NARUTO © Kishimoto Masashi • Shueisha • Studio Pierrot • TV Tokyo. All rights reserved. Non-profit fun ahead! Fanfic named by Iruka.

Warnings: Eventual fluffy friendship between the boys. Do not read if thou art not a fan of fluff!


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Crossroads of Life
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Chapter Three



Neither Naruto nor Sasuke had taken it upon themselves to speak the words aloud, but it was fairly obvious by the next day when Iruka stepped in to the still messy, still dirty, and still untidy house of Naruto, that the blond had not quite meant what he said when he threatened to take the Uchiha in as a cleaning servant.

Presently, as Iruka lifted a stinking sandal away from the doorway and flung it to the growing pile of dirty laundry by the corner of the house, he could tell that the house was void of human life. The man settled his wares down near the door and took some time to examine the wooden hut, coming to the conclusion that Naruto must have dragged Sasuke off somewhere in the morning. Laughing at the imagery, he sat down at the table, intending to plan how he could help Naruto out, even if slightly, with his household mess when a flash of silver from the corner of his eyes caught his attention.

He turned, then smiled, holding out a hand to gesture the dog closer. "Kakashi! Home alone guarding the territory today, aren't we?" His smile widened when the dog obeyed and came near his outstretched hand, licking it in a friendly notion. After a while, the Chuunin decided that he had enough of wet tongues, and turned instead to patting the dog on his head, feeling good when the ruffled fur smoothened with his every stroke. Then, as if noticing something else, he glanced around the room purposefully. "Where's Itachi? You didn't chase him up the tree today again, did you?" He stared semi-suspiciously at the silver dog, who sat there panting away, neither denying nor agreeing to the accusation.

The Chuunin rose to full height after a while, hands on his hips. He glanced at the door. "I guess there's only one way to find out! Might as well check the crops while I'm at it..." Mumbling to himself, Iruka exited the house into the front yard, followed closely by Kakashi.


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Unbeknownst yet to the man, however, was that although Naruto and Sasuke were indeed out in the open together, they had also brought the black cat along with them - for covert help when necessary, had been Naruto's excuse.

Currently, they were hiding behind a few barrels of water at the marketplace, observing the people as they walked to and fro. Naruto had a look of perverse pleasure on his face, while Sasuke found it increasingly difficult not to twitch.

Finally, he whispered, "This is /not/ a good idea at all, Naruto."

"Oh shut up, Sasuke. What do /you/ know about good ideas?" Was the happy response.

"Enough to be able to conclude that this is a terrible mistake!" The boy barked at his companion, although he did it very quietly. "Are you nuts? These people are after me for my /life/! Are you really dying to get rid of me?"

"Why are you so afraid?" Naruto snorted. "Just keep your eyes normal and they won't notice a thing. You're a /ninja/ for crying out loud, while these people are just commonsfolk like me. You can take 'em!"

Sasuke sighed. "What I would give for a little of whatever you're taking for optimism..." he grumbled, shooting Naruto a dirty look while he was at it. "I can probably run away from a few of them, but not an entire group!" He shook his head. "Much less face them in a one on many fight in the middle of a bustling marketplace, hello? This village is packed with Jounins, in case you haven't noticed! This is why I needed to lie low, remember?" Sasuke's whispering got fiercer and fiercer with every word.

"There are no ninjas in this village," Naruto frowned and scanned the crowd. "Why do you keep saying there are?"

Taken aback, Sasuke paused to collect his thoughts. He had yet to read the contents of the envelope Iruka had passed him, choosing instead to keep it hidden and safe until he felt he was prepared to peek at it. True, Naruto had a point - when looking at the scene before him, Sasuke would agree that this was hardly a village of ninjas, deadly battles or hidden missives. But the fact that there were seemingly endless numbers of highly trained Jounins on his tail a couple of days ago remained deeply entrenched in his mind. He lowered his head in contemplative silence.

After a while, Sasuke decided that there was something else on his mind he had to say. "Naruto..." he slowly began.

"What is it? Can't you see I'm trying to pull a grand prank here?" The blond sounded offended, although he did not take his eyes off the streets.

"... can you please take this cat away from me?"

"Huh? What? Oh. Why? Itachi loves you!"

"... No he does not. He's fidgeting and he's trying to dismember my fingers. I hardly call that love."

"He's just playing with you. Don't be such a wussy. Itachi's just a harmless little kitty, ain't that right, Itachi?" Naruto finally tore his eyes away from the streets and looked at the black cat, tickling the thing under his chin. Itachi purred obligingly. Sasuke felt involuntary shivers run up his spine, as the words 'Itachi purred, Itachi purred, Itachi purred,' kept repeating themselves in his head.

Noticing his companion's unease, Naruto elbowed Sasuke conspirationally and leaned in to whisper, "Cheer up, dude. We're gonna dump some water balloons on that stupid butcher who's always selling me bad meat. I haven't gotten him back for poisoning me into a week of sickness yet!" He heaved a self-righteous fist into mid-air, anger rolling off into his immediate vicinity. Sasuke sighed in exasperation. "Stop sighing, Sasuke!" Naruto jabbed the shinobi hard somewhere in his middle, causing him to almost double over at the well-executed, chakra-filled move. "You're the decoy! You're supposed to help me if I get caught!"

Sasuke almost gagged into Itachi, who had stopped shifting around a while ago and now hung like a snug rug in Sasuke's arms. "And what am I supposed to do for a decoy then, O mastermind planner, /when/ you get caught?" Sasuke made doubly sure that the sarcasm dripped from every word he used.

"Oh, that's easy," Naruto continued without losing his momentum, "You beat me up!"

Sasuke could feel that even Itachi had frozen in his arms, in as much as he himself was struck cold by the statement. He slowly turned to face the sunshine-blond boy, donning what he hoped was a look of sheer disbelief on his face. "Excuse me?" He demanded.

In response, Naruto blinked at the other boy. "What's with the surprise?" He asked, genuinely ignorant. "I know, I know, you're afraid I'll kick your ass back, but don't worry! I won't. I'm not allowed to demonstrate my ninja-ness in public, you see..." he eyed Itachi carefully, noticing that the cat was staring at him strangely. "So anyway, just beat me up - like, really convincingly, and everything'll settle."

The raven-haired ninja raised a frowning eyebrow when he next asked, "What are you talking about? How the heck am I going to help by beating you up when you could use that time to try to escape from... whoever you're trying to escape from?"

Naruto immediately scowled angrily. "You damned travellers don't know anything! Even if I managed to get away from one, the whole village will be on my case in less than five minutes! They'd gladly submit to any reason they can grasp to beat me up! And when someone does beat me up, all the rest does is stand around and watch! That's why, if you do it, at least it'd be less painful." He paused, then turned a serious expression on Sasuke. "You won't use this opportunity to avenge yourself on me or something will you?"

Still gaping hard at Naruto, Sasuke shook his head and sighed. "Naruto - if you have any better ideas, I might consider helping you. But you want me to beat you up? You might as well ask Itachi," he brandished the cat by bringing him closer to Naruto's face with outstretched hands, "to scratch all their eyes out! I bet /that/ sounded more logical!"

Itachi mewled in agreement.

"Don't be stupid!" Naruto rebuked. "Itachi's just a harmless little kitty! He won't do something as gross as that!"

Sasuke, in turn, was too busy trying to dissuade Naruto from apparent idiocy to notice Itachi squirm guiltily in his grasp. "I didn't mean it literally you little moron! Oh fine! Fine! Whatever! Don't blame me if you get some nasty scars for a few months later!"

Naruto stuck his tongue out. "That won't happen, bastard." He said smoothly, with confidence. "I heal with the speed of light!"

Rolling his eyes, Sasuke decided not to argue with that. He began to brood quietly, wondering how he could /pretend/ to hurt someone. Trust Nrauto to come up with half-baked ideas like these. Why did he play such pranks on the villagers if he knew he was in for a beating anyway? And was it really true that the villagers hated him so much that beating him up was an activity everybody enjoyed doing and watching? Although he was curious, he did not want to beat up someone who had... sort of believed that he was innocent of some hideous crime when everybody else did not. Without really thinking, he bounced Itachi on his lap gently, wondering what kind of situation he had gotten himself into now.

"Okay," Naruto's quiet whisper brought him back to the present, and he stared with annoyance at the boy. "Here's the plan. The butcher goes to the back of his store to get some fresh meat whenever he runs out, and he's running out soon. The storeroom's all darkish and foreboding and so when he comes back out into the open he'll find it difficult to adjust his vision. That will be the time!" He struck a pose to the skies. "I'll toss him some nice water balloons - he hates getting wet, hee hee! - and then I'll run like mad. And you, big ninja, are supposed to trail me in the shadows until we get to safety. If we don't manage to, then you know the backup plan!"

"Yes, yes," Sasuke decided that he would be better off saving some breath in the face of a determined Naruto. He did not really believe that the villagers wanted to beat Naruto up that badly anyway, but he would go along just for the sake of going along.

It was either this, or he had to clean up Naruto's house, right? Right.

"Okay! Here we go!" The blond's excited voice drew his attention to the store where the blond was looking at. He was just in time to catch the last whiff of the fat looking butcher disappearing into the dark recesses of the storeroom. He felt himself tensing involuntarily. As much as he knew he was an accomplished ninja, following Naruto - whose chakra control was so good he could wipe out traces of his existence entirely, was not going to be easy.

Seconds ran into minutes, and the tension in Sasuke's muscles did not ease. Although he did not approve of Naruto's mischief or his backup plan of beatings, he did admit that he was quite excited that he could test his stalking skills. Even Itachi stayed completely still when waiting for Naruto to unleash the water balloons. The air grew thicker and thicker with anticipation when the trio of boys and cat heard the footsteps of the butcher slowly emerging from the storeroom.

Sasuke gulped when he saw the first flash of bloodied apron in the sunlight. Beside him, Naruto had an obscene grin on his face.

He took aim. He raised. He shot.

The first balloon hit the man squarely on his face, causing him to stumble slightly and bellow with indignation. Relentlessly, Naruto quickly relieved himself of all his water balloons by hurling them all with great might, strength and speed at the plump man, who had not had time to recover since the first shot got him. Sasuke watched on with morbid fascination. He had never seen anybody toss water balloons with such frightening speed before. Very likely Naruto used his chakra to help out as well. Sasuke refrained from turning the Sharingan on to capture the flow of chakra. No! He could not risk getting caught now! Besides, why in the world would he want to know how to toss water balloons quickly anyway?!

"Naruto! You little pipsqueak! When I get my hands on you..." The butcher's loud threats forced Sasuke to evaluate the situation more subjectively. Naruto had sprang out from his hiding place and was currently cackling like a hyena on crack. The butcher was still unable to open his eyes, and he was clawing at the spots where the water balloons had landed with desperation. Probably Naruto had dunked some kind of itching powder into his arsenal. That was just so like him.

"Catch me if you can, pig-man!" Naruto screeched right back, already on the run. "That's your payback for selling me rotten meat at high prices! Ngeeeh!" He stuck his tongue out at the last part and made a face, then bounded off into the crowd.

"After him!!" The butcher screamed, and immediatly a few random passers-by from the crowd whisked into action. As their blurred figures quickly passed by where Sasuke and Itachi were, the ninja boy decided that that was a speed that could only be achieved with years of experience and perfection. Why Naruto said there were no ninjas in this part of the village was beyond him.

Nevertheless, after the men passed and there were no more agitated action on the part of the passers-by, Sasuke released the camouflague Jutsu and, placing Itachi around his neck with a stern "Don't fall off," warning, bounded off in the direction Naruto was last seen travelling in.

This might be fun after all.


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"Today," Iruka was saying, while up to his elbows and knees in the dirt that was Naruto's front yard crop garden, "we have a special visitor in this village."

Kakashi stopped scratching his ear and looked attentively at the man, who smiled at him.

"So... have you ever heard of the Hokage?"


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As good as Naruto's chakra control was, he had on his tail almost an entire lane of villagers screaming bloody murder at him, and the chase was starting to get to him. Although he had great stamina, it was too great to really control well for a long period of time, as this chase was proving to be. Time and again Naruto looked back to trade an insult or two with the offended people that were trying to give him the beating he'd never forget. At the same time, he noticed that he could not see Sasuke anywhere, and was wondering if the boy had even caught up at all when a hand shot out from one of the overhanging houses he was passing by and pulled him into the darkness.

Panicked, it took all of Naruto's self-control not to scream like a little girl. He hadn't really needed to use self-control, though, seeing how tight the grip the shadowy figure had on his mouth. From the corner of his eyes, he could see the figure form a camouflague seal with one hand, and he could feel the chakra slipping into quiet action. The duo crouched nervously just below the window Naruto had just been dragged in by, listening to the sounds of a mass of people thundering past their vicinity.

A while after the last footstep passed, and the birds resumed their chirping, the shadowy figure sighed and released his grip on Naruto. The blond staggered away and whipped around angrily, pointing.

"SASUKE!" He shouted. "What the hell?! You were supposed to help me be my decoy, not drag me away from the chase!"

"Are you really a dimwitted block of termite-infested wood like I always thought you were?!" Sasuke shot back, restraining himself from just jumping forward and strangling the blond into unconsciousness. "I was trying to help you avoid a bloodbath! Why are you so eager to get beaten up by the villagers anyway?"

"I'm not eager to get beaten up!" Naruto stamped his foot on the ground. "I've escaped from those bastards before! I can do it! And now they're all just going to think that I ran away like a coward! And it's all your fault!"

"You'd put your pride above your life?!" Sasuke stared at the shorter boy with horror.

"No!" Naruto replied quickly, anger in his tone. "You're not me! You wouldn't understand! Argh!" Naruto huffed one last time, then slipped out of the window and disappeared as quickly as he was pulled in.

Sasuke stared at the disipating cloud of dust in the evidently abandoned hanging house they had taken refuge in. He turned to stare at the cat, still perched on his shoulders, and asked, "What did I do wrong this time?"

Itachi blinked and rubbed once against Sasuke's neck. Then he went back to sleep.


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Although he had lost track of the golden-haired boy by the time he emerged from the dilapidated house, Sasuke knew that the boy possibly must have just returned home. He had thought long and hard about the matter, and decided that he should head to Naruto's house too and apologise to the boy. Friends, according to what he remembered from the books he had read, always gave in to each other to maintain a good relationship after all, right? Right. Iruka-sensei was right when he said that making friends would be a challenge!

Still with the warm, sleeping black Itachi cat curled comfortably around his neck, Sasuke began to make his way to Naruto's house, revising and re-revising what he would say to the blond when he arrived by way of apology.

Words, however, failed him when he finally arrived at his destination.

The sun was still blaring overhead, rendering the day a hot, humid afternoon. Sasuke dragged Itachi off his neck upon stepping into the gates of Naruto's lonely house, which looked blurred and creased in the rising heat. He released the cat onto the ground, and Itachi promptly shot into the house. Sasuke was about to follow, when he noticed, with trepidation, the condition the house was in.

Although he had not had the time to firmly imprint the house in its normal form during his stay, Sasuke knew that the large, gaping hole and the few small openings beside it were definitely not part of its original design. He took a step and promptly squashed beneath his feet a few upturned crop, violently ripped from their former resting place. Scattered across the garden were more vegetable crop corpses that would have made some tasty food, if they had been allowed to continue growing. Sasuke shuddered, despite the suffocating heat, and briskly walked by the garden, ignoring the various scenes of destruction that could only denote bad things. He pushed open the door with much force.

The first thing to assault his senses were the sounds of a piteous, soft sob, brimming with emotions - that of regret and depression. Sasuke swept the room once at eye-level, then realised that there was activity only on the ground. Sitting almost at the threshold of the door, knelt and bent over the prostrate form of Iruka, was the hunched figure of Naruto.

The boy's shoulders jerked at intervals, coupled with heart-wrenching sobs. "Iruka-sensei..." he cried softly, rocking the limp man to and fro. There were a hideous amount of cuts, slashes and bruises evident on Iruka's visible skin - some blood had not began to even coagulate, indicating the severity of the injuries. Neither Itachi nor Kakashi were anywhere to be seen, but Sasuke's mind was on something else anyway. He dove quickly into action, eyes wide with fury.

"Naruto! Get off him!" He knelt down and tore the boy away from Iruka.

"Sasuke..." Naruto was too much in shock to really notice what was happening. He gave way silghtly, but did not completely remove himself from his teacher. He stared at Sasuke, who made a few hand seals and quickly placed his hand above the man. A greenish glow began to gather about his palm, gradually dissolving into the body of Iruka. Even as Naruto watched on, some colour began to return to Iruka's cheeks. He had yet to get over his shock when Sasuke's tensed voice cut into his attention.

"Dumb-bell! If you have the time and energy to gawk and stare, why don't you go to the kitchen and fetch me some warm water?"

The blond roughly wiped at his face with the back of his hand, shooting Sasuke a glare that was not quite a glare before scrambling to his feet and quickly vanishing into the kitchen. Sasuke gritted his teeth in concentration. He was seldom the medic for his team, so his restoration skills were more or less non-existent. This was not going to be pretty.

Stopping the Jutsu he was using and quickly forming the seals for another one, Sasuke thanked whoever it was in his upper lineage that had the sense to develop the Sharingan, drawing upon its copying and storage ability to put up a vague semblance of a medic in action. He had just settled the bleeding and superficial cuts and was about to proceed to tackle the more difficult, invisible internal injuries when Naruto appeared quietly beside him with a basin of warm water and a strange glint in his eye.

"Get a piece of clean cloth and help me remove the dirt and blood from Iruka-sensei's skin," Sasuke ordered tersely, to which Naruto complied without much resistance or rancour. After moving Iruka to a more comfortable spot on the bed, Sasuke pulled the second level healing Jutsu off as best as he could, with Naruto running to and fro the kitchen for a change of freshwater every now and then.

It was at around evening time that Sasuke finally slumped against the table and sighed heavily, beads of sweat rolling off his chin and onto the messy floor. He shot a glance at Naruto, who was just finishing up with bandaging the last of Iruka's injuries. The blond then stood up with the basin and scampered into the kitchen.

Sasuke waited. Exhausted from the exertion, he began to appreciate the toils of the medic in his team a little better. Bad enough it was to do curing in a non-battle, non-fast-paced residential area; he had not wanted to even think about the pressures and problems the medic had to face when forced to deal with blood and broken bones in the middle of heated conflicts. If he ever did see Sakura again, he would be sure to view her in an entirely new light.

After a short period of shuteye, in which various unidentifiable noises drifted to his ears from the kitchen, Sasuke opened his eyes to find that the sun had already set entirely. Wondering what Naruto was doing in the kitchen that was taking such a long time, he wandered in aimlessly. He had in mind many questions to shoot Naruto with to get the situation clearer. The sight that greeted him, however, rendered him dumb-struck again.

There was far more blood spattered about in the kitchen than there was in the living room. Sasuke's numb mind helpfully supplied that this must have been where the major action had taken place in. It wasn't that he had never seen blood or the aftermath of a terrible duel before. There were missions which required much more gore than this which he had successfully carried out with a stomach of iron and a face of steel, after all.

It was just that, Sasuke had never seen disaster on such a close, personal level before.

Naruto was stroking the blood-soaked, dirt-caked fur of the silver coloured dog Sasuke remember was called Kakashi. The dog was sprawled onto his side against the kitchen sink cabinet, panting with short, pained and lingering breaths. Still stuck on his side were several shuriken and kunai. Blood continued to dribble from the dog's body down the weapons.

The blond had his back against Sasuke, so the latter could not see what his expression was. Likely Naruto had seen the injured dog when he had made his first trip to the kitchen, but had kept his mouth shut to avoid giving Sasuke unnecessary confusion that would break his concentration when trying to cure Iruka. That would explained the strange glint Sasuke saw in the boy's eyes when he first returned.

It was cruel, Sasuke realised, but Naruto had to choose to deal with his pain and kept quiet about his beloved dog bleeding away in the kitchen so that he could save the one man who ever showed him any regard in his whole life. Like Naruto, Sasuke knew that it was near impossible to give life back to this creature whose constitution was just not built for withstanding chakra-filled attacks like that. That was probably why Naruto chose to sit by the dog's side instead of running to Sasuke and shouting at him to hurry up and cure the dog too, dammit.

He could feel his fists clench. Whoever had done this would pay dearly.

While going through the various methods of torture and grim he would execute upon the perpetrator of this crime, Sasuke noticed that Itachi had been in the kitchen all along, sitting by a dark corner, staring at the dying dog. He was momentarily surprised. Even Naruto's pets had such wonderful chakra control? Mentally too exhausted to think any further than that, he watched as the cat suddenly stood up from his previous position and padded quietly over to Kakashi.

When there, he sat down in front of the dog and stared meaningfully at his friend and sometimes enemy. If Sasuke had been allowed to read those eyes as he would a human's, he would discern that Itachi had something major up his sleeve and was seeking Kakashi's permission to do it. Unconsciously Sasuke felt himself turning to Kakashi, along with that line of thought, to await some sort of a response.

He did not have to wait long. Kakashi whined slightly, closed his eyes, and shook his head.

Sasuke would have put two to two together, had Naruto not chosen that particular moment in time to choke on the tears that were gushing forth from his eyes with a strangled sound. "Kakashi! I promise I won't scold you or throw you off the bed anymore! Please don't die! Don't leave me alone! Kakashi!!"

Something tugged at Sasuke's heart, and his rage dissipated into sympathy. He knew, at the very least, that Naruto must be an orphan - perhaps from a very young age on. That much was obvious from the state of Naruto's house. Throughout his whole day out with the bubbly blond, he could tell that the villagers disliked Naruto for a reason he did not know nor wanted to find out. All he did know was that, amidst this close-knit society in the suburbs of Konoha Gakure, Naruto was truly alone. He was the single soul going against the tide trying to wash him ashore. How he had managed to cling onto his sanity until now Sasuke could not fathom, but it possibly had to do with the presence of Iruka, and the two animals that had grown to be like family to the boy who had nothing to win, and nothing to lose.

Nothing, except them.

"Kakashi..." Naruto's crying had simmered to whispers, and he was shivering with plain depression. Itachi had taken to walking to and fro the dog, shooting him glances every now and then, waiting for a response from Kakashi that he wanted. Unfortunately, every time Itachi shot the dog a glance, Kakashi would shake his head slightly. Not entirely sure what it meant, but not really interested at the moment either, Sasuke knelt down next to Naruto to get a closer look at the injuries on the dog.

The blond made no protest, shifting slightly to allow the raven-haired boy space. He continued to stroke the dog with his free hand, the other frequently going up to his face to wipe the streaks of tears away.

Sasuke glanced once at Naruto and quickly looked away before he, too, got overwhelmed by emotions. Methodologically, he assessed the damage on the dog's stomach. There were a lot of torn skin and unrelenting bleeding, but some were already showing signs of coagulating. A massive assortment of ninja tools stuck out of the dog's side and stomach like he was a live pincushion. Sasuke had the bad feeling that if he were to pull them out just like that, then the dog would just bleed to death anyway; whether or not he was fast enough to perform the healing Jutsu.

But the fact that Kakashi was still breathing and still gasping in pain was evidence enough that this dog was stronger than he looked. Sasuke found himself biting his lower lip and frowning. He could try /that/ method, but he wasn't sure if it was going to be of any help at all.

Itachi meowed loudly at him, derailing him from his train of thought. The raven-haired boy stared at the black cat, wondering why he was suddenly so loud. The cat meowed again, then turned to look at Kakashi, before turning back to look at Sasuke, a semi-pleading look in his pale, glowing eyes. After that, possibly deciding that his job here was done, the cat walked towards Naruto and purred gently at him. The blond continued wiping tears away from his face, although one hand of his shot out to encompass the black cat in a small hug.

Sasuke looked at them from the corner of his eyes, and his heart clenched. "Naruto," he began, slowly feeling the adrenaline rush through his veins in preparation of what was to come. "Get ready. We're going to pull these things out from Kakashi."

The sobbing youth's head jerked upwards quickly, his eyes wide with teary disbelief. "What?! Are you crazy? Are you trying to kill Kakashi? I'm not in the mood for your-"

"Listen!" Sasuke grabbed Naruto by the scuff of his collar and yelled into his face. "There's still hope!" He frowned, knowing that his Sharingan were snapping into place even as he spoke but choosing to ignore the panicked look of fear on Naruto's face. "We can still save him! But I need your help! Do you want to save Kakashi or not? Or do you want to just let him bleed to death at this rate?"

"Of course I want to save him!" Naruto responded with cutting energy, shouting right back into Sasuke's face. "But I don't know how! I can't bring him to the hospital! They'd never even admit me, less say my dog!! I want to save him!! I WANT TO SAVE HIM DAMMIT! But I can't!! I have no power... I'm too bloody weak! Were you just waiting for me to say that? Are you happy now, bastard?!"

"Listen to me!!" Sasuke used both hands to grab at his collar and shook the hysterical boy. "Listen to me! Please!" He waited for the blond to calm down slightly before continuing, "You can't save Kakashi if these weapons keep being stuck in his body! He's going to be bled dry at this rate! We need to remove them /carefully/, then bandage him up. To do that we need to first dull his senses with anesthetic so he can bear with the pain. You don't have anything of that sort around here, do you? Naruto!" He shook the boy slightly.

Sniffling away, Naruto shook his head quietly.

"Then in that case we'll have to gamble on the Sharingan," Sasuke shook the boy again, trying to keep him in the present. "Listen! I'm going to Genjutsu him into a state of unawareness and try to erase the ability to feel pain from him. But I still need you to carefully pull the weapons out from him and then use a healing Jutsu on him. Don't look at me like that! Do you want to help Kakashi or not? The Genjutsu I'm going to use is going to take up most of my chakra. /You/ have to do the healing Jutsu. Naruto. Kakashi is counting on you. Do you understand?"

With eyes brimming with tears and hope, Naruto nodded carefully. "But I don't know how to..."

"Watch carefully." Sasuke formed a three-seal Jutsu in slow-motion, then looked at Naruto. "We don't have much time. This is all I can teach you for now. Channel your chakra the same way you do so when using the Kage Bunshin. Are you ready, Naruto?"

The blond wiped his face one final time with his hands and nodded, grim determination etched across his features.

Sasuke then quickly sat himself in front of the suffering dog. "Kakashi," he commanded, "look at me."

Out of the unconscious mind of a nearly dead brain, Kakashi obeyed the voice that was calling out to him amidst his searing pain. The spiralling black magatama against the background of a bright, bloody red greeted him, and before he knew it, his entire body descended into the crevasse that would bring him into the world of the Tsukiyomi.

He landed softly on a ground that was dark and formless.

"Kakashi," Sasuke's voice drifted into his ears from the faceless landscape. "Relax and don't struggle. Ah hell, I don't know if you understand me or not, but just don't struggle, all right? Just rest and don't move around too much. Everything'll be all right in 24 hours."

Kakashi blinked, sudden relief gushing through his body. Just a few seconds ago he had been struggling with an affliction even more terrifying than his Thousand-years-of-pain Taijutsu special. Now, however, he felt like he was on his way to a nice, refreshing, afternoon picnic by the riverside. The sudden change of physical bearing was confusing, but welcomed, to say the least.

He looked around at the featureless land around him, with dark grass and red skies. He did not quite understand what had happened, but only knew that he was under the influence of a powerful Genjutsu at the moment. So powerful, that it could erase his pain and imprison him into his own unconsciousness.

That was fine by him, because from what little snippets he could catch from Naruto and Sasuke's conversation, they were going to pull the damnable weapons out from his hide with no anesthetic whatsoever. Seasoned and well-trained though he was, Kakashi was no masochist. Pain was a feeling he knew he could do without.

He sat down, still in his doggy form, in the middle of nowhere, and glanced left and right. This was definitely an interestingly boring situation he had gotten himself into.

Having nothing to do, Kakashi's mind began to drift to the events of the day.

Iruka had arrived early today, some time in the morning instead of the usual afternoon. Since Naruto had dragged Sasuke and Itachi out that morning to perform his usual pranks, Kakashi was left all alone at home to guard the house. Not that he minded, of course. The villagers did dislike Naruto, but would not go as far as to disobey the Hokage's direct order that no one in the pseudo-village was to display their ninja skills. Therefore, he could bark at the intruders like any ordinary guard dog would and watch them shake a fist, face red with rage that they, powerful ninjas of the Hidden Leaf, could not do anything to stop a dog from barking at them because of a decree. It was amusing, to say the least.

Anyway, Kakashi did not dislike Iruka's company. In fact, he very much preferred it to that of his wayward partner - the one and only Uchiha Itachi. After hanging out with the psycho weirdo for a decade, he decided that he didn't mind any sort of normal company at all! And even though Naruto was cute and everything - it just didn't get too fun when he shouted at you all the time and bounced around like a ball on spring. Kakashi was just a normal, old, lazy Jounin trying to accomplish his mission, after all, and had no such energy to keep up with the boy!

He had followed Iruka around like a friendly dog was supposed to, eventually ending up outside the house, staring up at the oak tree. For some reason, everybody loved to imagine that he often chased Itachi up this tree, so whenever the moody cat was missing, they would stare at the tree, as if by just staring the cat would appear out from thin air. None of them had even suspected that Itachi was, in fact, out on his nightly murder prowl and would be back by daybreak. The dog sighed. Cats were so troublesome. Especially the psychotic ones.

Seeing that there was no black cat perched there, Iruka turned to the food planted outside the house instead. The Chuunin began to speak to himself, commenting about the weather, Naruto, the potatoes, Naruto, the carrots, Naruto, the house and the mess that was in it, Naruto, the hole in the roof that was causing leaks, Naruto and more Naruto. If Kakashi didn't know any better, he would've mauled the man under the suspicion of pedophilia. Iruka was, he knew, just very concerned. An orphan like Naruto himself, Iruka understood what true loneliness was, and it was evident that he did not want anyone else to suffer the same emptiness he did. This concern, however, often translated to over-protectiveness and slight obsession that Kakashi knew was bad for the health of both Naruto and Iruka.

Which was why the dog took it upon himself to educate the Chuunin along the right path. He wondered briefly, while scratching his ear, that if Iruka had read that volume of Icha Icha Paradaisu he stuffed in his backpack last week before he left?

Then Iruka mouthed the one word he had not heard for years.

Hokage.

Kakashi's interest was perked, almost as much as his suspicion was arose. Hokage-sama was here? That could only mean that something earth-shaking was about to happen. He stood attentive and listened, hoping to catch more information from Iruka before the man drifted away into other topics, as he was so fond of doing when simply yammering on about nothing.

As the one-way conversation proceeded, Kakashi found out that the Hokage had came together with Iruka that morning, but had gone straight to the pseudo-village elder's house instead of checking up on Naruto. Well, what with all the pristine and perfect reports Iruka must have been submitting prior anyway, Kakashi did understand that there was probably no need for the Hokage to make any extra trips. It seems like the situation was very serious, but Kakashi drew encouragement from the fact that Iruka smiled wistfully when he reiterated the events of the day.

Perhaps the decree had been lifted?

Perhaps Naruto could finally be assimilated into Konoha for real?

Before Iruka could mention anything further than the Hokage's current whereabouts, however, trouble came.

Trouble came in the form of a large mob, appearing before the gates of the house with murderous intent obvious in their aura. Iruka had quickly rose to full height.

"Good morning," he greeted the crowd cautiously, and Kakashi growled. "Is anything the matter?"

"Anything the matter nothing!" The wet butcher waved his large knife around dangerously. "Where is he?! Where is that little prick! Get him out so I can make mincemeat out of him and feed his poisoned hide to the cockroaches in my house!"

The Chuunin was visibly shaken by the announcement. He frowned and said, "That wasn't a very nice thing to say to a fellow villager. Anyway Naruto has gone out from since morning and has yet to return. I'm afraid this was a futile trip for you."

There were mixed reactions from the crowd, as they exchanged glances between one another. They began to speak in low whispers among themselves, and Iruka grew increasingly uncomfortable.

The foreboding murmuring stretched for a long period of time before finally, Iruka quipped, "If there's nothing else now, why don't all of you return to your posts? It may be-"

The Chuunin spy was cut off by a loud shout from someone in the mob, and he barely managed to duck a sharp blade that whizzed past his ear and stuck itself onto the wall of the house behind him.

Instincts instantly flooded his senses. Iruka leapt backwards and his hands reached towards his shuriken and kunai holsters; only to realise that he did not have them with him - he had been sternly warned not to show his true identity in the village. He gasped quietly at his slip-up, and when he returned his attention to the crowd, some of them were smirking away.

"So you /are/ a ninja," one of them blurted. "Had us completely fooled there, Mr. 'travelling merchant.'"

The sensei frowned and gritted his teeth. Things seemed to have already escalated to such an extent that the villagers were no longer afraid of speaking what was taboo out loud. "Do you know what you're talking about?" Iruka growled, eye scanning the terrain for something he could use as an emergency weapon. Since these guys were not beating about the bush, he wasn't going to either. "Hokage-sama said-"

"Hokage-sama can say anything he wants to," someone in the mob interrupted Iruka. "But Hokage-sama isn't here. Hokage-sama wouldn't know if you didn't tell him! We've checked, Mister. Hokage-sama is due for a diplomatic journey today out of Konoha. That means he can't steal glances at us from his crystal ball during this period. That'd be great!" The man's face was hideous, as he pointed a kunai threateningly at Iruka. "Because he'll be so grateful to us after we rid him of the bastard fox today."

"That's rubbish!" Iruka rebutted angrily. "Naruto is not the Kyuubi! He's just a normal person like all of us are! Why can't any of you get it into your thick heads!?"

"Shut up!" Someone else yelled, and another kunai whizzed dangerously past the Academy teacher, who quietened down so that he would not further anger the crowd. Beside him, Kakashi continued to growl.

"We've put up with that trouble-making bastard child long enough," more men joined in the verbal fray. "And what do we get in return? We get killed! That bastard nine-tails goes around murdering people he has a penchant against. Or he uses a fearsome insanity Jutsu to put them into a coma! This stupid kid is dangerous! We have to kill him now, even if the Hokage says no! The villagers' lives are at stake here!"

Iruka's frown deepened, and he crouched lower, anticipating an attack anytime. "You have no proof," he stated.

"We don't need proof. No one else in the village could have done it," was the heartless reply. "Now get out of the way!"

Iruka barely took one split second to respond.

"No."

But he knew that he couldn't have made a more right choice, no matter what the consequences would prove to be.

The attacks came swiftly. Iruka had no weapons with him and could only dodge as quickly as he could into the shelter of the house - which was not really a very effective shelter by a far cry. Still, he did all he could to be some time, piling the heaviest furniture he could see at a glance against the door and then slipping into the kitchen, the only place in the house which currently had a stock of sharp objects that could qualify as weapons with some creative usage.

Kakashi padded into the kitchen together with Iruka and stood by his side in awareness. The situation was not good. These were a mob of high-level ninjas who were blinded by their hatred too much to see past the current situation. Nevermind the Hokage's decree, it seemed, for they had begun using weapons and chakra and were evidently out for blood.

Naruto may not be here at the moment, but that did not mean they could not hurt him by hurting the people that mattered to him.

And the worst part of it was, Kakashi was stuck in a dog's form.

He debated, while Iruka gathered whatever he could from the kitchen that could be used as counter weapons, whether he should dispel the Jutsu and meet the ninjas head-on. He was fairly confident that in human form he could take on the mob with a high chance of winning. Iruka may be capable, but every capable ninja knew when he was outnumbered, and Iruka was likely aware of that fact presently too.

Still, if he did dispel his technique, it would only cause more problems for Naruto than he already had on hand. Not to mention the Hokage would be in deep trouble as well. The cons outweighed the pros by much, and Kakashi shook his head to prepare himself, even as the door to the house was destroyed and various angry-looking ninjas marched into the house in search of a target to vent their anger on.

He may be in the form of a dog, Kakashi grinned, but he could be pretty lethal too.

Kakashi's thoughts snapped back to the present - the present being the abandoned landscape of Sasuke's Tsukiyomi. The ear-shattering silence was his only companion, and he slowly laid down on the floor to rest as any normal, lazy dog would in a situation like this.

He was not really sure what happened after the men burst into the room, other than the fact that he was vaguely powered by adrenaline thereafter. Iruka put up an impressive fight against the mob, for someone who was supposedly only a Chuunin, with a limited stock of cutlery in his arsenal.

Kakashi did remember trying to help, though that had not ended up very successful, seeing how he was later reduced to a dog pincushion by the table side. There were just too many people, blinded by their hatred, lusting for the blood of the Kyuubi and anyone vaguely related to the Youma, than he could handle in a form where he could hardly manifest a quarter of his original prowess.

He had drifted between consciousness and unconsciousness after managing to push Iruka out of the way of some kunai and shuriken - the very same attack that rendered him a pincushion, and his memories after that were vague. He remembered that Iruka had cried his name when he went down with a heavy 'THUD!', then all things else he heard amidst the massive pain were the sounds of a heated battle, with lots of metal clashing against metal. A shadow danced constantly before him, yelling something about "Leave him alone!" while meeting the enemies head on. Then someone had shouted from the living room something about the Forbidden Scroll, and everybody except Iruka then left the kitchen. Kakashi's muscles had spasmed at that. He knew his body wanted to move out too.

Because it appeared like they had discovered the Forbidden Scroll and was about to spirit it away.

Iruka struggled to his feet, however, and did that for Kakashi. More shouting could be heard from the living room, which Kakashi could no longer remember, except that Iruka's voice was among the shouts. There was a brief cry of pain and the sound of something heavy falling onto the floor after a while. Then there was deathly silence.

He knew they had completely lost to the enemy.

Kakashi could not make out how long it was afterwards that he heard noise from the living room again. It came in the form of a loud "IRUKA-SENSEI!!!!" which he knew to be Naruto's. If his lungs hadn't been hurting so much, Kakashi would have laughed. The boy was always full of energy no matter what happened.

Naruto thereafter came into the kitchen a few times to fetch some water after a shouting match with Sasuke. Every time he came he bit his lips, held back his tears and whispered at Kakashi to hang in there. The silver-haired Jounin knew that Sasuke was likely treating Iruka, and he felt relief wash over him at that thought. He clung desperately on to consciousness, knowing that if he slipped he could very well never wake up again. The pain was starting to make him drowsy, and his muscles completely failed him. This was truly an inconvenient form.

He only realised that Itachi was staring at him when the cat made his presence blatantly obvious. Opening his eyes, he saw the purposeful cat staring at him with a look which could only forebode bad things. Having hung out so long with his partner, Kakashi knew how to accurately translate that intense scrutiny.

Itachi wanted to return to human form to help with the situation.

The situation being the curing of Kakashi, of course.

Amused at the concern Itachi was showing at the stake of disobeying orders, Kakashi firmly shook his head, aware that Sasuke was watching but hardly able to care anymore. At this rate he wasn't going to live to get interrogated by the boy anyway.

Even breathing was difficult now, Kakashi realised unhappily. One or two of the pointy things must have gotten near a doggy lung, because he felt a sharp, rubbing pain beneath his ribs whenever he heaved. The situation was not good at all, and Itachi was not making it any better by staring at him predatorily, obviously hoping for a nod in Kakashi's state of delirum.

The silver-haired Jounin had decided from a long time ago that the mission meant nothing to Itachi and the Uchiha had his own agenda - whatever it was. But he sure as anything wasn't going to let that agenda mess with /his/ mission. A ninja risked his life to keep to his purpose, and if he had to die to prove his point, then so be it.

It was what the Fourth Hokage had always taught him, anyway.

The Jounin laughed inwardly to himself. Of all the manners to die, dying away from his village within a fabricated world in the form of a dog amidst loud, squabbling voices had certainly never crossed his mind. His life had been colourful indeed.

... Wait. Loud squabbling noises?

Itachi had vanished by the time Kakashi forced his eyes open, and he heard - distinctly this time, Naruto and Sasuke's shouting match. He wasn't sure what they were yelling at each other about, except that it was about himself. Unable to concentrate for too long, his mind began to drift again. After what seemed like a long time, the shouting match ceased into hushed silence.

And that was when Sasuke sent him into the world of the Tsukiyomi.

Twenty-four hours wasn't such a long time, Kakashi thought to himself, yawned and set himself into a comfortable mental position. He could use a nice, long, well-earned nap and leave the rest up to the young ones.


--------------------------------------------------------------


Naruto watched in horror and fascination when Sasuke pulled the Jutsu on Kakashi, and the dog's pained wheezes subsided into peaceful breathing. He would have continued to stare, if Sasuke hadn't broken the spell by collapsing against the cabinet, covering his eyes and gritting his teeth. The blond's concern melted quickly into determination, Sasuke's words filtering through his mind at lightspeed. He approached the dog carefully, and wrapped his hand around the first kunai.

That fitful dusk, nobody spent the night well rested.


--------------------------------------------------------------


When Iruka opened his eyes blearily the next day, the first thing to come into his mind was:

OUCH!

He stifled a groan and turned slightly, only to regret it a split second later when a hot, massive pain threatened to rip his consciousness apart and throw him back into the jaws of sweet slumber. A muffled grunt escaped his lips, and he leant back quickly against the pillow, noticing that it had been soaked with his sweat. He took deep breaths, battling with the receding pain while trying to recall what had happened to land him in such a state.

The cheerful glow of the morning sun coupled with the melodious chirping of the insects were all that accompanied him, while the ugly memories returned to haunt his existence.

"Oh yeah..." Iruka mumbled to himself. "Yesterday..." The man put his face into his palm, mumbling something about renegades who disobeyed the Hokage to himself. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he shot up straight, ignoring the pain that accompanied his hasty action. "Kakashi!" He gasped. He made an action to move, but tumbled unceremoniously out of the bed and onto the floor instead.

A sharp pain shot through his spine and he cried out like a strangled beast caught in a trap. Before he could figure out which way was up and which way was down, however, footsteps could be heard running towards him, getting louder and louder. He saw a pair of black ninja sandals from where he was and tensed. If those crazy villagers attacked him now...

"Iruka-sensei!" A familiar-sounding voice jolted him into awareness. He glanced slightly upwards, even as the newcomer bent down to support the Chuunin by the shoulders, dragging him back to the bed. "What were you doing?!"

"Sasuke!" Iruka croaked, then coughed, when he realised that his voice box was not working too well. The raven-haired boy handed him a cup of water from a makeshift counter nearby wordlessly, and he drank it with gratitude.

After clearing his throat a couple of times more, he glanced at Sasuke questioningly. "What happened?" He asked.

The young Uchiha, on the other hand, blinked in confusion. "I should be asking you that, sensei. What happened yesterday? You really got us worried for a while there."

"I'm sorry about that," Iruka apologised instinctively, putting a hand behind his back then recoiling from the pain it induced. At the thought of the shearing pain, his eyes snapped open with purpose and he stared at Sasuke in the eye with pleading while asking, "Sasuke, where is Kakashi? What happened to him?"

"Kakashi is," the raven-haired eyes averted his ex-teacher's glance by lowering his eyes to the floor. He sighed quietly and closed his eyes. "He's..."

Fear gripped the Chuunin, and it significantly increased his threshold to pain. He thrust forward and grabbed the brooding Sasuke by his wrist and demanded, "What is it? Tell me!"

Unshaken by the grab-attack, Sasuke looked at the sensei in the eye and sighed. "Kakashi is..." He took a graceful step to the side, so Iruka could see what else was on the floor.

The bandaged Kakashi, rolling about on his makeshift bed and refusing to stay still.

If his mouth had not been bandaged either, Iruka swore that the dog would be howling by now, as he usually did every morning. Unfortunately, the silver-haired dog was now entirely mummified in a cocoon of tight, white stripes. For some reason, his limbs had been bandaged into the cocoon as well. In effect, he was a dog with a body of bandages. Nothing more, nothing less. Iruka twitched slightly at the messy way of healing Kakashi was undergoing. But he knew in his heart that he was relieved beyond compare. The dog was almost as dear to him as Naruto was, after all.

"As you can see," Sasuke's annoyed countenance betrayed his icy cold tone, "Kakashi is alive and kicking, and being a nuisance as usual. The operation was a complete success, although Naruto should never be allowed to bandage anything /ever/ again," the Uchiha sighed, putting his hands on his hips and looking at Iruka calculatingly. "Sensei, what in the world is so funny?"

The Chuunin was smiling despite himself, and he coughed at the conscripting pain in his chest. "Nothing, Sasuke," he said, still smiling, "I'm just so glad everybody is all right." Kakashi had managed to roll over to the bedside where Iruka was resting in at this point of time, and while Sasuke glared disapprovingly at the mummy-dog, Iruka reached over and pat the dog on his head reassuringly. "Thank you so much for shielding me yesterday, Kakashi. You were very brave."

"Mmmmrm!" Kakashi tried to respond.

"All right all right," Sasuke toed the dog gently on his back. "Go back to your bed and get to sleep, Kakashi. Don't waste my twenty-four hours!"

When he saw that the dog was unwilling to budge from Iruka's bedside, Sasuke growled and squatted down, staring at the dog.

The dog stared back.

And before long, found himself being rolled back to the makeshift bed Sasuke had assigned him.

He wiggled and attempted to resist, but even Kakashi couldn't break out of the Tsukiyomi for long. The rolling was making him dizzy, and soon the dog had stopped struggling and laid on the makeshift bed comfortably, drifting in between the illusionary world of Sasuke's Genjutsu and the real world of unconsciousness. In any case, he stopped thrashing and now laid still.

Unconvinced, Sasuke threw two thick ropes over the heavily bandaged dog and nailed the two ends of each rope into the ground, earning laughter from Iruka at the hilarious sight. Eventually finishing his task, Sasuke stood up and reprimanded his ex-teacher with a smirk. "Sensei. If you have the time to laugh at Kakashi, why don't you rest too? I'm sure you know better than anyone else that my medic skills isn't exactly the best of the batch. You're all patched up now, but it doesn't mean I did a good job or anything. It would be better if you took some time to rest and recover naturally." The smirk had vanished from his face when he finished that sentence, and he now eyed the exit of the house with great interest. "So..."

"Wait," Iruka stopped the boy before he could head out. "Where's Naruto?" The concern in Iruka's voice now doubled. "Is he all right? Did they hurt him? Where is he?"

"The idiot is all right," Sasuke mulled over what he just said quietly, then added, "I think... Anyway, sensei," Sasuke's hand was already forming the seals for another Genjutsu. "Go to sleep. I still have a lot of questions to ask you, and you won't be able to answer in a state like that."

Unable to protest, Iruka slowly lowered himself onto the bed. In a short while, he was breathing lightly - the mark of a man in slumber.

Carefully, Sasuke took some time to arrange Iruka in a more comfortable position. He then walked over to the entrance and hovered by it carefully, staring at what was outside.

There was a head of blond standing before the ruined garden, his back towards the Uchiha ninja. The morning breeze gently raked his unruly spikes, and Sasuke could not help but notice the blond clenching and unclenching his fists intermittently.

The raven-haired boy took a sweeping glance at the terrain and knew that he would have done the same thing, if his house and home of a decade was reduced to such a stage overnight by no error of his.

Itachi was standing beside the traumatised blond, and Sasuke wondered again why he had not felt the presence of the black cat. Saving the questions for later, he called out. "Hey! Naruto!"

The blond tensed, then turned around with bright, questioning, yet innocent eyes.

Following his instincts, the Uchiha ninja approached the blond cautiously, until they stood side by side and he could see what the blond had been staring at. His crop field. Sasuke frowned at how terribly defaced the entire field had become. He had yet to get a good look at the landscape yesterday in the semi-darkness, but now that he did, he was disgusted inside-out at how cruel the villagers had been. Whoever had handed them their ninja licenses ought to be shot!

"Aaah" Naruto sighed, placing both his hands behind his head and pouting. "This is going to take forever to fix!"

Sasuke tried to cull his incredulous stare, but was unsuccessful. He gaped, "You're not going to do anything about this?"

"Of course I am," Naruto turned to look at his companion in the eye, "But it's going to take a long, long time! Well anyway, since you're here, you might as well help me. We could start by clearing away the inedible food first..."

"That's not what I meant!" Sasuke was as surprised as Naruto was at his outburst, although he did not openly show it like the blond did. He pursed his lips into a tight line to prevent the unhappy scowl from showing itself, the continued, "Those bastards destroyed your house and almost killed Iruka-sensei and Kakashi! And you're not going to do anything to them?"

The blond instantly opened his mouth to reply, his face twisted with anger. No sound escaped from his mouth, however, and soon he returned to staring at the mess before him. The misleading tranquility and silence of the woodlands that surrounded Naruto's lonely house washed over the scene while the boys kept silent, until Naruto's shoulders sagged and he sighed.

"It's useless," he said, softly, despondance evident in his tone. "No matter what I do... No matter how hard I fight back... try to set things straight. Nobody gives a damn. Nobody cares if I'm being well behaved or atrocious. Anything I do becomes a reason to beat me up," he slowly lifted his clouded, guarded blue eyes to meet Sasuke's, and for an instance, the latter thought he could see the sea of pain Naruto swam in daily. That flicker of emotion died, soon, however, and Naruto grinned widely, veiling his eyes from sight. "That's why I do all the worst possible things I can to them! If I'm going down, I'll drag those bastards down with me. I'll show them that I, Uzumaki Naruto, can play a big part in their lives to, whether they like it or not!" He heaved a fist in the air.

Beside him, Itachi mewled, just for the sake of mewling.

Between the boy and his cat, Sasuke eventually had to take a deep breath to calm himself down. "Damn weird way of reasoning you have there," he muttered, a hand on his forehead, trying to curb the splitting headache that usually came in the aftermath of a Tsukiyomi. "But if it's kept you alive and well for so long, who am I to be complaining?" He removed his hand from his forehead and gave Naruto a serious look. "I, however, am not going to let this matter off so easily. Once I find out who did this blasted deed, I'm going to make sure he never lives to see another sunrise comfortably again."

"Ooh, scary," the sarcasm in Naruto's voice did not escape Sasuke, though he was anything but offended. Naruto turned his attention away and squatted before the land that use to house his crops, sighing again. "This goes to the charts as the worst attack so far." He mulled. "Although, they shouldn't have done that to Iruka-sensei and Kakashi... if they had a bone to pick with me, why the hell did they-"

As if an arrow had just struck him out of the blue, Naruto jerked back to his feet with renewed purpose. He spun around and Sasuke found himself staring into narrowed, furious eyes. "Why the hell did they do that for?! I don't care if they dismantle my house or burn my stuff or whatever, but they didn't have to hurt Iruka-sensei like that! And Kakashi too! They have nothing to do with..." He paused, blinking innocently at the break in thought. Before long, however, he hardened his glare again. "... Nothing to do with whatever it is they have against me, isn't that the case? ARGH!" He punched the air with his hands and shouted into the sky. Sasuke discreetly took one step back. "That does it! I'm gonna go find that old guy and complain to him! See if they don't get punished! HA HA!"

/It took you a whole night and morning to figure that out?/ Sasuke thought inwardly to himself, and would have verbalised his opinion if Naruto hadn't turned around and pointed a finger at him.

"You!" Naruto was saying, and Sasuke jumped back slightly in confusion. "You stay here and fix up the house or something. I'm going to go complain to the village chief."

The raven-haired boy paused before he could quickly agree to the plan - after all, he wasn't supposed to show his face in public, and a meeting with any 'chief' was sure to get him sent to the gallows faster than he could say Naruto-you-idiot. He considered the situation very carefully before saying, "I don't think that's a good idea."

The blond had lowered his finger by then. He stared questioningly at his companion.

"Those heartless monsters who did this," Sasuke gestured slightly about himself, "are most likely not going to just give up like this. Like you said, they have something - heaven only knows what, against you, and last night, since they couldn't vent their anger on you, they took it out on the next closest thing - people and things you hold dear to you. Iruka-sensei is no easy pickings - he very likely wounded at least a good lot of them. Kakashi's fangs aren't that dull either, so that's probably why they had to beat a hasty retreat last night. Now, however, if you're going to go out in broad daylight among people you /know/ wouldn't think twice about attacking you while the others form a ring and watch, you are, in my opinion, just courting your own death." His speech finished, Sasuke folded his arms across his chest. "You'll die without being acknowledged by anyone. You don't want that to happen, do you?"

The shorter teen was rendered tongue-tied by Sasuke's succint observation. But damned if he were going to admit to Sasuke that he was right! He leaned forward and growled, "Look here you-"

"Naruto! Sasuke!" A raspy voice disengaged the staring duo, who turned instead to stare at the source of the new sound - from the doorway of the wrecked house. Iruka stood there, leaning against the frame, coughing occasionally. He met the eyes of his two students and smiled warmly.

His two students, however, had anything but smiles on their minds.

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto's loud voice drowned out the otherwise appalled call from Sasuke. The blond sprinted towards where the Chuunin stood and quite literally ran him down into a ball of embrace, complete with loud, bawling sound effects. "IRUKA-SENSEI!" He wailed repeatedly, unable to say anything else. "IRUKA-SENSEI!!"

Before the instructor had any opportunity to haul the little creature off his waist, Sasuke chose this poignant moment in time to step in. "Naruto!!" His voice was stern with annoyance and slight anger. He grabbed the blond by his shoulders and yanked him away from Iruka.

The pain the Chuunin received due to the initial shock of Naruto glomping onto his waist and suddenly being yanked away caused him to tumble unceremoniously on his butt to the floor, almost squashing the unconscious Kakashi in the event. He held his cry of pain back, not wanting to worry the two teens. Not that he had to, anyway, for they were currently involved in a heated argument about the pros and cons of hugging a severely injured man just recovered, and then getting pulled away from said same person.

"...- just recovered, not even fully!" Sasuke was saying something, as Iruka listened with mild interest into the conversation which had evidently been progressing for a while now. "What if the wounds open up again? Then all our efforts last night would have been wasted!"

"Shut up!" Naruto screeched back, voice trembling. Iruka was taken aback to find the boy crying uncontrollably. Not that the blond never cried before - Iruka had seen him in tears to many times to think that way. It was just that Naruto would always either cry in secret, or when he thought no one was watching, or when he was with people he was comfortable with - namely, Iruka, and his two pets. Never had Iruka seen, nor had he even thought he would see, Naruto letting his emotions go awry in front of a stranger he had barely known for two days. "You don't understand!" Naruto's continuation brought his heads back from the clouds. The boy was still sniffling. "You don't know anything at all! Stop screaming at me like you have the right to! I-"

"Boys, boys," Iruka got onto his feet shakily, dusting his pants in his ascension. He held both hands up and smiled again, despite the pain. "I'm all right. Really. Don't worry about me, and thank you for caring so much, Naruto, Sasuke," he pat them both on the head, since they were still significantly shorter than he was. Naruto beamed with joy and Sasuke looked away with a pout, but neither attempted to squirm out of the pat. "Now, if you're both all calmed down now, I have a mission for you both."

Sasuke's ears perked up at that familiar sounding word, whereas Naruto simply tilted his head to one side. "Mission?" He reiterated the word slowly, like it was foreign and hardly used.

"Sensei," there was a cutting coldness to Sasuke's tone that made even Naruto gape at the unhappy boy. "Before you say anything else, can you please just rest on the bed instead of stand here amidst the mess? Your wounds are not going to get any better at this rate."

"Yes, yes," Iruka laughed and quietly returned to his resting place on the bed.

Before following his teacher and only humanoid friend, Naruto made a face at Sasuke and whispered, "Mother-hen!"

He almost wasn't fast enough to avoid the smack upside the head.

"Anyway," with a vein throbbing dangerously on his head, Sasuke and Naruto were now seated on wooden stools beside the bed, having gotten there after another short squabble about Sasuke's socks, Naruto's shoes, and random assorted clothing and accessory. Iruka was trying hard not to laugh, since it would do him no good if he were to worsen his wounds by guffawing like a madman. "What was that mission you were talking about again, sensei?" Sasuke's frustrated voice reached the Chuunin's ears, and he chuckled slightly.

The amusement soon slid off his face, though, and he addressed his two students seriously. "The Forbidden Scroll has been stolen," he stated clearly. "And we have to get it back before someone manages to open it."

"The Forbidden Scroll?" Both Naruto and Sasuke echoed at the same time, then turned to glare at each other jealously. Again, Iruka found himself fighting the urge to burst out laughing.

"That's right," the instructor replied after a short silence. "Hokage-sama hid it in this house so that it can be safe from intruders and bandits, since the common view is that the Hokage office has all the secret scrolls of the village. Last night, while trying to ward off the attackers, however, I was unable to stop them from carrying the scroll away." He lowered his head dejectedly. "But we can't do anything without first reporting its loss to the village chief. Can you boys make a trip to the village chief's place and report this event? Then he will give you further instructions from there. Please, boys, I'm counting on you."

Naruto rose to his feet immediately, striking a pose of determination. "Leave this to me, Iruka-sensei! Uzumaki Naruto's the most reliable person in the world for things like--"

"... - things like tripping over his own feet and forgetting to turn his tap off, I'd bet," Sasuke mumbled incoherently, but loudly enough so that Naruto immediately caught onto the satire.

"Sasuke! You asshole! You bastard! You corkscrew! You wet blanket! You-MRGHPM!!"

"Iruka-sensei," Sasuke drawled lazily, having stood up and removed his forehead protector to gag Naruto from behind in the space of one second. The rowdy blond thrashed violently for freedom against the calmer boy, but was not successful. He continued to try to screech through his gag, resulting in a series of muffled throat noises. "I'm afraid I don't understand why we both have to go to report this. There are too many people on the streets out there who would probably kill me on sight. Not just that, they'd probably kill the idiot on sight too. We're not going to make it to the destination in one piece anyway I see it."

Iruka held a finger up. "That's why this is a 'mission' and not an 'errand,' isn't that right?"

Properly surprised at the way Iruka had phrased that, Sasuke's hand loosened on his forehead protector, and Naruto took this opportunity to push him away and bite his hand again. "OWW!!" The raven-haired boy leapt backwards instinctively. "Dammit, Naruto!!"

"BOYS!" Iruka finally could bear it no more, and yelled at the both of them in his best school-teacher voice. This was going to hurt later, but for now, he wasn't sure if he'd rather face those attackers from yesterday again with a plastic spoon and paper cup for sword and shield, or if he'd rather hear Naruto and Sasuke shout at each other again. Amusing as it was, this was going to get them all nowhere. "Stop behaving like 3-year-olds! Listen to me and just do what I say, all right?" He stared sternly at the two boys, who hung their heads down in shame. "Both of you are to get to the chief's house /undetected/ by anybody in the village. Then you report to him about the missing scroll and wait for further instructions from him. Got that?"

Two heads nodded. The darker-haired one then looked up and quipped, "But those attackers may return. What about you?"

Iruka glanced briefly to a side, wondering if he should tell them that the Hokage himself had sent him a pigeon messenger to inform him that he was aware of the attack last night and had already taken action against the perpetuators. Therefore that meant that this place was safe for now. The problem was that the Scroll remained missing, and Iruka had the impression that the Hokage didn't know about that little tidbit. Eventually he looked back and said, "Don't worry about me. Just go get the mission done, then come back as soon as you can. I... err," he looked around for something to reassure the children, eventually letting his glance settle on the slightly snoring Kakashi. "I have... Kakashi here with me! So don't worry about it too much, okay?"

Both boys turned to look at the lump of bandages, then stared at Iruka with disbelief.

"You see," Iruka pointed out again, "if you get back here fast enough, nothing will happen to me. No matter what, this needs to be reported, and you have to do it. Because otherwise, /I/ will do it, even if I have to die doing it." He laughed inwardly at the looks of pure distraught on the duo's faces. "So just get back here as soon as you can, and all will be well." He smiled. "Don't worry, boys. I'll be all right. Don't let this stay on your conscience."

There was a long, brooding silence.

"... Promise?" The question was asked so quietly, Iruka almost mistook it as a random wildlife noise. He looked at the blond boy, who had his head lowered and was biting hard on his lips. "You promise you'll be all right? You'll still be here when we come back?"

The school teacher knew there was much more than verbal confirmation that Naruto was seeking for from that question, and he understood completely. Beckoning the blond over, he ruffled his golden locks affectionately and smiled, saying, "Of course, Naruto. I'll even warm some ramen for you."

The blue eyes lit up with renewed power, and Naruto stepped away, grin in place. "All right! Ramen, ramen!! Come on, Sasuke! Ramen's a-waiting!!"

"I never said I was going to-" The Uchiha was about to protest when he caught the pleading look his ex-teacher threw in his way. Naruto turned around to stare impatiently at his partner, while Sasuke sighed, putting a hand over his eyes.

He followed the bouncing boy while mumbling something under his breath, but before they both vanished into the day, Iruka distinctly heard Sasuke throw a sentence back into the house.

"I want onigiri, not ramen."




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Part 4 of 7
27/5/2004
tougenkyou . net / xd

[slaps forehead] how could i have forgotten? ah yes, i must mention that Vanyel Ashkevron's works have motivated me to sit down and really look through this fic properly before posting it. if you have time, and think you need a good, in-character fix of naruto fanfic, i'd highly recommend you look at her fics. you can find her in my favs. :3 enjoy!