OK, you asked me for more and I FINALLY broke through writer's block for this chapter! UGH.. never before was writer's block so VICIOUS! Any way, I hope you like this second chapter!
Chapter Two: Two Teachers
Iruka was more thinly built than the other ninja in the village his age. He was more soft spoken and friendly than the others as well. With a pleasant smile for any who crossed his path, and a near endless supply of patients for children he was seen by almost all as kind and selfless.
As a teacher by day he honed his child rearing skills to near perfection. Hardly a semester went by where some child outcast did not receive phenomenal support and care beyond his education. So doting was Iruka over his students that many times he could be seen on lunch treating one to raman.
After school by night, when his young pupils were all safely tucked away at home, Iruka took on his other duties as a trusted member of the Hokage's office. Seated in the ever busy report room he diligently, read, sorted, and filed all incoming reports. So many hours had he spent behind the desk here, buried in paper work, that he'd acquired the name of Paper Work Ninja. While it had absolutely no sparkle out side of the Hokage tower walls, with in the towing building it was only spoken with the utmost respect. The Paper Work Ninja had access to nearly all the reports in the building. If the Hokage could read them so could he, no questions asked.
This unbarred allowance gave the soft spoken, kind hearted ninja unlimited access to every secret ever born by ink to paper from every Hokage age. Such was the regard for him with in the fortified walls that as he walked through lesser ranked Ninja would step aside and bow. Iruka being of the temperament he was, would stop and greet them with an even lower bow, flowed by a genuine inquiry to their well being.
From his years of gentle labour and passive nature he looked on first glance less capable to fight than the other ninja, and even less than some civilians.
This made him no less terrifying as he stormed the normally tranquil halls clutching a crumpled report like a Kunai battle ready. The polite lesser ninja fled from him as he tossed a venomous glare at any who would stray in to his path. With knuckles white around white paper he lifted his fist and pondered on the Hokage's door before slamming it open. Nostrils flared, eyes pierced the over bright room and landed on Tsunade's face, a predator honed in on unsuspecting pray. Tsunade looked up bewildered, her mouth half open with a bean bun only an inch from being devoured whole.
So startling was it to see Iruka, the gentle Paper Work Ninja, fuming in unbridled rage that she didn't have the presence of mind to be angry for the interruption of her breakfast. She glanced at the paper, twice, to make sure it wasn't a dagger, before setting the bean bun down.
"What is the meaning of this?" He thrust the paper towards her and only her unmentioned number of decades of ninja training allowed her not to flinch back.
"Calm down, set that paper on my desk, close the door, and take a seat, Iruka." She spoke in calm, cold words, hoping her voice held enough authority to remind him that, despite his well deserved trusted position, he was still just a paper pusher. He glared for several long moments before slamming the paper down then slamming the door shut. There was another long moment before he took a shaking breath.
"Now sit down."
"I'd like to remain standing!" He snapped back almost before she could finish her sentence. Frowning she leaned back in her chair and casually picked up the report.
"Fine. Stand then." She knew when to push, and when to let go. Picking battles carefully had afforded her not only her life, but her position. "But do so quietly and facing the window or the door, do not look at me with those angry eyes. What ever it is, I didn't do it to you or any one else."
She glanced over the paper as he rubbed his hand over his head and stepped stiffly to the window. Silently he leaned forward and rested his palms on the sill. A second later he let out a rough breath.
Satisfied he was at least still obedient, if only a bit agitated, she read the report over. It had been written two nights before by Kakashi and she had yet to read it. Due to his injured state she had allowed him time to recover the use of his arms before he tried to write the report. Sakura had turned hers in, followed shortly by Naruto's. She'd read both reports and found them to be satisfactory and un-alarming. Kakashi's looked no different to her and echoed all of the previous statements.
The report was characteristically dry, void of any unnecessary detail, and clear to understand. She had to read it twice to pick up any thing that may upset the Paper Work Ninja, but what ever it had been she could not see it in Kakashi's words. The mission had been a success for all members of the team. Gara of the sand had been recovered and now both the Leaf and the Sand were mending old deep wounds.
As she read it over a second time she could hear Iruka letting out another agitated breath. Glancing up she smiled just so to see he was still fixed willingly to the window. He still knew his place under her thumb, so she decided that if he continued to mind his position she would forgive him for interrupting her breakfast.
"Every thing I see here is as far as I know as it should be. Every thing about this report is positive for the People of the Leaf. The Akatsuki are one man down and one man wounded."
Iruka's head snapped up and he shot her a withered look. "How was the other member wounded? Read it again." There was fire in his eyes and a bite to his words.
She glanced back at the paper and read it over slowly. "The Mangekyo Sharingan." As soon as she said it she felt a cold chill race down her spine. "Oh..."
"Are you aware of what this means?" Iruka asked coldly. "Do you know how one must acquire the Mangekyo Sharingan?"
She looked back up at him and forced her face in to a calm mask of authority. "Of course I do. This Sharingan can only be activated by a traumatic event such as a death or grave injury to some one the Sharingan wilder knows and cares about."
Iruka pushed him self of the window sill and stepped up to her desk. "I've gone over every report from Kakashi written in the last five years. Not one mentions the Mangekyo Sharingan. Why now? How did he get it? When?!"
Tsunade leaned back, partly to appear calm and collected, and partly to distance her self from Iruka's razor blade chakra that was whipping out from every inch of his body. "First, before all else, we have to remember Kakashi is NOT an Uchiha. He may have spontaneously reached the Mangekyo Sharingan with out a traumatising event."
"I thought of that." Iruka half hissed. "But then I found this." From his back pocket he pulled another report and thrust it her way. She glanced at it then up in to his blazing eyes before taking it. In silence she opened it and scanned it's contents. "Iruka this. . ."
Again she glanced up at his dark eyes. "I know." Was all he could manage.
Through white hot agony and sweat Kakashi knew he was seeing things. He was seeing strange dancing shapes over Naruto that looked like fox tails and ears. But with Naruto sleeping all night and only the dark oozing chakra flowing out of his form Kakashi knew that there was no chance the Fox was getting though. Still the images danced. A tail would bubble up, almost inappreciable if you weren't focused on the chakra entirely, then dissolve like a flame that had gone too high. Ears would pluck up and shiver before slowly fading and claws, like razor blades teased the sheets and linens.
Through wave after wave of pain Kakashi tried to understand what he was seeing. He was exhausted. His body was depleted of energy. His mind was filling with fog. It was so very hard to breath.
The ears and tail swayed like leaves in the breeze. Claws plucked at the pillowcase. For many more minutes it came and went, each time growing stronger before vanishing. Then, after the moon had set and the wind died the shimmering chakra grew and remained. At that point Naruto had started to moan and twist in his covers. The sound, light as it was, snapped Kakashi from his hazy state and he realised the fox cloak was real. It wasn't made of fire, but of Naruto's own chakra.
Shifting on his own bed Kakashi leaned towards his student and studied the strange sight. With out his Sharingan it was hard to see the chakra at all, but it WAS there. He called Naruto's name out and the fox cloak dissolved. Naruto fell back to sleep in an instant. But it was only seconds before the tail started to reform.
Focusing hard Kakashi pulled every scrap of energy he had in to his eye to form the Sharingan. Having used almost every last ounce of energy it had shut down, some thing that happened very rarely. It was weak but he could make out more clearly what he was seeing. While Naruto was very much asleep Kyubi was very much awake. From the stomach thin lines of energy were flowing out and up. Forcing the Sharingan to reshape Kakashi wove a little of his own energy in to Naruto's. It wasn't much, just enough to make a very small genjitsu had his student been awake, but it was enough to suppress the fox.
He could only hold it for a moment before his energy gave out with a river of lava like agony pouring through his body. The tail and ears reshaped in an instant. Kakashi rode the hot river of pain for a minute before it calmed, turning to a small stream.
He could hardly breath.
Still the fox was there, and still he had a promise to keep. He'd have to temper his Sharingan use and only apply it when the chakra oozing out was stabilised. That way he could keep it from harming Naruto until the blond awoke.
The dance of dark energy and red hot pain waltzed through the room like courting devils all night. No sooner would he chase the nightmares away then they would return. But Naruto was sleeping and by morning's light Kakashi could see the colour was coming back to his cheeks. The fox hadn't given up, however, and started to work harder and faster. The more Naruto slept the less the fox seemed the bother him and the less the fox bothered him the harder it tried to do just that.
By dawn the pain rolling though Kakashi has become more than just lava. If it were possible he wondered if the fox was now in side of him, eating him alive from the inside out.
His mind was consumed with the images of tails and ears and claws and his body was melting under electric acid and fire.
Just as darkness was creeping in to the corners of his vision, a sure sign he was about to pass out, there was a rough knock at the door. He tore his gaze off of Naruto to see his other student entering with a tray of medical supplies. She spotted him and yelped. The tray hit the floor and Naruto sat straight up with a cry all his own.
Kakashi grit his teeth as all the sound and movement overwhelmed him sending his mind to reeling and the pain to wash over him completely. The light was fading quickly and he knew he couldn't remain conscious any longer.
Sakura stood, shocked, as Kakashi, who she FULLY EXPECTED to be sleeping soundly, was in-fact hunched over and gasping for air like a man being strangled. His whole chest was heaving with the effort and a thin sheen of sweat had soaked his cloths, sheets and mask. Big cloudy drops were clinging to his brow and falling in sloppy splatters over the covers. Naruto, who for reasons Sakura could not fathom had been sleeping on the other bed, sprung to live with a startled cry.
The blond gazed wildly at her like a frightened animal for a moment, before turning to Kakashi. "Sensi!" He sprung out of bed, stumbling a little as he fought the tangled sheets, and came to a jilted halt next to Kakashi's bed. "Deep breaths!"
Kakashi closed his eyes and dipped his head, still fighting for air and shaking. "N. . .Nar. . ."
"Shhh." Naruto hushed him and reached out, rubbing the older Ninja's back. "Just breath."
Kakashi alternatively gasped and grunted for several moments as Naruto tended to him. Sakura, unsure of just what was going on, held back and slowly knelt to pick up the contents of the tray. She wasn't sure just what she'd walked in on, and she wasn't going to rush the situation until she understood it better. Glancing up to assess her teacher she caught Naruto's hollow worried eyes.
'Do some thing!' He mouthed to her desperately. She abandoned the ruse of straightening up and stepped up to the bed.
"Kakashi Sensei?" She prodded gently.
He crushed his eyes closed and tried to speak, but it came out as a low stilted groan. His fingers tangled them selves in the bed sheets and turned white at the knuckles. She glanced up at Naruto who was glancing up at her.
"What is going ON in here?"
Naruto's mouth moved, but no words formed.
Kakashi started to go limp, distracting her from Naruto for the moment. "We need to lay him down."
"Right." Naruto carefully pulled Kakashi back in to the pillow and held him there as he writhed a bit. "Just relax." He said in as soothing a voice as he could muster. If Kakashi had heard him he didn't respond.
Sakura laid her hands on her trembling teacher's chest. "Go get Tsunade, Naruto."
He was gone before she could blink.
