Forced Augmentation
A/N: So my first ever Naruto fic and it's going to be labeled KakaIru even though it's probably not going to be more than just close friendship, though it might turn into more nearer the end, I shall just have to see if I can work it into the plot without ruining it or not. Not much to say other than that apart from I've decided on using the old information stating that there is just one year's age difference between Kakashi and Iruka because I'm used to it and it works better for this fic. Oh and also a huge thanks to Hey-Diddle-Diddle for her help on this chapter and the choosing of fic and chapter titles, extremely appreciated, Kiki
Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto or any of its characters. I just lay claim to the plot and my own characters.
Chapter 1: Commencement
The late August sun made a slow descent in the early evening sky, which was starting to turn a pinky red around the setting sun. Iruka stared up at it from his slouched position on a mid-height tree branch that had a wide, flat surface big enough to bear his teenaged self. The pony-tailed Genin had been in this position since lunchtime, idly watching nature happen around him having found nothing better to do on this rare day off for him. Kakashi had been off on a mission with his Anbu team for the whole week and Iruka was realizing how much he missed the genius ninja.
He propped himself up a little bit and bent his head to do a quick once over of the ground below him, just incase his best friend happened to have returned and be calmly standing below him waiting to be noticed. The only thing that greeted his hopeful eyes was an apparently tamer than normal squirrel which was staring inquisitively back up at him. He sighed quietly and decided to watch the squirrel to see exactly how tame it was.
This new way of passing the time didn't keep the young ninja interested for very long as the small animal blinked at him a couple of times and then scurried off into an overgrown bush. 'Not very tame after all,' Iruka thought gloomily. He turned his attention back towards the setting sun, which was now starting to merge into the reddened sky, wondering when the spiky-haired genius would be back, the memory of their first ever meeting suddenly filling his mind and making him smile despite himself.
-Six years ago-Iruka stared at the worn and battered target board. Shuriken stuck into it at odd intervals, mostly around the outside of the board. Even more of the silver stars littered the ground around the area of the target board. The young boy's right hand and arm ached all over from the amount of times he had swung said arm to throw the ninja weapons. He grimaced slightly at the ache in his arm but gritted his teeth and balled his hands into fists till the knuckles went white. His determination to improve his currently poor shuriken throwing and earn his father's praise was as strong as ever.
For another hour Iruka threw shuriken at the target board, his aim getting slightly better but still not enough for him to hit the very centre of the board like he so desired. As he pulled his arm back and began to take aim for his next attempt a voice broke his concentration.
"You'll never hit the centre of it like that."
The voice, which had a slightly bored tone to it, came from behind him. Iruka quickly whipped around and glared at the sudden intruder. He was a young boy who couldn't be much older than Iruka himself was, no more than nine or ten years old. The first thing that Iruka really noticed though was the fact that this boy wore a hitai-ate on his forehead, a sign that he was already an accepted ninja of the village. This made Iruka glare even harder at the other boy. The fact that he was nearly the same age as him and this boy had already graduated from the academy didn't exactly make Iruka feel any better about himself.
"And why's that?" Iruka asked finally, still glaring rather heatedly, noticing for the first time that the other boy wore a dark blue mask which covered his lower face.
"Well for a start your feet are too far apart. Then there's the fact you don't have your arm pulled far enough back, which means you definitely won't get the right sort of power or aim to hit the centre." The masked boy stated Iruka's faults in the same bored voice as before and then began to walk towards the slightly smaller boy, with the intention of demonstrating the right stance to him.
One half of Iruka's mind screamed at him to back up and run away from this strange, masked boy but the other half was obviously more stubborn as he just stood there and let the other boy help him move his arm into the right position and show him exactly how far apart he should have his feet. Then, with the older boy's guidance, he threw the metal star and hit the target dead on centre. He couldn't help let out a shout of joy as the shuriken stuck fast to the centre of the board. He turned to the other boy, a huge grin on his face.
"Yeah! It hit centre just like that. Thank you for the advice." Iruka bowed politely as he spoke, the victorious grin still planted on his face.
The masked boy shrugged and muttered something about it being nothing. He began to turn away when Iruka laid a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "I'm Umino Iruka. What's your name?" He asked with an earnest look on his face, desperate to know how a boy slightly older than him had already graduated from the academy.
The other boy looked slightly surprised but offered up his name in the same, bored voice from before, "Hatake Kakashi."
Iruka blinked, trying to remember if he'd heard that name before from the academy the year before, but no he didn't, which lead him on to his next question. "When did you graduate from the academy?" He gestured at Kakashi's hitai-ate as he spoke, trying hard to keep the envy he felt out of his voice and expression.
"Four years ago." Kakashi stated simply, a slight smirk forming under his mask at the look of awe appearing on Iruka's face.
"Woah, no way! Then how old are you?" Iruka asked, even his voice sounding awe-struck.
"You want a lot of information out of a stranger don't you." Kakashi replied, the smirk still present under the mask.
Iruka's cheeks reddened slightly at this. "I er…was just curious because you don't seem much older than me but you've already become a real ninja." He said, stuttering slightly and blushing a bit more.
Kakashi decided to leave Iruka in the dark a bit longer, instead leading him towards the target board, indicating that they pick up the well-used shuriken and return them to the weapons pouch Iruka had brought along with him. They did all this in silence and then turned to walk back towards the main residential area of Konoha.
Kakashi's smirk returned as he tilted his head in the direction of the other boy as they walked and uttered the words said other boy had been wanting to hear, "I'm nine, by the way, and…I'm a Chuunin."
End flashback-
Iruka remembered all too well the reaction he gave to those words Kakashi had said six years ago. His mouth had fallen open in what must have been a very comical way and he had let out a sound that didn't know whether it had wanted to be astounded, awestruck or downright jealous. He chuckled quietly to himself at the memory. A lot had happened since that day but the most important thing as far as he was concerned was that they had become best friends and that they still were, in fact they were closer than ever.
The sun had now completely set and the red sky was beginning to turn a darker colour, indicating that nightfall was now definitely on the way. Iruka's stomach gave a soft rumble, reminding him that he hadn't eaten anything for at least seven or eight hours. He decided that now would be as good a time as any to go back into the village's centre and get something to eat.
He pulled himself to his feet with a little difficulty due to his joints stiffening up from being in the same position for too long and jumped nimbly down to the ground, landing in a crouch at the foot of the tree. He stood up and was about to head towards the village's vibrant centre when he heard a rustle in the bushes just off to his left. He quickly pulled a kunai from his leg holster and eyed the offending bushes keenly. The first thing to appear was a gloved hand, followed rapidly with the rest of the hand's body. Iruka immediately dropped the kunai he was holding when he saw the familiar figure limp out of the bushes towards him, looking battered but not broken.
"Kakashi!" He spoke his best friend's name and quickly ran to him, his keen eyes immediately scanning the older boy from head to toe to make sure he didn't have any really serious wounds.
"Yo, 'Ruka. Knew you'd be here." Kakashi's voice lacked its usual bored tone; instead he just sounded extremely tired.
Iruka gave his spiky-haired friend a warm smile, letting him know he was glad he was back. "You should have sorted these scrapes out before you came out searching for me, you idiot."
"You're better at first aid than I am." Kakashi stated simply, a wry grin appearing under the soft fabric of his mask.
Iruka grinned, pleased at the compliment from his higher ranked friend. "I shan't argue otherwise on that one. Come back to mine and I'll get you patched up in no time."
With that said the two boys made their way slowly, due to Kakashi's limp because of a wounded right leg, towards the Umino residence, which once held a happy family of three but was now reduced to just the one inhabitant.
Once inside his house, Iruka went in search of the family first aid box while Kakashi sat on a chair at the dinner table glad to finally be off his feet. The mission hadn't been terribly hard but they had been attacked by nightfall on no less than three occasions during the week they were away. Thus he now sported more wounds than he should have done, the slash on his leg particularly painful.
Iruka was soon back with the first aid box and quickly set to work on patching up the young Anbu, concentrating on the slash from mid thigh to knee on his right leg first. He screwed his face up slightly at how deep the cut was and immediately wondered why it hadn't been treated properly sooner. It had been bound up to stop the bleeding but it was definitely a couple of days old. Why one of his companions hadn't helped him clean it up before was a mystery too him, perhaps they had been too rushed. He'd never know though because Kakashi really hated it when he asked him too many details about his Anbu missions.
Kakashi winced slightly as Iruka cleaned up the mess that was his right leg. He now truly wished he hadn't left it for so long without properly cleaning it up. Thinking back about it there were at least two opportunities where he could have sorted out his wounds but he hadn't bothered. As long as he stopped the blood flow it didn't matter and that's what he always seemed to go with when it concerned himself.
Iruka didn't say anything as he put a fresh bandage on Kakashi's right leg and then moved onto the other, less serious wounds on the slightly older boy. Kakashi said nothing either, content to just sit there and appreciate being off his feet and not having to worry about sudden enemy attacks for the first time in a week.
Once done, Iruka stood and returned all the first aid stuff to its box and then wandered off to return the box to its rightful home. Kakashi casually observed the Genin's handy work, allowing a small smile to appear under the mask when it became apparent the younger boy's first aid skills had improved somewhat since the last time he'd patched Kakashi up, not that they were exactly bad before.
"Do you want something to eat now?" Iruka asked upon returning from depositing the first aid box.
The need to eat hadn't really occurred to Kakashi until Iruka mentioned it and now he had it seemed to take over all his thoughts in one big wave. "Sounds good, 'Ruka." He replied, lifting himself up into a standing position, relying mostly on his left leg to support him.
"Lets go out for food then 'cause I don't have much in the way of edibles left here." Iruka said, blushing slightly at having to admit he hadn't been shopping in a while.
Kakashi nodded an affirmative and both boys left the house in search of food in the village's centre.
They finally decided on the okonomiyaki place near the academy that they both rated highly. They sat on stools side by side and gave their orders, both of them eventually deciding on the seafood okonomiyaki. The owner got to work on making the two shinobis' food while said shinobi held a light-hearted conversation about this and that.
"So you had any interesting missions while I've been away, 'Ruka?" Kakashi asked, his tone nonchalant but his one exposed eye showing genuine interest at his best friend's past week.
Iruka shrugged slightly, knowing all to well that his meagre C and D ranked missions would not be interesting to someone who had been away all week on an Anbu mission, he spoke up anyway though because he knew Kakashi at least pretended he was interested. "A couple of babysitting jobs which involved a Lord's bawling two year old son and two stuck up little kids. They all near on drove us crazy." Iruka shuddered at the memory of it.
Kakashi laughed lightly at the disgusted look on his friend's face and the tone in his voice. "They run out of C rank missions or something?" He asked, a teasing tone to his voice.
Iruka scowled at him and was about to offer up a well placed retort when their food was placed in front of them, the owner giving both boys a smile and telling them to enjoy their meal.
Once they had finished eating and paid their way, Kakashi and Iruka walked back towards Iruka's house. It hadn't taken the younger boy long to convince the older boy to stay at his for the night. The two young ninja who both lacked parents spent as much time with each other as they were able, especially after a period that spanned more than a few days apart. They kept each other company well despite the obvious ability and rank difference between the two of them.
Once back inside the three bedroomed house, the two boys sat themselves down, side by side, on the two-seater sofa. Kakashi's weariness from the week-long mission seemed to suddenly return almost as soon as his backside hit the soft material of the sofa. The young genius slouched back and nonchalantly pulled his mask down, letting his yawn hit the air in front of his now exposed face.
Iruka never batted an eyelid anymore when Kakashi pulled his mask down. The older teen's face was no mystery to the young Genin, as Kakashi had never seemed that bothered about hiding it from his friend. In fact Iruka wasn't even sure why Kakashi wore the mask and it had never really occurred to him to ask and besides it wasn't really any of his business anyway, though he had a good hunch that it had something to do with the older boy's long since passed on father.
"How're you feeling now?" Iruka asked, giving Kakashi a sidelong glance as he spoke.
Kakashi shifted slightly and looked back at the other boy. "Mmm…better, just need some sleep." He replied, half stifling another yawn.
Iruka nodded and stood up. "I'll just go and make sure the bed is made up in the guest room then. Just make sure you don't fall asleep there 'cause there's no way I'm carrying you to bed." He said, prodding Kakashi in the stomach to make sure he knew that he meant it.
"Yeah yeah." Kakashi affirmed sleepily, slouching further back into the sofa.
Iruka shook his head in a disbelieving manner and wandered off in the direction of the guest room. Said room turned out to be more than ready for a sleepy Anbu member to collapse in. Iruka pulled the duvet back and plumped the pillows up before making his way back towards where Kakashi sat inventing new and interesting ways to keep his sleepy eye open.
"Oii, Kakashi, I told you not to fall asleep. Wake up." Iruka said, prodding Kakashi lightly in the side.
The spiky-haired teen grumbled in a sleepy voice but eventually opened his exposed eye, the sharingan-ed one covered by silvery tresses. "I'm awake, I'm awake, so stop the poking." He grumped, lightly whacking the other boy's hand away. He pulled himself to his feet and labouredly followed Iruka to the guest room.
Iruka made sure Kakashi at least took his Anbu chest plate off before letting the worn out teen fall into bed, sleep taking him as soon as his head hit the pillow. The pony-tailed boy smiled at his sleeping friend, glad he was back from another mission without any really serious wounds. Once he had switched off the light, he pulled the door up so it was just left ajar and then made his way to his own bedroom, where a sudden feeling of tiredness swept over him and he decided to just fall into bed in what he was wearing, with his hair still tied up, sleep catching him nearly as quickly as it had Kakashi.
An hour before Kakashi and Iruka had returned to the Genin's house and just as the last of the day's light had been engulfed in the dark of night, a dark shadow slipped out of the village, so stealthy even the ever-watchful guards didn't notice it. That shadow moved with speed and agility that could match any of Konoha's current Genin and possibly even some of the Chuunin. The dark form darted from ground to tree to ground again, eating up the distance in no time at all, never once glancing back at the village he had just left from.
The boy, for the shadow was but a boy of about thirteen, stopped suddenly, crouched on a tree branch, and carefully scanned the area, his dark green eyes very much used to looking for movement in the dark. His surrounding area appeared to be completely empty, deader than a dead thing, some might say. He unintentionally let out a relieved sigh and immediately scowled into the darkness because of it. He pushed an unruly lock of dirty blond hair out of his face before continuing on his fast paced journey.
After a short while he stopped again, staring at the large rock that he knew was part of Riidaa-sama's genjutsu. Once he'd had a quick look around to make sure there were no prying eyes, he stepped cleanly through the illusionary obstacle, flaring his charka momentarily to alert those inside of his presence.
The other side of the genjutsu was a large cave-like room, which was lit by several lights on a dim setting, dotted around the room on the walls. There was a low set wooden table in the centre of the room and a bookshelf at the far side, which held a few books and scrolls, but other than that the place lacked much furniture. Seated around the table were eight shinobi; seven of them burly looking males and one muscular female. One of the males stood, upon noticing the young boy's arrival, and walked over to him.
"You're late, Kiri-kun." He stated plainly, looking slightly agitated, as if he'd spent a sizable amount of time explaining away the boy's tardiness to the other shinobi.
"I'm really sorry, Mori-sensei. I had to just double check a few things to make sure everything goes off without a hitch." Kiri quickly replied, bowing slightly to accompany the apology.
"Nevermind. At least he's here now. Why don't we get down to business while the night's still young." The female ninja muttered, her left eyebrow twitching slightly at her apparent impatience.
Kiri sucked in a silent breath as the woman spoke, his fear of her only topped by that of their leader, before following his sensei to the table, seating himself next to the ex-Stone nin who took him in after his family's murder at the hands of rogue Cloud ninja three years ago. Once seated he gazed in the direction of their leader, who simply went by the name of Riidaa-sama, and tried his best not to look scared under the scrutiny of the powerful ex-Mist ninja.
"I don't want any bullshit, kid. Just tell me if it's favourable for us to carry out the raid on Konoha tonight or not." Riidaa said gruffly, his gaze hardening on the young boy, if that were even possible.
Kiri resisted the urge to gulp and used his training under Mori to relax himself as he began to speak in as direct a way as possible. "All the Genin are in the village in the places I noted down before. Two Anbu squads are in the village while the rest are away from the village and one of those squads has returned from a mission with quite a few injuries between them. About a quarter of the Jounin and Chuunin are also away from the village."
Riidaa's eyes gleamed eerily in the dim light and a wicked, sadistic sort of smile appeared on his face. "Seems like tonight is the perfect night for this then. We should be able to take all of Konoha's Genin without sustaining many injuries ourselves." He said, glancing round at the rest of the missing nins in the room. "We'll leave in one hour. Take this time to go over your roles and make sure all your kit is ready." He continued, his voice strong and commanding.
Each of the seven other adults nodded affirmatives and got to their feet, wandering off to various places around the room to check their weapons packs. Kiri remained seated and alert, waiting to be addressed by the commanding ninja of their group. He resisted the urge to fidget as the over-bearing man just sat there looking at him in a thoughtful manner, before finally deciding to give the boy his orders.
"You go on ahead to the other base. Make sure the other two are ready for us and our 'guests'." He said the word 'guests' with a sneer in his voice and an evil twist to his mouth.
Kiri nodded obediently and jumped to his feet. With a quick look over to where his sensei knelt going through his equipment, hoping to see some sort of expression on the man's face but only finding blank, mission-driven eyes, the young boy quickly walked back out of the hideout and made his way even further away from Konoha village.
Back inside the genjutsu hidden hideout, the eight missing nin; four from Stone, four from Mist, made their last preparations for the attack they had been planning for over five months. The leader of the eight sat at his place by the table, his face twisted in an evil smile, mentally preparing himself for battle.
End Chapter.
Well that's it for chapter 1. Hopefully it is at least sort ofdecent for a first fanfiction in this fandom because I worked quite hard on it. I would really appreciate some reviews so I know what I'm doing right, what I'm doing wrong, what I can improve on, etc. Thanks in advance!