Six - The thousand techniques shinobi, Hatake Kakashi 2

The breeze of the morning was a lot fresher than I would've expected. Having graduated after so many years of studying made me feel free like never before as if a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

Still, not everything was flowers. A rumor had been going around the village since I woke up. They said that Naruto did something bad again and I couldn't find him to confirm it.

What kind of trouble did he get involved with to end up in everyone's mouth?

Without choice, I could only put this at the back of my mind and focus on my own problems.

I was sweeping the floor of my house while my mother was occupied cooking lunch. Father had gone out with his friends and wouldn't come back for an hour or so.

While doing so, I couldn't help but feel a bit bored. Doing house chores after such a day filled with emotions was a little underwhelming. I would rather practice... hmm...

Looking at the broom, I wondered for a moment and started actively controlling my Chakra.

One of the first Chakra Control exercises we learned was to use the Tenketsu in our head as a gathering point for the Chakra in our body.

Concentrating a large amount of Chakra in one place without releasing it creates a curious effect of gluing. In my curiosity, I tried doing the same but using my hands and surprisingly it actually worked. I could hold the broom even without closing my hand.

The exercise made the activity more exhausting but also more fulfilling in a sense.

After a while, without me noticing, a hand approached and took the broom away from my hand.

"Huh?"

"If you want so much to train, you don't have to help me." Mother spoke while shaking her head with a helpless smile.

"Please mom, I do want to help you, I just want to make my time more effective."

Mother looked at me with a smirk on her face but some disappointment too.

"Alright just... don't overdo it, my sweety. Being a Kunoichi is a dangerous job and I don't want you to end up regretting it."

Mother spoke with a tinge of regret in her voice. Now that I think about it, my mother and father were both Chunin before they retired from duty. I wonder why they did it.

"Don't worry, I won't make any mistakes. You know how good I am, right?" I gave her a grin full of pride but mother just shook her head.

"I met many talented people, they are all dead while I'm here. Don't be so confident in yourself, your enemies won't care about your talent."

Mother's words silenced me. She was always overly serious and worried. If I didn't know better I'd think that she lost someone important in the line of duty.

Not long later, Father came in with an excited look on his face.

"Dear, they are almost here! Hurry up! Let's meet them!"

"W-what?! Already!? Thank goodness Sakura helped clean up the house! I wouldn't have finished everything in time!" There was a big smile on her face as she spoke excitedly.

"Sorry? Who are you going to meet? Do I have to go with you?" I was confused by the scene and couldn't understand anything.

"Fufufu, worry not sweety. You can stay here and wait, we will be back soon." Putting her apron on the laundry basket in another room, she hurriedly left with her father to greet god knows who.

I had to admit that I was a little curious. It had been a long time since I saw them like that.

The wait wasn't long though. As I sat on the couch while waiting.

A tall man with greyish-white hair, a headband covering the eye, and a black facemask came up the stairs of our house. He was wearing the standard Shinobi Attire worn by all Ninjas in Konoha and seemed a little tense.

Behind him was a person with a long white hat with a red covering at the front side where a word was written. He wore a white cloak with red lines on the edges and had an old and decrepit face.

This... Hokage-sama...?

For a moment I felt like my brain had short-circuited and I couldn't move. Staring dumbly at him, I only came out of my stupor when my parents came and lifted me off the couch to bow down to the man accompanying the Hokage.

"Haha, Hatake-san, thank you for taking our daughter as one of the members of your new team!" Father spoke with excitement.

"That's right, that's right. We might not have achieved much in our life, but Sakura here is way more talented than we used to be! I'm sure she will grow as a peerless Kunoichi under your care!"

Her words were a bit strange and misleading. I felt my face burning and a desire to bash my mother's head suddenly grew upon me. Are you selling your own daughter?!

No! I don't want to be like those princesses from the books!

Fear suddenly gripped my heart, and before I could even think about it, Hokage-sama dispelled my worries with a single sentence.

"Cough... As I said, we are not here for official reasons, the purpose of this visit was merely to present Kakashi to the new members of team 7 that he will be leading. We are not supposed to be visiting the houses of the graduates. Other parents will probably be annoyed and bother you about this matter. It would be best if we took our leave."

Oh! So it's about the Genin teams! Thank goodness! I thought mother was tired of me and was going to sell me in some sort of marriage agreement like they do in some cities in the Land of Fire...

In the end, my parents managed to force them to stay for lunch. Never underestimate a Haruno filled with excitement they can be very annoying if you don't agree with them.

During lunch, I observed my new sensei from the sides. He was a little strange and was always wearing that mask, whenever I thought he would reveal his face, it was as if some evil sorcery was cast upon me that I miss the scene somehow.

Why the hell is he hiding his face so much? He can't be that ugly... right?

After some time I finally managed to gather some information about him through their endless talk full of nonsense.

Hatake Kakashi was the son of one of Konoha's legendary heroes, Hatake Sakumo. I didn't know much about him other than some passing mentions in the history books. Apparently, he was an outstanding Shinobi who prevented the village from being attacked by a tailed beast during the Third Ninja War.

The books never went into much detail other than mentioning him single-handedly fighting and escaping a group of twenty elite enemy Shinobi. The meritorious deed was recorded in the books as a side note next to his Father's list of achievements for Konoha.

Apparently, he was from the Hatake Clan that had long seceded from Konoha and moved to the Land of Fire's capital to serve under the lord Daimyo after their power dwindled so much that they lost their seat amongst Konoha Clans' Council, a gathering of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of each clan that mirrored Konoha's Elder Council.

In the end, Kakashi barely spoke a word and didn't even glance at me. Or if he did, I didn't notice. The two left after quickly eating the food offered and I was left with many questions and no answers.

"How did you guys know that he would be my sensei?"

I asked my parents but they just smiled and left me alone.

How evil! I'll make sure to have some interesting secrets in the future too. You will discover that I'm hiding something interesting, but I'll never allow you to know what the secret is. Humph!

...

Kakashi had a frown on his face that only eased up after he left Sakura's home.

Feeling the silence, he couldn't help but feel better. It was like going from hell straight to the heavens, he couldn't even describe how good it felt.

"So, what do you think?" Hiruzen asked while taking a puff of his smoke pipe.

"Hm... Sakura was well-educated and seems to have a lot of self-control. Her parents are cheerful and she had a good childhood given what I've seen."

"That was not what I asked."

Kakashi frowned and nodded.

"I understand now why you wanted me to teach them, but don't you think this is a bad joke?"

Kakashi would never refuse to teach his sensei's child. He might not have much to teach him as his style was way too different from his, but he was sure that he could help Naruto grow into a good Jonin. The problem was that when you put Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke on the same team...

Didn't it look very similar to an old team he knew very well? It was almost laughable that he could see a mirror image of them and himself on the new team 7. Was this destiny's way of playing a bad joke on him? Or was it Hiruzen's twisted sense of humor?

"Hahaha! I knew you would like them."

Kakashi shook his head, choosing to ignore the old man's laugh. "I only hope I can teach them to create great bonds with their comrades. I don't want to see a repeat of that time."

Hiruzen nodded at that and patted Kakashi's shoulder. "Don't worry. Minato must have seen something great in all of you, otherwise, he wouldn't have chosen you all as his disciple. You have learned the right and gone past the wrong. Learn from the mistakes of the past, and build the team 7 that you wished to have been part of. If he was still here, I'm sure he would be proud of you and wish you all the best."

Kakashi nodded with a sigh before looking up.

Somewhere up in the sky, he knew his sensei and his wife were looking at him. "Minato-sensei, Kushina-san... I promise I won't commit the same mistakes from the past."

....

In the land of Whirpools, a man with long and bright white hair was looking over the horizon from the top of a mountain.

"Uzumaki Naruto... Hm... Namikaze would have been a much better name." He looked at the land filled with destruction and the remains of buildings with a tinge of sadness in his eyes.

It had been a long time since he left the village. He wandered the world in an endless search for the one spoken in a prophecy only to always end up in a corner of self-doubt. Did he accomplish his goal? Did he fail? The answer was so obscure that even thinking about it made his head frowning.

He had no choice, for he feared for his beloved village and the friends he cared so deeply about. Moroever, this was also for the sake of this beautiful world that he had yet to fully see. But now, it was time to go back and see how his godson is doing.

Looking at the scroll on his back, he smirked and nodded happily at himself for having succeeded in his goal in this place.

That girl Kushina sure was careless, to treat such priceless treasures as if they were trash... thankfully she didn't live anywhere that would catch the gravediggers' eyes. Now that he had Naruto's full inheritance with him plus the memento of his clan, he could confidently go back. As for everything else, he would make up for it with time.

"Humph, brat, you better not be slacking. If I discover you aren't even a tenth as good as your father was at your age, I'll make sure to put you through hell to make you become just as good." Standing up, he turned around and left the Shrine Built on the top of the mountain and started heading towards the Land of Fire.

While going down the mountain, he couldn't help but flush at the thought of finally meeting her again. "Hehehe! Tsunade... you won't escape me this time!" Grinning like a fool, he hummed a song as excitement started building up in his heart.