AN: With confidence, I can say that i believe i'll be going back to the six page, week long delayed chapters. I rushed this last chapter, and I'm sorry about that, I wanted it to be longer. But, hope you enjoy this chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
OOOOO
Trapped
Iruka's fingers shook as he struggled to keep Kakashi inside of his barrier jutsu. He was pouring a massive amount of chakra into the technique therefore weakening himself. It would only be minutes until Kakashi broke through.
"Go!" Iruka commanded the three in the closet. However, Sakura was the only one who was actually functional and, unfortunately, she was a nervous wreck. What would one expect, her life was most likely flashing before her eyes.
Iruka's hands shook violently, and with an immense chakra, he forced them together therefore locking Kakashi in the barrier. The silver haired man stared at Iruka with such hate and intensity. The glare wasn't anything Iruka had seen of Kakashi. Most likely because this is what his victims had seen before their untimely death.
The sharingan shone a blood red, and Iruka slowly felt his jutsu wearing out. Fear invaded his body, but he forced himself to remain calm even if he had no chance in winning against Kakashi. The man walked, or at least attempted to. Kakashi's arm was still in it's striking position, inches away from Sakura's head. Though his jutsu had been completely extinguished, it was ready to ignite when the barrier was broken.
Iruka needed to get them out.
"Sakura, it's okay. You have to move, he won't hurt you as long as i'm here. He can't move, I need you to get Sasuke and Naruto, drag them if you have to, but distance yourselves as far away from the house as you can," she was still as frozen as a porcelain doll, she wasn't making this easy from Iruka. She wasn't even listening to him, her eyes were glued to Kakashi.
"Sweetie," he said softly despite his situation, resurrecting the name he called her when she was younger. As if a switch had been clicked in her head, Sakura's eyes ignited with resignation.
"Iruka Sens..." she breathed as she turned her head towards him, inching away from her Sensei who was struggling to kill her.
"Sakura, take Naruto and Sasuke, drag them away and you three get as far away from this house as you can," he commanded sternly, his barrier vibrating as Kakashi snarled at the three.
"Sakura go!" Iruka shouted now, pouring in another wave of chakra. He was really wearing himself out, but he didn't have time to complain.
"What about you, Iruka Sensei?" Sakura asked nervously, "won't he_"
"Don't argue with me Sakura!" he snapped at her as he noticed her will to protect him, "i'll be okay! It's a Sensei's job to protect their students, not the other way around!" He suddenly realised in some sort of form, he'd repeated what his dad had told him just seconds before his parents were killed and Iruka was swept off the battlefield.
He forced the memory back as relief flooded him when Sakura regretfully grabbed the two boys by the collar, slowly dragging them out. Iruka sighed a sigh of relief when he'd guessed Sakura had at least gotten out of the house.
Kakashi's face slowly turned to where she was, and then slowly back to Iruka. His sharingan spun rapidly. A sudden realization hit Iruka.
Kakashi had been analyzing his jutsu the entire time, he'd figured it out. Iruka's hands broke apart. The barrier was broken.
OOOOO
Behind his mask, Yamato's face was littered with worry. Iruka against Kakashi with a side of three useless genin...It was going to be a bloodbath.
A team of Anbu followed closely behind their Captain. Still, Yamato was left uneasy. Kakashi was incredibly strong, he'd seen his strength numerous times before, he knew what Kakashi was capable of.
Iruka was...Iruka had earned a solid space in Yamato's heart for certain reasons...Seeing his close friend splattered across the ground, a bloody mess, just didn't set well with the ANBU. He'd use anything he could, even if it meant killing Kakashi, to protect his friend.
Please be alive, Iruka!
OOOO
Sakura bit her lip as her wrist pulsed with pain.
At least she'd managed to get the two boys out safely. She prided herself for still being alive despite the fact that her Sensei had gone insane...was he even really their Sensei anymore. Sakura wondered what would happen now, if things would change or go back to normal.
"Of course they won't change," Sakura said aloud to herself as she continued to drag the two. But she couldn't help but wonder, how would things be. Would Kakashi go to jail!?
Oh no, Sakura couldn't live with that. Kakashi had grown on to her, if anything, she wanted to help him. Maybe he was suffering from a mental disorder of some sort. PTSD , Schizophrenia maybe...? She didn't know, but she had been suddenly interrupted from her train of thought when four ANBU appeared in front of her.
She gasped, they were in her presence so suddenly, almost like a Godsend.
"Take these three a medic," the leader, Sakura guessed, spoke affirmatively. Immediately, two ANBU stepped from their formation around the trio. One swiftly removed the two boys from Sakura's grasp, while the other made an attempt to grab Sakura. Quickly, she slapped the ANBU's hand away.
"I'm okay," she replied quickly, yet the ANBU snaked his arms around her, and lifted her off of the ground anyway "Stop! What are you_"
"Safety of our youth comes first," The head ANBU responded blankly, "We'll take care of your Sensei."
The words, "take care of," didn't sit well with Sakura. "You're not going to kill him, are you?" She suddenly asked, her tone a worried one.
"We'll do what we deem necessary," the captain replied again, "Even if it means hurting your Sensei."
Before she could protest, she was swept away as the ANBU holding her leapt into the air, the one holding Sasuke and Naruto following behind him.
OOOOO
Iruka was exhausted. When Sakura had left and his barrier had fallen ,all hell broke loose. Kakashi had become enraged. His face, through the mask, had contorted with anger and he'd charged towards Iruka, as the teacher was now his main target.
His health wasn't helping him, as his muscles started to ache and his chakra began to overwork his organs. He wouldn't last much longer, and he hadn't taken his medicine.
Iruka and Kakashi had been locked in combat. To Iruka, it felt as if he had been fighting for ages. His chakra was draining, his moves were sluggish, yet Kakashi attacked with such fire and agility, Iruka had wondered whether the older man was getting tired at all.
Iruka barely dodged the tenth shuriken that was thrown at him. He brought a kunai up to block Kakashi's swarm of weapons.
Kakashi's hand sparked to life with electricity, and the white haired man charged at Iruka. Iruka had weaved his hands signs as soon as possible. Kakashi plowed through Iruka's with his chidori, however, it was a clone.
In a puff smoke, Iruka was gone leaving Kakasi to search for the chunin again. In a second, Iruka was on Kakashi's back, elbowing him in his spine. Hard enough to buy Iruka some time, but not hard enough to seriously injure him.
Immediately, he cursed himself as he flew through the clone he believed to be Kakashi, hitting the ground with enough strength to crack it.
Kakashi was on him in a second, kicking him hard in the gut and sending him through a wall. Iruka was thrown into the kitchen, hitting the cabinets with a bang, splintering the wood as he collided with it, shattering glass and plates as he slowly fell from the height of the cabinets and onto the kitchen floor, rubble collapsing on top of him.
He couldn't move. Rubble weighed down on his back like a ton of bricks.
Though he could see nothing, he could hear Kakashi progressing towards him slowly, the sound of A Thousand Chirping Birds echoing throughout the broken kitchen. Iruka attempted to lift himself, but he felt a pang of pain run through his leg. He came to a sad conclusion. He could feel warm liquid oozing down his leg and dampening his foot.
His leg was bleeding, it had been pierced, most likely by a plank of wood. Dust irritated his eyes and caused him to shut them tight.
However, the sound of birds had been silenced completely. Iruka listened on as more footsteps could be heard, fast and agile. More ninja?
Had the Hokage's team arrived?
His question had been confirmed when he felt a great weight being lifted from him. He coughed and gasped for air as an arm snaked under his own arm and slowly lifted him up.
He painfully opened his eyes and was relieved to see that Kakashi had been restrained in what seemed to be wooden confinements.
He wearily turned his head to the ANBU holding him up.
"Tenzou...?" he said slowly.
"Yeah...except it's Yamato now," the ANBU replied emotionlessly, "I'm draining his chakra now, at least to the point where he'll get tired. After this, i'm taking both you and him to the infirmary."
"I don't need to go, i'm fine," Iruka replied quickly.
"Says the man with a plank through his leg," Yamato replied sarcastically through his mask, "We'll deal with Kakashi."
Iruka smirked.
The two watched the other ANBU catch a drained Kakashi as the wood restraints broke and the silver haired man fell forward.
"Funny about that last statement," Iruka began, "the Hokage has assigned me as Kakashi's counselor as a result of these bizarre string of events."
"He tried to kill you," the Yamato stated bluntly, "yet you've been assigned as his counselor? That's insane."
"Only if you want it to be," Iruka smartly replied with a conniving smirk.
Iruka winced as the pain in his leg radiated again.
"And you don't have your health to worry about?" Yamato asked rather sadly, "Don't spend your time counseling someone who doesn't even care for you_How much do you have left, how much time?"
Iruka paused, "It's not incredibly short..." he wondered, "maybe a little over six months...like...six and a half maybe eight..."
"Six and a half months to live!?" Yamato snapped, "and you're spending it all to take care of Kakashi?"
"Shh, he can most likely still hear us! But, miracles do happen Tenzou, i think you should know that more than anyone else!"
"But still, I don't want him to kill you," Yamato replied, choosing not to correct his friend on calling him by his old name, "your last months should be dictated by you, not by Kakashi and his mental problem!"
"I'm doing what I want," Iruka protested.
"Captain, he's drained," suddenly, the other ANBU spoke as he held Kakashi securely in his arms, "should we not be going?"
"Yes," Yamato's tone was suddenly serious again, "let's go."
OOOOO
Why couldn't he wake up? Was he really even sleeping. No, he was lost.
He tried desperately to force himself out of the dark woods he was aimlessly walking in. He felt so lost, more lost than he had ever been.
He felt like if he continued to stay lost in the dark like this, when he found his way out, bad things would happen. Terrible things. Terrible things that he did, yet he couldn't' control.
Why couldn't he just sleep a peaceful sleep? What else did he have to live for? How many more miles did he have to go before he slept?
I'm just assuming that Yamato has been there the entire time, though he most likely won't be revealed to the genin. Also, if i'm correct, Yamato's name is Yamato. In shippuden, Kakasi calls him Tenzo. Before shippuden there was Naruto, so it's safe to say that during Naruto, Kakashi wasn't an ANBU because he was teaching Naruto's group so he hadn't had any contact with Yamato sense then. OKay, anyway, i'm working on a seprate story with Iruka and Yamato to explain their friendship. It's one chapter and not slash. Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter a lot more than you liked the previous one! Also, now we know a bit more about Iruka's sickness. I'll add more about it in the next chapter, as well as Iruka's past with Yamato. Also, i'm planning to write a small story with those two, just friendship though. I wanted to add a bit of Kakashi's P.O.V, hence the last part. Anyway, have a nice weekend and God bless :D