The Silver Menace

Hatake Kakashi liked to consider himself a simple man at times.

The once member of the ANBU was now just a plain jounin and spent his time doing a few selective things, such as reading the masterpiece which was the Icha-Icha series. As close second came spending his time next to the Memorial Stone talking to dead people.

Others might see him as a mad man if they witnessed it first hand, but Kakashi didn't care. It helped him with his trauma from various experiences while part of ANBU and even before that. Outliving both his team and teacher did not leave a pleasant memory.

Hatake Kakashi was the last scion of the Hatake Clan, the son of the Silver Fang who he could proudly say was stronger than most of the shinobi this village had ever known but that was not what he remembered him the most for. A progeny of one of the most widely known clans in Konoha.

Unlike the village who remembered his father for chosing his team before the mission, he remembered Sakumo Hatake for his bravery as a leader and captain, choosing the alive instead of the dead.

His mother had passed away before he could even remember her appearance. His father died before he could even witness the reputation his son had earned in the next few years. Cousins and relatives? Kakashi knew none.

Rivals? Kakashi had once known two, now he only knew one; Who knew when the last one would die too. That was alright, Kakashi was used to people around him dying. People who hanged around him did not survive long enough to tell any tale.

First was his mother, then his father, then… Obito, Rin who had died at his own hands, then his teacher…

What was the point of being a feared shinobi if he was incapable of saving his loved ones?

'Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum!'

Each time Kakashi contemplated his life, his best friend's words resounded inside his head for minutes at times. Kakashi had tried his best to live by those words and would continue to do so faithfully.

Just as he was about to finish his daily monologue, gusts of wind blasted around him and he immediately knew the cause of them. Sweat dropped down his forehead at the arrival of Konoha's Green Beast.

"KAKASHI, MY YOUTHFUL ETERNAL RIVAL, WHAT A PLEASANT AFTERNOON TO ENCOUNTER YOU! IT MUST BE THE YOUTHFULNESS INSIDE THE TWO OF US WHICH ATTRACTED US! LET US TEST OUR ABILITIES IN A RACE OF YOUTHFUL FEELINGS!"

Kakashi shook his head at the antics of his eternal rival and chuckled.

'Well… I'll continue to live with all my power to at the very least honor their sacrifices!'

xXx

"Let's call it a tie, shall we?"

Ren rubbed his neck and noticed the amount of sweat which his body was showering on.

It has been a few weeks since he and Sasuke had agreed to spar with each other. Ren and Sasuke had both ascended to a new level of understanding of how hand-to-hand combat could aid a shinobi in a fight.

Of course, they abstained from using ninja weapons at the moment since they were still not good enough to guarantee the no-kill rule. Ninjutsu was also not really allowed, since they did not know enough to put them to actual work.

Sasuke did not verbally respond to Ren, he opted to nod instead. Although it was not as visible he was also quite tired from the spar. It was just his pride as an Uchiha which refused to bow down.

'Although it's not as noticeable, he's definitely less arrogant than before. He still refuses to let me into his house or come to my house… But he'll crack down eventually.'

Ren's goal was to befriend the last Uchiha. Back when his clan had been massacred by an 'unknown' assailant Sasuke had refused to come to the academy for nearly five months. It could be said that if not for the fact the Third had excused him, his grades would've had him repeat the entire year.

Ren did not know how it felt to lose people close to you; being an orphan his entire life such a feeling was unfamiliar to him, but he could definitely understand how painful it must be to lose your parents and older brother to a massacre.

But of course, pity was not the reason he was doing this. Besides the fact he thought Sasuke definitely needed a friend or two to get that stick off his ass, this also aided his taijutsu which he personally believed to be his weakest attribute.

Sasuke definitely had his bad sides; such as arrogance and the fact he thought of himself as superior to nearly if not everyone was a flaw he needed to fix sooner or later.

The only reason he had even accepted sparring with him was simply due to the fact he had acknowledged the fact that he could learn a lot from Ren's eccentric fighting style.

Sasuke was not a bookworm and he also rarely read a lot, but the Uzumaki's fighting style was widely known. It struck like a whirlpool and spun you around until you could barely focus on your opponent.

…

Ren took that to another level entirely. He had even gone as far as to ask the Third Hokage himself if this sort of fighting style was common with the Uzumaki's but even he with his many decades of experience as a shinobi had never encountered someone like Ren.

Ren chuckled inwardly before removing the lid of his water bottle and started to drink it. 'For as much as an annoying prick he is, he definitely lives up to the name of a prodigy.'

The current Sasuke was definitely capable of holding tightly to the title of a Genin if it was required as such.

'If he manages to incorporate a clone jutsu to his fighting style it would be even more annoying to deal with him.'

He put the water bottle down and stretched his body a bit. 'At least he doesn't hit as hard as Naruto does when he's in a bad mood. Man I'd be in lots of trouble if I didn't have the natural regeneration offered by my Uzumaki and Senju blood…'

"Uzumaki let's continue." Sasuke spoke out while moving towards a larger clearing of the field they were in.

Judging by his current complexion, it could be easily seen that he was very tired; yet he displayed a stoic and cold face.

"Sure."

Ren didn't bother with asking for a minute more to rest and instead also walked towards the clearing and took a stance.

'His desire for revenge is stronger than his desire for a normal life, his avenger complex affects his whole life. Trying to fix this would be like trying to tell a Lion why eating meat is bad.'

Well, there were a few stages he'd need to have Sasuke go through.

First is spreading the seeds.

xXx

The Shadow Clone Jutsu was considered to be the pinnacle of its kind. A jutsu capable of recon, spying, fighting and aiding in training all at once. It was a feared jutsu which few could actually utilize to its full potential. The sheer chakra reserves required for it made most jounins shy away from it.

The jutsu was created by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju almost a century ago, back when the concept of hidden villages was nothing but a farfetched dream. The Second Hokage had created many jutsu but this one was one of the most widely known to the masses.

The more advanced version of this jutsu, the Multi Shadow Clones Jutsu was considered to be a forbidden one as it was highly unstable for those who lacked the required reserves and made even Kage-level shinobi and kunoichis think twice before using it.

Laying before Ren's eyes were both versions in the shape of scrolls. Most of them lied untouched and comfortably holding a position in the many bookshelves of this underground room of Ren's house.

Where had Ren acquired all those scrolls one might ask?

Ren's father before his death had monopolized a colossal amount of jutsus which had once belonged to the Senju or Uzumaki Clan. Even if he were to exclude the ones that were tied to the two clans, his father had still managed to gather many scrolls of jutsu's which belonged to other affinities.

This was an action Ren found extremely bewildering and could not understand in the slightest. The sheer amount of money spent on this had surely halved the Senju Clan's treasury reserves.

It served to puzzle the 10-years old boy to death. Let it be told that you could not monopolize 'village' jutsus and simply put them aside in your house. Not to mention the amount of trouble you'd have to go through just to get permission to hold these at home, the sheer cost of them would put any clan at financial trouble.

Even the Senju clan was no exception to that sort of trouble.

Yet, somehow his father had managed to not only do such a thing, but he had not even bothered to learn a single one of them. According to his early-life acquaintances his father had been a lazy man who had left Konoha to become a 'merchant' early on in his late teen years.

His father had managed to make it to chunin before stepping down as a shinobi and had just simply told everyone that the life of a shinobi wasn't for him.

In a way this could be considered as trying to dodge the recruitment for shinobi during the war which had plagued the Elemental Nations during that timeline.

Was his status as one of the last Senju really enough valuable to turn a blind eye to this sort of… blatant crime?

Those scrolls in front of him were not stolen, they were purchased from another outer source which Ren had no knowledge about. For one, he knew that they were a source which did not belong to Konoha.

Not to mention the fact that this room was well hidden. The only reason he had encountered it was due to the fact that during one of his fuinjutsu practice sessions he had wounded himself slightly and a tiny bit of his blood had dripped on the floor of his house.

The floor had then dropped down much to his dumbfounded expression at the time and formed staircases which eventually led to this underground room.

It was very easy to see that it had been left untouched for a decade and more simply by the fact that the seals were left unchecked.

This sort of fuinjutsu mastery was of high level. Ren knew for a fact that at least two seals had been used:

A seal which activated when in contact with the blood of a certain bloodline which was registered in its database for the first, and a seal which protected the room in the shape of a formation seal.

'Just what the fuck were you doing before your death father?'

His face continued to look serious and covered in a shadow of dark thoughts, but then it all disappeared with a casual shrug. To remove any remnant of the thoughts he decided to continue what he had come here fore in the first place. He picked up a scroll related to fuinjutsu and unfolded it to reveal to him its full glory.

Ren might not like the mystery behind this situation, but it did not mean he wouldn't use it to its fullest advantage. If his father wanted to make a room like this with bookshelves filled with books and scrolls, then he'd enjoy it to the maximum.