After The Storm *Kakashi Hatake* (Naruto Fanfiction)

Chapter 1

 My head was pounding and my heart was racing as I ran from branch to branch at top speed. I glanced behind me at the multiple ninja chasing me. I'm an S-rank criminal, wanted for murder and an assortment of other crimes.      

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            When I was little I lived in amegakure with my mom. We were happy there, for the most part. The only problem was that I'm a jinjuriki; I hold the ten tailed eagle. Everyone despised me; they'd sent me dirty glares and whispered behind my back. I got used to it after a while though; it didn't really bother me. As long as I had my mom everything had been perfect in my life.

            But everything changed when the assassins came. Everywhere I’d turned there had been someone trying to kill me, it seemed the village had deemed me too dangerous to keep alive. Since I'd already started training as a ninja with my mom, I was able to protect myself; I knew many jutsus and was already jonin level, at age 11.

            One day, a couple of years after reaching jonin level, instead of targeting me, they'd gone for my mother, we'd been walking home from the market. I'd lived on the edge of the village, and because of me no one came near our home. So, by the time we'd gotten close to home there was no one around. 

            We walked in silence; both of us could feel the chakra of the ninja following us. Suddenly kunai started flying at us from every direction, I blocked with my kunai and my mother did the same. I dodged here and there, when out of nowhere a ninja appeared behind my mother and skewered her; his katana going straight through her abdomen. Her eyes widened in surprise as she looked down at the tip of a sword going through her stomach. She grunted in pain and started coughing up blood. The man retracted his sword from her and she fell to the ground.

            I had stood there, stunned.

It finally hit me though: my mom was dead. That bastard killed her! Tears sprang to my eyes, and my irises began to turn a piercing yellow. My pupils dilated and my vision enhanced as the tailed beast inside of me took over. My fingernails grew until they were like giant talons, and feathered wings sprouted from my back. When I came to, the assassins were dead; blood ran down the street in rivers.

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            I'd buried my mother using an earth style jutsu and given her a quick funeral, then quickly packed food, water, money, weapons and other essentials.

Then I ran.

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            I’ve been running ever since, I camp outside, since I don’t have a permanent home, and earn money by becoming a bounty hunter. It’s not like I love killing... If I had a choice I wouldn’t hurt anybody, let it be animal, human, even plant. But, under the circumstances, I have to. I can't get any normal jobs, because I can't stay in one place for long. No matter where I go, some sort of harmful group follows. I need the money though, and the people I kill aren’t good ones. Of course, these all sound like excuses... and the guilt of it all still doesn’t recede.

I’m now 19, and am one of the most wanted criminals in the ninja world.

            I tapped into my tailed beast chakra, something that I’d taught myself to do, and wings sprouted from my back. I jumped off a branch and started flapping rapidly; trying to get as high up as I could. Once I was above the clouds I turned south; the same direction I’d come. Then, trying to confuse them so I could get away, I made multiple shadow clones that went in all directions.

        I flew as fast as I could, and soon I was drained of chakra, and completely exhausted. I was forced to make a not-so-graceful landing and crashed to the ground, sliding across the grass, stopping just before a tree and feeling a snap as something inside me broke.

            I realized that I’d landed only a little ways away from Konohagakure, and cursed under my breath. I’d probably be found by some ninja scouting the area, but there was nothing I could do as I blacked out from pain and fatigue.