Servant of the Leaf

By: Little Sharingan

Disclaimer: Naruto and all affiliated characters are the property of Masashi Kishimoto, Shounen Jump, and possibly Toriyama's World.  No copyright infringement intended. 

Author's Notes:  This is a short ONESHOT that speculates about Kakashi's first mission as an ANBU.  Hope you like it.  Keep in mind, Kakashi is supposedly still a kid at this time.  He's not the hardened badass we all know and love - he's a chibi-badass.  Well, thanks for reading and thank you so much for your support!  Much appreciated. 

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Kakashi stood stock-still, staring down at the body that lay in unnatural angles by his feet.  A charred hole roughly the size of his hand had been bored straight through the man's chest so that even the blood was scorched into place.  His seven ANBU teammates had immediately spread out over the sprawling estate, taking out the armed sentries with devastating precision, leaving their newest member to eliminate the contracted target.  Twelve missing-nin had stood between Kakashi and his mark; but in the end, only one was left desperately clinging to life, hidden under the corpse of a former comrade.  It was he who saw the ultimate technique that would later birth the rumor that Death rode on the back of a thousand birds. 

The silver-haired ANBU stared down at his hand through the white mask that obscured his identity.  Not a drop of blood stained his glove; his chakra had formed a blade around his hand, burning away anything that came close to its lightning edge.  A vague sense of queasiness swelled in his stomach as his eyes fastened on the blistering flesh that rimmed the fatal wound.  Kakashi grit his teeth, stubbornly quelling the nausea.  While it wasn't his first kill, it was his first assassination. 

"Is it done?" a voice murmured from the door. 

"Yes," Kakashi answered without facing his teammate, the cold hardness to his voice unfamiliar even to himself.  He turned to follow the cat-masked ANBU back to rendezvous with the others.  As he walked through the bodies that littered the floor like a maze of death, he paused by the terrified ninja that shrank even further beneath his human shield.  He's seen your Chidori, a voice insisted in the back of Kakashi's mind; kill him.  It was the voice of reason, the voice of ANBU protocol.  But he wasn't completely ANBU quite yet.  Dark eyes trailed around the room, counting how many ninja had fallen before him that day.  Sixteen foot soldiers, eleven hired missing-nin, and one warlord.  Twenty-eight total kills that afternoon alone.  He closed his eyes briefly, cursing the small bit of compassion and grief that remained in his heart for neither truly had a place in an ANBU.  It would have to be dealt with eventually...but not today. 

"Run," he softly ordered the last of the missing-nin. "Run, and don't look back." 

The young ANBU turned and was about to step out the door when the spared missing-nin spoke up in a tremulous voice.

"Wait...who are you?" he asked with frightened gratitude.

Kakashi considered the question.  He was no longer Hatake Kakashi the moment he donned the white mask of the ANBU.  He was not the genius student of the Fourth Hokage, nor was it adequate to call him a simple Leaf ninja.  No.  He was ANBU now.  When one became ANBU, he was ANBU and nothing more.  He was the tool of the Hidden Village of the Leaf, the lethal hand of the Hokage.  Realization struck Kakashi with merciless certainty, and he felt both strengthened and weakened by the epiphany.  "I am Death, and I serve the Leaf."

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Author's End Notes: Thanks for reading!  I really appreciate your suggestions and comments.  Also, stay tuned for next chapters to Answers and Something Wicked.  Both are on their way.