Wow! Thanks for all those thoughtful reviews. I'm really sorry about the choppiness in my writing. Writing is an erratic, impulsive kind of thing to me because I just type what comes to my mind... so I guess that might be why it's choppy. I'll pay more attention to that in this chapter and improve my writing skills 8 ) Thanks again : D

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, a whole episode would be dedicated to Kakashi without his mask on... [faints from the thought of it]

Chapter 2

...Falling, falling, falling...I can't do anything...except to fall...

Freefalling into a black pit. It seemed to have no end. His body was limp and aching. Falling prevented him from moving except in one direction. Down...

I feel so useless...

He hated that feeling. It was that same feeling he felt as he watched his parents torn apart by the demon-fox, Kyuubi. It was a reminder that he was...

Weak...

Then, phantasmal pairs of eyes began to appear around him. The same pairs of eyes as the blood hunter. The same pairs of eyes with the piercing gaze that crawls under your skin and into your bloodstream. All the eyes stared at him intently and began to chuckle with fiend-like glee.

Stop...Please...

A glint of light pierced the darkness. Then the faint ray of light suddenly turned into a radiant effulgence, almost like a blast of fireworks concentrated in one area. It felt so warm...and so comforting...

Then a single eye appeared...one with a dark, red, savage intent in it. Sudden sharp pains diffused through his body as he saw the eye turn into the demon fox's eyes. They came closer and closer...

He jolted straight up in his bed and panted a bit. W-What..happened.... He looked at the bed he was in, the dressings on his wounds and the silly gown that exposed his back side. Then he touched his face and felt a large bandage over the bridge of his nose. Where I had been cut...He fingered the soft gauze on his face and noticed the IV stuck in his arm.

I'm in the hospital now . . . how? . . .

He looked over to the side of the room and noticed a nurse writing something on a clipboard. She turned around and showed the man an ebullient smile.

"Iruka-san! You're awake now! You've been out for almost 4 days now..."

She was cut off by a flustered Iruka. "4 days already?! I need to get back to teach class! All of this..." His voice was overtaken by a loud growl from his stomach. He stopped screaming and the nurse began to laugh. Iruka chuckled soon after. "I guess I am a bit hungry..." he said, rubbing his belly. "I think I could manage to eat a horse."

The nurse laughed. "I'll get the kitchen to send up some soup," she said cheerfully. "For now, you need to stay here until we get all that poison out of your body. It's a miracle that you got here before it spread to the critical areas..."

That's right...I got knocked out from the explosion...but...Someone had to have brought me here! Iruka cleared his throat. "Hey nurse, do you happen to know who brought me up here?" he asked.

"Actually, we found you just lying outside the front of the hospital," she replied. "I guess that the person was in a big hurry because he could have dropped you off inside." She began to blush a bit from embarassment. "It's better to drop patients inside the hospital rather than outside where all the hobos are..."

Iruka's jaw dropped. Hobos... me...

The nurse gave a weak chuckle. "Well, every once in a while we check on the hobos outside to see if they're doing alright..."

I could have died because I was mistaken for a hobo....

The nurse continued. "...and we found you outside with your face covered in blood and turning a shade of purple..."

A hobo...hobo...not death from a barrage of kunai or getting every drop of blood sucked from your body...mistaken for a hobo...

[nurse is still rambling]"...and we immediately admitted you into the hospital...Iruka-san! Iruka-san! Are you okay?!" the distraught nurse asked. Iruka's head was dizzily waving back and forth while he was whispering "hobo" quietly to himself.

The nurse got the message and quickly reverted back to the subject. "Other than this sweatshirt that was covering you when we found you, we have no idea who brought you here." she said. She took the sweatshirt out of a bag and put it onto the side of his bed.

Iruka thanked the nurse. Suddenly, a nurse down the hallway began to yell. "Keiko! Keiko! Room D-4! Hurry!" She got up and gave a quick bow to Iruka. Iruka nodded and the nurse quickly headed out the room leaving him alone.

So this is the only clue I have of you...Damn... He felt extremely vexed. Someone comes and rescues me from the forest and brings me to the hospital...er...the front of the hospital at least. They saved my life. Yet I can't even repay them or even at the least know their name.

He stared at the sweater for a little while. Well, I may not know what you look like, but I'll at least know what you smell like. He took a big whiff of the sweater...

[note: it's HIS OWN blood on the sweater...and he's a guy; so he won't freak out about it...right?]

This feeling...It's the same feeling as in the dream...I want to stay like this forever...He began to chuckle at the childish thought of him hugging a sweater.

Then, Iruka flipped the sweater over... Strands of silver hair...

End of 2nd Chapter

Almost there...to the mushy mushy...must finish summer school work....I never knew how much work editing was until now...Thank you all so much for the reviews. Being the dense person that I am, I don't notice things until people tell me. I'm still suffering from writer's block...so don't expect anything from me that soon....I'll try and update weekly...summer school is going to take some time away from me.

And the author's only review option ... set it so that everyone can leave a review... ok... I'm almost kissing the computer screen now because I'm getting so tired and my vision is blurring up....zzzzz..