Big, huge thanks to Bite the hand that feeds for beta-ing it for me. So nice to swap notes with a fellow Brit KakaIru fan, hehe.
Also lots of thank you's due to everyone who read and reviewed chapter 1. Scroll to the bottom for replies.
Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto or any of the characters. Just lay claims to the plot and my original characters.
Chapter 2: The RaidAs the group of missing nin began to move closer to Konoha's border, the two young orphaned ninja carried on sleeping, unsuspecting of the terror that would soon befall them. The older of the two boys rolled over in his sleep, a small, happy smile on his face as he dreamed about times gone by.
-3 years ago-
"Kashi-kun! Kashi-kun!"
The spiky-haired pre-teen in question opened one sleepy eye, followed slowly by the other and lifted his head up enough from his position on the floor to stare at the excitable voice's owner. Umino Iruka soon stood in front of the half-asleep genius, tapping his shiny new hitai-ate proudly with a tanned finger, a huge grin adorning his lower face.
"Look! I finally became a real ninja!" Iruka said, trying again to get some sort of response from his sleepy friend.
Kakashi blinked and then heaved himself up into a sitting position, still staring through seemingly bewildered eyes. Truth be told, he was perfectly coherent, he just wasn't quite sure what to say to his friend. He was happy for him of course because he had wanted to graduate for ages. but Kakashi found it hard to be enthusiastic about it when he himself had achieved the same thing when he was six whole years younger than Iruka currently was.
When Iruka's shining eyes began to change into a look of hurt Kakashi quickly said the first thing that came to mind, not wanting his friend to get upset with him. "That's great, 'Ruka. I knew you'd make it sooner or later."
Iruka didn't know whether to feel good about this response or not but decided not to linger on it for too long, instead he grinned widely again and grabbed the older boy's hand, making ready to drag him to his feet. Kakashi immediately had a wickedly competitive look partially hidden under the mask and let the other boy drag him up halfway before suddenly pulling back.
The sudden shift in power pulled the newly promoted Genin clean off his feet and he flew over the top of the seated Chuunin and crashed straight into the calm yet deep stream behind them. Iruka immediately started kicking his legs, forcing his way back up above the cold water. He spluttered shamelessly as his head breached the surface and immediately glared at his laughing friend, who was now unmistakably one hundred percent awake.
"Was that supposed to be my initiation or something?" Iruka asked, his tone matching his pout in an uncanny way.
Kakashi laughed again, before jumping to his feet and offering his soaking wet friend a hand. Iruka took it and allowed himself to be hauled out of the water, but not without making sure he splashed the Chuunin as much as possible. They both soon sat on the grass much wetter than they had been a few minutes beforehand, appreciatively allowing the warm sun to work its magic in drying them.
"Kashi-kun?"
"Mmm?"
"Now that I'm a proper ninja I can help protect the village for real. I don't have to just watch anymore." He gazed at his friend as he spoke, the same look of determination in his eyes that they had held when the two boys met for the first time.
Kakashi smiled, a visible smile as his damp mask lay drying in the sun beside him, and patted the younger boy on the shoulder. "We'll protect the village together and I won't ever let anything bad happen to you, I promise."
Iruka smiled back happily, dark eyes shining brightly in the sunlight.
-End flashback-
Kakashi awoke prematurely from his sleep, a feeling of danger making him wide-awake instantly. He sat up in bed and absent-mindedly pulled his mask up, his senses working at full speed to locate the danger he felt so strongly. He jumped nimbly out of bed, wincing slightly when his injured leg jarred slightly upon landing, and moved stealthily towards Iruka's room, a gut instinct telling him to move that way more than his ninja senses.
Iruka's door was slightly ajar but that wasn't anything new as the Genin usually left it like that, but Kakashi still approached very cautiously. The feeling of danger was still very much with him and he wasn't about to take any chances. He leaned a gloved hand against the door as soon as he reached it and peered with his visible right eye into the semi-dark room. What he saw before him made him act without thinking at all, something he hadn't done for a long long time.
---------- A few moments before ----------
Iruka awoke slowly, a rising feeling of dread pulling him out of the unconsciousness of sleep. The first thing his still sleep-riddled eyes rested on was the dark shadow at his window. He immediately sat up in bed, hand reaching for the weapons bag he kept by his bed. The shadowy figure had worked the locked window open with apparent ease, somehow not making a sound, and jumped into Iruka's room. Iruka let the kunai in his hand fly as soon as the figure touched down but it was deflected easily with another kunai.
"You'll have to do better than that, kid." The shadowy figure said in a gruff, mocking voice.
Iruka gulped slightly when the intruder began to walk forward, a hulk of a man clad in dark clothing. The young Genin could just make out the hitai-ate on his forehead but wasn't too sure which village's symbol was on it due to the darkness surrounding them still. He readied another kunai in his hand and moved swiftly off his bed, standing in a slightly crouched position beside it, eying the other ninja warily.
The hulking man gave the pony-tailed boy a sadistic smirk before launching forward at a terrifying speed for someone so bulky and knocked the boy out with a swift blow to the side of the head. The last thing Iruka saw before unconsciousness took him was a shock of silver hair suddenly appearing through the space between wall and bedroom door and one, weary-looking eye widening in shock.
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The enemy ninja saw Kakashi burst through the door immediately and quickly dragged Iruka's limp form off the floor and over his shoulder. He then leapt out of the window before the injured Anbu teenager even had a chance to attack him. Kakashi dived through the window in quick pursuit, the pain his injured leg gave him completely forgotten in his desperation to get his best friend back.
As Kakashi rushed through the dark streets of Konoha in hot pursuit of Iruka and his kidnapper he failed to notice the chaos the village seemed to be in. All the residences that held Genin were targeted by the rogue ninja. Their number was few but seemed like much more due to clones and other such jutsus. The semi-awake Genin and their families were caught unawares and were mostly powerless to do anything against the powerful missing nin. Only when the village's remaining Jounin and Chuunin and Anbu members got involved did the tide change a little and some of the Genin were saved.
Kakashi ran at full speed after Iruka's kidnapper, the blood seeping through the bandage on his leg as the re-opening wound went unnoticed. They'd left the dimly lit streets now and had entered the first thicket of trees. This is where Kakashi made the hand seals for the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, his clones immediately cutting off the enemy ninja's escape route.
"Ah, I see you are more skilled than this kid, an Anbu even." The missing nin said, though there was no hint of admiration in his voice to accompany the words, his eyes stared with definite malicious intent at the young Anbu member's three clones that stood in his way.
Kakashi got his three clones to launch weapon and taijutsu attacks at once, being extremely careful not to hit Iruka's limp form in the process. The ex-Stone nin, for that's what he was revealed as when the moon snuck out from behind a cloud and illuminated his hitai-ate, evaded all of the clones' attacks by jumping vertically to avoid the taijutsu blows and throwing well aimed projectiles of his own to intercept the weapon attacks.
The older shinobi then landed and re-launched himself in one fluid motion, throwing several volleys of shuriken at the two clones on either side and striking the middle one's face with his right fist. He managed all of this while still holding the unconscious Genin over his shoulder. All three clones poofed out of existence, leaving the original Kakashi standing a few metres back, his mind working overtime as it always did when he was in combat with high-level enemies.
The attacks he could use were narrowed down because of Iruka being within such close proximity to the enemy. It counted out all fire techniques straight away. Using the Chidori was out of the question at the moment because his injured leg stopped him being able to make his usual speed, which was required to make the lightning fast technique work. All he could really think to do was to use close combat taijutsu and hope that he could somehow grab Iruka back.
Once decided on his plan of attack, Kakashi focused some extra charka to his injured leg in preparation for the overworking it was about to receive, and launched himself at his opponent, immediately swinging his good leg in for a low roundhouse kick, hoping to knock the missing nin off balance. The older shinobi blocked Kakashi's kick with his free arm and swung in with his own, low-sweeping kick, which Kakashi dodged by jumping backwards, landing on a low tree branch.
"If you want your little friend here back you'll have to do a lot better than that, brat." The large man said, sneering up at the boy crouched in the tree.
Kakashi glared down at the man who held his best friend captive, anger filling the one-exposed eye. Without thought or fear for himself, the young ninja leapt from the tree branch, leftover fatigue from his long mission and fear for his friend stopping any rational thoughts he might have had. The ex-Stone nin's wicked grin glinted in the moonlight as he moved swiftly to one side and swiped the very tip of the sharp kunai he held down the Anbu's departing left leg.
Kakashi dropped and rolled as his good leg joined his other leg in the injured department. He bit down hard on his lip as he fell, the pain from the medium to deep kunai wound shooting immediately up to his head. He winced from the pain but instinctively sent a quick surge of charka to the newly injured leg. He then forced himself back to his feet and glared through a determined eye at his taller and older opponent.
The ex-Stone nin stared at the young Anbu with an almost grudging respect. Kakashi's left trouser leg was ripped almost to shreds on one side, the blood from the wound dripping in an almost hypnotic way off of the torn, soft material. The older injury on the other leg, although covered with untouched material, was visible due to the fact the re-opened wound had soaked the bandages beneath and had started to make the material stick to the boy's leg. He decided he had to end this now because if this kid grew too determined it would hold him up much longer than Riidaa-sama would be happy with.
Before Kakashi even had the chance to think, the missing nin had lunged forward and sunk a large fist into the silver-haired teen's stomach. Kakashi reeled forward instantly, feeling the all to familiar taste of copper in his mouth, which forced its way out, deep red liquid hitting the inside of his mask in a thin stream. His exposed eye widened and darkness began to seep in, his last sight being that of Iruka's dark hair bobbing up and down on the back of his captor who was moving away from Konoha with great speed, before dropping to the cold, woodland floor, all consciousness leaving him.
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Kiri bounded from one tree to the next, his expression set into a determined frown. The other, more permanent base was a fair distance from the one he'd just left and getting there as quickly as possible was his main aim because the other two there would expect him sooner rather than later. He suppressed a shudder at the thought of those two. In a lot of ways they were to be feared the most despite the fact they weren't as elite as the others.
The young blond boy quickly made his way through the trees and eventually came upon the other base, which was also shrouded in heavy genjutsu. The illusions didn't bother Kiri in the slightest though as he knew perfectly well where the entrance to the base was and how to get into it. The heavy, charka filled door creaked open as Kiri made the correct hand seals and fused some of his own charka into it. He walked inside, the door shutting itself behind him instantly.
"I'll assume your appearance here means tonight's the night."
Kiri nearly jumped at the sound of the voice that spoke as soon as the door had shut behind him. Standing before him was the permanently hunched over form of Masahiro Hideaki, a Stone nin who specialised in scientific type jutsus and spent more time on theoretical research than physical training. His greying hair and weathering skin made him look older than what he probably was but his fierce grey eyes were a reminder that he was still a deadly ninja.
"Y…yes, the raid should be taking place about now. Riidaa-sama says we need to be ready for their arrival." Kiri stuttered slightly as he spoke, fatigue from his long, fast-paced journey starting to show through.
"Excellent timing." Hideaki said, a gleeful look on his face. "Go and make sure our guests' 'rooms' are ready for them and then you can rest until they arrive." He continued, giving the young blonde boy a shove deeper into the dimly lit room.
Kiri steadied himself from the surprisingly strong push from the small man and hurried along to where the kidnapped Genin of Konoha were going to be held. The prospect of a bit of rest after doing this was extremely appealing to Kiri and so he intended to get this done as quickly as possible.
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The kidnapping attempt of the Genin had left Konoha in chaos. The number of able-bodied Jounin, Chuunin and Anbu still in the village wasn't great as a lot of 'out of village' missions had been issued recently. The amount of elite ninja in the village normally wasn't great as the Kyuubi's attack had hit them hard one year ago and they were still rebuilding their forces. So to have this sneak, well-organised raid on the village come out of nowhere, Konoha wasn't best prepared for it.
Once the raid had ended and there was nothing more they could realistically do at that point to get the kidnapped Genin back, some of the elites talked at length with the Sandaime about what was to be done. Others, meanwhile, helped the wounded and helped comfort the terrified remaining Genin. Some, however, went off in immediate search for any possible clues around the outskirts of the village. One of the ninjas in this last group was Shiranui Genma, an 18-year-old rookie Anbu member.
The sandy-haired teenager had gotten back from a fairly grueling Anbu mission the day before and wasn't feeling best pleased that these rogue ninja had interrupted his sleep. The few injuries he had received from the mission weren't serious but his fatigue was great and the last thing he needed at the moment was to be running around the outskirts of the village like an idiot, trying to find clues that probably weren't even there. He did, however, feel angry that so many of their Genin had been taken like that and they had been mostly powerless to do anything to help the kids.
He ran out and away from the village's central area, keeping eyes and ears well tuned to his surroundings as he ran. The noise of the hustle and bustle of the aftermath of the raid got quieter and quieter the further he traveled from the centre of the village. He kept running until the sound had disappeared altogether and the trees began to thicken, indicating that he had reached the first part of the thick woodland that was found in the outskirts of the village. Here he slowed down, making sure to take in every single little detail of the path and the trees and bushes.
It wasn't till he got to the end of his current path and joined a different path that he noticed marks in the ground, which indicated that a chase between at least two people had taken place. With renewed interest in his extremely early morning task, Genma followed the trail as well as he could through the meager light the half-moon gave out.
The tracks became more and more erratic the further he followed them, suggesting the chase had turned into a fight. Genma formed possible scenarios in his head as he followed the increasingly difficult to track markings. It was quite possible the chase had been between a Genin and one of the enemy ninja but, and Genma sighed as he thought this, it was highly unlikely that the Genin would have made it so far when up against an elite ninja. That is, if all of the enemies were elites, and he couldn't be sure of that one just yet. The other possibility was, of course, one of their own elites chasing an enemy who carried one of the Genin.
As Genma's brain was ticking over this last possibility, a flash of something that didn't belong in the woods caught his eye just off to the left. As he got closer and the lighting swung more in his favour, he realized that the flash of something was actually very distinctive silver hair, which he knew extremely well.
"Kakashi?"
His cry was thick with worry as he wasn't yet near enough to determine if his friend and teammate was dead or alive. The older teen made it to the younger boy's side and instantly crouched down, his right hand immediately moving to find a pulse. When he felt the oh-so-reassuring thump of the genius ninja's pulse he let out a relieved sigh and quickly surveyed his friend's wounds.
The kunai cut on his left leg was the only serious fresh wound and Genma made quick work of cleaning and bandaging it. The fact that it was the only serious wound confused him slightly but he decided to save his ponderings until Kakashi was awake and could maybe draw some light on the situation. One thing Genma was sure of was that he wasn't looking forward to Kakashi waking up. He was almost one hundred percent certain that the Genin Kakashi was trying to save was one Umino Iruka. The two boys, despite the rank difference, were almost inseparable and Genma couldn't even begin to imagine what Kakashi's reaction to his failure at saving his best friend was going to be like.
With a heavy-hearted sigh, Genma scooped the smaller boy's unconscious form up into his arms and made his way back to the centre of the village.
End Chapter.
Thanks to:
Spectre: Well I finally updated and erm…another cliffhanger ; Thanks for reading and reviewing.
The-MarmaladeCat1: Thanks for your review. I hope there's not too much new information. I do have a tendency to get a bit over-excited when it comes to explaining my OCs, hehe.
umino-gaara: Thankies for the review. All will be revealed about what the missing nin have in store for the Genin in um…chapter 3, hehe.
Chibi-akuma-no-kage: Thankies for the review. Sorry the update took so long.
meleth78: Getting such a nice, encouraging review from a writer I admire so much definitely helped me write chapter 2, so thanks so much. I'm glad you like my young Kakashi.
Nezuko: Thanks for the review. Your encouraging comment about my OCs was particularly nice. I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Pirate Burn: Thanks so much for your review. It really brought a smile to my face. Unfortunately most of this chapter isn't from Iruka's POV but there'll be more of that later on, lol.
Lady Genua: Thanks for the review. Those creepy, evil people definitely have something up their sleeves for Konoha's poor ickle Genin; find out next chapter, hehe.
Bomb-O-Maniac: Thanks for the review. Sorry I didn't update sooner.
hercat: I don't tend to notice how my phrasing pans out so sorry if it doesn't quite fit. Thanks for your review and I hope this part is as interesting as you were expecting, lol.
bite the hand that feeds: Thankies muchly for your review. Flagging up Iruka's capabilities will end up being something I do a lot in this fic I think, and who couldn't love tired Kakashi, hehe.
Thanks to anyone else who read chapter 1. I hope you all enjoyed chapter 2 and hopefully chapter 3 will be out soonish.