Disclaimer: If you recognized any of those characters, then they belonged to Kishimoto Masashi. If not, they're mine. XD

Apologise for the late update. I just can't post this story fast enough. ^_^; Hopefully everyone hadn't forgotten about this yet. XD

Great thanks to my beta Lost Highway. And also thank you for the reviews and faves. In this chapter, Kakashi and Iruka will begun their journey home to Konoha. Hope you guys enjoy.


As soon as the sun had risen, both Kakashi and Iruka were all packed and ready for their journey to Konoha. Kakashi had decided that it would be best for them to travel using the travellers' route. There's no way the younger man could keep up with his ninja speed in his current condition and Kakashi didn't want to take any chances, less the enemies had decided that they would test their skills by challenging the Sharigan Kakashi.

It would take two and a half days along the traveller's route and they would pass through the city first before arriving at the Hidden Ninja Village of Leaves. Apart from Kiyoshi and Miho, only Miyuki-chan and Hisoka had come to see him off. The dark haired teen didn't know where Takeshi was, much to Iruka's disappointment. Miyuki-chan gave him boiled tapiocas to eat on their journey. Nothing was being said about yesterday's event, but the man still blushed when she hugged him. A couple of hugs and tears later, Iruka and Kakashi were on their way.

****

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"…Are we there yet?"

Sigh. "No." What is it with kids and this kind of question anyway?

"Are we there yet?"

"For the last time, Iruka. No!"

"Why not?"

Iruka sensei shouldn't have been whining. The man was the epitome of patience. He taught Konoha's children who had the attention spans of squirrels how to become good shinobi when no jounin could. He handled the mission desk as well as the shinobi who had the attention spans of adult squirrels. He took no nonsense from anyone. So Iruka should not act like a whiny brat who could rival the young Naruto. Kakashi could feel a headache like a giant hammer, pounding at the back of his head. It was going to be a long journey.

They stopped at a small teashop by the road to have lunch and opened their bento Miho-baa had prepared for them. Iruka stared curiously at his travelling companion while munching on his onigiri. It marvelled him that the silver head man could eat three onigiri in a blink of an eye while he was just starting on his second. The questioning stare unnerved him, Kakashi decided to have the question out of the way.

"Is there something on my face?" Kakashi asked lazily.

Iruka shook his head. "Why are you wearing a mask?"

It was a question asked a lot that he was used to it. So he didn't take any offence when Iruka asked it. "The same reason why the earth is round." Kakashi drawled.

"LIAR! It can't be that important. Besides, I've seen your face. It's not like you're hideous or anything. You look normal for a guy."

"Maa, I'll take that as a compliment. And since you still have the energy to ask mundane questions, we better get going." Kakashi got up and walked away without looking back.

"Wait, you haven't answered my question…I haven't finished my lunch yet!" Iruka stuffed his third onigiri into his mouth and downed his tea in one gulp. Kakashi was already a few steps ahead of him as he hurriedly packed his bento and chased after the man.

****

They spent the night at a cheap inn in a village they were passing and continued their journey the next morning after breakfast.

"We'll be passing by the city so we could restock our food."

"City?" Iruka perked at the word. He had never seen a city before, or couldn't recall the memory of going to the city. But the thought about entering the city was getting him excited.

"Do you think maybe we could stop there a little longer?" The tan man asked him hopefully.

"No, I don't think so. It'll only take a day to reach Konoha from the city. We shouldn't waste time."

"But, I've never been to the city before." Iruka pouted.

"Yes, you have. You just don't remember it."

"That doesn't count."

When Iruka didn't receive any answer from the silver haired man, "I wanna go to the city…" He whined.

"No is no."

"Please…"

"..."

"Fine! Be that way." Iruka groused before muttering under his breath but making sure that Kakashi would hear it. "Spoilsport."

"That's just childish, Iruka." Kakashi chided.

"Hnn, did you say something?"

"We can't waste our time sightseeing in the city. It's better if we reach Konoha as soon as possible."

Iruka decided to ignore his words and continued nonetheless. "Aah, I wonder if the city has any fun places."

"Iruka."

"Miho-baa came from the city, before she married Kiyo-ji. She told me about the life in the city. There were so many people, as many as the number of rice grains in a sack; everyone was always busy doing something. It has big and tall buildings, and at nights you can see colourful light; you think you were standing inside a rainbow."

"Iruka."

"But that was fifty years ago. I wonder what else has changed, ne?" Iruka concluded with a longing sighed as he looked ahead forlornly.

"Iruka."

"Hmm?"

They had stopped walking at some point of the one sided conversation and regarded each other; expressive brown eyes to cool lone dark gray. Kakashi finally sighed in defeat. "Just for half a day."

"What?"

"Take it or leave it."

"Thank you." Iruka beamed excitedly. Half a day was enough for now, he thought.

****

The city was really big; scratch that, it was huge. His neck hurt just by looking everywhere. Some of the buildings were tall, they almost touched the clouds.

"Stay close to me."

Kakashi's order went unheard as he paid attention to his surroundings, watching the city folks busy with their own businesses. Stores lined the wide road, selling food he had never seen or even remembered remember having seen, and clothes in different kinds of colour and fashion. His brown eyes were wide, taking in everything.

Once in a while he would stop Kakashi in his tracks to ask him about what he had seen and why it was that way much to the jounin's amusement. They reached a food store and Kakashi told him to wait outside before entering the establishment.

Iruka stood outside with their back packs; he still couldn't take his eyes from the busy street and its colourful decorations. He noticed a troop of people at the other side of the road wearing odd-fashioned clothes and their faces painted making their way here. With them were cages of wild animals decorated in vibrant colours; the elephants were used to pull them. Inside it were tigers, bears, and lions. It was called the circus; he had seen it once in a book in Takeshi's house.

The parade moved leisurely on the street, people wearing the weird getup performed as they walked beside their caravans. They flipped backwards and jumped over and threw confetti in the air. On the top of one of the cages, a small monkey wearing a colourful vest was putting a show; bobbing its head to the music, somersaulting and throwing some confetti around. Children were laughing merrily as they followed the march. Wanting to look at the animals a little closer, Iruka walked towards the moving cages, leaving their back packs at the store's entrance.

The animals were magnificent when seen up close. It was nothing compared to the book. Iruka was in awe over their forms and sizes. He followed them not having his fill yet and bit by bit the excited brunet wandered far from the food store. Once he had had enough, Iruka stopped and turned around, intending to head back to the food store only to realize that he didn't recognize the road he was standing on.

He tried to go back to the way he came from, but at the third turn, Iruka was at a loss of where he should go next. He could still hear the parade's music a few streets away. The street he was standing on however was quiet and unkempt; the stores around him were closed and looked run down. Kakashi would be mad if he found out that the younger man had strayed away from him. Fortunately, he remembered the name of the store so asking people would be the best course of action.

The man Iruka tried to approach was wearing an old hakama and torn pants. His appearance sent warning signals to his head, but there was no one else except for that man. He looked at the tan brunet up and down and smirk formed on his face, showing too many yellow teeth.

"Uhm, Excuse me mister. I was kind of lost. Could you point me to the Gohan food store?" Iruka asked timidly.

"Sure pal. Just follow me." He turned and went further down into the alley and Iruka had no choice but to follow him.

A few minutes and many turns had passed. Surely he didn't wander too far off, but there were no signs or landmarks indicating that they were near. "Mister, are you sure this is the right way?" Iruka asked hesitantly.

"It's a short cut. Been living here for thirty years." The man answered.

Iruka had a bad feeling about this, but he quelled his fear even as the alley got darker ahead of them. He stopped in his tracks when he saw the man being joined by other people like him. Brown eyes widened in alarm and the brunet quickly turned around to escape the alley, however it was too late as more people appeared, blocking the entrance. Like a cornered rat, he was surrounded.

"Mister?"

"Give us your money, pal. And we'll let you out of here alive." The man threatened menacingly. He took a step forward than the rest, pressing him against the dirty wall.

Iruka wished for Kakashi to be here. "I don't have any money."

"It's not wise to lie to us. Just hand us over anything on you." His left hand snapped out a knife and Iruka gasped at the glint of the sharp blade; Bad people.

Instinctively, Iruka heard someone lunging at him and he twisted around evading the collision. Automatically everyone started to gang up on him, swinging their knives and nailed wood planks.

As if the moves were ingrained in him, Iruka danced gracefully avoiding and deflecting all the attacks on him but he didn't initiated any attacks of his own. His attackers had become frustrated and tired from missing their hits but were not deterred. His luck ran out as a stray knife was thrown at him, wounding his shoulder. Iruka lost his balance. He fell on the ground, holding his injured arm and looked up as he was shadowed by the street bandits.

The earlier man who was still panting from exertion looked at him with contempt and sneered. "We almost thought you were a ninja. You shouldn't have attacked us, pal. Now you're going to pay." He grabbed a knife from one of the group and lunged at him. Before the blade could even touch him, the man was suddenly thrown back landing in a heap on the ground. Foam mixed with blood escaped from his mouth.

Feet landed lightly beside him and Iruka raised his head at the shadowed figure hunching lazily with his hand clutching their bag packs. There was no evidence that he was the cause of the thug's injury. But his hard lone eye hinted clear warning that the group would meet with the similar fate if they were so much as stepping forward.

"Kakashi." Never had Iruka felt so relieved at seeing the silver haired ninja. He begun to feel the pain on his shoulder and tears finally welled in his eyes, but he refused to cry.

"Are you okay?" Once the gang had run away, Kakashi crouched down to his eye level and touched the wound only to pull away when the brunet winced in pain. He took out a gauze of bandages and pressed them over the wound.

"We have to disinfect the wound. Let's find a place to stay for the night." Too shaken up to answer properly, Iruka nodded his head and got to his feet, all the while pressing on his wound.

****

"I'm sorry." They had luckily found a room for two at a local inn. Iruka was sitting on the tatami mat with his knees drawn to his chest mindful of his neatly bandaged arm. He looked at Kakashi with apologetically. "I didn't mean to disobey to your instruction."

"Don't worry about it, Iruka. I'm just glad you're safe." Kakashi assured the brunet. He hated seeing the gloom in those brown eyes. It wasn't Iruka's fault; if Kakashi wanted to point the blame, it would be his. The silver haired man had heard the circus was coming to the city from the sales assistant in the store. He also noticed the parade marching in the front street and yet Kakashi expected Iruka to stay put and wait for him. He had forgotten that Iruka wasn't the person Kakashi had always known.

The silver haired man almost had a heart attack when he didn't see Iruka waiting for him at the front door of the store. He had tracked the brunet from his barely visible track and followed the trail that lead to a back alley and found an injured Iruka being cornered against the wall by a group of street muggers. Red clouded his vision when one of those bastards started running towards the brunet with a knife. When he had come to himself, the man was lying unconscious on the ground.

"Say…there's a circus tonight. Now that we're here, let's take this opportunity to see them?" Kakashi internally chuckled at the look of excitement painted on the tan face. His mood changed dramatically, from depressing to happiness.

****

Iruka was sure that this was his first time going to the circus. It was open to visitors as soon as the sun had set in the wide field at the edge of the city and many people were present. Fluorescent lights and loud music filled the crowded place. There were booths surrounding the area selling foods and games to the visitors. Kakashi almost regretted bringing Iruka here as the brunet had endless energy scurrying from one performer to the other; ooh-ing and aah-ing all the time.

They watched a pair of flame eaters in one of the tents, Iruka gaped in amazement when one of them swallowed the fire whole. Next, they went to see the acrobatics performance. The acrobats in glittering clothes were jumping from swing to swing. For some reason, Iruka stayed away from the clowns much to Kakashi's amusement. The brunet paled considerably when a woman clown hugged him. But what had Iruka's attention the most were the animal performances. They were fortunate that Kakashi had managed to get the front seat in the tent so he could keep an eye on the tan man standing behind the bar cheering them on with other children.

Once it ended, Iruka left the tent with a satisfied smile on his face. He chatted animatedly about the performances they had seen earlier, Kakashi nodding in agreement, not really hearing the brunet's tales as they made their way to the food stall to have their supper since they hadn't had dinner before coming here. He bought the man a festival mask and cotton candy during their tour around the circus.

They returned to the inn late at night. The silver haired jounin had to force Iruka to brush his teeth before he was allowed to go to bed. He kept guard while the brunet snored in his sleep and wondered what were his former students would be doing this late of a time. If they departed early in the morning with their pace now, they might reach Konoha's main gate by sun down.

****

Iruka was quite reluctant to leave the city as he dragged his feet to follow Kakashi. The older man said that they might reach Konoha by evening and he promised to treat him 'ramen' when they get there. They reverted back to the 'Are we there, yet?' game that somehow switched to the 'I spy' game at some point of their journey, however it was short lived when all they could spy was 'something green and small'. The pair met a group of travelling merchants heading the same way they did. Iruka conversed with one of them and had learned that they were from the land of Wind bringing in goods like goat skin, dried fruits and ornaments made by the nomads. Since it was boring to travel just the two of them, Kakashi decided to join them as fellow travellers. It would be faster too since the caravan had horse carts with them, they did not have to stop so frequently.

Thanks to the merchants, Iruka and Kakashi arrived earlier than they planned; while the sun was still high in the sky. Iruka waved good bye to the group and they left for the gate post designated for shinobi use. A huge gate greeted them as the travelling duo reached Konoha. The roof was supported by thick pillars; Iruka had to crane his neck to see the top. Suddenly Iruka felt intimidated. He was not sure if he should go in or not.

"What's wrong?" Iruka looked up in surprise at question. His brown eyes were wide, expressing fear; as if he was about to enter a prison. His feet moved without his command as Iruka fled from the gate. He ignored the shout calling for his name as he entered the thick jungle surrounding the village.


Next chapter: A meeting with the Rokudaime and some new faces

A/n: I want to ask for opinions from you guys, two actually:-

1) Once Naruto manga is over, meaning Madara is defeated and Sasuke comes back, yada yada. Unless Kishimoto wants to bring out new villain for Naruto. Will Naruto still have the Kyuubi inside him?

2) Do you think Iruka has summons (or do you want him to have one)? If you do, what kind of familiar would suit him? And please don't say dolphin. ^^;

3) Would you leave me some reviews?