all before the timer went up.

"Or do we need to try…again?" Scarecrow inputed.

Kakashi raised his hands and shook his head fervently.

"Nonono." he responded quickly. "I've had enough of that. You three pass."

Scarecrow was impassive, while Sasuke smirked to himself. Sakura, who should have been happy that she made it, was still shaken at Scarecrow's brutality.

"Kakashi-sensei, are you going to be okay?" she asked concernedly.

Kakashi zoned out a bit before realizing she was talking to him.

"U-Uh, y-yeah, I'll be fine. You three go on about your day, and congratulations on making it to Team 7."

And without saying another word, Kakashi 'poofed' away again.

Sasuke turned to his teammates only to find Scarecrow had vanished, again.

So it was just him and Sakura.

"So… I guess we made it." he stated awkwardly.

"Uhm…hai."

"Perhaps we should celebrate. Ramen on me?"

Sakura blushed a bit before nodding.

He smiled. "Great I'll meet you there; we should probably let Hinata come too."

"Oh, alright." she said a bit dejectedly but kept it well hidden. And they both went off to offer congratulations to their friend, who also passed the exam.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

(With Kakashi)

The silver jounin had just 'poofed' into his apartment. He took of his vest, albeit shakily.

He made his way to the bathroom and towards the toilet, where he began to puke relentlessly for 30 minutes straight.

After washing up he sat down in a nearby chair and plopped himself down.

He stared blankly at the wall for a few minutes until he eventually broke down and sobbed into his hands.

Mutters of 'I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry' filled the room.

All of the tragic moments he experienced in life, he thought he had buried into his soul, were brought back up so he could experience them, courtesy of Scarecrow.

Konoha's Boogeyman.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

And Chapter 5 is done.! So sorry for the wait. Please don't hate me!!

I'll get started right away on Chapter 6 once I get back from the New Year's celebration in Orlando.

So hope you all have had good Holiday break and Have a Happy New Year!!!!

Ja ne!!