Enjoy! BN
Disclaimer: Alas, Naruto will never be mine
Chapter 25 – Rain
The dappled shadows of early dusk clung to Kakashi as he lay immobile on the cot Tsunade's Anbu had provided for his captivity. The room was a sparse affair with only a bed, a stool and a bare nightstand. At least the breeze from a half open window blended with the ceiling fan above to keep the room reasonably cool, however its grime covered blades spun above him with a droning hypnotic slowness.
All things considered, Kakashi figured a resourceful toddler could have escaped the place, yet given the laxity of his guard it was clear that they were unconcerned about that possibility for him.
"I feel like a kid in first year academy who was just given a timeout," he mused. The comparison caused a sudden image of his adult self standing in the corner of a classroom holding pails of water, all the while a stern looking Iruka scowling at him from his teacher's desk. It made him want to chuckle. Alas, even that movement was beyond him.
It was strange to think about Iruka now. It was a funny, warm and distracting thing; annoying at the same time. On cue, Kakashi's internal warning system against 'complex emotion' activated and he forcibly shifted his mind to other matters more pressing.
"It's time to get out of hear" he said aloud. The elite jounin expanded his awareness and opened his chakra to capacity. Carefully molding it he focused intensely as he looked down over body and towards his sandaled left foot. With a voice filled with power he commanded, "Move big toe!" The plump digit glowed fiercely as the visible crackling light of chakra skittered around the room filling with it the sound of a thousand birds in flight.
The toe remained as still as stone.
Kakashi began to feel lightheaded and with an exhale ended his breakout attempt. His toe's unnatural light flickered away. "Well, at least I've solved that night light problem," he told himself, "Guess I'll take another nap."
The jounin was almost asleep when the room's only door across from him opened. The glint of sunglasses even in the dimness and the high collared gray jacket marked the entrance of the torture and interrogation squad's prodigy, Aburame Shino. The bug clan adept had been amazingly successful in extracting information from prisoners using his resident colony of chakra bugs to bone chilling effect. Just the other day, Morino Ibiki had tearfully informed the Hokage that it was like finding a long lost son.
However, it was when the mysterious nin stepped aside to reveal a second face that Kakashi's eyebrow shot up in surprise. A subdued and nervous looking Iruka walked into the small room from behind the chuunin. He turned to Shino with a bow of apology. "Thank you for leading me here, Shino-kun."
Shino was unreadable, but his voice was sincere as he replied. "No problem, Iruka-sensei, please take your time." The exchange was over in moments. The door closed behind the pony-tailed man as he looked awkwardly at the floor.
"Well this is a surprise," Kakashi said. "I must have really pissed Tsunade off if she sent you torture me."
The academy teacher pulled the stool over and sat at the bedside. He spoke woodenly. "The village is preparing for an attack right now Kakashi-san and I was the only one who could be spared."
"He refuses to meet my eyes," thought Kakashi, "and it's 'Kakashi-san' again."
Iruka was all business as his hands went down to Kakashi's left ankle. Although he couldn't see it very well, the immobilized scarecrow soon realized that Iruka was massaging his leg. "Iruka, I…" Kakashi began as the other man cut him off.
"You have been paralyzed for almost a full day," Iruka said, talking abruptly at first. "The blood flow in your limbs will be sluggish. This will help reduce the pain and recovery time."
For once Kakashi had the sense to remain quiet as the other man worked methodically. His palms circled in practiced, knowledgeable strokes, leading pressure back towards the heart and blood back into the muscle tissues.
Iruka seemed to relax a little in the silence. As he moved to Kakashi's arms and hands, his speech regained a more natural tone. He volunteered, "You know for a long time I wanted to be a medical ninja, ever since I was small... I thought that that they were special people,... medical nins, even my parents said so. Everyone in the village said that there were always too few of them, that more lives could have been saved if there had been more." Iruka laughed a little to hide his self-consciousness, his gaze remaining focus on his hands as he talked. "Later," he continued, "as a genin, I found out that I didn't possess the skills necessary to be trained and I was…well I had been very angry …, but I tried very hard to keep it hidden... I was good at that at least!"
"Does he still regret how his parents had died," Kakashi wondered, "or does he feel he will never be live up to there sacrifice?" The masked-nin was often faulted for his lack of sensitivity when it came to the feelings of others, but he knew one thing. Living in the shadow of one's parents was a terrible burden. He thought to himself, "How many years did I struggle with my own father's legacy?"
"The Third used to say," started Kakashi interrupting the silence, "it was impossible to remake the past. . . to try is to only avoid the future."
Iruka looked at Kakashi in surprise. It was for the first time that evening.
"When did he tell you this?" Iruka asked.
Kakashi's visible eye twinkled. "I was nine years old and it was just after he made a failed attempt at peeping into the women's bathhouse."
Iruka's face became quizzical and flashed through disbelief before a wry sort of laughter broke from him. It came out breathy and soft as it shook the chuunin's shoulders.
Kakashi felt relief. "He's not mad at me," he thought. It was important for him that Iruka not be angry. He couldn't say why, but his smile was what he wanted to see.
"That's better," Kakashi said, which earned him a slight blush. "Aah," Iruka agreed as he kept circulating his hands.
Iruka's palms moved gently along Kakashi's shoulder's and collarbone to end resting on the jounin's chest. "Ok, we're almost done," the academy teacher said pleasantly.
"Oh," Kakashi said, "you mean I get a happy ending too."
Iruka frowned. "You such a perverted…," began Iruka when another thought hit him. "Hey!" he exclaimed.
The sudden change in moods made Kakashi nervous. "What?"
Iruka looked very pleased with himself as he smiled wickedly. "I think I'll see what's behind that mask now," he said while reaching over to Kakashi's face.
"Don't touch it," threatened Kakashi in his most menacing voice, "if you want to keep all your fingers."
Iruka paused, but his grin became indulgent. "Awww," he gloated, "Is the big, scary, jounin gonna hurt me?"
Kakashi stared daggers at Iruka as he teasingly walked his fingers up to his face mask. His fingertips softly traced against the edge of the black fabric that met the immobile nin's face just below his eyes. Iruka's smug look faded. He left the mask in place and instead ran his hand along the older man's jaw line.
The scarecrow nin became confused. Iruka leaned closer and studied Kakashi's face as his thumb pressed lightly over Kakashi's hidden mouth.
Iruka seemed to break from his trance and looking into Kakashi's eye with a quiet anguish as he shifted over to his ear.
"I hate you," he whispered, "…Kai."
The jounin was caught off guard; Iruka had folded his right hand in Kakashi's to make the seal for ending the jutsu.
The academy sensei stood abruptly and with stagger step back he rapidly formed the seals for an escape jutsu.
"Wait, Iruka." Kakashi said as he tried to sit up." The protest of awakened nerves and atrophied muscles tossed him back to the cot while the smoke of Iruka's jutsu thinned in the air. The pain of it was like hundreds of fine needles stabbing throughout his body. It was all he could do not to cry out from the intense sudden agony.
"I wonder what that would have been like without Iruka's aid," he thought as he mastered the pain. "I need to find him, but first things first."
Kakashi heaved himself onto the floorboards and after a shudder passed through him he crawled slowly towards the toilet in the next room.
Three quarters of an hour later the moon had risen high over Konoha and Hatake Kakashi was running at about a quarter of his usual speed over the rooftops. "I know where to start at least," he said to himself as he approached the Hokage's residence.
Annoyed with the slowness of his hands as he formed seals Kakashi disappeared in a swirl of leaves to reappear inside the large building. The place looked dead. Nonetheless, walking down the corridor to where he expected to find Tsunade, he was unsurprised to find Raido materializing out of the inky blackness of the shadows in front of him. The jounin with the scarred face looked Kakashi up and down before letting out a whistle.
"You look like shit, Kakashi," he said, "that Iruka must be tougher than he looks."
Kakashi wasn't in the mood. "Piss off Raido. Where's Tsunade?"
Raido tilled his head a little like he was debating on what to say. "She's where you left her, or rather where she left you."
Kakashi didn't bother responding. He had a reputation among the jounin for yanking people's chains and so most were more than happy to return the favor.
The masked nin arrived at the right set of double doors and pushed them open to the scroll library where he was assailed with the reek of stale alcohol.
"Kakashi!" squealed a tipsy Hokage as she waved from the perch of her large red couch.
Tsunade's collection of sake bottles had grown to an obscene level in Kakashi's time away.
"Nice to know you've been busy preparing for battle," Kakashi said sarcastically.
Tsunade puffed her cheeks out a little and pouted, "It's so boring to hide all day! I had nothing else to do. Besides," she said wagging a limp finger at him, "you're just sour because poor Iruka-kun is angry with you."
Kakashi tilted his head in disbelief. "Why do you think I care?"
Tsunade seemed glad he asked the question as she leaned over the back of her divan to face him, her sake bottle in mid-pour. "Well, ever since you started chasing him around the village…"
Kakashi snorted, "What do you mean? He's been underfoot like a lost puppy every time I turn around... it's him who chasing me."
The Hokage shook her head ruefully as she placed her cup down then tottered to stand up. After a tense moment where she braced herself for the room to stop spinning she beamed a warm smile at his double image. "Kakashi, why are you here?" she asked.
The scarecrow nin became withdrawn as he roughly shoved his hands his pockets. "I don't know," he told her.
Tsunade moved to stand next to Kakashi which made him a little nervous after last time. She was still smiling too which made him even more uneasy. She was never this pleasant sober.
"Well, if you don't know maybe you should just go home and get some rest before tomorrow,"she told him.
Kakashi realized that was exactly what he should do and exactly what he didn't want her say.
He thought, "I was sort of expecting her to tell me to chase after him."
"Aah," he said in agreement, turning to leave.
"Wait," Tsunade told him, "I'll heal you." Without waiting for his assent, the Hokage performed a series of seals that were some of the sloppiest looking things Kakashi had ever seen. When Tsunade finished there was a brief sporadic glow that encased her hand, but had winked out just as she touched his chest.
Kakashi didn't feel a thing. "I don't feel any better," he told her.
"Really," say Tsunade swaying slightly. "Let me try again." This time she stared at her hands intensely as she made the first seal. Kakashi could swear she was looking at them cross-eyed.
"That's ok, Hokage-sama," he said backing away, "Thank you. Really, I feel better already. You are an amazing healer. I'm going home, right now."
Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke and Tsunade uncrossed her eyes and giggled until she hiccupped. Her hands flashed fluidly through a complex series of seals and her entire body gained a purple aura that flickered away to leave a sober Hokage. She walked briskly over to her desk and picked up a handkerchief to wipe away the sake-infused sweat that had beaded up all over her skin.
"Intoxication is a voluntary condition for any decent medical ninja," Tsunade thought primly. As she mopped away the sheen on her face the Hokage silently congratulated herself on her acting ability. Her healing of Kakashi had been a complete success but his recovery would delay until sunrise.
"If Kakashi finds him sooner, it will at least give Iruka a chance to give him that punch in the jaw he was talking about earlier." she mused remembering Iruka's visit before going to unseal Kakashi. "That poor young man had been so angry all because he was afraid Kakashi wouldn't return his feelings."
Tsunade was silent for a time as she remembered in fleeting memories her own trials with love. "Good luck to both of you," she whispered in the empty room, "To have your love returned by another is always a precious thing... even more so for a ninja."
The Hokage had other matters more pressing than two silly men to worry about, as she carried the weight of protecting an entire village on her shoulders. She still couldn't help happily humming some nameless tune as she carefully picked through her scrolls and contents of her hidden stores among the stacks. She too had a role to play as she prepared for her own part in the battle ahead.
Kakashi had decided to walk slowly to his house as the effort of normal ninja travel seemed a waste of energy. His stiffness had abated a little, but he still felt like he'd been rolled into sushi.
He came to a lonely intersection and recalled that last time he walked through here at night he had a passenger. The memory of it made him feel warm inside and without quite realizing it he turned the wrong way.
It was even stranger to him how he ended up in front of Iruka's apartment building. Without hesitation, he leapt up to a window in a move that his leg muscles immediately screamed at him for. Peeking inside he saw a solitary light above the kitchen sink that cast a dim luminescence through a doorway where Kakashi spied a perfectly made bed.
"He never came home." Kakashi sighed. The gnaw of concern bubbled under Kakashi's stoic shell. He jumped back down the three stories to the ground. "Oww," he breathed, to note the insane pain that caused, "that was very dumb of me." Walking off a slight limp Kakashi made his way towards the other place he thought Iruka might be.
Hours had passed since he'd left the Hokage's library as Kakashi strolled into the wooded area that had doubled as both a park and the site of many a bell test for genin teams. His hunch was on target as he found a brooding Iruka standing in front of the heroes' monument where the names of countless friends and family including Iruka's parents were carved.
Kakashi smiled cheerfully with a friendly wave as Iruka turned. "'Konbanwa' Iruka or should I say 'ohaiyo'?"
Iruka glared at Kakashi with hooded eyes. "Why," he asked stiffly, "Why are you here?"
The silver hair nin moved a few paces toward him into the light of the sinking moon as the far horizon tinted with a rose hue. "I sometimes come here when I feel alone." Kakashi said softly.
Iruka stared hard at Kakashi before nodding and made to depart. "I'll leave you alone then."
"No wait," Kakashi protested. "Don't leave."
"Why?" Iruka said again.
"I don't know because I have a perverse sense of humor?" responded Kakashi sarcastically. "That isn't what I meant to say," he thought.
Iruka's peered sharply at him with bloodshot eyes
"Was he crying?" thought Kakashi as Iruka began quickly close the space between them, then a another thing occured to him. "He's going to hit me," the silver haired man realized.
"Iruka," Kakashi said as the other man's fist connected with his face. Kakashi's head snapped back as the punch clipped him in the jaw.
"Iruka," Kakashi tried again, as a second swing caught him on the other side of the chin. "I should have been able to avoid that," he thought, "my reflexes are completely shot right now."
The smaller man seemed possessed as he swung again which this time Kakashi ducked, then jumping back to avoid Iruka flashing kick. "He is tougher than he looks," Kakashi thought remembering Raido's comment earlier.
"Iruka stop this," he said trying to be patient with him, but the other man would have none of it.
"Just leave me alone," he yelled approaching again.
He rushed Kakashi, but the jounin was ready for him this time. He caught Iruka's fist squarely and checking the man's kick with his own leg as he deftly twisted his arm into a lock behind his back.
"Ok, now will you…" Kakashi was cutoff as he suddenly felt his ear slam into his shoulder. Somehow Iruka had managed to use his other hand to grab a hold of his hair pulling his head sideways.
Kakashi was getting angry as he tightened the armbar. "Iruka! Let go or I'll break your arm!"
The chuunin sensei was wincing, but his grip only tightened. "No, you idiot!" he snapped, "You let go!"
Both men grimaced as a stalemate developed. Each locked in their death grip they could only stand their as the skies suddenly opened in a torrential shower. The icy rain seemed to release steam as it soaked the two leaf nins.
Kakashi couldn't help find the scene ridiculous. Two grown men scuffling in the rain like delinquents after school. He started to chuckle helplessly and noticed that Iruka had started to do the same thing and their laughter grew. It was brief and honest causing the tension to ease as the well-timed cold shower had it's effect. They released each other and Iruka turned to look up at him. "Kakashi, I'm very..."
"Wait Iruka," he said taking other man's hand gently, "I want to show you something." With that he brought it to lay it against his face, guiding the fingers to curl over the edge of his mask.
Iruka jerked his hand away like it was burning and looked blushing over Kakashi's shoulder. The jounin turned to see a group of four masked Anbu coalesce out of the gray mist. He was surprised why they had concealed their present until the last moment as Iruka walked around him starting to apologize. "We didn't mean to cause any trouble, we just..."
"Iruka!" Kakashi said sharply. The chuunin turned back as Kakashi heard the silvery staccato of steel sinking into flesh and a look of confused pain appear on Iruka's face. The dark haired man collapsed into Kakashi's arms.
"I was hoping to kill someone special in front of you," said one of the Anbu who lifted his mask to reveal his identity, "but I never would have expected him."
Kakashi's rage burned inside as he almost spit the man's name back at him.
"Kabuto."
TO BE CONTINUED