Title: The Broken Jail Bird (Chapter 3)
Author: Mako
Email:
Talk to me if you want it anywhere
Pairing: KakaIru, SasuNaru
Genre: Crazy AU (Ahooooooooooooooooo XD howls) Romance :3
WARNINGS: Yaoi. Yeehaw. Don't know what yaoi is, then I suggest you leave :3 Also, beware for a bit of OOC-ness n.n;; ehe, forgive forgive n.n
Comments: This'll be interesting :P and damn, my back itches XD;;; fell asleep in the sun, the burn is gone, but now I'm left with an incredibly itchy back Xx;; snicker
(still) Dedicated to: my bud Carolyn, who got me into Naruto and KakaIru in the first place XD and Lohe, who also got me into Naruto =3 Hope ya all like n.n;
Special thanks goes to Pastles for again helping me with editing this fic :3
Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me but to Masashi Kishimoto, the wonder that he is XD And though Naruto doesn't belong to me, the happenings in this fic do belong to me :P meaning the plot and Hazelwood are mine, so back off XD
Just remember that this is an AU. The same people, different abilities, different setting. Yay. There really isn't a time setting for it, but if there had to be a specific time, I'd say it was the future. :3
' ' = thoughts, " " = speech (obviously)
On to the fic XD Please do enjoy. Please read the note at the bottom :P
Chapter finished: 8/15/04, posted on 8/22/03 (I get surgery tomorrow! Woo! XD;;)
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"So don't talk to me of wild wild angels,
Wild wild angels on the skyways,
Those wild wild angels on the highways of your life,
'Cos it's people like you who never knew,
What wild wild angels have to face."
- "Wild, Wild Angels", by Smokie
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"Do you think they'll come home soon?" Iruka mumbled, pacing the small bedroom with his hands clasped behind his back. Pulling out an ancient, battered pocket-watch, Iruka checked the time again, then put it back in his patched up pants pocket. He'd been doing this ever since the silver haired thief had vanished. Naruto was sitting on the windowsill, his legs thrown lazily over the side, watching both the teacher and the rapidly darkening forest. The silver haired thief and the shadow-like guard had been gone for a good couple hours, and Iruka was getting antsy.
"Do you think they'll come home at all?" Naruto asked, bored. He didn't like Iruka-sensei all pacing and worrying like he was currently. It gave him the heebie-jeebies.
Iruka sighed and stopped, placing his elbows on the windowsill, "I hope they will..." he propped his chin on his hands and looked out into the darkening forest. The clouds had come in since the disappearance of Kakashi and Sasuke, the smell of rain heavy on the air.
"Hey, isn't that one of Hayate's crows?"
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Kakashi had taken a step back when the murder of crows descended on the Uchiha. Never had he seen so many crows in one place, and never had he ever seen crows attacking a human. The stubborn boy had fought them off as best as he could, but with a wounded shoulder and the sheer fact that they were birds of many sharp angles, Sasuke was quick to lose. A solid swipe from the left wing of the lead rook, the strange partially white crow, brought the still struggling Uchiha down onto the crude ship behind him, unconscious. Just when Kakashi expected the crows to finish the boy off, they took flight, returning to the trees from which they came.
A glance over at the quietly coughing Hayate gave Kakashi a clue of who had ordered /that/ move.
After that, it was just a little bit of quick maneuvering (to catch the now slowly drifting raft), a heave, and the three were on their way back to Iruka's humble little home, crows swooping and diving through the trees. Kakashi was amazed Iruka hadn't shown up already with all the ruckus the birds were making.
Sure, the boy on his back was unconscious, and soaking wet, but Kakashi thought of it as just another minor setback. He was alive, right? That would hopefully be good enough to please the teacher and that little blond kid. The crows, at least, hadn't beaten the boy too badly, surprisingly enough. Just a few more cuts and scratches, a few new bruises from a few very strong wings.
When the small shack appeared through the trees, Hayate, who had walked back with Kakashi and the unconscious Sasuke, said his farewells, and disappeared. The crows disappeared as well, a flurry of black wings, the dry smell of feathers, and the loud cries they were known for.
Iruka, upon spotting the two trudging through the undergrowth, found that jumping through the pane-less window was much easier than going to the one door, and was next to them in an instant. Naruto joined the three soon afterwards, helping Kakashi carry the once more dead weight Sasuke into the small house. The two disappeared into the second bedroom, leaving the thief in the rather displeased hands of the in-house teacher. Iruka was nearly in a tizzy by the time he pushed Kakashi into his bedroom and onto the bed; Kakashi tried to keep up with the teacher as best as he could.
/In any other situation, this might be kind of kinky, being pushed into a large fluffy bed by one very not harsh on the eyes man,/ Kakashi thought, amused, as Iruka fussed around him, /I bet some of the guys back home would try to start some sort of crazy affair right here if they were in this position. The question is, would this ball of fiery split personality let them?/ Kakashi grinned, pleased, for not the first time in his life, that he had a mask covering his lower face.
"What were you /thinking/, running out there?" Iruka growled, his voice low in what Naruto had called "The Voice" earlier. Kakashi wisely stayed silent. Iruka continued, "You're hurt, and I don't care how young and spriteful you are, you are also half dressed! It's nearly fall now, and the days are getting colder... you could have gotten yourself sick, and then where would you be?"
"Probably in the same place as I am now...?" Kakashi put in, helpfully. Truthfully, it rather tickled him pink that the teacher was so worried about him. Ever since he was a very small child, no one had worried about him quite like the man before him was. Or so he foolishly hoped the teacher was.
Iruka batted him on the head, not hard, but enough to show that he wasn't joking, "Well, you better get out of those pants again," Iruka's voice became gentler, softer, as his face grew rather red, "Because unless you want that wound on your leg to get infected and make me have to cut it off with some sharp sort of saw, I suggest letting me clean it again, and redress it," he paused, "Unless you can take care of it by yourself?"
Kakashi helpfully pulled the pants off, covering his groin with the sheets of the bed, yet keeping the wounded leg uncovered. He flung the pants, along with his shoes on the floor, close to the wall. He was happy to find that his bandanna was still resting by the pillow, right where he had left it. He tied it securely around his head once more as he waited for the teacher's return. Truthfully, he could easily clean a wound such as this -he'd had much worse before- but some sadistic part of his brain wanted the kind teacher to do it.
While Kakashi undressed, Iruka left to go check up on Sasuke and Naruto, as well as to go get what few medicines he had left in the house. He found Sasuke still out cold, and gently told the decidedly bored looking Naruto to get some rest. The blond boy had already taken it unto himself to bandage the shadowy boy's wounds, and had tucked him in again, as well. The teacher left when he saw Naruto climbing into the bed, next to the sleeping Uchiha. Grinning, Iruka returned to the thief. They'd have an interesting morning, those two.
Peeling the soaked bandages off Kakashi's bare leg made the thief give a small groan of pain. He had to run through the shallows of the river to catch Sasuke, leaving his pants wet and cold once more. And, since all that activity caused the wound to reopen, blood saturated the bandage as well as river water.
Iruka frowned, mopping up the blood. He didn't know how the man before him had received the wound, and a small part of him kept him from asking. Just like how he didn't want to ask about Sasuke and why he had been shot.
The gentle tapping of raindrops on the old tin roof broke the silence in the room. Both of the men looked out the window at the same time, seeing the drizzle engulf the now dreary forest. Kakashi snickered.
"Guess you were right."
"About what?" Iruka asked, wiping the last of the blood off of Kakashi's leg. The wound wasn't necessarily nasty, just bled a lot.
"About it raining. What did you call it?"
"The mackerel sky," Iruka grinned up at the silver-haired thief, "You've never heard of it before, have you?"
Kakashi shook his head, before looking away and back at the rain. Iruka's grin grew, "You're not used to the country, are you?" Kakashi shook his head again, "Didn't think so. You have 'city-boy' written all over you. Where are you from, anyways?"
Kakashi glanced down at the man currently bandaging his leg up, curious. Would it be wise to say? Shaking his head, he realized that it didn't really matter. This man had put enough trust in him to last a century, what was telling a simple town's name?
"Grew up on the streets of Dracaena (1)," Kakashi said, voice serious and low. Iruka looked back up at him.
"All alone?"
Kakashi shook his head again, "With two other boys and an older guy watching over us."
"What...happened to them?" Iruka asked, gently.
"One of my buddies died a long time ago," Kakashi mumbled, watching Iruka wrap a clean bandage around his leg, "And I don't know where the other one is anymore. The guy who used to watch over us got caught in a gang war while visiting a different city, and died. Didn't find out about him until I was locked away behind the bars of Uchiha's Institute."
"I'm... sorry," Iruka's voice was low, sorrowful, as he tied the ends of the bandage together.
"Don't be. You didn't know him; no reason for you to be sorry," Kakashi said, before trying to direct the conversation elsewhere. He reached over to Iruka and almost fondly ruffled the sad teacher's hair, "Hey, you ever going to finish telling me about where you're from?"
Iruka gave a small smile, before pushing Kakashi's hand off of his head, "I didn't, did I? Well, too bad. It's too late now for story-time, and you just got back from pushing yourself /way/ past your limits."
"I did /not/ push myself past my limits-"
"You did for someone who is wounded," Iruka interrupted, pushing the slightly older man down on the bed, "And I don't care if you aren't tired, at least please /try/ to get some rest."
Kakashi stared back at the fussing Iruka, slightly irritated, "You're changing the subject..."
"You're right, I am. I don't rightly care to talk about my past at the moment, if that is alright with you," Iruka gave him a glance that said it had better as hell's name be alright with him. Kakashi nodded, giving up for the time being. He knew he'd get it out of the gentle teacher sooner or later.
"Naa, Iruka?" Kakashi asked, after a few moments of just the sound of rain tapping on the roof and Iruka digging through an old chest by the door. Iruka looked up, questioningly, "Where are you going to sleep?"
Iruka's face grew warm, before he pointed over to the old wooden rocking chair resting next to the bed, "There. With these," he held up what he had found in the trunk, "And this." In his arms rested a rather old quilt and two pillows.
"You can't be serious..."
"Why can't I?" Iruka growled, mood switching again as he pushed the chair closer to the bed and wrapped the blankets snuggly around his body. His shoes had been taken off at the door, placed with care by Kakashi's own pair of severely wet shoes, "First you doubt that I'm on the run, then you doubt my saying that it was going to rain, and now you seem to doubt that I can live through sleeping in a rocking chair. What do you think living in the woods does to a person? Make them soft and weak like a cabbage moth?"
Kakashi put his hands up, trying to pacify the snapping teacher.
"No, it's just-" Kakashi started, looking from the large bed to the teacher, "This is your bed, right? It's big enough for both of us to sleep on."
Iruka eyed the silver haired thief, "That it is, but how do I know that you won't try anything perverted? You look like you could be a sneaky old lecher if you wanted to."
Kakashi put a hand dramatically over his heart, "Damn, you found me out. Seriously, though, it's your bed. I should be the one sleeping in the chair."
"I don't think so. You're wounded, and not used to the chilly drafts that blow through the valley."
"You're wounded as well," Kakashi pointed out, nodding towards Iruka's propped up ankle, "And as used to those cold drafts as you are, where would you be if you got sick?"
"...Probably in the same place I am now," Iruka mimicked, voice loosing it's edge, "You're a sneaky bastard, aren't you?"
Kakashi grinned under his mask, "So are you."
Iruka grinned back, standing and picking up his blanket and pillows, "To each their own."
The room was silent as both men settled in for sleep, Kakashi underneath the blankets, Iruka on top with more blankets wrapped around him.
"I was born in Murtlewood," Iruka's quiet voice cut through the peaceful night, rousing Kakashi from the slight sleep he had fallen into, "I came here to Hazelwood with Naruto after I protected someone that I," he paused, "Shouldn't have, I guess."
"Naruto?" Kakashi rolled onto his side, looking at the shadow next to him. Seemed like Story-Time was brought back to life for a surprise midnight snack.
"Yeah. We were chased out of Murtlewood, and because I was trying to protect him, they hunted us down. We met up with a group of," Iruka paused, as if looking for the right word, "Ruffians, I guess you could call them, from the local Manor. We'd been trespassing on their land, they said, and their Lord had sent them out to catch us. They carted us back to their estate where their lord wished to have a few, urm, services taken care of. And who could fill them better than a weak looking, half starved guy with long hair? I wouldn't let them touch Naruto."
"You didn't try to fight them?" Kakashi asked, watching the shadow of his bedmate. The thief realized that his bedmate had taken the hair tie out of his hair as the story continued, leaving the man's dark hair to fall gently around his shoulders and all over the pillow.
"Of course I did, but it's rather hard to do when you've been running for months and haven't eaten a decent meal for about the same amount of time. They also used Naruto as a hostage of sorts, and…" Iruka trailed off, shrugging.
"Yeah, I can understand that," Kakashi agreed, knowing the helpless feeling of having a loved one, a little brother, held captive by the rivaling side. He also knew the gnawing feeling severe hunger.
"Naruto found out about the services, and what my job was while we were in the large house. They had told him that I took care of the Lord of the Manor, like a maid almost. When he found out, he... started acting really strange, started distancing himself from everyone. I didn't ask any questions, only tried to calm him down. In the early morning light he woke me up and told me that we had to start running again. I didn't know why, until we were halfway down the stairs."
"What happened?" Kakashi asked when Iruka became silent, "Why did you have to leave?"
"Littered across the grand stairway were the bodies of the guards who had found us. The floor around them was burnt, and each body was at least a little bit roasted. I didn't ask what he had done until we were nearly here, in Hazelwood."
"So he did kill all those people?"
"All who people? The people of Banyan? Yeah, supposedly he killed the entire village off. I asked him about it once, and he had told me something about betrayal, backstabbing, chaos, and that he had to leave it. I'd heard of the massacre in Banyan before I met him, though."
"So you got away from those people, right? Are they why you're hiding out in Hazelwood? Don't you think there must be some other place, some big city or something where no one could find you? Someplace far enough away from them that you wouldn't have to worry?"
"No, there's no place that I know of that could hide a person from them, except for here, in Hazelwood. You've seen the forest, you know how tricky the trails are."
"What are these people called, the ones that are following you? They a part of an organization?"
"The ones who took us in called themselves the Red Moon clan (2)," Iruka rolled over so that he was facing Kakashi, "They're known around the countryside for being ruthless, blood thirsty bunch of warriors. The best trackers in the world, supposedly."
Kakashi nodded, "I've heard of them in Dracaena. How did you think to come to Hazelwood?"
"I remembered hearing an old friend back in Murtlewood talking about a forest so thick and feral that no person ever walked in it. The Red Moon clan is... somewhere over the northern ridge of this valley, near the thickest part of this jungle."
"Hnn, the Institute is in the North," Kakashi put in, pondering, "They couldn't be related, you don't think?"
"Probably not. Don't remember seeing any prisons. But then again, I didn't see much while we were there."
"Except for the satiny pillows and shades?"
Iruka shot Kakashi an insulted glare, "Except for those, yes." Kakashi grinned apologetically back, pulling the sheets up around him.
"So that's how we got here. Satisfied?" Iruka asked, eyeing the silver haired man.
Kakashi shook his head, "Not really, but I can live with that information for now. Don't think I won't be trying to get more out of you sooner or later, though."
Iruka smiled, "Of course not. Okay, my turn. Two questions, that alright with you?"
Kakashi grinned back, the good nature rising in the room once more, "Go for it."
"One, how old are you, really?"
Kakashi blinked, pulling his bandanna off again and putting it on his side of the bed, "What, no questions as to why I wear a mask?"
Iruka shook his head slightly; "You probably wear it for your own personal reasons. Maybe I'll get those reasons someday?" Iruka smiled, "Now answer the question."
Kakashi was rather surprised (what was /with/ this teacher? Wasn't there a law against teachers being too surprising?), but mumbled out a "26 years old", before snuggling in to his pillow, "Why, how old do you think I look?"
"Oh, I don't know. Not twenty-six at all. Always had the silver hair? Or is it dyed?"
"Is that your second question?"
"No, just answer it."
"It's natural. It's also kind of common in Dracaena."
"Very strange," Iruka mumbled, reaching out to finger a few strands of the thief's hair that fell close to him on the pillow, "Okay, second question."
"Shoot."
"Do you have any where you need to go?"
"Anywhere I need to go? No, not particularly. Why? You asking if I want to stay here?"
Iruka nodded, "It gets kind of lonely here, even with Naruto, who is truly loud enough for eight people. Or at least until you got completely healed..."
Kakashi shrugged, "Don't have anywhere else to go. So why not?"
Iruka nearly shimmered at the prospect of having a houseguest, "Very good. Now will you go to sleep?"
"Ah ah, you said only two questions," Kakashi grinned.
"Just go to sleep. Good night." Iruka growled, pulling his blanket up closer to him, huddled for warmth.
"Good night Iruka," Kakashi said, snuggling closer to the teacher. It /was/ rather chilly in the room with the window wide open.
The last thoughts before he drifted off to sleep were /Man, I'm hungry.../
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To Be Continued :3
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Yeah, the chapter is kind of short n.n; sorry 'bout that XD; And forgive me if you think Iruka-sensei's past is... weak. I know how it is :P I'm just not very good at writing drama/backstories a lot of the time XD;; they always sound so very cheesy to me laughs forgive xD
The next chapter will be... a little late in arrival, since I'm headed off to college on wednesday = Never moved before ; Also, I am taking part in a friend's writing challenge, an early NaNoWriMo, you could say :3 And! I get to have surgery on my leg tomorrow (Monday) so weehoo! XDXD
Hopin' that you all liked the third chapter n.n
(1) Dracaena = another plant name XD;
(2) Red Moon = Akatsuki. Get it Get it? XD;; dork
- Hayate asks a small favor…
"Sugar? Please? Just a cup?"
- Kakashi and Sasuke are introduced to the "baths" of Hazelwood…
"How do you bathe with that mask on?" Iruka asked, eyeing the dark fabric.
"It's waterproof."
- And trouble starts to brew on the horizon…
Please do review/comment/whatever :3 need writing juices XD
-Mako