Iruka took a deep breath before running his hands through his ponytail. It was slicked back and in a low ponytail. Apparently, it made him more appear more professional. At least that's what Sakura, his public relations specialist, had told him. Far be it from him to disagree with her. His shoulder was still slightly sore from the last time he did try to disagree with her.

The man beside him was giving him the 5-minute signal. He nodded back at him. He was about to be interviewed at a local news station about his campaign. Iruka was getting a lot of attention, at 29 he was the youngest person in the race for senator of Konoha. As of now, he was popular with the younger demographics but still had a long way to go to convince the older group he was trustworthy. He was sure his long hair and tattoos - that he mostly kept hidden - were not helping. Not to mention, he was running as an independent. There was a lot stacked against him. But that had been the case for most of his life, so there was no need to stop now.

He heard the sound of music and knew it was time for him to go out on to the stage. Taking a deep breath, he headed out into the blinding lights.

"That was great, I think you did a good job of showing them their issues are your issues and you will take their concerns seriously." Sakura flocked to him after the interview was over.

"They barely let me talk about my platform, especially in regards to education. That entire interview was a joke." Iruka huffed in frustration. He hated doing interviews like this, he much preferred to give speeches and debate. Interviews he was unable to excel at.

"I know, I know. But trust me, this was what you needed. This town was going to be hard to win over but I think at the very least you've gotten them to trust you. I think we need to go grassroots style with this town and maybe go door to door…"

Iruka nodded as she went on, at this point, he just wanted to get to the hotel room and take a nap before he had dinner with the mayor.

He could see their bus coming up and leaning up against it was a man with a mop of blond hair. Iruka couldn't stop the smile that graced his face as he took in his little brother. Naruto had told him he would meet him for the last leg of the journey. He must have just flown in. The boy was on his phone and so hadn't noticed their approach.

He turned to Sakura and saw she was smiling as she had noticed the boy too. He opened his mouth to speak to her but suddenly she fell to the ground clutching her stomach.

Everything happened at once then.

He heard the screaming, someone yelled at him to duck down. He was forcibly brought to the ground on top of Sakura.

He could hear her moaning in pain.

The sound of bullets was ringing in his ear. He felt like he was going to die from his heart trying to run out of his chest. He wanted to lean up but there was still someone on top of him.

Then he heard Naruto screaming his name before silence.

The person on top of him finally lifted up. He saw his security unit was everywhere securing the area. The man on top of him finally let up. He stood up and felt Naruto run into his arms.

"Iruka! Are you okay? You're bleeding!" He winced at the shout.

Naruto mistook the wince for pain and instantly paled as he stared at him.

"Iruka, you have to be okay." Naruto sobbed as he searched Iruka for injuries.

"Naruto, I'm okay but we need an ambulance for Sakura."

The boy looked down and saw Sakura.

Iruka felt someone's hands grabbing him and he was thrown in between a group of people and was placed on his bus. He could hear Naruto running behind him.

He was shoved into the bus.

The man, his head of security, spoke to him.

"You all need to stay here. We're going to clear the area, and we're taking you and your team to a safe house in another town. We need to assume that your hotel is no longer safe."

"Wait. What do you know about Sakura?" Iruka asked, his stomach clenched in fear.

"Sir. I don't know anything at the moment. My first concern is your safety."

"Oh yeah?!" Naruto jumped up. "Where was your concern for his safety when you all didn't survey the area? This should have never happened."

Iruka stood up to grab his brother's shoulder. He knew Naruto was angry, and he also knew what Naruto was capable of when he was angry.

"Naruto, let the man do his job."

"Huh, he's already shown he doesn't know how to do his job."

The man showed no response he just whispered to the driver and left.

"I'm going to kill that man. Is he your head of security? You need to do better."

"Naruto, I need you to look at me and breathe."

Naruto turned to him, and his face softened. Iruka could only imagine what he looked like right now.

"Are you okay, Iruka?"

"I'm fine."

"Ruka, it's me. You don't have to lie."

He sighed as he looked at his brother. Of course, he could be honest with him, but he was so used to covering things up as to not scare his brother. "I'm a little shaken up, but I'm mostly concerned about Sakura. Thankfully, the rest of the team is safe at the hotel."

"You're covered in blood, Ruka," Naruto said softly.

Iruka looked down at his clothes. He was. "It's not mine. It's Sakura's…" He closed his eyes he didn't know what would happen if something happened to her.

"There's a shower on this bus, I'll go get cleaned up. Can you see where they're taking us? And, grab my phone to call my team?"

"Of course."

Iruka turned around but Naruto stopped him and pulled him into a tight hug.

"I don't know what I would do with you."

"You don't have to worry about it because nothing is going to happen to me." He responded squeezing the man back.

Naruto nodded and Iruka swore he saw him wipe away a tear. Walking into the bathroom he finally was able to look into a mirror. He looked awful. He had blood on his face and his eyes were wide. No wonder Naruto was scared, he went to turn on the shower and noticed his hands were trembling.

He balled them into a fist as a way to get them to stop. He tried to take breaths, he could feel himself slowly losing control. He could hear Naruto's voice outside, presumably talking to someone on his team. He tried to focus on the sound of his voice as he continued to breathe.

He attempted to shut off his brain so he could at least make it through the next few minutes. Getting into the shower he scrubbed his skin raw as he tried to remove all traces of blood from him.

When he went back into the room with Naruto he saw he was talking to the driver. When Naruto saw him he headed back toward him.

"There's been a change of plans."

"A change of plans?" Iruka asked as he sat down on the couch.

"Yes, I called in a friend. He's going to take over your security. I've already alerted your team to the changes. We're going to go to Sasuke's place and meeting there to regroup."

"Naruto what did you do? And Sasuke has a place here?"

Naruto smiled. "Sasuke has a place everywhere. Perks of being rich as fuck. But, I told you I called in a friend. I don't trust your security and if you insist on finishing your campaign tour then you need real security in charge."

"Who did you call?" Iruka asked as he closed his eyes. This was too much too fast.

"A friend. His name is Kakashi."

"How do you know this friend?"

"I know him through Sasuke actually. It's one of the reasons we're meeting at Sasuke's place."

"Hmm, and what's the other reason?" Iruka asked with a smile.

"What do you mean?"

"You're telling me we're only meeting at Sasuke's because it's convenient and has nothing to do with a crush a certain blond brother of mine might have."

Naruto turned red as he expected. "Eh..about that. Remember when I told you I had a lot to tell you? Well, we're kind of dating now."

"What?! When were you going to tell me this?" Iruka laughed.

"I wanted to tell you as soon as it happened but then I figured I should tell you in person. It's new.." Naruto was smiling.

"I'm happy for you little brother."

"Yeah, and Sasuke is great."

Iruka nodded, "He seems like he'd be good for you."

"Yeah, it helps that we're both in the no parents, and raised by older siblings club."

"I'll bet."

"Now we just need to get you someone and I can sleep at night."

"Somehow, I doubt you don't sleep at night because of me being alone."

Naruto laughed, "Maybe not. But I do worry about you. You work too hard and you need to take a break sometimes."

"Don't worry about me I'm fine."

"Clearly, I need to worry about you." Naruto sighed.

Before Iruka commented the bus stopped.

"Grab all of your things, we won't be back on this bus."

"You know for a social worker, you sure know a lot about what I should and shouldn't do."

"Sasuke is a little paranoid because he grew up in the spotlight more than I did and he's kind of passed some of that on to me."

Iruka nodded. That made sense, Sasuke and his older brother Itachi were heirs to the Uchiha Corporation aka the largest gaming company in the country. He vaguely remembered when they lost their parents and Itachi took his younger brother and went into hiding. He and Naruto didn't have that problem. They were both adopted into their family at 12 and 6 respectively. Their parents had died in a car accident when Iruka was 22, and so Iruka took care of him. Their parents were not extremely wealthy, but they were well off enough that Iruka and Naruto did not struggle much.

He followed his brother out and into the yard of an incredibly large home. Iruka whistled, he knew Sasuke was wealthy but he always seemed to forget because the boy was so down to earth when he was with Naruto.

Sasuke was outside waiting for them. Naruto swept him into a hug and placed a kiss on his nose.

Iruka averted his eyes, he didn't want to intrude on their personal moment.

He shifted his bags and then looked up again and saw the two men were looking at him.

"How are you?" Sasuke asked, voice full of concern.

"I'm better now."

"I saw the whole thing on the news. It looked awful. I'm glad you're okay, that you're both okay."

He watched as Sasuke squeezed Naruto's hand.

Sasuke led them inside and Iruka was relieved to see his whole team there.

As soon as he walked into the threshold he was jumped.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so glad you're okay! I should've been there!" Anko screamed into his ear as she threw her arms and legs around him.

"I'm okay, and it wouldn't have done you any good being there," Iruka said as he caught his friend in his arms.

"I'm a black belt, you know."

"I do know, but that wouldn't have done anything against guns."

He shook his head. Anko was his campaign manager and best friend. They had gone to college together and there was no one he trusted more to be with him during this election. His team was pretty small compared to some of his opponents, but he trusted all of these people. Shikamaru was in charge of technology, Kurenai was in charge of opposition research, Gaara and Sakura worked on communications while Kotetsu and Izumo were in charge of fundraising.

They were small but mighty and he loved each of them dearly.

After untangling himself from Anko, he looked over at them they were all staring at him with similar expressions of distress and anxiety.

"Okay, everyone look I promise I'm fine. Now let's just figure out where we're going from here."

No one looked particularly pleased with that but they didn't have a choice. They were used to his work over everything mode. Gaara spoke up first.

"The hospital said Sakura was in critical condition, but she should make a full recovery. I plan to take over all of her operations until she is prepared to come back."

Iruka almost deflated in relief. "I'll go see her tomorrow."

Gaara nodded. "Also, the media surrounding this is working in our favor. Everyone is very concerned and your numbers have gone up. The number of people learning about your platform is increasing by the minute."

"I guess that's something to come from this shit show," Iruka said as he continued to listen to the report.

"And, there's one more thing." Gaara hesitated.

"What? Just say it."

"Well…we were at the hotel and so while we were leaving we went to check in your room just to make sure that we didn't leave anything in there and…on your bed there was a note."

"A note?"

"Yeah," Anko spoke up, "You know like the creepy ones that use magazine clippings? It said, 'you'll pay for what you've done - this isn't over'."

Iruka could feel his heartbeat increase. His palms were starting to sweat again.

"What does this mean?"

"It means we're going to need to make some changes." A new voice spoke up from behind him.

He turned around and saw a man leaning on the wall next to Sasuke and Naruto. His arms were crossed and he looked downright bored.

He was tall, taller than Iruka. He was dressed in black pants, a black t-shirt and he was wearing a navy green jacket over the ensemble. But, what really drew Iruka to the man was his silver hair and dark eyes, they appeared almost black. He had a scar running across his eye and a little mole on his face right under his mouth. His adorable mouth. Iruka forced his eyes away from the man's mouth.

"Uh, who are you?" He asked, glad his voice didn't shake.

"You can call me Kakashi. I'm here to make sure you survive this election."

Iruka raised his eyebrow at the comment. Well isn't he cocky? "I see. I take it you're the friend."

"Yes, he's a good friend of my brothers. He's doing this as a personal favor, but I trust him with my life." Sasuke spoke up stepping closer to Iruka.

"Do you have any training?" He asked the man who still hadn't moved from his position, but his eyes were on Iruka.

Kakashi just smirked. "I have some."

"Some?" Iruka waited for him to clarify.

"Yes, some."

"Care to elaborate on that?"

"What do you want from me, senator? A resume? We have more important things to focus on."

"Are you se—" He was cut off by the ringing of Kakashi's phone. The man held up his finger and spoke into the phone.

"What did you find out?" He heard Kakashi ask before the man left the room.

Iruka was furious. Did he seriously just lift his finger to silence him? Sasuke could vouch for him all he wanted but he did not like this man.

"Well, he seems…"

"Rude." Iruka finished for Anko.

"I was going to say succinct."

Naruto walked up to him. "Ruka, please just do it for me. I know he seems rough but he's not that bad. Besides, I just want you safe and if you have to deal with this idiot then please do it."

Iruka wanted to say no. He really did, but he'd always been bad at saying no to his brother. Curse him and those big blue eyes.

"Fine, I'll deal with him for now."

Naruto smiled at him. "Thank you."

The person in question walked back into the room.

"Well it's official, someone is trying to kill you. So, tell me senator, who exactly have you managed to piss off?"