11 years ago.

“Man, this sucks. Going on a mission with Hatake was supposed to be good for my career. Now, because he wasn’t prepared to make hard decisions, I will need to do another year, if not two, on guard duty on the border. ”

Five-leaf ninjas were sitting around a bar, holding drinks and commiserating with one another. The bar was empty besides the ninjas and the bar owner, who was behind the counter writing down his inventory on a notepad, occasionally flipping back and forth to specific pages while checking out the contents of the bottles on the shelves.

“I’m just hoping I get the land of Tea Boarder. I got family over there that I can visit.”

“Fat chance! With our luck, we are going to the Wind Border. The third will pair us up with Hatake again and give us “the chance to reclaim our honor” by kicking sand for a few years or something equally as stupid.”

Groans of displeasure escaped the men as they drank. Minazuki drank his glass empty and looked at the bottom of it disappointedly. While looking through the glass, he could see his teammate, and half the reason he was in trouble in the first place, was sitting at the counter, staring at his own still-full drink. “Hey? Why aren’t you drinking? Afraid you are going to get poisoned again? Bartender, my friend, questions your sincerity. Give us another round on the house to prove they aren’t drugged.”

“I already gave you guys a round on the house when you came in. Wrap up your pity party; we are closing soon.” The short, balding man muttered.

“Yo, that's not fair. Purple, tell him that’s not fair.”

The man with short purple spiky hair still looked at his drink while he whispered under his breath, “Not fair.”

“See, see, get us more drinks. I’m thirsty.”

“I’m sorry,” Purple muttered.

Minazuki scuffed at Purple and turned his back on him. “Doesn’t matter, we are already up the creek. Might as well drink from it.”

“I got a promotion,” Purple said.

“Hmm, what did you say?”

“The old man gave me a promotion; I’m joining Anbu.”

One of the other ninjas heard Purple this time and looked at him. “What are you talking about? Promotion? You are half the reason why we are in this mess.”

“The guy told me it wasn’t my fault. Anybody could have been stunned by that stone ninja bee. He said… I’m not going to the border like you guys. I’m staying in the village.”

“Promotion? Anbu? All you did was get stung by a bumblebee and drag the rest of us down.”

“He said I risked my life for the village and if I changed my statement. If I said, I was willing to die for the "sake of the village," If…If Sukomo saved me against my wishes, I would be rewarded. I found out I got the promotion a few hours ago.”

The other four were stunned until, as one, they started laughing. “Man, that’s cold.” “Way to fail into success.” “Careful, they're going to make you Hokage at this pace.” “You pinned all the blame on Hatake; he’s going to turn as white as his hair.” “He’s going to have to sell his sword to keep his kid in school.” “Yo yo, I have some savings; I could always use a good blade. Maybe I will teach Sakumo how to finally use the bloody thing.” More laughter echoed through the bar while the owner watched them with a blank look on his face before handing the ninjas more drinks.

While they drank, the bell placed above the door rang as it was opened. “Sorry, sir, the bar is closed. We aren’t taking any more customers.” The door closed, but footsteps could be heard walking towards the open area from the entryway. “Sir, bars closed. Come…back…later.”

The owner stared at the boy who entered and what was all over him. Amon was covered in blood, and his face rapidly changed from expression to expression. Anger, sadness, shock, disgust, till it finally settled with a big grin painted on his face and a mean look in his eye. “Well, gentlemen, I heard we got a reason to celebrate,” Amon said as he approached the bar. “You guys are never going to believe this; I mean, given a hundred guesses, no, no, given a thousand guesses, you would never get it. I also have a reason to celebrate tonight.”

“Amon, I thought you would be in the capital. Doesn’t the Daimyō need you to rub his feet while you kiss his booboo’s away.” One of the ninjas tried to joke but was put off by all the blood covering Amon, still dripping off his clothes.

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Amon laughed in a way that never got close to his eyes. “Ouch, good one. I guess I know which of you guys is the funny one. No, I took some time off. I got a letter in the mail recently. You see, I heard a mission my teacher went on went bad, and being the good student I am, I returned to the village. When Kakashi was born, that’s the name of Sakumo's son, in case you’re wondering. When he was born, there… was a lot of drama going around at the time, but one thing happened that changed my life. It's one of those moments when you realize…you are real. That people love you and trust you. It's one of those found family moments that pull on your heartstrings. Sakumo and his wife made me Kakashi's godfather.”

Amon sat on the bar stool next to the purple-haired ninja in the middle of the group. Minazuki looked at the others, confused, and then back at Amon, who was staring at Purple. “That’s great, but isn’t it a bit late to celebrate?”

“Hmm, oh no, I’m not celebrating that specifically. You see, I managed to return from the capital in the nick of time. When I entered the Hatake clan house, I smelled iron in the air. I found my teacher in a puddle of his own blood with his sword sticking out of him.”

“What! That’s not possible.” The others shouted in outrage. Purple turned his head to face Amon in surprise, noticing that Amon hadn’t taken his eyes off him once since entering. “Why are you celebrating.”

“Why? Because I’m not going to be a father, obviously. Fourteen is way too young for parenthood, if you ask me. This?” Amon pointed towards the blood he was drenched in. “I’m a disgusting mess right now because I managed to save the life of the legendary White Fang of the leaf from his own blade. Now, if you don’t mind.” Amon reached over and caused Purple to flinch. “Oh shh, not yet.” Amon grabbed the filled drink before the man and pulled it over to himself. With a quick breath to get himself ready, he brought the glass to his lips and downed the drink in one go.

“Hey, aren’t you a little young to be drinking like that?”

Taking a big breath of air, Amon finally turned away from the purple-haired man to stare at the ninja who asked the question: “Don’t be ridiculous. What kinda animal starts a bar fight sober?” With that said, Amon turned and violently smashed the now-empty glass across Purple's face, sending him off the stool and onto the ground.

Minazuki lunged and grabbed Amon's left shoulder with his right hand from behind, but Amon spun right and delivered a left hook toward the taller man's kidneys. Flinching from the powerful blow, Minazuki ducked down, letting Amon quickly snake his left hand towards him, grab the collar of his flat jacket, and yank down towards Amon's oncoming uppercut, which rocked Minazuki's head backward.

Amon leaped and went to deliver a merciless elbow strike on Minazuki's upward-looking face, but a glass thrown by another one of the ninjas made Amon have to block or take a glass to the face. Turning the strike to a block, he managed to see the follow-up attack coming and dodged away from the bar counter.

One of the leaf ninjas tried to kick Amon towards the counter, which would have sent him crashing into the bottles on the wall, but thanks to the dodge, the man kicked nothing but air. Amon went in to capitalize on the miss, but another of the man's teammates got behind Amon and tried to sweep his leg.

Out of reflex, Amon shot out one of the bandages from his arm toward the ceiling and made it stick using his chakra. Pulling hard and leaping simultaneously, Amon backflipped in place over the man's attack and landed before charging the man he was aiming at before while leaving a bandage from his leg attached to the ground. The man who tried to sweep his leg saw the two bandages attached to the floor and ceiling and dodged both of them while pursuing Amon, trying to attack him from behind again.

“Trap!” one of the three leaf ninjas left standing with both Purple and Minazuki not getting back up shouted. The man wasn’t certain what his teammate was talking about. He didn’t trip on the bandage on the ground, which, even though he didn’t know Amon that well, he knew was a dirty trick Amon used in some of the tournament fights he was in when against faster opponents.

Despite not knowing what trap his teammate was talking about, he put his guard up just from his experience in the field, and it saved him from a devastating blow. While Amon purposefully didn’t look at the man behind him, Amon still used his bandages attached to the floor and ceiling to slingshot himself towards the man behind him with a kick. The ninja caught the kick with both of his arms and even though he was flung back from the blow, he still managed to stay upright.

Clicking his tongue, Amon found himself in a bad spot as the other two leaf ninjas made a triangle formation around him and pressed the attack while their teammate was still trying to get the feeling back in his hands.

Amon re-spooled his bandages around his arm and leg while blocking and dodging the punches and kicks from the three ninjas. Sadly, of all Amon's skills, he was never talented in hand-to-hand combat. While Amon studied fuinjutsu and medical ninjutsu, the three older men had more field experience and barely ever wasted a day of training in those fields; instead, they focused on taijutsu.

More and more of their blows landed, and Amon ran out of tricks he was willing to use in a bar fight he started. Thinking fast, there was only one trick that came to mind, and he had to hope the architecture of this building was sturdier than it looked.

Rapidly, Amon started releasing the bandages that were padding the blows he was taking and made them fall off him in big loops while shooting strands out and grabbing loose furniture from the bar. He then started flinging them at the ninja to distract them and make himself look desperate and panicking.

As he hoped they would do, they started grabbing and pulling on the bandages to stop Amon from throwing stuff at them while trying to restrain his movements. The ninja who tried to sweep Amon's legs and blocked the sling-shot kick still had numb hands and preferred using his legs in a fight. Instead of the others who grabbed on with their arms, he purposely used his leg to wrap around a bandage and yanked Amon over to him to deliver a harsh knee strike to his stomach.

The strike hurt a lot and would make it so he wouldn’t last much longer in the fight, but Amon had already set up all the pieces he needed to win. For all of their skills and talent, none of the three Leaf ninjas was particularly heavy. A ninja's lifestyle was more on sharp and lethal hits than brawls, and Amon intended to punish them for that life choice. Leaping into the air, he got over a support beam holding up the roof, landed back on the ground, and yanked on the bandages connecting him to the other three.

The force managed to lift them from the ground by a few feet for a second, and if gravity had been allowed to, it would have naturally pulled them back to the ground, but Amon made the bandages connecting the four of them immediately after his landing connect to the furniture of the room he was using as projectiles just a few seconds ago, turning the three leaf ninjas into his new and very misshapen punching bag as they dangled from the rafter.

The three tried to free themselves with the kunai they kept on their person at all times, but Amon never let them have the chance as he rushed in. Heavy blow after blow, Amon punched repeatedly like he was working out at the gym and practicing his routine. They tried to block and cut themselves free, but for all the teamwork they had shown before, clearly, this was a new experience for them as they got in each other's way while Amon punched them repeatedly in vital areas. They could only offer a token resistance as they didn’t know if they should keep fighting him, block his incoming blows, or try to escape.

Teeth flew out, and their ribs cracked as Amons' blows kept landing. After a minute of his assault, the three switched to defense as they protected their most injured areas. Groans escaped their lips as the impact of his attacks got through their guard.

Amon was so focused on his attacks that he didn’t recognize somebody was shouting his name until a hand grabbed Amon's shoulder and yanked him around. Amon went for a swing, thinking it was one of the other two he took out early on when a pair of Sharingan looked back at him. The next thing he knew, he was lying in a cot staring at the ceiling of a jail cell.