Iruka balanced the large stack of assignments in one arm, as he used the other to unseal the front door. It had been a long day. His students had been afflicted with the Friday jitters, and could hardly be bothered to pay attention in their anticipation of getting out for the weekend. After staying behind with the detention kids, the chunin made his way to the Mission Room, which had been packed with shinobi who'd procrastinated turning in their reports, and wanted to get it over with before the weekend. Sometimes jounin could be as bad as pre-genin about turning in their work properly.
Iruka was looking forward to the weekend as well. He loved his students, but that two day reprieve from the classroom was quite welcomed. Not to mention he'd gotten his first Saturday off from the Mission Desk in several months. The sensei considered how to make use of this rare free day. When was the last time he had visited a hot spring?
The chunin suddenly noticed that he was not alone in the apartment. There was Kakashi, sleeping on the sofa.
Iruka couldn't help but sigh in relief. The Copy Ninja's return was overdue and he'd been starting to worry. Setting the papers down on the coffee table, Iruka knelt down and gently tapped his shoulder. "Welcome back, Kakashi-san."
The lack of response was his first clue that something was gravely wrong.
"Kakashi-san?" The shake on the shoulder was a little more firm this time. His heart quickened as he moved to tap the jounin's face. "Kakashi?"
His breathing was normal, but his pulse was slow, the languid beat of flowing blood only barely discernable. His skin was icy to the touch, yet soaked with sweat.
Iruka withdrew a shuriken from the holster on his thigh and nicked his own fingertip, quickly opening a summoning scroll. Tracing blood on the seal, the chunin called for his summon using the appropriate hand seals.
Smoke billowed up and quickly cleared, revealing a diminutive light brown sparrow with dark intelligent eyes; it's wings and head patterned with dark brown markings.
Iruka skipped the greetings. "Sora-san, I need you to fly to the hospital. Find a medic, preferably Tsunade-sama, and tell them…" he paused, having no idea what was wrong with the jounin, "Tell them Kakashi-san needs immediate medical attention. Bring someone back with you. Hurry!"
Sora chirped affirmatively and in her spry manner set off at once.
Confident that help would not be long in coming, Iruka turned his attention back to Kakashi, alarmed that his breathing was becoming increasingly labored. The jounin was lying on his side, and Iruka checked for signs of broken vertebrae that would make it unsafe to move him. Seeing nothing apparent, he risked rolling the man onto his back, relieving pressure from his chest that could hinder his lungs from expanding.
He hesitated as he looked at the mask, currently an obstacle to the Copy Nin's troubled breathing.
Kakashi had never shown Iruka his face. Could he betray the other's trust by removing that mask now?
The absurdity of his hesitance sunk in. Kakashi was having trouble breathing. He'd do whatever was needed to save the jounin's life. "Forgive me, Kakashi." With that, he pulled the mask downward, fully expecting to reveal horrid scars, disfigured flesh- some kind of deformity that the jounin needed to hide to keep from alarming people or getting stared at.
He was taken aback to find nothing of the sort. If people stared, it would be for an entirely different reason. The sensei hadn't time to notice much beyond the fact that the jounin was strikingly handsome. He opened Kakashi's mouth to make sure the air passage was clear before moving his examination downward.
Cutting away Kakashi's shirt, half-expecting the man to wake up and make some inappropriate joke, Iruka noticed several sluggishly bleeding wounds. He passed over these for the moment, looking for a more dangerous injury that could explain his current state. No punctures in his gut or lungs. No injury severe enough in itself to be life-threatening. Perhaps he'd merely passed out from a combination of blood loss and exhaustion?
The examination moved further downward. Now would be a good time to wake up and embarrass me, Iruka silently pleaded as he cut the fabric of Kakashi's pants, being careful not to pull at the fibers that were stuck to the abrasions on his legs, lest the wounds reopened. The chunin breathed in sharply when he finally discovered the culprit behind the jounin's state of unconsciousness.
A small laceration on the jounin's thigh, no longer than Iruka's thumb, had become inflamed. Much more ominous were the lines of red radiating outward from the wound and tracing up and down the leg. Poison.
The kunai that he'd used to cut through the fabric of Kakashi's pants was set aside, and Iruka withdrew a clean one to slice through the jounin's flesh. He made two incisions, crossing each other at right angles over the wound, and allowed the blood to flow. It was probably already too late for the poison to be cleared in this way, but there was little else Iruka could do until a professional took over.
While the blood flowed, the chunin hastened to retrieve his first aid kit. From among its contents, a dark bottle of acid was chosen. Iruka undid the seals that kept it locked and away from prying fingers. "It's a good thing you're unconscious, Kakashi-san, because this is going to sting."
Iruka wound a strip of cloth around the end of a fresh kunai and dipped it into the acid, then pressed the acid-soaked cloth directly over the poisoned wound. The flesh hissed and sizzled as it burned, the acid cauterizing the wound instantly. The bleeding was halted, the wound sterile, and the risk of infection greatly minimized. While the manner of treatment was somewhat cruel, leaving a poisoned wound to fester and decay was infinitely worse.
A series of pops and chakra smoke announced the arrival of the medical team. Iruka hastily grabbed a clean cloth and threw it over Kakashi's face- the only part of the mostly naked jounin he felt obliged to cover. Immediately reporting his findings, the chunin stepped back and let them do their work.
Tsunade leaned over Kakashi's form, pressing a damp cloth against the jounin's now feverish brow and pouring chakra into his system. His body jerked and shuddered, struggling against death's grip. Once she was certain that she'd done all she could, the Hokage stepped out of the hospital room.
She was not surprised to see Iruka-sensei still pacing the waiting room. "Didn't I tell you to go home hours ago? There's nothing you can do right now."
"How is he?" the chunin asked..
The Hokage frowned, not wanting to upset the clearly distraught man, but unwilling to lie to him either. "The brat's fighting. The poison has already spread through his system, but it's slow-acting and after some research I was able to administer a remedy."
"So…he's going to be all right?" Iruka pressed, unconsciously taking a step forward.
Tsunade averted her eyes. "We're not sure. To be honest… the remedy is almost as bad as the poison itself. It can destroy the venom, but can also harm his body. However, if the venom is cleared from his system, I know that I can reverse the damage that the antidote will cause."
Iruka's fists clenched. "If? Are you saying the antidote might not work at all?"
"It's hard to say. He's had the poison in his system a long time," the Hokage explained. "It may not be eliminated all together."
The devastated look on the chunin's face made her wince in sympathy. She placed a hand on his shoulder. "He's a fighter, Iruka-sensei, and he's pulled through much worse than this. The only thing anyone can do now is wait."
Iruka shut his eyes tightly, "He was unconscious when I got home…" The sensei's voice was strained as he continued, "What if I had been there sooner?"
"This is not your fault," Tsunade said sternly. "Kakashi-san should have gone straight to the hospital. He knows better."
"But this is what I was worried about in the first place. I shouldn't have made it so easy for him to get around going to the hospital." When Iruka opened his eyes, they were bright with unshed tears. "If anything happens to him, it is my fault."
"Don't be ridiculous. If there's anyone at fault, it's the person who poisoned him, and I don't want to hear you say otherwise," Tsunade declared, crossing her arms.
Iruka said nothing for a moment. Finally, he swallowed and asked, "May I go in and see him now?"
The Hokage pressed her lips into a thin line. It's not that she wanted to deny his request, but seeing Kakashi in his current state would only distress him further. She did not want the sensei to sit and brood over his guilty feelings. But then, with Kakashi in as unstable a condition as he was, preventing Iruka from seeing him would be cruel. There might not be another chance.
"Umino-san," she began in a no-nonsense tone, "I insist that you to go home…"
He opened his mouth to protest, but she stayed him with an upraised hand.
"Let me finish. Go home, take a shower, drink some herbal tea and eat something if you can. Then, and only then, will I allow you in that room. Understand?"
"But…what if…"
"Nothing definitive is going to happen for the next several hours at least. I told you my conditions for visitation privileges. It's up to you to cooperate."
The sensei was clearly irritated, but held his tongue. With only the slightest of an inclination of his head, he turned abruptly and made his way home.
The pained cry from Kakashi caused the sensei to spring up and move to the other's side. Iruka pressed a damp cloth to the jounin's forehead, speaking to him soothingly despite knowing that he was too far gone to hear the words.
Once the copy ninja settled down to only quiet groans, Iruka glanced up at the clock once again. Fourteen hours now. Fourteen hours since the chunin had discovered the poisoned shinobi. Fourteen hours, and he was still no better. If anything, he seemed to be getting worse. When he asked the medics whether Kakashi might wake up soon, he could see the pity in their eyes as they evaded the question.
Iruka resumed his position on the floor, ignoring the empty visitor's chair. Stack after stack of paperwork lay spread out on the ground before him. After taking his promised shower and tea yesterday, Iruka had stuffed his messenger bag with work, knowing he'd need something to keep him occupied. The routine of paperwork had a numbing affect, preventing him from dwelling too much on his emotions while he waited.
And wait he did, remembering full well how Kakashi had stuck by his side in the Suna clinic after his surgery. The least he could do was be here for the jounin when he woke up.
Iruka was not the only one concerned about the Copy Ninja. Sakura was a regular visitor, showing up whenever she could get a break from her rounds. Tsunade cared a great deal for the jounin, but the demands on her time forced her visits to be infrequent. Several other jounin came by, some with flowers, but none lingering long. They resembled people paying their respects at a funeral more than someone visiting a sick friend. Iruka wished Gai was not away on a mission, suspecting that, if the Green Beast was in Konoha, no one could have prevented him from keeping vigil by his eternal rival's side.
The sensei suspected the reason behind the attitude of Kakashi's visitors reflected why few came to see Iruka when he was imprisoned. The jounin's fate was up in the air, and it was difficult to face that. Ninja tend to distance themselves from a person they felt they were about to lose. It was instinctual. A survival mechanism.
And as with the T&I cell, an age limit on visitors in the Intensive Care Unit prevented Iruka's kids from visiting. The orphans had come to accept Kakashi as an older, wiser brother. Or perhaps an eccentric uncle. Either way, the jounin had become a part of their makeshift family.
Iruka was used to being a mentor and father-figure, but his relationship with the jounin was decidedly different. Kakashi was the closest thing he had to a brother- someone with the audacity to taunt him, the solidarity to watch out for him, and the maturity to relate to him on his level. If he didn't make it through this...
The Academy teacher read over the same paragraph for the fourth time, before putting it down with a sigh. He'd been awake for over twenty-six hours, of which the last fourteen were spent fretting over Kakashi, and his focus was lacking.
A tiny bird discreetly entered the room, and Iruka immediately dropped his paperwork to hold out his hand. The brown sparrow perched on the edge of his fingers.
"Well, Sora-san? What did you find out?" Iruka was not technically Kakashi's family, nor was he a designated agent in the jounin's medical records. For that reason, the medics could justify being vague and evasive in their answers to the chunin's questions. This forced him to seek other avenues of information.
Sora was adept at uncovering information people didn't want to reveal. His little summon brought new meaning to the old saying "a little birdie told me."
His spy hopped along his finger and ruffled her feathers anxiously. "'Ruka… maybe you don't really want to hear this."
"Just tell me," Iruka prompted, tired of people tiptoeing around as though he'd break with the slightest distress.
"Promise to stay calm?" she twittered fussily.
"Stop being such a mother hen and tell me already!"
Her breast swelled indignantly, brown feathers fluffing out. "Don't take that tone with me, young man." Sora clicked her beak and continued, "If you must know, the latest test shows that the poison has already spread through his body faster than the antidote could act. All his fluids are contaminated, not just his blood. The poison is being absorbed into his body's cells, causing them to…what's the word…atrophy?"
Iruka's jaw clenched tightly. He nodded, not trusting himself to speak yet.
"Even Tsunade-sama can't find a way to rid the poison from his body- that's what she was telling Shizune-san, at least," Sora continued, keeping to herself the discussion she'd overheard about funeral arrangements. "It seems his only hope now is if his body can somehow fight the poison on its own, and the chance of that happening just isn't very good." She felt Iruka's hand tremble, and nipped his finger gently. "I'm so sorry, 'Ruka."
The chunin merely nodded again, his jaw already aching from the pressure and a stinging sensation developing in his eyes. Kakashi had warned him earlier, "You know, Iruka… one of these days, I won't come back." And as much as he'd told himself, and Kakashi, that he could accept that…
A shuddering breath escaped his lip as he pressed his fingers hard against closed eyes. To see Kakashi wasting away right before him…it was more than he could stand. He could do nothing but watch and wait as the damnable venom worked through his friend's system, killing him slowly.
Iruka walked numbly to Kakashi's side, watching silently for several minutes as the man fitfully slept.
Yesterday, the chunin had found a surgeon's mask and placed that over Kakashi's face. He wasn't sure why he felt compelled to continue to conceal those features, other than that it was obviously important to Kakashi. Brazenly baring his face to the world while unconscious would be a disservice to the man.
Kakashi was still in the grips of a fever, and his brow was soaked in sweat. Iruka wiped this away with a cloth, idly wondering if even the perspiration might be contaminated with traces of venom. He had the thought to throw as many blankets as he could find over the jounin in an attempt to sweat the poison out of him. But that wouldn't do nearly enough.
He watched more beads of sweat form on the pale skin. It reminded him of something. Something almost forgotten.
Iruka swallowed. Could something like that even work?
"Sora," he finally whispered, the lump in his throat preventing him from speaking any louder. "There's something at home I need to pick up. Watch over Kakashi-san for me. I'll be right back."
The sparrow flitted to the railing on the side of the hospital bed. "Take your time, 'Ruka. I'll stay right here."
"Thanks."
As he moved swiftly to the exit, his summon called out to him, "Make sure you get something to eat! Bring a change of clothes with you! And a pillow, so you won't be so uncomfortable. Oh, and don't forget to…"
Despite his anxiety, Iruka smiled to himself as the sound of her voice faded in the background. And people called him a mother hen.