A/N: Quick drabble dashed off during fifth period today. It's nothing special, but if I don't post it now I might forget later.
Warning: Violence, yaoi, general angst. Not my best writing, and only proofread one time.
As always, reviews are appreciated and flames are ignored.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.-MeeLee
Keeping Score
Umino Iruka only ever made twenty-three kills throughout his ninja career.
Kill Number One was the answer to a question he was later always asked. He was four years old, alone in his parents' kitchen, when a fly landed on his nose. His father's kunai was lying on the table and, being the son of shinobi that he was, he picked it up and sliced the fly—and his nose. He carried the scar for the rest of his life.
Kill Number Two was not his alone. He was eleven, and the Kyuubi was getting closer and closer to the village. He had no idea how he had ended up fighting alongside his parents, but there he was, hurling kunai and shuriken and whatever else he could reach in a desperate attempt to stop the monster. He screamed and struggled when the runner came and carried him away.
The Kyuubi fell three hours later, as did both his parents, the Yondaime Hokage, and at least half of the village's population.
Kill Number Three was when he was thirteen. It was a simple D-rank genin mission that somehow fucked up and became A-rank when he and his team ran into a small band of missing-nin. The tall, smirking ninja had him pinned against a tree, ready to crush his windpipe, and in a sudden surge of survival instinct he grabbed his kunai and plunged it into the man's throat.
He knelt paralyzed beside the body for the remainder of the fight as his sensei and the rest of his team got rid of the rest. His sensei had to forcefully drag him away from the scene.
Kill Number Four was during the Chuunin Exams. He was fighting a young genin from Hidden Cloud, and his Sensatsu Suisho was aimed a little too well. The judge did not move fast enough, and his opponent suddenly turned into a human pin cushion. The event was whispered about for weeks to follow, even though Sandaime issued express orders to keep it quiet.
He didn't pass.
Kill Numbers Five to Ten were during the first and only skirmish he ever participated in during the war with Stone. For the remainder of the war, he was in the hospital recovering from his injuries.
Kill Numbers Eleven and Twelve were when he was sixteen, a fresh chuunin. They were the two gang thugs he managed to bring down before the rest—all twenty-two of them—descended upon him, beating him into submission. They tied him up and then took turns raping him for almost two hours before the rest of his team showed up to save him.
Kill Number Thirteen was a failure. But you can't blame him. Suicide is a little hard when you're on sedatives in the hospital.
Kill Number Fourteen was a team assassination mission. It was then that he first glimpsed that shock of silver hair that would later become so familiar to him, even though the face was hidden by a polished white ANBU mask at the time.
Kill Number Fifteen was while Sandaime was fighting Orochimaru in the chaos immediately following the Chuunin Exams. Konohamaru, worried about his grandfather, had decided he would go save him himself, but he soon found himself cornered by a Sound nin. Instantly Iruka was there, slashing out with his kunai at the other shinobi's neck, splattering blood on both himself and the young child.
Konohamaru's resulting trauma lasted for months, and Iruka never forgave himself for that.
Kill Number Sixteen was his worst. It happened six months after Naruto left with Jiraiya. He was on one of his rare missions out of the country, and the victim was a child. A small, five-year-old boy who had been told by some fucked-up missing-nin that if he decked himself with explosive tags, walked into the middle of the small village, and detonated them, he would be able to see his dead mother again.
Iruka saved hundreds of lives that day. But that didn't matter to him. Kakashi immediately sensed that something was wrong the instant Iruka entered the mission room to turn in his report, and he followed Iruka home and found him sobbing in the center of his kitchen. Kakashi took him in his arms and told him it would be all right.
They became lovers that night.
Kill Number Seventeen was after another great prison break in Konoha. Mizuki tried to kill him; Iruka tried right back. Except he succeeded.
He felt no remorse.
Kill Numbers Eighteen to Twenty-One were the enemy nin Iruka found in the hidden bunker, surrounding a bleeding and broken Kakashi. They had done horrible, atrocious things to Konoha's Copy-Nin in a futile attempt to get him to divulge his village's secrets, and Iruka showed no mercy when he descended upon them.
Kill Number Twenty-Two was the hardest, and he almost couldn't do it. But Kakashi begged him to, and so he did. The tears blurred his vision as he slit his lover's throat.
Kill Number Twenty-Three was his last, and also his best. It ended everything, and put his name on the memorial stone next to Kakashi's, sealing them together for eternity.
Umino Iruka only ever made twenty-three kills throughout his ninja career.