Iruka woke up with a headache, he was groggy and in a dark cold room. It smelled of must and oil. He could barely tell if his eyes were open or closed. There appeared to be no difference when he blinked. He tried to take in what surroundings he could, he could tell he was sitting down in a chair. His hands were tied behind his back. He couldn't move them at all. If he listened closely, he could hear water dripping but he couldn't make out any other sounds.

"Kakashi?" He croaked out. The man had to be here, Iruka hadn't let go of his hand.

"Kakashi!" He tried again, louder this time.

"He can't hear you, he's not here for one. Who is that by the way?"

Iruka stiffened, the voice was in front of him, but he still was enveloped in darkness.

"Who are you?" He asked the voice.

The person laughed, and then suddenly Iruka was thrust into the light. He squinted as his eyes adjusted, the bright light was almost painful after the complete darkness. When his eyes settled, he was staring up at the man.

"C'mon little brother, I'm hurt. Surely you see the family resemblance."

Iruka looked up and into the man's face. Maybe he could have denied the resemblance if the man hadn't called him brother. The man had Iruka's dark skin. His hair was cut short, but his eyes. Looking into his eyes was like looking into a mirror.

"You're Same?"

"I am, little brother. I see you've figured that out. Tell me, what else have you figured out?"

"I've figured out you're fucking insane. You could have killed her!" Iruka was yelling at this point, face flushed with anger.

"Her? Oh, you mean Sakura. I take it she survived then? Hm. Pity."

"Fuck you," Iruka spat.

"Fuck me? No, fuck you. You single-handedly ruined my life so excuse me for not giving a damn about returning the favor."

"I don't even know you. I didn't know you existed."

"Yeah, but I knew you did. I used to be excited about you but that was before."

Iruka didn't want to do this, he was angry. He wanted to kill this man, there was no way they were really related. Two people couldn't be this different. It seemed like this man didn't have a caring bone in his body. He needed a plan, but first, he needed time to think. Plus, as stupid as it was he was still holding out hope that Kakashi would fine him. Not that he had any way of knowing where he was. He tried not to think about Kakashi…or Naruto. It was too painful.

"Before?" He asked the man, trying to keep him talking.

"What no one ever told you?" Same sneered.

"Told me what?"

"You're a murderer."

"Why do you keep saying that? I think you have the wrong person."

"No. I don't. I was there. I saw it all. I had a front-row seat to you killing both of our parents."

Kakashi jumped up with a start, he could feel the pain in his back from being slammed to the floor but he ignored it. There was chaos all around him, he was outside. EMT's and security were all out triaging and interviewing people in order to piece together what happened. His team was nowhere to be found.

He thought back to the last thing he remembered. He had gotten Iruka outside and was calling for Gai, the man was parked at the entrance, and Yamato was parked at the back ensuring they had an exit no matter which direction they headed.

But, when they got outside he could see the car and then felt the thud on his head as someone attacked him from behind. He went down to his knees but didn't pass out. He could feel Iruka's hand go slack in his. One glance at the man told him Iruka had passed out. Anticipating the person to strike him again, he ducked and barely missed being struck.

Jumping to his feet, he saw two men. He knew he could usually easily take them on but his head was disoriented, he could already feel himself slipping into unconsciousness. He took out his knife and threw it at the man slightly to his left. His swiftness was used to his advantage, the man didn't see it coming and yelped in pain as the knife struck his leg.

The other man tried to punch him, and Kakashi easily dodged it. He drop-kicked the other man. He was getting dizzy. He couldn't keep this up for long. He needed to be smart, he could see Gai running toward him.

"Get Iruka!" he yelled at the man.

In horror, he watched as Gai started convulsing. Kakashi could see the stun gun, in the man's hand. A van drove up and three more men came out of the car. Kakashi knew he was running out of time. He ran over to Iruka and attempted to lift the man.

"It's useless, just let us take him." Someone said to him.

"Fuck you."

Kakashi felt something hit his head again and that was the last thing he remembered.

He stood up and saw ambulances all around him. Someone was speaking to him, trying to see if he was okay. He looked for Gai and found the man still on the floor being looked at by someone. He was trying to convince them he was fine.

When he saw Kakashi, he stood up ignoring the EMT's pleas for him to stop moving.

"Where do we need to go?

"Home. Where is Yamato?"

"I don't know, I think he's laying low."

"We need to find him because we need to go now. They have Iruka."

Gai closed his eyes and took a breath. "Damnit."

Kakashi took out his phone and dialed Yamato. "Where are you?"

"I'm five minutes away, I couldn't get you all out in time—"

"It's fine, Yamato. Just get here now."

Kakashi is silent the entire car ride. He can feel Gai and Yamato's questioning looks. They want to know what to do next. They're expecting him to step up and do his job.

But, he can't. Not yet.

Right now, he needs to figure out a way to get himself under control.

They took Iruka, and he still doesn't know who they are. Professionals for sure. But, were they connected to Same?

When he finally got information back from Danzo, it wasn't much. He learned they were definitely brothers. The man had some military training but was dishonorably discharged for insubordination. After that, he worked different odd jobs to keep up. He was unstable, he didn't have a family or many friends.

Kakashi learned that he was also in foster care too. Their mother died in childbirth with Iruka and then their father put them both in the system. The man was alive, but he had another family and clearly didn't seem interested in his first family after the death of his wife.

He had no idea how this man would have been able to hire or even find professionals. He stared out the window, grateful he wasn't driving but also angered. They needed to hurry, they needed to find Iruka. He could be —

"…Kakashi?" He could hear the hesitance in Yamato's voice as he called his name.

Mustering all the calm he could, "Yes?"

"I've called Asuma and he's called in back up. Right now Asuma is trying to find him and he called in a backup team for the search and rescue."

"We don't need to find him."

Yamato's expression showed his confusion.

"I placed a tracker on his cufflinks. We just need to gather supplies and then we can go."

Yamato chuckled, "Of course you did. I'll let Asuma know."

The rest of the car was silent as they went back to the safe. Kakashi's mind on the other hand was going a hundred miles a minute. How could he have let this happen? He lowered his guard, he let himself get caught up in the party. In Iruka. Scrunching his eyes shut he tried to breathe. He couldn't think about the man, no, right now he needed to focus as if the man was just a regular client.

Not as if he were someone Kakashi cared about.

Not as if he were someone Kakashi wanted to spend his life with.

No. For now, this man was just another client. If he could just think like that then maybe, just maybe, he could do this.

When they arrived at the safe house he headed straight to the basement where they kept the weapons. He wasn't surprised to see Asuma. The man glanced up at him and he wasn't sure what expression was on his face but Asuma's eyes softened briefly before he started talking.

"The back up is twenty minutes out. Everyone is upstairs, they're aware of the situation."

He closed his eyes, "Where is he?"

"Not far, he's maybe an hour drive from here."

Kakashi nodded, he went to grab his weapons, the familiar repetition of it all was soothing. He knew how to check his weapons, and gather his ammo. If he could just focus on this it would be okay.

"Kakashi?"

"Hm?" He didn't turn, instead, he started to get changed out of his suit into something more suitable.

"We're going to get him back, you know."

He stopped what he was doing and turned to Asuma, surprised to find the man had moved next to him. "I know."

"Good, now act like it. You're the captain of this group and I need you to stop moping in the corner and take charge."

He flinched as if he'd been slapped. That wasn't what he'd expected, but it was he needed. He nodded, Asuma was right. He had a job to do and Iruka needed him to do it. He just hoped Iruka was okay. The warehouse he was being held out has been abandoned for years, but they were all going in blind. For all the knew it could be a trap, but he needed to try. It was all they had to go on. He tried not to think about how the man could have found the tracking device and was planning a trap for them.

The two of them headed upstairs to see Yamato and Gai speaking with the new group. He saw everyone had their gear and weapons on. They were ready to go.

Kakashi quickly gave them directions to where Iruka was captured and told them the plan, they would cover the exits and storm the place. It wasn't how he liked to work, he would've preferred more information but this was not the first time he went in blind.

They all started to walk toward their cars, they would take two. Asuma was driving his team and Ino, the captain of the backup team, was driving the other car. The plan was a simple extraction, they were to find Iruka, get him to safety, and then capture his abductor. He just hoped they weren't too late. They'd wasted enough time as is.

"Kakashi, wait!"

He turned to see a mop of blonde hair flying toward him. Sasuke wasn't far behind him, a hard expression on his face.

"Naruto? What is it?"

"Take me with you."

"Naruto, no."

"Why not?! He's my brother."

He sighed, he did not have time to deal with this right now.

"Naruto, you would just be in the way. I promise I will get your brother back, but I can't let you go with us."

"But…I need to be there with him —"

"Naruto! No buts." Kakashi cut him off, "Look, I love him too and I can't do this with you. Okay? We've already lost so much time…"

Kakashi trailed off and took a deep breath to calm himself.

"Okay," Naruto said suddenly.

"Okay?" Surely, he wasn't giving up this easily? Not that Kakashi was complaining.

"Yeah, okay. I only wanted to go because I wanted someone that would do anything it takes to bring him back to be a part of this mission, and I think you will."

"I promise you, I will do everything in my power to bring your brother back." He stared into the boy's bright blue eyes, pleading with him to understand.

"I believe you."

Kakashi nodded, "Good. I have to go, but stay inside don't open the door for anyone. You all should be safe. No one knows about any of these houses so there should be no problem."

"How do you know no one knows about these? The person could have had someone follow you back here." Sasuke asked him.

Kakashi had started walking but he turned back around with a wink, "I know no one knows about these homes because I built them."

With that, he headed to the car so they could leave.

The car ride was mostly silent, they tested their comms and split themselves up into teams. Kakashi stared out the window, grateful he wasn't driving. It had been almost seven hours since he had last seen Iruka. Who knew what could have happened in that time. If the man was even…

No.

He couldn't go there. Of course, Iruka was alive.

There was so much he wished he had said to the man. There was so much he wanted to do with him…to him. Kakashi remembered when he got the call from Sasuke, he had been home maybe two days of his three-week vacation. His team had just finished their last client and it was some diplomat's kid. There was nothing difficult about the job, they just needed to watch over the kid while the family was in enemy territory.

When he returned home, he wanted nothing but to crawl up with his dogs and not leave his bed for maybe a week. He almost wanted to turn down Sasuke, but he was a family friend and Sasuke never asked for favors. When everything was sent over to him, he started to skim the files.

The first time he saw Iruka was on the files that were sent over. He would be an idiot to deny he found the man attractive, not to mention once he gathered his team he listened to Gai go on and on about him. On top of being a pretty face, the man was smart too. But, he ignored all of that. What was the point? This man most likely didn't want him. It would've been like all of his other relationships, people just seemed to lose interest him after a while. They found him interesting at first and then the more he opened himself up to them they all fled in horror. He had demons and few people could handle them.

So, when he met Iruka he tried to keep his distance. He succeeded, for maybe all about ten minutes. There was just something about the man that drew him to him and he wanted to know everything. Despite knowing it was irrational, he felt like Iruka may have had his demons too, and maybe, just maybe, he had found someone that wouldn't run.

But, he had lost him.

He had let the man get abducted by someone that meant to kill him. Iruka may not have realized it but he saved him. He was in a dark place before this mission, and Iruka had given him something he hadn't had in a really long time —hope.

Finally, the car stopped. They parked some distance away so as to not draw attention. Not that there was anything around them for miles. This place was deserted and it backed into a forest. If Kakashi were going to kill someone and get rid of the body, this would be the place to do it.

Speaking into the comm so everyone could hear him, "Alright, guys it's showtime. Remember the mission —we go in extract the client and get out. My team will take care of the enemy, Ino your team will focus on the extraction."

"Roger that, we're ready for the signal" Ino's clear voice spoke in his ear.

His team was going to go in first and then call for backup. Taking a deep breath, he started to walk toward the warehouse holding his gun tight.

Please be here, senator.

He still wasn't sure he would be able to process this information. Even now, it had been a while and he still didn't know what to think. The man—his brother—had told him his story. Iruka's heart hurt as he listened to the man talk about his life in graphic detail. It was..disturbing, heartbreaking, and he could only feel pain for the man in front of him.

They sat in silence once the man finished his tail. Iruka didn't know what to say, on one hand, he was still scared out of his mind. The man was erratic and dangerous, but also he was just a heartbroken young boy that grew up in worse circumstances than Iruka. But, what made it worse for the man was before Iruka was born, he knew love. Even if it was only for a short while. Yet, it was all snatched from him and it was Iruka's fault.

"Same, I'm sorry."

"I don't want your fucking apology."

"What do you want?"

"I want you dead."

"Killing me won't solve your problems, it won't bring them back."

"No, it won't. But, it'll make me feel better to know the person that killed them is gone. I'll never forget the flat line of my mother dying mere minutes after having you. And my father, drinking every night before he eventually gave us both up. And then…"

The man quieted off after that. He had already told Iruka about the horrors he had encountered from foster home to foster home. As much as he didn't want to empathize with the man in front of him, he couldn't deny the fact that if he had been through what his brother had he wasn't sure if he would be any different.

"It doesn't matter anyway. It's time for you to die."

Iruka swallowed as his brain raced to try to think of reasons to delay what he was slowly starting to believe as the inevitable. "Wait, Same! Please..I know we can't change the past, but we can work together and change the future. We could start over and be like real brothers."

His voice started to pick up as the man walked near him, Iruka wasn't sure when but he pulled out a gun.

"You know, I expected you to beg for your life but I didn't expect that. Hm. Well, it's too late."

Iruka watched as the man raised the gun toward his chest.

"Wait, Same. Please."

Same released the safety with a click that went straight to Iruka's stomach.

"I'm sorry."

Same hesitated briefly before shaking his head. "Goodbye, brother."

Iruka closed his eyes.

The sounds of a gunshot filled his ears.