You're sick of feeling numb,
You're not the only one,
I'll take you by the hand,
And I'll show you a world that you can understand,
This life is filled with hurt.-Pain-Three Day's Grace


The tree trunks were scorched. There was a burnt circle of ground that smelled of wet ash. The ground was saturated, and the grass was trying to grow back green. It wouldn't manage it with the Kyuubi roaming about, but it would try. Grass never gave up.

Kakashi stood and looked at the hawk ANBU. "He what?"

The ANBU waved a hand towards the edge of the clearing, which was completely dry. "He threw the mission."

Kakashi's visible eyebrow went up. "He panicked, I suppose?"

The ANBU shook his head. "No, he walked out to the appointed spot and got the Kyuubi to come, like we thought he would, but right before the trap triggered he warned it." The ANBU growled.

"He warned the Kyuubi? This is the Umino Iruka whose parents were killed by the Kyuubi, right?" Kakashi pressed as he looked over the clearing. "How many did we lose?"

"Yes, the same, and as for casualties," The ANBU shrugged. "None. A few broken bones and one half drowned, but no one died."

"That's better than out other attempts," Kakashi mused. "Could the Kyuubi's chakra have influenced Iruka?"

The ANBU frowned. "If it had he would have stopped running by now, I'm sure."

"You're still chasing him?" Kakashi fixed the ANBU with an incredulous look. "How many ANBU?"

"Three, but one came back after landing on a branch covered in caltrops," the hawk ANBU reported. "Iruka's reserves must be almost empty. The man hasn't been on a real mission for six years now, and he hasn't taken a mission higher than 'B' before. We'll catch him soon."

"Do you know why he hasn't been on a mission for so long?" Kakashi asked.

"No, do you?" The ANBU returned the question.

"He was considered unsuitable for them soon after he reached Chuunin, but he was allowed to teach at the Shinobi Academy. What would make a shinobi unfit for active duty, but still capable of teaching?" Kakashi hummed to himself. "An injury is out of the question, since he's avoiding ANBU.

The hawk ANBU grunted. "Or not. If it's an old injury it could be slow to affect him. We'll know soon enough when he's caught."

Kakashi looked at the burnt ground. "The Kyuubi didn't kill anyone? It didn't attack Iruka?"

"It didn't even feint towards him, and it disappeared the moment Iruka warned it about the trap," the ANBU was growling now.

"What did Iruka say to warn it?" Kakashi asked.

"Shouted: 'Naruto, move', and the Kyuubi got away, again." The ANBU followed Kakashi's gaze to the burnt ground, and a wind began to blow. It carried a musky scent.


Dead trees required a completely different amount of chakra. The trees he was running along weren't dead, but they were dormant. They repelled chakra rather then gently attracting it. It was easy to misjudge a step and slip.

Iruka couldn't afford a mistake like that. He'd lost the first ANBU by dumb luck and a quick hand, but the remaining two were wary. They were hanging back and not running close together. It would be impossible to get rid of both of them at once, but he had to get rid of them.

There was no turning back now. He could have stayed in the clearing with the ANBU and just said he'd lost his nerve. He could have said that the Kyuubi just looked so much like Naruto he panicked. He could have done any number of things and just been reprimanded, but what he had done had labeled him as a traitor. They would never accept him back now, and he didn't want to go back.

Iruka pushed off another tree branch, and leapt higher into the canopy. Without leaves travel by tree-top was easier, but it was also harder to hide. Iruka needed some way to get out of sight so he could set some sort of trap. Iruka's hands began forming signs as his mind began forming a plan. Iruka hadn't been Konoha's number one prankster for nothing.

Two clones appeared. One jumped off to the left behind a tree, and the second stopped and tried to tackle the closest ANBU. It missed, but the dodging ANBU was immediately slapped in the chest with a branch as thick as Iruka's thigh. The ANBU flew backwards and fell. The remaining ANBU threw a handful of kunai at Iruka, two of which skimmed his left arm and the third stuck right above his elbow.

Iruka threw a kunai blindly back as he forced chakra back into his legs and feet. His muscles were all burning, and he had a stitch in his side. He'd been running for what had to be two hours. He couldn't, and wasn't, counting on the ANBU being tired. Iruka mentally blessed all the students he'd had to chase down over the years. Without them he would have collapsed long ago.

Iruka was distantly aware that his clone was keeping pace with the ANBU a few feet behind and to the left of them. Iruka's arm, where he'd been hit with the ANBU's kunai, was becoming numb. Poison was something Iruka hadn't been counting on. It was spreading slowly, but the faster his heart beat the faster the poison would spread. He didn't have long before his arm would he useless.

'So act now.' Iruka thought to himself. He jumped down a few branches, and made an only half controlled descent to the forest floor. His arm was numbing, he was low on chakra, and he was tired. He wouldn't survive a long battle. He had to finish it quickly.

Iruka whipped around, and was faced with a veritable cloud of kunai and shuriken. He jumped back, but several hit his legs. He dodged the ANBU's punch aimed at his stomach, and jerked three of the more firmly lodged shuriken out of his calf. He threw them at the ANBU, who deflected them easily.

The ANBU paused for a moment, and its masked face looked at Iruka. The ANBU were elite. Everyone, especially shinobi, knew the ANBU were Konoha's best. Shinobi children looked at the ANBU with awe, and knew, while the ANBU were dangerous, they would never be hurt by one because they were Konoha's future. Iruka had thought that too when he was a child.

Iruka blocked a kicked aimed at his head, and caught a punch thrown at his stomach. A kunai slashed across his shoulder, but he managed to slam his own kunai into the ANBU's arm. It wasn't a disabling hit, but it would slow the ANBU down a little. Iruka threw a double handful of kunai at the ANBU, and watched it dodge.

The ANBU blocked a punch aimed at him, and nearly wrenched Iruka's arm out of socket. Iruka rolled with the pull and landed hard on his back. He pulled the ANBU forward, and the ANBU turned the motion into a somersault over Iruka. Iruka jerked his arm free and jumped to his feet. The ANBU landed awkwardly.

Iruka's remaining clone suddenly dropped down from a nearby tree, straight for the ANBU. Iruka jumped backwards twice. The ANBU turned to face the apparently unarmed clone and moved back slowly, out from under the clone's drop. The movement didn't help him much. The clone, gifted with an explosive tag at its birth, exploded before it hit the ground and sent the ANBU flying.

Iruka stood still for a moment, and then limped over to where the ANBU lay. The ANBU wasn't dead, but he was unconscious. Iruka stepped back from the ANBU, and began pulled kunai and shuriken from his body. Only the first batch had been poisoned, but his arm was now totally numb, and the poison was still spreading.

Iruka took a moment to gather up some stray shuriken and kunai. He had a feeling if he stopped moving he wouldn't be able to move again. Iruka gingerly limped away from the ANBU. He was covered in tiny cuts and puncture wounds. The worst wounds he had were the gash on his shoulder and the poisoned stab wound above his elbow. He only had weak generic antidote to try to treat the poison with, but maybe it would.

Maybe.


Asuma looked at Kakashi, who was sitting serenely in the clearing. His eye was closed, and his posture looked utterly relaxed. Asuma refrained form moving. If he moved too quickly he'd end up with a kunai in an uncomfortable place. Kakashi only looked relaxed. He was really keyed up. Asuma had known the man long enough to read him well.

Asuma gently cleared his throat and shifted his stance against one of the large trees. The base of the tree was scarred with many claw marks, and Asuma was fairly confident he knew what had made those marks. This part of the woods smelled especially strong of the Kyuubi. The clinging order was nauseating.

Kakashi's shoulders twitched, and he slowly stood up. Three different nin-dogs ran into the clearing, and Kakashi walked forward to meet them. Asuma wished he had a cigarette, and followed Kakashi. He kept looking up into the trees, wary of the Kyuubi. The thing was amazingly stealthy for a creature that radiated a rancid stench and enough chakra for ten shinobi.

Kakashi's dogs disappeared in a puff of smoke, and Kakashi sighed lightly.

"No luck, huh?" Asuma guessed.

"The Kyuubi's scent over powers any other smell after a while, and I think he walked down a stream for a bit. I suppose he could have fallen in and drowned," Kakashi mused. He didn't seem very bothered by the day's events.

"Pretty amazing that a Chuunin got away from three ANBU," Asuma observed.

"They under-estimated him, and I suppose he just had a little luck on his side," Kakashi said, and he voiced what Asuma was thinking as well. There was no way a Chuunin was competent enough to take down three ANBU with his skill alone.

"How are the ANBU doing?" Kakashi asked.

"Well, one got away with holes all in his feet, the second has a cracked sternum and a broken ankle, and the third has first degree burns on his arms and legs and a concussion," Asuma shrugged. "Other than that they're fine. They might die of shame when the word gets out they were beaten by a Chuunin, however."

"I hope they learn from this." Kakashi looked around the dead trees and his shoulders gave a small shrug. "There's nothing more we can do here." With that the shinobi jumped up the nearest tree and launched himself away into the branches. Asuma followed close behind him.

It didn't really matter that the Chuunin had gotten away. Tomorrow they would catch him.


By the night fell Iruka's left arm was not numb, but it ached. His right shoulder, both cut and strained, refused to move much. His legs ached from overuse, and he was dangerously low on chakra. He'd used the last bit he dared to climb up an almost branchless tree to sleep in a large hollow. He'd had to chase several birds out of it, but he couldn't find anywhere else to rest.

Iruka had washed his wounds and bandaged them with the meager supplies he'd brought with him. He hadn't expected to do anything this morning but draw out the Kyuubi and he hadn't needed much for that. He carried bandages, an all purpose antidote (which was weak but worked well on small things), and wound salve with him at all times from habit. Children were constantly swallowing things they shouldn't, or cutting themselves on things they shouldn't be able to cut themselves on, and Iruka found it easier to deal with the injury himself rather than send the child to the school nurse.

Iruka would have chuckled if he weren't worried some one would hear him. The skills and habits he had learned from teaching for the past six years were the ones that had kept him alive so long. He knew standard procedure better than most shinobi on active duty did. He knew more about the individual clans than many shinobi outside the clans did. He knew how they would go about finding him. He knew.

Iruka closed his eyes but had to open them again. Every time he closed his eyes he saw the Kyuubi. No, it was Naruto too. Somewhere inside that changed body Naruto was still alive. He hadn't been completely crushed by the Kyuubi's presence yet, and that meant there was a chance to get Naruto back.

The people in charge, the Grand Council, knew that. That was why Iruka had been selected to lure the Kyuubi-Naruto into a trap to kill it. It was true that over the past six months the Kyuubi had been wreaking havoc in Konoha, though the creature mostly stayed in the woods right outside Konoha. Anyone who entered the Kyuubi's woods was attacked and most had died.

Iruka leaned his head back against the tree and winced. Naruto was still alive, and it was possible to get him back. No one else seemed to care. Getting rid of the Kyuubi was more important to them than getting Naruto back. No one had ever been truly comfortable with the Kyuubi's prison running loose in Konoha, and now they had a chance to get rid of him and a good reason to do it.

Naruto had been an outcast from the day of his birth. No one had loved him, or even been kind to him. Iruka, at least, had been loved by his parents, until they had died fighting the Kyuubi. Naruto had had no one. He'd saved Konoha by use of his infant body and, while receiving no thanks for his first task, had decided to become a shinobi. Naruto had decided to dedicate his life to preserving a village that had done nothing but condemn and ridicule him from birth, and now they were trying to kill him.

The thought made Iruka's blood boil. They could try, but Iruka wasn't going to let them kill Naruto just to get rid of the Kyuubi. He was still disgusted and enraged that they had tried to use him and whatever consciousness Naruto had left to kill Naruto and the Kyuubi. There had to be another way.

'But this way is easier for them.' Iruka thought bitterly as his body began relaxing. He wasn't going to let Naruto get killed. He'd find away to get the boy back in control of his body, or get rid of the Kyuubi with out killing him. He closed his eyes, again seeing the Kyuubi-Naruto and remembered the blood stained claws.

But..what if Naruto didn't want to come back after what the Kyuubi had done? Iruka remembered at least ten shinobi had been killed by the Kyuubi, but he hadn't paid much attention after the first few deaths. He hadn't wanted to know. Would Naruto even want to live after his body had been used to kill so many shinobi of Konoha? Would he blame himself for the Kyuubi's appearance? Would killing Naruto now be doing the boy a favor?

Iruka's whole body shuddered at the thought of killing Naruto. He'd learned long ago life wasn't fair, but that didn't mean he liked it. Maybe his reasoning was selfish and biased, but he didn't want to kill Naruto. Iruka knew Naruto couldn't let the Kyuubi out on purpose, and he wasn't even sure Naruto, with his poor chakra control and inability to understand complex jutsu, would know how to tamper with the seal on his belly. However the Kyuubi had gotten out Naruto wasn't at fault.

Iruka knew about necessary sacrifice. He knew, for the sake of Konoha, the Kyuubi had to be eliminated before it killed more people. So far the Kyuubi was content to stay in its patch of dead trees, but that could change. He understood the reasoning that even if Naruto was still alive the Kyuubi's vessel needed to be killed, but that didn't mean he agreed with it. There was a possibility that killing Naruto's body would release the Kyuubi completely. That would make an even bigger mess than the one they already had.

Iruka shifted a bit and rubbed a cramp out of his calf. There was nowhere for him to go but forward. He'd chosen Naruto over Konoha. Someone, he felt, needed to be on the boy's side for once. Iruka would get Naruto back, no matter what. If the boy wanted to die he could make that decision himself. Iruka wasn't going to decide if Naruto should or wanted to die. He couldn't.

Iruka leaned his head against the hard bark and half closed his eyes. His muscles, especially his leg muscles, burned, and he knew he'd be stiff in the morning. He would have to move to a different hiding spot sometime in the night, but for now he needed rest. Tomorrow he was certain he'd be chased again. He was sure he'd only gotten away today because the ANBU had under-estimated him. Tomorrow would be harder. Iruka was wounded, and one night of fitful sleep wouldn't restore even half his chakra.

Some creature in the night screamed, and Iruka tensed. His abused body screamed in protest, and he slowly relaxed. He let his eyes drift further closed, and let the image of the Kyuubi-Naruto burn into his mind. That was what he had to stop. That was what he had to save. That was what he had to keep all the shinobi of Konoha from killing while keeping himself alive too.

Tomorrow would be a day born in Hell.


A/N:And here Samurai101 tries to write action scenes and just confuses everyone. Here, also, Iruka angsts and thinks. The prologue didn't stand well alone, and needed the first chapter to prop itself up with.

Thanks to those who reviewed the prologue, and, if you liked or hated this, please review and tell me.

Jaa ne.