He couldn't believe it. His student was dead. His persecuters justly dealt with. He stared unseeing at the memorial picture. He had been unable to sleep that night and so had gone to the Hokage monument as was his tradition on such nights. Never did he expect to find Naruto there much less a dying one. He had tried to take him to Tsunade-sama. But when he got there, he was too late. Naruto was gone. He didn't remember much after that but from what he was told, he had gone into emotional shock not eating for days. His fellow teachers had tried to cheer him up, one even commenting that it was nothing to get worked up over. It was only the demon-fox. Iruka had had to be pried off the other man by Kakashi and two ANBU before he would let go. The other man had had to spend eight hours in the operating room. None of his peers had approached him after that. He locked himself in his bedroom. Team 7 had visited with Sakura in tears, Kakashi-sensei without his little orange book and Sasuke looking like he hadn't slept in three weeks. He turned them away. He simply couldn't believe that his Naruto was gone. It was three days after his attack on his fellow teacher and he was the last one left in the clearing. The Rookie Nine having left long ago. He approached the head stone, gently touching the written word. HERO. A tear tracked its way down his cheek as he remembered.
'Aishiteru….tou-san."
Naruto's birthday was in a month. The adoption papers lovingly signed and gently wrapped up along with two-weeks of free ramen passes. He doubted if he'd ever open the drawer he had hidden them in. He had planned to take him out for ramen and surprise him. Now he'd never get the chance. If he'd known how bad it had gotten, he would have done something but now it was too late. Now, there was nothing anybody could do. He turned and walked away.
Does it count if I made myself cry writing this? I wrote both these chapters at the same time. It is now 12 am. Or 00:00 for those of you who run on the 24 hour clock. Its taken me an hour. I think I deleted a page all told of stuff I had written. I just couldn't get the actions right. I hope I didn't make iruka-sensei too emotional. Oh well. This is how I see it. Arigatou for reading. Ttyl.