I do not own any part of Naruto and make no money from the creation of a fiction based off of its characters.

Author's Note: Oh, here I go again, and I just got done telling a friend of mine how awful it would be to try and keep more than two stories straight at once. Oh well, here's number three! Again, a Naruto and Sasuke love story interwoven between the plot and Kakashi and Iruka's stories. As stated, it also features Kakashi and Iruka, which is the only other pairing I currently favor aside from Kakashi and Kurenai, strange as that may sound. The eye of the mind doth see clearly and far, so gifts aplenty there be, for all who choose to become my prize. Enjoy, good fellows and grand ladies!

Safe House

Chapter 1

A peaceful silence enveloped the neighborhood as a dark, late model sedan drove slowly through it. The night was frigid, frosting up windows and forcing many late night wanderers to scurry for cover, huddling into their clothes and hunching their shoulders against the cold. The driver, a male of about thirty with shoulder length brown hair that he kept in a high pony-tail and warm, brown eyes along with a distinctive scar running across the bridge of his nose, shifted in his seat. His eyes burned and the warmth from the car's heater made it even worse. Trying not to succumb, he shifted again, feeling his eyelids droop lazily. Yawning, he flipped the heater to the fan and started it full blast. He needed to stay awake. Even though it was barely ten, the day had been long and he wanted nothing more than to hurry home to his lover and a warm bed. Suddenly, a streak of color passed into his headlights and he slammed on the breaks, the screech of tires and the slight fishtailing of the car's rear axle jolting his heart into a rapid fire pulse. Breathing hard, the man looked around him along the street. The same coloring caught his eye again as he spotted a blonde haired boy, perhaps ten or eleven, scooting into the alley on his right. Jesus, a kid, I nearly hit a kid.

Stopping the car, he got out to follow, just to make sure he hadn't done any real damage despite not hearing or feeling an impact. But, shock could take a while to recover from, and for all he knew, they both might need medical attention. Rubbing his shaking hands together and locking the door, the man started off toward the alley. It abutted another street on the other side that traveled under an overpass. He could hear a train in the distance calling a warning to any transients who'd decided to use the shortcut the tracks offered into and around the city. It was far easier for them to travel that way when walking since the railways snaked throughout the city quicker and more efficiently than the streets, usually bogged down by traffic and pedestrians on their way to work or to run errands. Not a great place to end up even for an adult let alone a child. The overpass shook visibly as the train ran overhead. It was one of the few spots that offered both protection and a heightened sense of danger. A transient on the tracks would have no where to go if they misjudged the timing to get across the gap, especially if they were under the influence of alcohol or drugs, as many often got pulled into. The man shuddered when he sighted a fire set inside a metal trash barrel and the blonde boy shaking a bundle on the ground. When the bundle stirred, a scraggly, but marginally cleaner looking older man with graying and dirty hair emerged and took the bread the boy proffered him. It looked highly questionable, even from this distance.

"Hey," he called out to them. The sudden sound brought terror to their hooded eyes as only fearing death by sleep or a cold night on hard pavement while having your blanket stolen could do. The boy, looking positively terrified, leapt back from the man and crouched on the ground shaking and whimpering slightly.

"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you," he crooned, raising his hands up to his chest. "I nearly hit you back there and I just wanted to make sure you were okay. My name's Iruka, Umino Iruka."

Iruka offered a hand out to both the man then the boy. When it wasn't taken, he slid it calmly down to his side, taking care to keep both his hands in view at all times. Being a social worker had benefits in learning to read people well and using that to confront the situations he saw on an almost daily basis. Speaking to a homeless person could be both the same and very different from talking down an angry drunk husband from sending his wife through the window for calling the police on him. Many of them did succumb to alcohol or drug addiction, after all. It was a hazard of living on the streets with little hope of ever stepping off of them again in their lifetimes. Then again, sometimes the addiction was what brought them out in the first place. Iruka was sure that this was not the case for the boy, or the other one, for that matter. He watched as the elderly man heaved himself off the blankets and moved to stand in front of the boy protectively.

"You leave him alone! He aint done n-nothing to you! You go on! Get outta here!"

Iruka rose his hands up gently, trying to placate the man and calm the boy down. The shaking had increased. He was breathing heavily and squinting, probably from fear of capture and the heat of the fire. Iruka backed off a little but stayed in a position where he could watch them both at the same time.

"Can you tell me your names? I'm not here to start trouble, but the child should be someplace safe, somewhere that will afford him a chance to go to school. You haven't been to school in a while have you?" Iruka addressed first the man and then the boy.

The child looked confused and canted his eyes at the older man before whipping them back to Iruka only for them to go out of focus. He began blinking furiously and shaking his head before squinting again. Iruka wondered if there wasn't something wrong with his vision. He had no real time to do or say anything else about it however. The child listed to the side suddenly and collapsed at Iruka's feet when he rushed forward to catch him. The old man was shouting in his ear and looked ready to bolt when Iruka calmly picked up the boy and headed to his car. Turning back, he tried to gain his attention through the panic.

"He needs a hospital. If you really care for him, I can help, not hurt." Fishing in his back pocket for his work identification, he showed it to the man.

"I work for the district, as a social worker," he leveled the badge and the card, safe in their protective leather wallet, at the man. He backed away from Iruka, frightened and looking only at the badge. Iruka sighed and started walking once more. He knew very well that when it came to any member of authority, even if it wasn't a police officer, the homeless tended to become defensive and uncooperative. At least he could make sure the boy found a safe place, even if it was only temporary until they had a chance to search the system for either his parents or another more suitable arrangement.

Iruka reached for his phone once he had handed the boy off to a nurse at Okada General Hospital. Tokyo was not the best place to have found a missing child that appeared to be foreign. Japan itself was notorious for its lack in enforcement of custody orders, dual parent signatures for passports, international arrest warrants or extradition requests. He sighed as he keyed in his home number. Even more than the frustration he felt at his superiors refusing to contact international agencies, he wanted to at least be sure he had a place to go back to once he was finished talking to the staff and the child himself.

"Hello?" A lazy drawl came over the line on the third ring and Iruka smiled. His life partner, Hatake Kakashi, was indeed still home and hadn't run off with the nearest piece of ass on the street.

"Hey, there. It's me."

"Obviously," his lover grunted the reply. "This had better be good. Did you find a lost puppy or are you calling to tell me you'll be late because some drunken nutcase decided hitting his wife or kid would make a great stress reliever for the night?"

Despite the crass, jaded language, Iruka could hear the edge underneath. Kakashi was worried for him and for anyone he might have had to make an unscheduled visit to council or arrange placement for as part of his job.

"Uh, well, the thing is . . . now don't freak out . . ."

"Iruka," Kakashi warned. He knew fairly well as a detective assigned to Tokyo's Shibuya district Violent Crime Division, a portion of officers and detectives who investigated everything from murder to muggings to rape, what people could be capable of. The worry had increased in his voice and Iruka rushed to reassure him.

"It's not me, don't worry. I'm at Okada General. There's a kid here who I think might be an international abduction, but there's a lot of red tape to cut through at the office and my boss wants a name to run through the system, to make sure. Otherwise, he'll go to a group home for the night until I can find him placement in the morning."

"You've already checked with the Children's Rights Council?" Kakashi asked dubiously.

Iruka rolled his eyes. Did Kakashi really think he had gained the recognition as one of the best child advocates and one of the top social worker's for victims of violent crime, again mainly women and children, by accident?

"Yes," he said through clenched teeth, "they have nothing on him so far but you know how they work. There's no ID either, and the boy passed out before he even told me his name."

"Passed out? Where the hell did you find him?" The worry Kakashi felt was back and stronger than before.

"Underneath the train overpass, near Shinjuku Central station. You know I pass by it on the way home."

"Yes, but that would mean you had to follow him to the street that runs parallel to it and connects through a couple of alleys to get to the overpass. So, want to try again?"

"I know how to get to the overpass from Shinjuku station by foot, thanks," Iruka snapped not wanting to reveal just how he'd gotten involved in the whole mess.

Besides, the child's terrified eyes and constant head turning and blinking had worried him. If he really had major vision problems he would be hard to place. Most couples, or even single foster parents, looking to take on a foster child balked at the thought of medical issues they would have to take care of. Iruka always felt like reminding them that just because they didn't share blood as a biological child would didn't mean they somehow deserved less care than a sick child they had birthed or contributed DNA to.

A low whistle from Kakashi caught his attention and Iruka formed a fist with one hand helplessly.

"What happened?"

"I nearly hit him with my car," he mumbled.

"Excuse me? Say that again?" Kakashi asked, stunned.

"I nearly hit him with my car," he repeated. "I was tired. I wanted to get home early, well early for me, for once. He ran out into the street so fast, I didn't even see him till he was on the other side. So, I followed him, because he looked thin and was outside in a windbreaker two sizes too small for him in early September with the temperature near freezing. Did I do something wrong?" he said petulantly. He remembered the thin jacket, a faded sort of orange, and the yellow t-shirt with dirt all over it, a pair of ripped jeans, also too small for the thin frame, as he spoke, and related it all to his partner. The dirt in the blonde hair falling into eyes, the color of which he had yet to see clearly, and the scars on each cheek that he had noted when the harsh yellow hospital lights had washed over his young charge just made the miserable picture more heart wrenching.

Kakashi listened as Iruka spoke and waited patiently until the end to offer advice and support. They had been dating for about a year when he had suggested they move in together, discreetly, of course. Iruka had vacillated, at first, between keeping his own apartment so as not to cause trouble for Kakashi at his job and wanting to commit to something he felt could be the end to all Kakashi's one night stands and his own failed relationships of the past.

"Mmm, well, isn't this a mess."

"You're telling me. I've got to go question a scared ten or eleven year old on where he's from, if he knows who he is, who his parents are and where he's been for god knows how long and then I have to tell him he'll be spending the night in a room no better than a cell until a strange couple comes to look him over, not at all sure they'll be giving him a home. Sometimes, I hate my job."

"No, you just hate this job, as in this kid's predicament. You love everything else you do and know quite a few ways to deal with the pressure and the stress of not being able to help everyone you want to, thanks to me."

"Why do you always make that sound so dirty?" Iruka whined lightly.

"Why do you insist on interpreting it as dirty?" Kakashi countered.

After a moment, Iruka swallowed hard and closed his eyes, trying to quell the uneasy feeling in his stomach. Whatever Kakashi thought, he never handled having to disrupt families and potentially cause children to need therapy later in life well. He coped, as most in his field did and tried to remain empathic without attaching himself to his clients too deeply. But, he was right, this one was different.

"Kakashi . . .," he started.

"Hmmm?"

"I want to stay here, until he wakes up. He's malnourished and dehydrated. The doctors say it might be a while. He also has something wrong with his eyes. I think he might be blind or most of the way there. They haven't been able to run any tests because the one time he regained consciousness, they had to sedate him again to keep him from injuring his airway when he freaked out. I think waking up in the hospital, on the way to being naked and strangers all around may have driven him further in."

Kakashi made a low sound in the back of his throat and huffed indignantly.

"That would scare anyone half to death, I think, or they aren't normal. I'll be by in a while. I need a shower first."

Iruka could hear the faint shifting of Kakashi's favorite chair being pulled back into the upright position and the afghan he refused to throw away despite the holes probably being thrown in a corner somewhere. Honestly, if he hadn't been the one to ask, Iruka never would have suggested to him that they live together; Kakashi hated change and protected himself and his home fiercely from it. So, his offer to come sit with him instead of returning to his evening routine made Iruka think hard about the possibility that he really did have a chance at a life with him; a complete life, not just a relationship that would probably end amicably enough, but end all the same. He blinked as he realized that Kakashi had been calling to him loudly enough for a passing nurse to eye him distrustfully. He smiled at her and spoke quietly into the mouthpiece.

"I have to go now. They're paging me to come to the fourth floor conference room," he said, nearly sighing in relief when he heard his name over the intercom. "You know where that is, right?"

"Of course! That's the one we use when we question witnesses and victim's family members whenever we pay a visit and they won't feel comfortable coming to us," Kakashi replied airily with a wave of his hand that Iruka couldn't see. He also couldn't see the small, nervous movements his hands made at the thought of doing what he knew his partner really wanted. He would need some time to digest everything he'd heard first and call a few contacts he had inside the Children's Rights Council. Maybe they could find the boy's parents and he wouldn't have to worry. Iruka wouldn't need any looking after either, not that Kakashi minded. But one less night having to sit through the raucous comedies Iruka forced him to watch in order to release tension, as much as they worked, and he might just end up on his own couch. Well, their couch. It still took some getting used to, only having been two weeks since they had moved the last of Iruka's belongings in. He hoped he wouldn't still be saying that after two years. Iruka would probably say the mere thought that he was considering the possibility that they would still be living together after that long was a huge step forward. Kakashi hung up the phone without saying goodbye as he had been known to do and went to shower. It wasn't a long drive to the hospital and he wouldn't be there all night because he would eventually drag them both back home or else Iruka would snap back to reality when he realized he couldn't take them all home and they would move on.

Kakashi strolled through the doors of the hospital's visitor entrance and headed up the stairs to the fourth floor. Had Iruka not mentioned that the kid was so sick, not to mention potentially blind, or as good as, he might have told him to come home instead of offering to join him. His heart was not as cold as he tried to make it, no matter what he did. He did care and he might go as far as letting Iruka do what he wanted, provided he had the chance to meet the boy and they got along well enough. He had never really considered children as something he wanted for himself. Nor had he considered adopting with Iruka as it might mean some of his co-workers finding out about his orientation. He had no problems letting people know about it, as long as they were gay as well, or had no connection to the police force and he knew them well enough. Being gay was still very much a taboo in Japan, though the struggle to appear more westernized in order to better their foreign relations with other countries meant that it was now exposed to the rising acceptance rate of gay relationships, even gay marriage. Even so, Kakashi did not want to open himself, or Iruka, up to derision, the possibility of a hate crime, or something worse. Iruka agreed with the sentiment, which was probably why their relationship worked so well. Kakashi did not like hiding, but it was necessary to preserve his badge, his relationship with his fellow officers and their respect for him. He lead them into situations that could be, at times, dangerous. He would not want to put his faith in someone he could not trust when his life might depend on it during any given day. Of course, he had never actually had to pull his weapon, well not to actually shoot someone. But, that was beside the point. Reaching the fourth floor conference room, he peeked inside first. Iruka was leaning his head back against the wall and had his hands draped casually over his knees. Kakashi smiled widely. He had always loved that pose. He opened the door quietly and stole into the room just as softly.

"Kakashi, don't you even dare," Iruka ground out in measured tones. His voice sounded very strained and the stress showed in his shoulders finally as Kakashi drew near.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist at least trying. I knew it wouldn't work and I couldn't go through with it anyway," Kakashi apologized.

"You look like you've had a hard night right after a hard day," he commented dryly.

Iruka sighed as he raised his head to stare at him. His eyes were bloodshot and there was definite worry lacing his forehead with wrinkles.

"He's nearly blind, Kakashi. They called it posterior subscapular cataracts. Apparently, cataracts can occur at any age, though this type is more common from particular medications. Of course, the ophthalmologist also said that injury to the eye can result in cataracts and that they detected a healed fracture on his forearm and one healed twist fracture of a bone in his wrist. I don't have to tell you that injuries like that are common in child abuse cases. The problem is that, while my boss did find a name and date for a missing child fitting his description at the Child Rights Council, the number and address the parents left is now defunct. Apparently, they had another baby and left the country shortly after, leaving no forwarding address for them to use. They did provide DNA evidence in case the child was found, from a toothbrush, and from what the doctors tell me, the age fits as well. The scars have made it a little harder for a picture ID even with age progression, but we . . . I, think it's him," Iruka told him softly. He smiled a little when Kakashi, a little out of his depth it seemed, didn't catch onto the fact that the child did indeed have a name.

Kakashi swallowed roughly, feeling his heart pounding in his chest. There was quit a lot of information that Iruka had managed to forage out in the half an hour time span for him to shower and the forty-five minute drive it had taken him to get to the hospital. None of it sounded good to Kakashi, most harrowing of all the fact that a nearly blind child was not going to get adequate treatment from a foster parent who generally had little money to use on their charges despite assistance from the district government let alone a group home. The best they would do would be to give him a prescription for lenses and Kakashi knew enough about cataracts from watching it nearly destroy his grandmother's sight that he might need surgery. Something else about what Iruka had said bothered him even more though.

"Scars?" he asked and then swallowed apprehensively at the bleariness overtaking his lover's eyes.

"On his face. Three on each cheek. They're deep, clean and look like they might be from glass or a sharp blade. If what the doctors said is true, then the trauma that might have caused the cataracts could have done the same thing to his face if he'd hit, or been shoved into, something like a heavy mirror face first," still Iruka spoke softly, as if raising his voice inside the insulated walls of the conference room would wake the patients in their beds.

"Iruka . . . ," Kakashi admonished softly, "if you want to take him home, you should ask."

"Kakashi, I wouldn't, except that this boy is different, he feels different than any of the others. Do you know he still hasn't said a word except to answer the doctor's questions about his eyes? Even then, he looked confused, as if this was how he thought everyone saw things. He has some serious cognitive issues. He's twelve years old and stared at the book I was holding in my hand as if he'd never seen it before," Iruka rattled off, counting on his fingers as he went.

At any other time, Kakashi would have smiled when he heard that Iruka had bothered to grab a book to read from his car rather than suffer through what he called the mainstream drama that people wrote about in all those magazines that hospitals and doctor's offices stocked up on by the cart load.

"Well, then, I guess I have to meet him if he has you so wound up you're willing to break with one of your cardinal rules regarding a potential client."

"I'm not handling his case, Kurenai is. I've already woken Judge Soma and asked for a petition for foster care to be sent to my office. I'm already approved by the district court to take him, if the judge agrees. He says he doesn't see a problem with it as long as I have a stable environment to show Kurenai when she gets the paperwork in the morning. It shouldn't take more than a week and by then he'll be out of here."

Iruka stopped to take a breath and look into Kakashi's eyes. Kakashi knew that look. It was the same one that had attracted him to Iruka in the first place. They'd met while raiding a drug addicts' home. She'd been harboring a fugitive wanted for assault. They'd questioned her beforehand and she had adamantly denied knowing where he was. It seemed she'd been sleeping with him in exchange for drug money, which made her a prostitute as well. Iruka had been called in to assess the situation concerning her five year old son and seven year old nephew, both living with her at the time, while they arrested both of the adults. The children had no other family and were placed in a group home, but Kakashi had made the mistake of letting fly an offhand comment on how long that would last before they were in some seedy foster house where the 'parents' were simply feeding them just enough to keep the money coming in and using the rest for god knows what, or worse, aged out of the system while still in group care. Iruka had flashed him that determined stare and he had quailed in his military boots and police issue flak jacket, literally, apologizing to him and the children immediately. He had asked Iruka out a week later, hoping the time away had allowed him to forget the asinine remark. He hadn't but he had agreed to go out with him and that had been Kakashi's first gift from the other man. Maybe Kakashi could accept this as just one more, if the kid wasn't a hellion and he could manage to stir up more of the feelings Iruka had begun to recover to give the boy what he needed and most certainly deserved.

"If it means finding somewhere else, Kakashi, I'll do what I have to," Iruka said determinedly.

"Whoa, hey, I haven't even met him. Aren't I allowed to do that before deciding whether or not I want him in my house, or whether or not he likes me?"

Iruka smiled pleasantly then and laughed a little.

"See? I keep telling you, you're really just a softy with a lazy mind. Anyone else would have said, 'Shouldn't we see if I like him', not the other way around. But, not you, you're more worried that he'll hate you the moment he sets eyes on you, why I still have yet to get down to. But later, first, you need to come meet Naruto."

"Naruto?" questioned Kakashi as they made their way out the door and down the hall to their left. Apparently, this Naruto was being kept out of the ICU which was on the second floor. That was always a good sign.

"Uzumaki Naruto, age twelve, missing since the age of six according to the flier from CRC," he said gravely.

"You really did get on the balls of the Children's Rights Council, huh?" Kakashi said wonderingly.

"Yeah, and hey! Keep that stuff out of the conversation when you talk to him!"

"One thing before we do that, Iruka." Kakashi pulled him away from the door of room four hundred and ten, the one he guessed the Uzumaki kid was in. Iruka looked up at him arching his brow in silence.

"If he hasn't spoken to anyone except the eye doctor, how are we supposed to get him to talk? And, how did you manage to get so close to him without even knowing what he's like?"

"You'll see, Kakashi," Iruka answered slyly, smiling a little as he opened the door.

A doctor stood near the edge of the bed while leaning a little over it, running a pen light from side to side in front of the patient. Kakashi was curious, he had to admit it. The doctor called over his shoulder to Iruka.

"I've given him some dilating drops. It should help temporarily improve his eyesight until we can do further testing at an office. I've left my card on the table, but you're free to choose another doctor if you like."

Then he smiled at his patient. Kakashi could see it wink in and out from what little of the doctor's profile he could see.

"I will see you tomorrow, Naruto-kun. Is there anything you'd like that I can ask the nurse for?"

Kakashi watched as a tow-headed boy resolved into view when the doctor moved away. Blond, messy strands fell all around his head and framed it rather cutely. But, the eyes, the eyes that strained even after the drops, blinked furiously a few times while the boy shook his head as if to clear it.

"Remember I said it might burn a bit at first? You can just tell me what it is you'd like and I can get it."

The boy, Naruto, frowned and glanced at the table in front of him looking very out of place and confused. Kakashi supposed if his vision had been bad long enough than he probably had no idea how things were really supposed to look. He hoped the drops were working properly. The color that drew him in would be a travesty to lose behind clouded lenses. Such a piercing blue and so clear yet they reflected the shadows and light in a way that seemed to change the type of blue he was looking at. Those were very interesting eyes. When he spoke his voice was rough, more like someone far older. Kakashi found he was trapped, in this room, with this little person who looked the entire world like a four year old stuck in the body of a ten year old with the voice of an adult, and yet he was already twelve. What an enigma.

"That," Naruto said simply, pointing to the small plastic juice cup.

The doctor raised his eyebrows and wiggled them. Naruto smiled and Kakashi thought he really needed to sit down. The world had turned upside down anyway so the floor should be pretty close by now. Brilliant white teeth looking cleaner than he had ever expected from someone who'd been on the street for God knows how long and the scars that had at first engendered pity rose to form a very cat-like quality that only enhanced, rather than making Naruto anything less.

"If I ask for more, they might have to walk more and they've already been in here a lot."

The ophthalmologist shook his head and beamed.

"You know, I told you, remember? It's part of their job to look after you."

"Right, job," Naruto said the last word slowly, as if he had never done it before and Kakashi wondered again where he had been all this time and what he had gone through. There were definitely cognitive issues, from what Iruka had said about the book and listening to the exchange now. Kakashi's own studies at college gave him a little insight into the child's behavior. He would likely have issues with touch, emotional responses that seemed rude or out of place, trouble communicating his emotions and possibly be unable to form lasting relationships with people. That is, if the boy didn't receive constant care and professional guidance. He watched Iruka out of the corner of his eye give Naruto a gentle look he had seen often enough. Then, Naruto caught sight of them and while he tensed at seeing Iruka he positively stiffened when he saw Kakashi. His eyes went wider and he blinked owlishly, his mouth slackening a tiny bit. It was perhaps the most child-like thing Kakashi had seen outside of a cartoon show.

"You're a fuzz. I don't have to talk to you. I didn't do anything," he said suspiciously, narrowing his eyes in an adorable pout.

Kakashi, surprised into silence, eyed the boy carefully.

Iruka, hiding his laughter through a loud clearing of his throat whispered discreetly, "I told you so."

Kakashi pulled on a bright smile and shook his head, laughing gently.

"Now, what gave you that idea?"

"Taka showed you to me. He said to watch so I did. You look like a fuzz, here," the bright, enigmatic yet hopelessly stunted boy pointed at his own face. Kakashi was again rendered speechless. He chose to turn to Iruka for help and found nothing but a very amused lover shaking quiet laughter in his direction, trying to cover it with one hand and using the other to wave him near the bed.

"Go on, say hello," Iruka's eyes pleaded urgently that Kakashi work his incomprehensible magic at ferreting out information from almost anyone now that Naruto seemed inclined to talk.

"Well, Naruto, you're right, I'm a detective." When Naruto frowned and stared at him, he explained.

"A patrol officer can arrest people and investigate small crimes but a detective handles bigger and harder ones."

He could see that Naruto didn't really understand and sighed a little. Did Iruka really know what he was hooking them into? He supposed he did since he hadn't bothered to check with him before deciding to take charge of Naruto's welfare. And really, a group home or even an adequately prepared foster parent would have no hope of working in the time and effort required for Naruto to reasonably catch up to other children his age without leaving him blunted, perhaps even dangerously so, for him as well as other people. Naruto rubbed at his eyes a little and Kakashi looked around to see that the eye doctor had left the room, presumably to find a juice cup or someone who could retrieve one instead. It was then that Iruka decided to step forward and save him.

"My name is Iruka. Do you remember seeing me earlier, near the train bridge?" Iruka spoke calmly and used simpler language he thought the boy would understand easier.

"I was with Taka," he told them and then frowned a little, "I thought you were the fuzz. Taka said to be careful. They don't like us. I like trains."

The random break in speech from one subject to another told Kakashi that Naruto really had no concept of timing or relation of words to actual conversation. Good God, if it was this bad he was remarkably lucky he hadn't ended up environmentally retarded, or worse, completely sociopathic. He didn't see any evidence of that in Naruto, though, thank God. Rather, he seemed to have an innate sensitivity to people. He had not wanted to bother the nurses to have to walk all the way down to his room to answer a page only to have to walk back toward their desk to get to the patient's refrigerator. Kakashi had been in hospitals for various criminals, witnesses and victims plenty of times to know that the fridges were separated into two categories. One for medication and one for snacks and small amounts of food brought from home as long as it was allowed and properly labeled. If he was going to be here a while, maybe one of them could get him a few different foods and see which ones he could recognize and name. It was going to take a while to get Naruto even close to where he needed to be in order to attend school. Kakashi froze momentarily, frowning. He had realized it but too late. This child wouldn't be going anywhere but to his house, with Iruka and himself, which meant that he would be risking the need to tell his captain that he was gay.

"Kakashi," Naruto sounded out his name slowly and then with more confidence and Kakashi felt his heart lurch painfully. Damn it. Oh, God damn it.

He turned steely eyes at Iruka who watched him wisely and quietly.

"Call Kurenai and put my name in, Iruka."

Flashing a smile, Iruka bent down, forgetting for a moment who he was with, and ruffled Naruto's hair a little. Naruto jumped a bit, unsettled and squinted at Iruka before hedging a soft smile. Kakashi watched it disappear suddenly as if the boy realized he'd been doing it and thought he wasn't supposed to. He saw flashes of many things in Naruto's eyes and wanted, needed, to know more.

"I like trains a lot," Naruto mumbled unexpectedly again.

That was the last thing they heard for a while. Naruto slid down on the bed and squirmed around until he got comfortable, turning to stare out of the window at the lights of the city. Kakashi saw his eyes move rapidly back and forth, squinting every now an then as he tried to take everything in. If all he knew of the world was that overpass and perhaps wherever his abductor had kept him, then they definitely had a lot of catching up to do.