"Who is going to take you?", a puzzled and very familiar voice asked.
She opened her eyes in surprise and forgot all about biting her lip, which she had been doing to keep in the tears that for some unfathomable reason were threatening to spill over.
"Iruka?", she blurted without thinking.
Chapter nine: Chi?
The even more surprised teacher opened his mouth to ask something, but whatever it was, Shin was spared the trouble of answering. Izumo and Kotetsu had turned the corner at the end of the street and were barrelling towards them, Kotetsu still clutching his diaphragm from the blow.
Shin let out a small and involuntary, Eep!, and proceeded to push her back against Iruka's legs in an attempt at getting away from the angry guards. She knew she was going to find all this very humiliating later on but didn't care to think further about it at the time.
"Iruka-sensei", Izumo gave a quick nod of acknowledgment to the man who's feet Shin was currently residing on, "I see you've caught our little fugitive"
"Fugitive?", he asked, not sounding very pleased, "Are you two the reason why the child looks like this?"
Like this? What does he mean, 'like this'?, Shin wondered looking up at Iruka's angry face.
"Ah, no... Most of it…", Izumo tried to answer but was broken of by the upset teacher.
"Most of it? So you are saying that you two did have something to do with it?"
"Ano…we didn't do anything. The gaki fell from a tree and…"
"You chased the child of a tree?"
"It wasn't our fault, Iruka sensei", Kotetsu tried to defend himself, "We were just escorting them to the prison so…"
"I expected more from you Hagane-san. Children don't go to prison, they go to school. And what is this talk about going to see Morino Ibiki?"
Shin was impressed by Iruka's authority over the older men, albeit they were only one year older, but still.
"I might have joked about the dungeons…", Kotetsu admitted guiltily and rubbed the back of his head not meeting the teacher's accusing look.
"But we never mentioned…", Izumo began protesting, but wasn't allowed to finish.
"Small kids don't have the same sense of humour as some of the older ones", Iruka interrupted and gave the two an angry stare.
According to the two guards, an angry Umino Iruka was nothing to mess with so they both hung their heads in submission.
"I was on my way to the Academy, but I think I'm going follow the two of you to make sure everything is handled the way it should"
"Yes, Iruka-sensei", the guards answered in unison.
Shin almost giggled at the way they scraped their feet in front of the teacher, but stopped herself when Iruka bent down to her level.
"Would you like me to come along with you? I'm sure there must be some kind of mix up", he smiled kindly at her.
For a moment Shin was at a loss for words. He had switched from glaring to nice in a second.
"Hokage!", she piped up, remembering the warning, "I need to see the Hokage!"
"The Hokage?", Iruka looked perplexed, "You want to see Tsunade-sama?"
"Yes!"
Oh, please let them take me to the Hokage so I can finish this mad quest and get some rest.
Iruka scratched his scar in thought.
"I suppose this matter will have to be dealt with anyway. And it won't be in a dungeon", he shot Kotetsu a dirty look.
"Hang on! There was another one as well!", Izumo exclaimed.
"Another one? Another child?"
"No, Iruka sensei. A man. About this tall", he gestured with his hand somewhere close to his chin.
"I'll call him if you take me to the Hokage", Shin demanded, but shrunk back when Kotetsu bent down to look her in the eye.
"How do we know this isn't some kind of trick to assassinate Tsunade-sama?", he was apparently still mad about the nasty knee.
"I swear! I swear on…on…I'll swear on anything it isn't a trick!"
"He has already left", Iruka intervened, "I can't sense any charka presence out on the streets"
So they were able to sense people after all, but Shin was pretty sure that her dark friend hadn't left. He must be hiding somewhere.
"He's still here", she told them and to prove it she called out, "Hush!"
She had expected him to jump down from a nearby roof or something and the men had assumed something similar, so when he stepped out from a shadow, no less than a foot away, they all jumped. Alright, only Shin jumped. But she was certain that the others had wanted to do the same.
Iruka frowned thoughtfully.
"Let's go", Shin declared, eager to get this over with.
She made an attempt to stand up, but tripped over her feet and fell on her face. How could this day get anymore embarrassing?
A few minutes later Shin was resting her head against Iruka's shoulder and trying her hardest not to doze of. The rocking movement when he walked made it very difficult.
At first they had let her use her own legs but after Shin had stumbled over her clumsy feet for the tenth time Iruka had picked her up against all her objections.
Thankfully he hadn't thrown her over his shoulder like Kotetsu had, but she would have been a lot more comfortable if they had untied her so she could rest her arms around his neck.
(Shin is being carried in a backwards piggyback-ride-way, so she's leaning against his chest looking over his shoulder, with one leg on each side of his waist. Get the picture?)
Not that she wanted to, she would probably have died from humiliation before she did that.
Anyway. Shin felt her head loll to the rhythm of his steps and was fighting hard to keep her eyes open. The adrenalin was leaving her system and her body was beginning to feel heavier and heavier.
I can't sleep now! I have to warn Tsunade and I can't let them take Hush away. The poor guy can barely think for himself. Who knows what that Kotetsu would do to him.
The sleepiness was beginning to overpower her senses as the warmth from Iruka was spreading over to her frozen body. On the other hand, Hush was a big boyHe could take care of himself. A short nap wouldn't hurt.
She continued to argue with herself mentally like this for as long as possible, but realised that she must have nodded off at some point when somebody gently shook her shoulders.
"Huh…?", she blinked a few times at the bright light.
What was going on?
"We're going up to see the Hokage soon", Iruka told her, "Try to stay awake alright?"
"Iruka-sensei!", a female voice said, "Iruka-sensei, you might want to clean up the little one before going up", a woman about the same age as the teacher was approaching them from across what seemed to be some sort of office slash waiting area.
The room was pretty shabby looking and seemed familiar in the same way that everything else Shin was recognising from the manga.
She must be a kind of secretary, Shin thought and eyed the woman who was now smiling.
"I guess you're not very clean, are you?", Iruka said turning to Shin.
She noticed he had put her down on a chair and from there she was clearly able to tell where she had been leaning against him before. There was dirt on the whole front region of his vest and the trail continued up on his shoulder and ended with a red smudge on the side of his neck.
Shin wanted to tell him that he wasn't very clean either, but since that was her fault, she chose not to.
"That's not what I meant, sensei", the woman said, "Don't you know that Hokage-sama is a little over sensitive. You don't want her to faint, do you?"
Was Tsunade sensitive to something? Shin couldn't remember, her brain was stuffed with cotton and marshmallow-dough, leaving little room for anything else.
"Yeah, Iruka-sensei. We'll have to put some band aids on those if we're going in there", Izumo appeared behind the young woman and pointed to Shin's face.
Put some band aids on what?, she thought and raised a hand to her cheek and touched something moist.
She looked down at her fingers.
"Blood?", she mumbled.
Yeah, right! Tsunade was sensitive to blood after her boyfriend died a long time ago. What was his name again? Dan something?
"Don't worry, cutie. We'll cover up those nasty scratches", the secretary cooed bending down towards her.
Usually Shin would have resented such a belittling tone, but she could barely stay awake, much less argue with this woman.
The secretary disappeared out the door and Iruka began untying her ropes. As soon as her arms were free, Shin stretched them towards the sky and slumped backwards in her seat and fell asleep. Iruka didn't seem to think this was a good idea and shook her again.
Annoyed, Shin sent him her death glare which didn't do any good at all so she settled for a pout.
"Aw, kawai! Poor thing, you must be exhausted", the secretary was kneeling in front of her with a first aid kit in her lap, "Just sit still now so I can tape this over your cheek, and those cuts don't look too good either"
The secretary was very gentle and didn't do any unnecessary or painful cleaning. She was in fact so gentle that when she was stroking the last piece of tape onto her face, Shin leaned into the touch without thinking.
Kotetsu watched curiously as the kid tilted further out of the chair and promptly fell asleep in the hand of Ito Hanako, making Hanako-san smile even more.
"Oh, somebody must have been through quite a lot. The little thing can't stay awake for a second"
"Well, we can't bring a sleeping child to the Hokage", Iruka replied with a determined look and shook the unconscious form for the third time.
Shin was about ready to throttle anyone who tried to shake her again and sat up straight in her seat, almost head-butting Iruka in the process.
"They say it's alright to go up now", Izumo poked his head through the doorway.
"Finally", Shin grunted and stood up to follow the grownups out but stumbled and made her 20th belly flop of the day.
Her legs weren't obeying her. She tried to stand up again but wobbled and almost fell again.
Ugh, my feet must have gone numb she clenched her teeth.
Kotetsu was waiting for her to exit before coming after with Hush, so she hurried after the other two as fast as she could. Her feet were behaving very oddly. It felt like she was walking on tiny pieces of sharp glass and smooth round rocks at the same time. To add to the misery, her balance was getting worse by the second. Walking up the stairs towards the Hokage's office Shin couldn't bear it anymore so she swallowed her pride and grabbed a hold of Iruka.
She'd better listen to me after all this, she grumbled.
A/N: I've started a new school and have been really busy making friends and moving in... There. That's my excuse. Gomen nasai for not updating sooner, Minnasan!
Next chapter: Sorry...again. I had it wrong the last time. Nobody blacked out in this chapter, don't remember what else I promised, but if there was something more it'll probably happen in the next one. There will be some raising of voices and several people are recieving unwanted tasks.
Ja ne!
