Sakura was left alone in the marketplace, completely alone. Konaha was like a ghost town. Who could she turn to? She was frightened, and her boys were fighting. There was only one person and she was racing towards Iruka's apartment before the thought had reached her conscious mind. At his building she ran up the steps and straight into a trap.
Iruka was pacing anxiously waiting for Sasuke to return when he heard the trap sprung. He nudged open the door and peered out cautiously, to come face to face with Sakura. Tearstained, sobbing with equal parts fear, grief and humiliation, and upside down.
"Oh! Sakura! Kakashi's trap!" He looked at his hands helplessly. "Let me find someone to get you down."
"Noooo!" Sakura screamed, swallowing her injured pride. "Sasuke and Naruto, they're fighting. Not like usual but really fighting. I… I'm afraid they might kill each other."
Iruka's eyes went wide. He ran to kick on his sandals then ran back to the doorway. He paused next to Sakura and looked at her apologetically.
"Just go, they were headed towards the gate." She whispered, scrunching her eyes closed. "Someone is bound to find me before long."
With a long glance back he headed out to the gate. The guard on duty recognised him and waved him through. The man seemed rather dazed. Iruka hoped that he hadn't been drinking but he had no time to worry about that now. Naruto was easy to track, even for Naruto. The ruckus from the marketplace sounded as if the town had turned against him. Had Sasuke too, and if so why? Iruka knew why.
That dark unspeakable fear was followed by another desperate thought. Had Naruto been injured and was that the reason why he was crashing through the woods so clumsily? He quickened his pace, pushing himself to his limit.
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Kakashi stretched his toes inside his sandals and curled the fingers of the hand that wasn't visible to the Sound nin. The poison was wearing off. Had Kabuto made a mistake or was it a deliberate ploy to let him escape? He couldn't afford to make any assumptions. He would play it both ways and see how it turned out. In either case he had to keep the youth talking as long as possible.
"Kabuto-san, why are you working so hard at infuriating me? To see if you can? Is this a new interrogation technique that you decided to try on 'the cool Sharigan Kakashi' while you had the chance."
The way the smaller man's eyes closed to slits told him that he had hit close to the mark.
"If you want information from me, let's make a deal, I'll answer two of your questions and you will answer two of mine. You can go first."
Kabuto pulled down the other's mask and took a step back. He looked at the copy nin with calm detachment. So the uncouth harassment had been an act, or at least he'd disguised it as one. Did this kid even have a true nature? He saw him take out another needle. Not a mistake then. The young man turned his back to him. Slowly and deliberately.
"What do they know about the Akatsuki, in Konoha?"
Well that was unexpected. "Not very much. Of course they want Itachi, he has… crimes to answer for. But if they know more then no one has shared it with me."
Kakashi wished he could see the other's reaction, but the fact that he had chosen to hide it was probably more revealing than anything he would have been able to actually read on his face. Now it was his turn for a question, he'd start with something straightforward, then maybe he could catch the former spy off guard.
"Why didn't the Inuzaka and their dogs find anything here? There's too much around for you to have hidden it all from them."
Kabuto turned to face him, the corners of his lips twitching in satisfaction.
"Was it that they didn't find anything, or that they just don't remember finding anything?"
Kakashi had already guessed as much, but he gasped and looked shocked at the simple cleverness of the deception.
Kabuto stepped close so that the other could feel his warm breath on his cheek.
"My second question." He smirked and ran his hand up the inside of Kakashi's thigh then grabbed his crotch, squeezing hard. "Did I rattle you at all?" His voice had the same rough tone he'd used earlier. "Just a little? Even for a moment?"
The Leaf nin allowed himself a smirk in return. "Not really."
Kabuto tightened his ninja grip, making Obito's eye water. Kakashi hoped he hadn't caused any permanent damage. He needed those parts. The younger man narrowed his eyes in what just might have been a flash of real emotion. "But it was true about the tears, I really did want to see him cry."
Kakashi's flash of anger was genuine too. "My last question." He said hoarsely, and waited to be released before continuing. "Why did Orochimaru choose this place as a hideout. There are better caves, better hidden and not so close to the village."
The Sound nin's voice wasn't quite as void of emotion as Kakashi expected. "He came here because it was the kyuubi's lair."
Kakashi fixed the sharigan on him and froze him with Orochimaru's killing intent. Then he took the needle from his hand and stabbed it into his neck. Between that and the jutsu he should be out of commission for a while. He tore a strip of cloth from his shirt and tied it over the sharigan, leaving it uncovered had already depleted his chakra severely. Then using stealth he slipped out of the mine entrance to the forest clearing.
The kyuubi's lair. Orochimaru had three ambitions: immortality, unlimited power and to see Konoha burned to the ground. Now it all made sense.
Kakashi felt the two scrolls in his pocket, he knew which one he had to use. It was one of the most forbidden of jutsus. When activated it would open a pathway to the next world and he would be able to lash tendrils of chakra onto his enemy and drag him there with him. Not send but take. It was a death jutsu and the cost of using it was the users own life.
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Naruto headed south. There was a place there where he could stay, a place where he would be safe. He was frightened and angry, but mostly just hurt. Pain flickered thorough his aura like a red flame. Sakura had abandoned him, Sasuke had hit him and Iruka-sensei… Iruka hated him. The whole world hated him. So he was going home.
He'd slept in that place, deep underground in his fox's den, since the world was new. Emerging from time to time. Erupting onto the surface like a force of nature, to feed, to roam for a while and then to return. But greedy men digging in the earth for salt had disturbed his thousand-year sleep and he had fled his home in confusion. So he'd raged over the planet bent on destruction for centuries. Then, when he had finally made his way back, he had found a village beside his lair. A village full of human vermin, keeping him from his sleep with their noise and their stench, and their feeble human thoughts and their petty human feelings.
He remembered descending on the village, full of fire and fury. But after that his memories were vague and jumbled. Glimpses of village streets, children playing and laughing, but not with him, and adults with cold scorn and hate in their eyes. There was sadness and loneliness, an ache for acceptance and acknowledgement. Human emotions not demon ones. Then something else. Deep quiet sleep, as soft and dark as black velvet, wrapped in friendship and love. Sweeter and more restful by far than his sleep in the bowels of the earth had ever been.
But that was gone. Over. And he was headed south.
It didn't take Sasuke long to catch up with him. The fox boy was moving slowly for a ninja, ignoring the well-worn paths and creating his own. Crashing through the woods like a young giant, not yet used to the feel and power of its body. He stopped and turned to look at the dark haired boy, who was shouting at him and pounding him with waves of painful emotions.
"Naruto stop! I shouldn't have hit you, I'm sorry. I just felt so…" His voice became louder. "DAMMIT! I DON'T KNOW WHAT I FELT I NEVER DO! I just wanted to hit you so I did!" His shout changed to a plea. "But I'm sorry, it's my fault, so please come back."
Naruto wanted him to go away. He noticed that the boy's face was wet, so was his, which was strange because it wasn't raining. The boy came closer blasting him with intent, but he couldn't read it. It was too powerful, too confused and too full of hurt.
"Damn you Naruto, I'm taking you back even if I have to knock you out and drag you every inch of the way!"
Then Sasuke was flying towards him. He hit him full power in the centre of his chest, throwing him back into a tree, which cracked and bent behind him. He stood up again, too focused on his own purpose to care, and took a step to the south. Now Sasuke was standing in front of him, blocking his way, eyes whirling red. The only emotion Naruto could feel in the Uchiha's chakra now was livid determination.
Naruto lashed out towards him with killing force, but he dodged away easily. Sasuke kicked him on the side of the head sending him flying. He stood up and threw himself at his rival, but missed again. Sasuke used his sharigan eyes to avoid every attack, while landing blow after blow of his own. But armed with the kyuubi's chakra Naruto was indestructible, unstoppable. In desperation Sasuke gathered the energy for the chidori in his hands. Surely this couldn't fail? He fired it point blank at the boy only a few feet away. Naruto shot backwards like a ball from a cannon, collapsing the trees in his path like dominoes. That hurt!
The kyuubi reared inside him, gathered its strength and blasted the whole area. A wave of power leveled the trees for hundreds of feet. Sasuke was thrown like a rag to the edge of the destroyed area and lay crumpled next to a splintered log. Then the kyuubi turned Naruto's feet back to the south and continued on its way.
Sasuke was slowly coming to his senses when Iruka found him. He was bruised and cut but, remarkably, the sharigan had given him time to harden his body with chakra and avoid any real injury.
The teacher crouched next to him, patting his cheek with the back of his hand. "Sasuke! What happened? Are you hurt?"
"Iruka-sensei?" He asked as his eyes came into focus. "Naruto… the kyuubi… tried to stop him."
"Can you stand? I don't think I can carry you."
"No, tired. The sharigans, I'd only slow you down. Please try to stop him. Bring him back."
Iruka had never seen that kind of need in the Uchiha's eyes before. He hugged him tight and Sasuke responded by hugging his former teacher in a way he hadn't embraced anyone since he was a little boy. Since before his parents had been killed.
Reluctantly the teacher left the boy and continued hurrying on his way. "Stay here and rest, I'll come back for you." He promised.
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Kakashi henged into the form of Kabuto and stepped into the open. Orochimaru was fifty feet away preparing a large circle of salt and rock crystals on the ground, but what caught the copy nin's attention was the evil aura descending on the whole valley. He looked for it's source and saw someone, a human shape, staggering out of the trees. A mess of dirty blond hair and dirtier orange clothes.
Naruto.
He couldn't detect any of the boy's own chakra at all, it was completely overwhelmed by the fierce intensity of the kyuubi's. The boy moved like a puppet pulled along by strings, towards the mine entrance and towards Orochimaru. As he crossed the perimeter of the circle he collapsed. Instantly the nine tails' chakra, which had flared around his body like an animal shaped flame, increased to twenty times its former size. At the same time it took on a different quality, as if it was transforming from pure spirit to something more solid. To the incarnate flesh of the demon.
Kakashi tore his eyes away. He needed to position himself close enough to do what he needed to do, yet far enough away from Orochimaru to prevent him from seeing through his disguise too easily. Although right now that didn't seem to be too much of a problem. The sennin was using every ounce of his own considerable power just to contain the demon.
Scanning his surroundings Kakashi saw something completely unexpected. A familiar figure with a familiar dark ponytail, running towards him, out of the forest on the far side of the clearing.
He landed with breathtaking grace by his side and pulled down his mask.
"Iruka what are you doing here? You're supposed to be in the hospital!"
The dark haired man stared at him. He would have been bewildered if he hadn't already been way beyond that point.
"I… I followed Naruto, Sakura told me that he was fighting with Sasuke. But they aren't are they?"
Iruka had never seen the other man look more serious. He was grateful at his honesty in not forcing a cheerful facade.
"No, the kyuubi is loose. I have a jutsu to use against it, it should work. As soon as I strike you must grab Naruto and get him away from here, maybe we can still save him."
The teacher nodded his understanding, then pulled the other man towards him. "Kakashi, the seal broke, I can remember, everything. You, Naruto, everything." He brushed his lips against his lover's. "I can remember… us."
Kakashi hugged Iruka harder than expected, but not hard enough to give himself away.
"I'm so glad Iruka, otherwise you would have been tormented by not knowing for the rest of your life." He drew himself away reluctantly. "There's not much time, I have to go."
Both eyes were dry as he turned back towards the demon, and a single word escaped from under his breath.
It was "goodbye."