Kakashi arrived at the hospital at the same time as Anko and Shikaku. He pressed himself against the wall as the konoichi was rushed past on a gurney, quickly noting the purple lines around her throat, the broken blood vessels round her eyes and the little trickle of blood flowing out of her left ear. Genma was waiting in triage, a windowless room with fluorescent lights and walls hung with scrolls of soothing landscapes that did nothing to alleviate its bleakness.
"So the patrol was attacked. By Sound." Kakashi said, sitting on the hard wooden bench next to him.
Genma sighed and brushed some stray hairs away from his face allowing Kakashi to see the lines around his wrist, some of them cut deeply enough to be crusted with blood.
"Yeah, but I don't think it was an attack. I think we just bumped into them. As soon as they saw we had the upper hand they killed their own gennins and ran."
Kakashi wished that he was more shocked, but he remembered Orochimaru of Hidden Sound only too well.
"Where'd it happen?"
Genma screwed up his eyes against the harsh lights and leaned back against the wall. Shit he was tired.
"By the old salt mine, right where you got ambushed that time." Suddenly his eyes blinked open and he turned towards the other man. "That wasn't Sound was it?"
Kakashi really didn't need anymore reminders of that painful incident right now.
"Never found out. But if it was it would explain why I never saw that blow coming." He raised his hand to his head automatically to rub at the scar. "If I was blasted by a sonic attack I could have cracked my head on a rock."
He paused for a moment, thinking through the possible implications. "Have you reported this? That Hidden Sound is poking around in our area?"
Genma shook his head. "Not yet, came straight here. Haven't told anyone about the snakes either."
"Snakes?" Something in the back of Kakashi's brain set off an alarm.
"Yeah, they were carrying snakes, dozens of them."
Genma shrugged, then paused and turned to look Kakashi directly in the eye. He squeezed his damaged wrist with the other hand and sucked in sharply, as if the pain would help him make a painful decision. Then he turned away, leaning back into the wall and spoke very very quietly, under his breath. The other jounin had to use chakra to hear, even though he was only two feet away.
"I'm gonna tell you something. I know I shouldn't and I'll catch hell if anyone finds out, but you're my friend and dammit you have every right to know. There've been other sharigan attacks, two that I know of, Iruka wasn't the first victim."
Kakashi showed no reaction at all, he looked up at an imaginary fly on the ceiling.
"Memories gone?" He asked in the same barely audible whisper.
"Not that I've heard. Enhanced more like, they've gone practically loco, screaming about the kyuubi. Been isolated and locked up so they don't start a panic."
"Any clues?"
"They're sure Itachi's well out of the picture so when Iruka… well it didn't seem like a coincidence. Look, you were ambushed out by the old mine. Even you don't know what happened. Then we were attacked there again today. If I didn't know there's nothing in this world or the next that could twist your mind to hurt 'Ruka, I'd be suspicious myself."
At that moment the door opened and Nara Shikaku wandered in, frowning and tugging at his ponytail.
"Well they say I'm good to go, but my wife is going to kill me, coming home with a concussion. She had plans tonight."
The two other men exchanged the briefest glance, then Genma and Shikaku left to make their report and Kakashi headed towards the main wards.
He hadn't gone far when he was stopped again, this time by the sight of an orange figure, sitting hunched over on the floor next to the main doorway.
"Naruto! Have you come to visit Iruka-sensei?"
The blond head jerked up. "Kakashi-sensei! Er, yes." His voice faded to a whisper. "But they won't let me in."
His expression became fixed and grim. "There's still a lot of people that don't like me. You know because… "
Unexpectedly he brightened a little, apparently more from habit than anything else. "I was hoping someone would come out who could tell me how he is."
The copy nin bristled with outrage.
"Come with me Naruto. We'll see him together."
The boy's face split into a huge grin and he bounced to his feet. "Really Kakashi-sensei? You're the best. I'm really sorry I called you a bastard all those times."
The man scowled and hit him on the head playfully. "Right, but you have to promise not to be too loud. He's still recovering. And don't be surprised if he seems er… strange, he's lost some of his memory."
Kakashi swallowed hard and took a deep breath, reaching for just the right carefree tone.
"He didn't remember me at all yesterday."
Naruto grinned up at him. "You're kidding right? Who could forget a bastard like you?"
Although he was part of his team, Kakashi rarely saw Naruto other than in training or on missions. Now the hostile stares that the boy attracted made Kakashi realise how little time he had spent with him around regular villagers. And despite the Naruto's seeming indifference, even without the sharigan, he could see the little flinches of pain that they caused. However no one seemed inclined to challenge the elite jounin, even if he did want to bring a monster into a hospital.
The room Iruka had been moved to was larger and more cheerful, with sunlight streaming through an open window. The door was open and Naruto barreled straight through it.
Kakashi moved like lightening to intercept the lunge. "Careful he had his spleen removed yesterday!"
"S'ok I wasn't gonna jump on him, I just wanted to get over here fast."
He looked at the teacher and almost growled. "Iruka-sensei you look real bad. Just wait till I find who did this, I'm gonna rip them apart!"
Iruka had pulled the blanket up to his chin. He looked at the boy nervously, then at Kakashi and blushed, smiling broadly.
"Thank you for coming to see me again Hatake-sama. I'm truly honoured by your interest in my recovery, although I must admit I'm rather surprised."
Kakashi chuckled to cover his wretchedness then grinned back.
"I promised that I'd come back to see you soon. Our village needs sharp well-educated genins, the dull one's aren't half as much fun to drive crazy. Speaking of genins, I found Naruto here outside. He's been waiting to see you for a long time."
Iruka gasped at the mention of the name. "Naruto." He repeated, looking at the boy closely.
Then struggling to keep his voice level he said, "Will you get me some water from the drinking fountain down the hall? It's much cooler than the water from the sink in here."
"'Course Iruka-sensei." The boy grabbed a cup and bounced out of the room.
As soon as he was gone Iruka rounded on the copy nin, his eyes full of pain. "Is that really the kyuubi? Why did you bring him with you? You must know what he did!"
Even kakashi couldn't hide his surprise. "But he's Naruto! Your former student? I thought you'd be glad to see him."
"My student! That's not possible. I would never have allowed that… that thing in my classroom with defenseless children."
They were cut off by a powerful and familiar presence entering the doorway. Tsunade was standing with another medic, a handsome young man with dark eyes and spiky black hair barely restrained by a leaf headband. She snorted when she saw Kakashi. In response he bowed politely, carefully keeping his expression neutral.
"Relax Umino-sensei." She ordered as Iruka pulled himself up with a wince of pain.
She nodded towards the man with her, who walked over to the bed, smiling a little too easily. "This is Ochiro Akira, he will be taking over your medical care from now on."
"Akira-san! I haven't seen you in years." Iruka said opening his eyes wide and smiling back in recognition.
"Yes Iruka-san." The man beamed. "As you can see I'm a doctor now. When I failed the chuunin exam the second time I decided that maybe healing would be a better career."
Still smiling he stepped over to the bedside and tenderly touched the teacher's bruised face, then slipped an arm behind him and eased him into a more comfortable position.
Kakaski watched the other man touching his lover, so gently and so intimately. He wanted to tear the doctor's hands off his Iruka and throw the son-of –a-bitch across the room. But it wasn't his Iruka anymore. Wasn't that what he'd decided? Didn't he just want the teacher to be safe and happy?
He turned away, desperately masking any suspicious changes in his chakra from Tsusenade. It was then that he realised that he hadn't noticed exactly when Naruto had came back into the room. Of course Tsumade had been watching Kakashi far to closely to miss any of this. However what they were both too distracted to see was the brief flare of red around the fox boy's navel.
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Kakashi leaned against the cold paint of the corridor wall, as the stale antiseptic air closed in, threatening to stifle him. He wondered exactly when he had grabbed Naruto's hand and pulled him of the hospital room. This tiny loss of control was more terrifying to him than anything he could remember. Why hadn't Tsunade chosen an old ugly doctor to take care of Iruka's? Better yet an old ugly woman doctor. Of course he knew why. She was testing him, trying to make him do something stupid.
Suddenly Naruto yanked his hand away and ran. He followed blindly, grateful for the distraction. When they stopped they were standing outside in the sunlight.
The boy stood panting for a minute then voiced his pain in an anguished wail. If only Kakashi could do the same. He took his student's shoulders and stared into his eyes, wanting to comfort, reassure, anything. But immediately looked away, seeing too much of his own hurt reflected there.
He was pathetic, was this really all it took to bring him down? His focus was shot and his thoughts were scattered all over the place. What would his father think of him? No he wasn't going to go there! He was Hatake kakashi, the mind-game master of all time, and his mind was completely fucked. He didn't even have what it took to help this kid.
The best he could do was to repeat what he had said earlier. "I did warn you that he might not know you."
Naruto sniffed loudly, suppressing tears. "S'not just that."
The fox boy could feel his chakra becoming unstable again and clenched both hands over his stomach to control it.
"The way he looked at me. 'S the way everyone looks at me. 'S if he hates me."
Kakashi still couldn't look into those eyes.
"Of course he doesn't hate you."
He despised himself for the lie, while hoping beyond hope that it wasn't really a lie.
He forced a thin smile, more for his own benefit than Naruto's, the boy wouldn't see it behind the mask anyway.
"For one thing I don't think Iruka-sensei's capable of hating anyone. He just doesn't remember you". He took a breath. "And it's not just you, he doesn't remember me either."
They were walking away from the hospital as they spoke. Kakashi needed to put some distance between himself and that sweet faced doctor. He felt sick at the thought of the man examining his lover. Running his hands over that soft brown skin, treating his wounds and soothing his pain. Doing all the things that he longed to do for Iruka so desperately.
It was true about the villagers though. Half the people they passed gave Naruto hostile stares or crossed the road to avoid getting close to him. As before Kakashi noticed the boy's reaction, but now each flinch came with a sharp little pulse of chakra. He was sure he hadn't seen that earlier, or maybe he'd just been too distracted, thinking over what Genma had shared with him.
Naruto scrunched up his face to think, then to Kakashi's amazement broke out in a broad grin.
"Yeah that's true and you two are more than just good friends right?"
"What do you mean?" Kakashi desperately fought to keep his voice even. Was their relationship that obvious? Despite all their care?"
"Cos Iruka-sensei's different when you're around. Anyone can see you're special to him, just like I am."
Special, just like Naruto. Kakashi felt himself relax, perhaps the kid hadn't worked it out. He could be very dense after all."
"Different?"
The copy nin dared to probe deeper, steeling himself against the boy's godawful bluntness. Of course he couldn't know what Iruka was like when he wasn't around because then he… wasn't around.
Naruto twisted his face into an ugly grimace and kicked at the pavement with his sandal. "He's, I dunno, he's just sort of… happier."
This made Kakashi smile despite himself. Dear Iruka, he'd never had the kind of control over his emotions that a shinobi was supposed to have. But still, even if Naruto hadn't connected all the dots it didn't mean no one else had. Was that the weak link? How their secret had got out?
Naruto continued his stream of consciousness.
"Well you and me, we're like his best friends, aren't we? His family. And he doesn't remember either of us. But he knew Hokage-baba right off, and that other geezer. It's like the more he liked you the less he remembers you."
As he looked down into Naruto's solemn face Kakashi could feel the cloth over the sharigan hot and wet again. In his clumsy bumbling way the boy had hit on the truth that he had missed. To wipe out the memory of him, someone had erased Iruka's memory of the boy he loved too. Had he lost all his memories of everyone who was precious to him? The man was born to love, and be loved. Taking that away would leave him a hollow shell of his true self.
This was something Kakashi would not allow. If someone had used him as a tool to do it, he would kill them, and maybe himself.
The fox boy was still talking.
"Well if he can't remember me I guess I'll just have to make him like me all over again, right?"
Naruto looked up, eyes shining brightly.
"And that's gonna take a lot of ramen."
Kakashi's smile was genuine as he saw the infectious grin and his hand went out to ruffle the boy's hair.
Then he turned away and said under his breath. "If that's all it takes I'll buy the ramen." All the ramen in the world.