The Curse:
Chapter 3
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"So what have you found out about the curse so far?" Anko asked Kakashi. The masked man glared at her (which pretty much meant his visible eye was narrowed, which also happened when he was smiling, watching something intently, or about to execute a ninjutsu from Suna, so it might not have had the desired effect); He was supposed to be doing the questioning, but as soon as he had sat Anko down and told her he needed to know about her history with Iruka and the curse, she had taken over his interrogation.
"Not much. Iruka thinks if someone gets too close to him, they get hurt. The reason I'm asking you is because I'm lacking information." Kakashi explained in his 'talking to a dumb genin' voice.
"I was his first kiss." Anko told him. "We were both at a party the night before I left on a mission to a strange island with my jounin sensei. We played all of those games kids play at parties, and Iruka-kun and I ended up kissing each other."
'What does that have to do with the curse?' Kakashi wondered.
"While on that mission," Anko continued, "my master betrayed our village, placed a cursed seal on me, and wiped my memories. Orochimaru really was a bastard."
"Orochimaru was a bastard before all that. His betrayal wasn't Iruka's fault." Kakashi snapped. He couldn't believe Anko would even consider Iruka to be guilty of that! No wonder he didn't want to be in a relationship, if people kept blaming things like that on him.
"I know. It's just…bad things happen to the people Iruka gets close to. Maybe it's just coincident. Go down this list and you'll see. I don't want to believe it, and I've tried to convince Iruka that it has nothing to do with him, but…well…go visit these people and you'll see." Anko looked away sadly.
Kakashi stood up and left Anko sitting there. The next name on the list was a chuunin like Iruka, a kunoichi who did mostly paperwork. The Copy Nin located her within minutes.
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Kakashi observed Hagane Hitomi (a distant cousin of Kotetsu, he figured), the second name on the list, before he entered her office. She seemed like an Iruka-like woman; she filed papers quickly and efficiently, she spoke softly to the people who came in and out of her office, and she had sloppily colored pictures posted on a bulletin board, lovingly given by children that adored her.
"You once had a relationship with Umino Iruka." Kakashi stated as an introduction. "I need to know the extent of your relationship, and the existence, if any, of a curse associated with said relationship." He loved making his statements circle around people's heads like hungry vultures, loved watching their minds whirl to comprehend the long-winded loops of information he threw at them.
"The curse, huh? I admire your resolve, but just give up now, jounin-san. You'll only get hurt." Hitomi told him, not even looking up from her papers.
"I don't give up before even making an attempt." Kakashi shot back at her.
"Fine. The extent of my relationship with Iruka, you ask? I made out with him a time or two, back when we were teenagers and he was desperate for attention."
"And was there any curse?" Kakashi asked eagerly. He leaned forward.
Hitomi slid her chair back from her desk and stood up. She was dressed in standard ninja garb, except for her legs. Where most shinobi wore bandages, she wore armor on her legs, rather like Anko.
"Do you know why I wear these?" The kunoichi asked, pointing to the armor.
"To protect your legs in battle." Kakashi replied immediately. What else was armor for?
Hitomi shook her head and began to loosen the straps that bound the armor around her ankle and just under her knee. When she pulled the protective plate away, she revealed pale flesh that was marred by angry, jagged red scars. The other leg was bared as well, and showed similar damage.
"I wear this armor because I can barely walk without it. I went on a solo C-rank mission the evening Iruka and I got together, and something went wrong. I got caught by the enemy, and they slashed the tendons in my legs to ensure I couldn't run away. I barely escaped. I don't take missions anymore because I walk with a limp. Without this armor supporting me, I would collapse if I tried to take a step."
Hitomi strapped the armor back into place and hobbled back to her chair. Kakashi was stunned. He said nothing.
"I don't blame Iruka for this, just so you know." She whispered. "I tried to stay with him, after I got my injury, but I was too depressed about never being able to complete missions, and we drifted apart. When I heard about the things that happened to the others, though…it almost made me glad I stopped seeing him when I did. Iruka doesn't cause these things to happen, but bad luck follows him. Keep your distance, jounin-san." Hitomi warned.
Kakashi gave the woman a cold stare. "A little bad luck is no reason to give up on a man like Iruka. I'm sorry you've met ill fortune. Thank you for your time."
As Kakashi slipped out of the door, he wondered exactly when he had started considering Iruka worth getting hurt for.
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The next woman on Kakashi's list was much like Hitomi. She had been Iruka's girlfriend for only two days before she had taken a katana in her back during her routine training. There was still a deep scar on her back which she lifted up her shirt to show Kakashi.
The injuries didn't prove anything about a curse, of course. Iruka was probably just attracted to accident-prone women. Kakashi thought that anyone that would give up on him so easily didn't deserve to be with Iruka.
The next woman was the first of the five deceased. The Copy Ninja wasn't sure how he was going to interview her, barring forbidden ninjutsu. He went to the Memorial Stone and found her name carved in tiny, perfect script.
"Did you know Natsumi?" A voice asked from behind him. Kakashi blinked and turned around.
"Huh?"
"You were pointing to her name. Did you know her?" The woman behind him asked again.
"No. I was just trying to find out something. Were you a friend of hers?"
The woman, it turned out, had been Natsumi's best friend, and knew all the nitty gritty details of her relationships (why was it that men were pigs when they talked about their exploits, yet women could gossip all they wanted, and it was considered normal, Kakashi wondered?).
"Natsumi met Iruka in the Mission Room, and they dated for about a month. Remind me why this is any of your business again." The friend said.
"You've heard about Iruka's curse, right?" The woman nodded. "I'm trying to break it." Kakashi explained. The woman must have interpreted that differently that Kakashi had meant, though, because she gave him a knowing look and surrendered the information.
"Natsumi and Iruka-kun slept together the night before she went on the mission that she lost her life on." The woman began sniffling. "I walked with her out of the village the next morning. She was so happy that day, but the next time I saw her, she was being carried in on a stretcher, all beaten and bloody."
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The next few names on the list went the same way. The women that Iruka kissed were left with scars, the ones he tried to go further with suffered even more. The women that Iruka had had sex with were dead (accounting for two more on the deceased list). Kakashi had gotten down to the point where the names changed from female to male. Strangely enough, the first male was Raido.
'The man could have said something when I was at his damn house!' Kakashi thought. The scarred jounin loved pissing him off.
Kakashi sped back over to Genma and Raido's apartment and climbed in their window. "Out." He ordered Genma.
"Talk now." He ordered Raido, after Genma sulked out.
"What's the magic word?" Raido teased.
"I've got a kunai?" Kakashi asked, waving one menacingly.
"That works. After girlfriend number three bit the dust, Iruka went out to a bar and we met up and had a few drinks. He said he thought he was cursed with women, so I asked if he had ever considered men. He hadn't, and he was drunk enough to consider experimenting."
"Experimenting?" Kakashi prompted.
"Yeah, you know. We made out, and I ended up showing him some of the fun-er aspects of man-man sex." Kakashi gave him a blunt stare. "Fine! I gave him a blow job, okay? You're acting like a jealous boyfriend, man!"
"So what happened to you after?" Kakashi asked, eager to get the images out of his head (the ones of Raido as quickly as he could, those of drunk, experimenting Iruka a little more reluctantly).
"This scar." Raido answered, pointing to the disfigurement that spread from his nose onto his left cheek.
"You seem to have gotten off a whole lot easier than the women did, if all you got for sucking him off was a scar." Kakashi pointed out. Maybe there was hope! To break the curse, that was, and prove Gai wrong; not for Kakashi to date Iruka, or anything like that…
"This isn't just a scar. The reason the scar tissue is so strange is because the blade that gave me the wound was scalding hot and laced with poison. I was unconscious for three days after it happened, and I would have died if Tsunade hadn't been the medical-nin that cared for me." Raido explained in a flat voice.
"Oh." Kakashi opened his mental mouth and shoved a proverbial foot inside.
"I tried to see him again, after I recovered, but he wouldn't. I think he blamed himself, for some reason. It was half a year before he would even look at another man."
The way that Raido's voice trailed off told Kakashi that the jounin didn't have anything else to tell. He left and went to find the next man on the list.
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AN: I can't write any more tonight. I'm soooo tired. I meant to finish this on the weekend and post it, but my little sister was having a birthday party, and everything has been chaotic for a few days.
I hope this isn't turning out too badly, IcySapphire. It probably isn't what you were planning on getting, but I hope that once I get a little more time, it will get better.
Next Chapter: The final names on the list (hint- the last one is going to be important!), and Iruka finds out that Kakashi is still asking around about him. Confrontation!
