"Any questions." It was as statement, not open for discussion.

Arms crossed, and gaze stern, Ebisu glared at the three genin before him. He'd already given them his strict speech about behavior and expectations, that the jounin had a reputation to uphold and he wasn't going to let three snotty nosed genin ruin that for him.

Their reactions to such a selfish introduction were evidently readable in their faces. Not one member of the broken Team Seven appreciated the man's snide speech at all. Still, the trio remained speechless under the hard gaze of Ebisu Sensei.

"Good, now I believe introductions necessary," he began, looking towards Naruto, a hint of displeasure in his stance, "you first, brat."

Naruto squinted his eyes as he usually did when he was confused or distressed, "But we already introduced ourselves!"

Ebisu sighed and adjusted his glasses, slowly pacing back and forth around the designated area, the training grounds.

"That was with Kakashi-san, and as of now, i'm your temporary Sensei. However," he looked towards Naruto, "since you're dreams are known to everyone and most likely a childhood illusion, we'll skip you, Naruto. Next, you Uchiha."

Naruto grumbled, but didn't retaliate. His mind was somewhere else.

"Well, you already know i'm an Uchiha, so i'll just give you my story...I just...want to get stronger," a watered down version of his vengeance story escaped Sasuke's lips as he began to avert attention from the new jounin before him.

Ebisu nodded, "Promising, very realistic..Excellent," he looked towards Sakura who nervously fiddled with her thumbs, averting her eyes from his shaded ones as he quickly turned his head towards her.

"Um...I'm Sakura Haruno," she said silently, something about her slightly off. Naruto and Sasuke caught on quickly. Ever since the incident with Kakashi, ever since their recently failed attempt at visiting him, Sakura wasn't the same.

"And...I want to be a strong kunoichi," she breathed nervously, "and protect those closest to me."

Sasuke tilted his head, that was different. What prompted her not to swoon over him?

Kakashi of course, that was a dumb thought.

Sakura was always more perceptive out of their trio, and with little trauma being exposed to her when she was little, Sasuke only guessed this whole event was taking a toll on her as well.

Maybe this new Sakura wouldn't be so bad, hopefully a little less annoying.

Now to get rid of this Sensei.

OOOOO

The soft rays of the morning glow seeped through the window, illuminating Iruka's kitchen.

It was morning already, and a week after Kakashi began staying with Iruka in his house. And so far, the duo had gotten nowhere regarding Kakashi's psyche.

Sighing, Iruka closed the journal. The journal he'd prescribed Kakashi to write in a few days ago since speaking to Iruka personally had made the jounin uncomfortable. It wasn't a long period of time, so of course, Iruka hadn't expected to Kakashi to write much.

But, he had at least expected him to write something worthwhile.

However, Kakashi wrote little to nothing, the rest being illustrated or figures assorted into no order into particular, many drawn maimed or just dead. At first, Iruka assumed that this could have been a result of the prescription medication Kakashi had been hooked on for his chakra, that this was making him lazy.

The label on the medicine said otherwise though, said that Kakashi shouldn't be incredibly drowsy.

Iruka mixed his coffee, his medicine already dissolved in the murky substance. He supposed that he should've felt a tinge of sadness, distant because his time on the earth was growing shorter and shorter. The pain hadn't set in yet, and as long as he stayed on schedule with his meds, then the pain never would present itself, not until it was time.

He shuddered and thought of something else.

His thoughts rested once more on Kakashi, his patient that he'd had no progress with. The journal was his only lead and it wasn't much. To make matters worse, Medic visited him every afternoon, recording his little progress. It was embarrassing, to show weakness to such a cocky guy such as the Medic.

Cocky...maybe that wasn't the correct word. More like oblivious and slow...and eerie.

He told himself he had no reason to beat himself up over the fact that he was getting nowhere, that it had just been one week. But time was ticking, and Tenzo's accusation of wasting his life with someone elses problems were beginning to sit heavy on his conscience

Why did he even want to help Kakashi. Yes, it was an order, but he could always decline, especially given his condition.

So why help?

Thinking of a logical answer for that one hardly helped either. As for Kakashi, he assumed the answer to the Jounins condition rested somewhere in his past, or many places in his past. That was Iruka's hypothesis, one of his few concrete details.

He knew what was given to him by the Hokage, the important events that he'd feel comfortable being withdrawn for him. Not surprisingly, it wasn't much. Therefore, there was something that wasn't being told to Iruka, that Iruka nor the Third himself was aware of. He knew of the death of his teammate, the death of his father, the death of his classmate, Rin, those deaths closest to him.

However, all he knew was their deaths, he knew not of the details. It was like knowing a title, but knowing nothing about the book. Kakashi was a title, and these milestones were the meat of the story. Helping Kakashi required seeping deep into his past, something that Iruka was usually good at.

But this was Kakashi Hatake, a well guarded and well respected man. A man that was in danger of hurting others and himself, and man that Iruka needed to pull information out of. And seeing that Kakashi knew Iruka read the journal, he wasn't going to put anything unknown to anyone else unless Kakashi actually wanted help.

Verbally, he communicated that he didn't want any help, but Iruka hoped that through their little form of communication, Kakashi could tell him otherwise, even of the jounin had no idea of it himself.

The first official day of the week had been hard. Kakashi was drugged, very drugged, infact Iruka believed that they accidently overdosed the poor man, but he supposed it was deemed necessary. He began with asking him questions, and like before, Kakashi denied needing his help.

It was think Iruka had been struck with the idea of the journal, it was a tactic he used for a small child once (though he hadn't informed them he'd been reading it), and assumed it may work on Kakashi.

And here he was, with only stick figured and gibberish, similar to the missing reports Kakashi handed to Iruka on a daily basis. .

If he couldn't help Kakashi, if Kakashi didn't openly speak to him, Iruka would die dead, die not accomplishing the last task of his life.

He sipped his coffee, thankful that his inner turmoil was absent in his actions, though he gripped his coffee cup a little too tightly.

He skimmed through the book one last time, he needed to be in Kakashi's room, the man would wake soon.

The figures were so familiar, all in different poses scattered throughout the first few pages of the journal.
Except...this one? Or these two?

They weren't dead...or at least one of them wasn't. In the corner of a page, so small that it was lost in the commotion of dead stick figures, Iruka found one that seemed to be alive.

However, it was small and stood over a dead body, a bigger body.

"Sakumo's suicide?" Iruka asked, partly expecting to get an answer. Standing up, he supposed the answer lay elsewhere, elsewhere being the spare room where Kakashi resided in.

Perhaps these little doodles weren't just doodles, perhaps, like Iruka guessed, Kakashi was indeed trying to reach out to him.

He inwardly smiled. Sakumo's suicide was only the title, most likely, Kakashi would be willing to fill in the story part of this ever growing sage.

OOOOO

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

This is kinda un-Beta'd, so bare with me. I apologize for it's length! Originally, I planned to go a little longer, but I decided to stop it here. Next chapter, I think i'll dedicated it entirely to Kakashi and Iruka. I'm sorry it's taken me so long, but i've been working on a lot of other stories too. I'm trying to slowly update them, so next'll probably be Of Love and Loyalty, than i'll probably post some new stories. Anyway, i'm sorry it took so long again, i really am. I hope you're all still interested! Summer is too short and my imagination is too big. Please review, please tell me what you think, anyway, have a nice week and God bless.