Hatake Kakashi had just come back from a mission. It was borderline evening-night, and he was on his way to a bar. He hated killing, making him wonder yet again why he became a ninja. He stopped short when he heard something. A…giggle? Focusing hard, he located the source of the noise. A cute little baby was tottering on the top of a roof. It looked to be a girl, and she was dressed in the finest clothes. Her hair wasn't that long yet, but it looked to be a dark black/purple color. Her eyes were pure white.

Jumping, he caught the child. She clapped her hands and giggled at him. He glanced around, knowing exactly whose child this was. He knew what had happened, too. He didn't know why, but he knew what had to be done. This poor child had been orphaned at such a young age… against his better judgment; he decided to take her in. After all, he knew the pain of being alone.

++ 10 Years Later ++

"Do you know where my book is?" A ten-year old Hinata asked her father. She stood at the door, but her eyes glanced around, narrowing so she could see better. Nothing. She sighed and waited for his answer.

"You're always organized, why don't you know where it is?" A voice answered, muffled by a door.

The door opened and Kakashi walked out, running a hand through his messy hair. He wore a mask over his mouth and half of his nose. He also wore a baggy pair of black pajama pants, hung loosely around his waist. His hair stuck up in many directions, looking like a scarecrow.

"I can't find it in all these boxes…"

The girl gestured with one hand to all the boxes spread about the room.

"Uhm….. Try that one?"

He pointed randomly to a box near her feet. She glanced down, and she bent down and rummaged through it before coming up with a book in one hand and a smile on her face.

"Thanks, dad."

"Sure thing, kid. Have fun at school. Don't get into too much trouble, kay?"

She nodded and watched him turn back into his bedroom before racing out of their house. It was a new home, close to the woods. They just moved three days ago, and she still had problems with it. Mainly because they didn't have time to unpack, but still.

Hatake Hinata thought about her life so far. She often did on her run to school. She was only ten, but she was very intelligent.

She remembered telling her father she looked nothing like him. He looked at her for a moment before answering. You look more like your mother. You have my smarts, though.

Ever since she had turned four, she had been taught by him. Kakashi taught her book smarts, and she picked up on how to read. By five she could read just about everything, and by six she could write. It had always been a messy scrawl, but Kakashi told her that if she could read it, then it didn't matter.

When she was six and a half, Kakashi taught her about chakra and Jutsus. She loved hearing about what cool things you could do if you were a ninja, and she begged him to teach her. He relented rather quickly, and she soaked it all up like a sponge. He told her that her chakra wasn't developed enough yet, but he could teach her other things.

Taijutsu, for example. She picked up the basics fairly quickly, and he continued to teach her more and more advanced stances and moves. They made a daily schedule so she got enough training time in by age seven. Morning run, Taijutsu practice, breakfast, another run, balance test, meditation, lunch, reading and studying, more Taijutsu, and then whatever she wanted before dinner. Most of that time she spent playing catch with her dad, but sometimes she would clean the house, write a story, read, or go shopping for the food they needed. She liked to keep busy.

Hinata felt it a bit unfair that she had to grow up so fast sometimes. Kakashi had taught her things so advanced that whenever she talked with other kids in the park they would look at her funny and run off. They always called her mean names. She tried to ignore them, though. She didn't mind, most of the time, because she had Kakashi. But part of her wished she was normal. Part of her wanted to fit in.

Whenever she felt like that, she told her dad. "Kid, don't think like that! You want to be a part of the crowd that pushes the weak around? You want to be a bully?" "No!" she'd reply in horror. "I just want to be accepted for who I am!" He would laugh a little here. "I accept you. I love you so much. Your mother would have loved you. Isn't that enough?" She always stopped there, knowing he was right. Again. And because mother was a tough subject.

"What was she like?" she'd ask. "Do I really look like her?" He would nod sadly and not say a word. Eventually she realized that it hurt him to talk about it. She could see the pain in his eyes, and she would try to fix her mistake. "I'm sorry, dad…I know you miss her…I love you, too!" She'd give him her best hug, and everything would be okay.

The only problem with Kakashi, she mused, were those books of his. They were awful! She had been packing his room to move (he was on a mission at the time) and she found a box with a lock on it. Curious, she easily opened the lock and opened the box. Three or four brightly colored books rest in a neat pile, their pages worn from use. Still not knowing what they were, she sat down to read them. He had been holding out on her! Fuming, she'd opened the first one.

By the third page, she was confused. She found a dictionary and looked up a few of the words she didn't know. Eyes wide with this new knowledge, she had continued reading. It wasn't until she saw the pictures of the people in the book having sex did she put it down. She flipped through the other books and found they, too, were the same basic thing. She looked in the dictionary again, this time looking for a different word.

When he had gotten home, the books were already gone. Kakashi, who didn't know, just sniffed the air and asked if she was playing with fire again. Grinning, she nodded. "And books" she said innocently. It took a moment for this to sink in. Then he blushed, his mask hiding it from her. "Uhm, Hinata? What did you learn?" She could tell that he knew they were gone, but he cared about her wellbeing.

"I'm okay, dad, but you shouldn't have books like that around me. If you do, keep them in a secret place! Or go to the library and read your porn there!" He cringed when he said that word. Sure, he was a pervert, but it made him sound so much worse. Eventually he hugged her and apologized for her having to see that. He explained what was in them a little better than what she found out on her own. It helped, but she still had those thoughts in her head.

Even more so when she met Uzumaki Naruto.