Past and Present // Kakashi Fic

5. ** 6 years ago **

It had been 6 years since my life had changed. So much has happened since then. So much has hardened me. My brother is dead. Kushina is dead. My nephew has been forced to live the life of a jinchuriki. The village has been devastated time and time again. And yet I am still stuck in this life. The life of a spy. I live amongst traitors, I am forced to partner on ridiculous 'missions' with a Hidden Stone village traitor called Deidara.

I constantly feed information back to the village, usually once or twice a week. Occasionally Lord Third (who took over after Minato was killed) will send me coded messages about what's happening in the village. He puts in a few details of a boy I once knew every now and then.

I had just received the most recent communication from Lord Third. It was one of the most concerning messages I had received since Naruto was born. The note read:

Mina,

Confirm receipt of your latest intel.

New - Uchiha dead. 2 survivors. Murdered by Itachi Uchiha.

Hokage.

I couldn't believe it. An entire clan wiped out by one of its own. How could anyone be so cold?

"Hey. They've called a meeting." Deidara said to me as he walked passed the rock I was sitting on. He didn't even stop, just spoke as he walked without even a glance in my direction. Oh how I loathed him.

I climbed down off my rock, pushing the crumpled note inside my Akatsuki robes before making my way inside.

We were currently holed up in an underground cave system somewhere near the border of the Land of Earth and the Land of Fire. I walked the intricate tunnel system towards the main 'auditorium' cave where we usually held our meetings.

Currently there were only 10 of us, Sasori 'The Puppet Master', Nagato, Konan, Tobi, Hidan, Kisame, Zetsu, Orochimaru, Deidara and myself.

Our meetings were usually chaired by a mysterious figure who would appear as a sort of shadowy hologram and this meeting was no exception.

The group circled around this figure as he began to talk in a low, growl-like voice.

"We have a new member joining our cause." Out of the shadows stepped a dark-haired man with creases down his face, possibly from smiling or scowling. As he stepped into the light the next thing I saw shocked me more than anything. A Hidden Leaf headband with a strike through it. This was him. The traitor. Itachi Uchiha.

Everything after that was a blur in the background, taking the passenger seat to my burning rage. Before I knew it the meeting was over and I could not leave that cave fast enough. I rushed out of the cave towards the forest. If I could just get some distance from it, breathe a little, do something to forget about this. Ugh! I just can't believe it! My entire family risked (and lost) their lives for the sake of the village and here was this traitor who murdered his entire clan! The thought was enough to make me shake.

Bang!

The sound scared me out of my thoughts and brought me back to reality. I looked around for the source of the sound. The ground around me was scorched, badly scorched and it was at that time I realised that the sound was me. My lightning style had kicked in. I mean I always knew I had an over-abundance of charka – mainly due to my ability to secretly store pools of charka as reserves - but there has never been an instance where it has manifested itself like this!

I heard a rustle behind me and looked around to see a figure running away, back to the cave. Someone had seen how upset Itachi's arrival had made me. This could blow my cover. All these years and I could have just ruined everything!

I walk back to the entrance to the cave, fast but not too fast as to be suspicious. I just need to make it back to my nook where I can use my chakra to sense the situation but before I could make it there I was surrounded. White Zetsu clones suddenly appeared all around me. Their smiles possibly the most menacing thing in this world. Something hit me from behind. Hard. I fell to the ground, dizzy and disoriented. Another blow to the head and I was consumed by the sweet release of darkness.