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Hatake Kakashi had lost a lot during his short life. His father, both of his genin teammates, his sensei, his sensei’s wife, and any chance at knowing his sensei’s son. He never knew his mother and he was sure his sanity was only still tenuously intact. All of this loss only made Kakashi more protective of what he had left. Gai, Kurenai and Asuma, Genma, Raidou, his ANBU squad, and the illegal interactions he managed to get with Naruto. They were Kakashi’s everything now.
And someone was trying to take one of them away.
Shisui’s chakra was a beacon in the night. His panic was so strong that Kakashi could smell it clear across the village. It was strange that no one else was reacting to the chakra the young man was throwing around. It was even stranger than no one was reacting to the other chakra being thrown around at him. Kakashi wasn’t going to sit by and let one of his precious people be attacked. Kakashi was the last known surviving member of the Hatake clan, and it seemed that everyone had forgotten just how formidable they could be.
Of course, technically, Kakashi wasn’t supposed to be in the village at all. It was fluke and coincidence that he was which only made the situation that much more ominous. This attack was premeditated – it was planned with the knowledge that Kakashi wouldn’t be there to interfere. The Hatake Clan Head (for all that it was a joke since he was the only clan member at all, it still held weight the young jounin was fully prepared to throw around once this was over) would bet that all the other major sensors were out of village as well.
Kakashi moved faster.
He cleared the village in record time and launched into the woods. Now that he was closer, he could make out individual signatures other than Shisui’s. There were 7 aggressors. Shisui was fighting against 7 other shinobi, all of at least jounin level and the boy’s chakra was sorely depleted. That didn’t even take into account the dark swirling chakra signature close enough to the aggressors to monitor the attack but far enough away to not get involved. Kakashi would deal with that once Shisui was safe.
Shisui stumbled as he tried to dodge two attacks at once. He succeeded only to fall into the path of a third attack he had no hope of avoiding. He was Shunshin no Shisui but he was nearly out of chakra and his reflexes were dulled. But Kakashi was just as fast and had far more jutsu under his belt. The fire couldn’t hope to pass the earth wall that erupted from the ground.
The duo that had tag-teamed Shisui fell to the same Chidori that chased the earthen barrier. He and Shisui hit the ground together, but where the Uchiha laid sprawled Kakashi was on his feet and poised for another attack.
Kakashi didn’t need more than a glance to see the blood spilling from where an eye should be on the younger shinobi’s face. It only served to fuel the fire of his rage.
The lightning in his hand continued to lash out, lighting the immediate area in an eerie blue light and filling the air with chirping accompanied by the sizzle of evaporating blood. There were 5 assailants left.
“Senpai,” Shisui muttered brokenly, pain clear in his voice. Kakashi snarled. It was a feral sound that shouldn’t have been possible to produce from human vocal cords.
Hatake Kakashi was an elite jounin of ANBU who graduated the academy at 6 on the tail of his father’s suicide and grew up on the battlefield of a war. He needed only minutes to dispatch the hostile shinobi. Kakshi paused just long enough afterwards to summon his pack, except he was sure that with the exception of Pakkun, Shisui wouldn’t recognize any of these dogs.
Kakashi’s pack was far larger than anyone really knew. The canines most were familiar with were trackers. They were his primary summons because they fit most of his needs, but they were not his only summons. This particular group were hunters; their job was not to find the target, they killed it. As one, Kakashi and his summons charged. Pakkun alone lingered to get a very brief summary of events from Shisui and ensure he wasn’t in immediate danger of dying, then he raced off in a different direction to gather backup.
Kakashi wouldn’t need it.
Danzo met him because there was no way he could outrun him. But the man was old and far past his prime and should have been retired – forcefully or otherwise – a long time ago.
Kakashi was subconsciously aware of where not to damage the fool. The eye covered in bloody bandages radiated Shisui’s chakra, and the upper portion of the man’s right arm had trace amounts of chakra that very clearly wasn’t Danzo’s.
Kakashi was a Hatake even if he was the only one. The Hatake clan was one of the old clans said to have wolf blood in their veins. As Kakashi fell back on the instinctual combat style of his clan he was sure he had drilled out of his body, he couldn’t help but agree.
Kakashi went for the throat.
Just like he had been taught.
Backup consisted of several ANBU, Nara Shikaku the Jounin Commander, Inuzuka Tsume with her own pack, and the Sandaime Hokage himself. They arrived just in time to witness the final blow.
Kakashi’s summons circled him and their prey twice before two split off, racing back to Shisui to help him and to guard him. Kakashi and the rest of his summons turned to face his comrades and superior. He could guess how he looked – blood coating his front from his face to his feet and the entire length of his right arm from the earlier Chidori. Every single summons had blood somewhere in their coat; some had it in their muzzles, some their paws, and one had it liberally splattered throughout their fur.
“Explain yourself!” the Hokage demanded.
But Danzo reported only to the Hokage, and it had been Danzo who initiated this. But it was the Hokage who assigned missions – missions that kept every major sensor out of the village during the attack. And Kakashi was still running on base instincts and the fear of losing one of his precious people. So, instead of standing down and reporting like the good soldier he was supposed to be, Kakashi rumbled deep in his chest – not quite a growl, but a threat nonetheless – and stalked forward.
“I’d rather hear an explanation from you.” The snarl building in his throat finally lashed out on the last word, aiding in adding emphasis. Sarutobi wasn’t used to such push back from anyone but his advisors and the councils, and he expected it even less from rule abiding Hatake Kakashi. But Kakashi didn’t let him respond before he was plowing on anyway.
“All of the sensors are out on missions you assigned them so there was no one here to sense something was wrong! Danzo was leading this attack, and Danzo reports only to you!” Everyone stilled as the accusation hung in the air. The Sandaime’s face slowly drained of blood as his ANBU escort fidgeted restlessly. Tsume and Shikaku were tense but maintained neutral expressions.
“Senpai!” Shisui’s call shattered the silence as he limped into the clearing, only on his feet at all thanks to the two large wolf-like summons supporting him on either side. Tsume snarled and Shikaku turned his gaze from the boy’s empty eye socket to the Hokage. The medic, led by Pakkun, landed in the clearing just as Tsume was turning to fetch one.
The immediate re-implantation of Shisui’s eye was not the most sterile procedure, but it was necessary if they wanted to save the full function of his eye. The boy promptly passed out and Kakashi disregarded his Hokage and Jounin Commander in favor of escorting the boy to the hospital for further evaluation and treatment. He was unsurprised when Itachi fell into step with him halfway there, gasping like he had run across the whole of Fire Country in an hour but not letting his steps or his pace falter.
That night revealed many secrets. By the time it was over, Kakashi had threatened most of the major figures in the village including several clan heads, every single elder, and the Hokage. His threats were dismissed and contested with counter threats right up until he invoked his Clan Head status.
Then he held a sobbing Uchiha Itachi as he finally, finally unburdened himself of the stress he had been carrying. Kakashi had to be physically restrained to prevent him from charging the Uchiha compound.
It would take an entire year before Shisui was discharged back to active duty with full function of his eyes. Kakashi grudgingly accepted being named Hokage candidate just so he could promptly adopt Naruto and lift the information ban surrounding him. Though it was agreed he wouldn’t take up the leader’s mantle until he successfully trained a genin team to full chunin because if he couldn’t lead a genin team, how could he lead a village?
If Kakashi failed every team assigned to him until Itachi was old enough to become Hokage Candidate, no one else had to know it was intentional.