Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters that appear in Naruto. All other unreckongnizable characters belong solely to myself and are not to be used in any other stories excluding my own.

Note:
"Word" Thinking

Ballad of the Rain

The boy lay bleeding in the rain. Thunder boomed from the heavens as the descending water collided with his broken body. His collapsed form, a rag doll in the alleyway, soaked to the bone from the freezing downpour. Inside his head, images of what had just occurred flashed, uninvited, before his inner eye.

'…five shadows advancing in the dark backstreet, closing in on me as a predator would its trapped prey… a blinding pain erupted from my stomach where the opening blow had been delivered…'

The boy shook his battered head in a futile attempt to rid his mind of the unwanted memories playing there; that decision was quickly regretted however as the throbbing in his head maximized to that of a pounding drum, echoing off the walls in his skull. With his mind currently weakened further, the boy could no longer fend off the re-plays, and they surged through him like water through a broken dam.

'The sun was shining brilliantly as I strolled contently down the semi-busy street. Periodically I glanced up at the deep blue sky to check the position of the ominous thunderheads that floated above the mountains not far off. I've always been wary of such clouds; especially ones such as these. These clouds haunt me; they have done ever since that night when my parents gave their lives, fighting bravely for the future of this village…

No!

I can't think that way right now; it would do me no good to show up for a date in an angsty mood.

Besides, he'd probably make fun of me and say I'm PMS-ing or something stupid like that.

I chuckled and instantly felt lighter. It seemed he had that effect on me by simply thinking about him; interesting.

I looked up and checked what street I was on; Kurayami Street read the sign. That meant I had about 4 more blocks to go before I got to the theater. I looked at my watch and noted that I had 8 minutes to get there; no matter, I don't have to worry about being late when I'm meeting him.

Checking the clouds again, I hoped I would reach the theater before, or if, they hit Konoha. Showing up soaking wet was not an option, and knowing my immune system I'd have probably already caught cold before I'd even entered the theater.

I smirked at this. Of course if I did show up all wet he'd probably throw a fit, and say how careless I am about my health while dragging me to his house so he could warm me up… My cheeks promptly turned several shades of pink in a deep blush. Perhaps, I mused, I should purposely stay out just so I could see what his definition of 'warming up' would be.

I grinned and continued down the street, lost in my own fantasies for who knows how long; completely oblivious to the sudden lack of sunlight and, coincidentally, the appearance of a dark figure behind me, only until it was too late. The shadow grabbed me from the back, bringing up a rough hand to cease my cry of shock before it had even reached my lips. Disregarding my wellbeing entirely, the figure dragged me backwards and tossed me roughly to the smudged ground of a nearby alley. I yelled in pain when my arm scraped against the pebbled and dirty concrete upon impact.

"Did I hurt you fag?"

The voice rang out in the semi-darkness while thunder rumbled from the gathering clouds above; the sound was joined by the cackling that went around the small group of unidentifiable people now surrounding me.

"Oh please don't tell your boyfriend on me Iruka," it came again, now high pitched and girly, "I don't know what I'd do then." The mock pitiful voice and round of boisterous laughter that followed it were barely audible, courtesy of the resounding bang of thunder that echoed throughout the nearby buildings; rain began to fall.

Needless to say I was scared. How did these people know me? Questions of like content swirled through my head before one coherent thought emerged from the others: How did they know about him?

I shook with fear and rage at the unfairness of it all. I had been right it would seem; clouds were evil. Feeling that I had to do something to defend myself from the faceless gang before me, I unsteadily got to my feet and shouted to their cowardly, shadow-masked faces, "SHUT UP!"

The laughing ceased and a tenseness as I'd never before known filled the air.

I was terrified all over again.

"Just…just shut up. I haven't... I never...What've I... done to you…?" My voice, before so strong and defiant was now scared and broken, perfectly mirroring my emotions; and they knew it. Shakily, I backed away from the rigid figures surrounding me as far as the alley would permit, which wasn't that far at all. My pathetic attempt to get away from these people did not go unnoticed however, and they followed my every move. Now I was trapped more than ever, and I knew any other attempted escape would be futile.

As I pressed up hard against the grimy wall, hoping desperately that I would melt right through it, a particularly bright flash of lightning illuminated the alleyway and for the first time I could identify my attackers.

I know these people…

And it was obvious how they knew me; they were from my class at the academy. Friends aren't what I have there.

The light disappeared before I could put names to faces and we were once again shrouded in darkness. The rain fell harder than ever, chilling me to the bone.

"Why you ask?" came the now familiar voice from the shadows. "It's not really a matter of what you've done, more the fact that you exist."

Another call from the dark succeeded the first, "Your kind is filth! You think we're going to let you go and ruin our society?"

My anger flared and a bravery unknown to me filled my being, stimulating me to retaliate, if only vocally. "Your society!" I cried. "We're all the same! You guys have no right to-"

"Guys!" a harsh voice called out. "That's what makes you different from us, Iruka, you fancy guys."

I froze and my stomach twisted itself into a nervous knot; again I asked myself, how had they known?

The owner of the current rant was now right up in my face (I failed to remember when he had gotten there) salivating all over the place as he continued his verbal onslaught. "You and your kind are freaks of nature, society rejects, mistakes of God that are unwanted and should be shunned by all humanity!"

A small flash of lightning clashed in the brooding sky above while sniggering from all around welcomed my most recent insult. Neither reaction did anything to calm my mounting nerves.

"Yes!" joined in another, "Gays like you have no purpose in this world. You wreck the balance of nature by frolicking around and doing as you please with your own sex, it's disgusting."

These words hit me hard, how could they think that? My relationship with Kakashi was no different than what they had with their girlfriends. With my confidence now at a negative though, I dared not voice my opinion; I was in way too deep for my liking and I doubted anything I said now would help the situation. Besides, if I had wanted to say anything it would have been impossible, my throat was closed tight with fear.

"Now that's not true Takeo," sneered one of my adversaries to a companion, "Fags like Iruka do have a function, and a very useful one at that." As he said this the boy stepped right up to me, shoving the other out of his way, and leaned over my shaking body. A confining hand was placed on either side of my head as he continued whatever insult he had conjured up for me. "They make very good…" the boy paused to lean in and whisper the sentence's end in my ear, "…punching bags."

A dramatic blast of thunder followed his sinister words and the jolt of jagged lightning preceding it lit up his malicious face, a sight from which I wished I could have been spared.

His last words echoed around in my head, freezing my mind and body, but before I had time to register the full meaning of his words an overwhelming pain erupted from my stomach. All succeeding that blow was but a blur to my glazed over eyes. Jeers and pain were all that composed my reality; they twisted together in a nauseating harmony that one would only ever experience in the darkest of nightmares.

I could barley think as the boys crushed me to the ground, tossing my limp body to and fro as waves would a ship lost at sea. Like that ship, I mentally drowned in the waves of my suffering, sinking eternally through the confining depths from all around.

The jeers of my classmates, the whistling of the wind, the pounding of the rain, the explosions of lightning; it would be a lie to say that these elements did not intimidate me, but what scared me the most was their strange ability to muffle my sorrowful cries of anguish.

The part I remember most vividly is that which will stay with me forever. When the beating suddenly stopped I should have known better than to think that they had had enough. A recently unsheathed kunai was more that enough to quell my feeble hopes however.

I was shoved against the grimy wall of my prison, my arms brought up to my sides without a fight; I had nothing left in me.

The self-proclaimed leader stepped forward and knelt before me, kunai in hand. His maniacal eyes pierced deeply into my own and try as I might, in a last, feeble attempt at defiance; I could not hold the gaze and turned my face away. He smirked and grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at him. I winced when his rough hand clamped onto my bruised face.

A glint of silver next to his face caught my eye. He noticed what I was looking at and his smirk deepened.

"Here's a little something to remember us by fag." With those haunting words hanging in the saturated air, he lifted the kunai towards my face and began the incision. My eyes widened and closed, almost in the same instant. As the blade dragged across my cheek, tears escaped my closed lids and I shook from pain and cold. The blade ever so slowly crept neared my nose. With a wicked grin, the armed boy pushed harder, thus digging the knife deeper into my skin. I cried out in shock and pain; panting and groaning as the blade was brought unbearably slow over my skin.

It seemed like and eternity before it was over. The jeers and snide comments that had been all around me slowly evaporated with the fading rain. At last they too were gone, the last one kicking me hard in the stomach before he departed, as if nothing had happened. I watched them all leave; they walked casually out of the mouth of my drenched hell and left me to drown in a puddle of rain and my own blood.

Before I slipped into unconsciousness though, a single word found it's way to my lips and was whispered for only the rain to hear, "…Kakashi…"'

Footsteps jarred Iruka back into the world of the 'living'. They sounded rushed and, carefully looking up, he got a fleeting glance of a shadowy figure dash past the entrance of the alley. For some reason unknown to him, Iruka felt he could trust this person, so he called out to them in a hoarse voice, "H-help me… please… help…"

His voice was so feeble that, for the life of him, he didn't know how the person could have ever heard his cry of distress, but sure enough the footsteps slowed to a stop and re-traced their puddled tracks back to the alley's opening.

"Iruka?"

A familiar figure slowly entered the alley, searching left and right for the owner of the whispered cry for help that had summoned him. Upon seeing the shadowed frame of Iruka, the person rushed forwards.

"Iruka!"

The boy sounded relieved at first but when he discovered the condition Iruka was in, his tone became anxious once more. "Iruka, what the… what happened?"

"I… they…I couldn't…don't look… Kakashi…"

Iruka tried in vain to cover his scarred face, ashamed of what Kakashi would think.

He probably considers me waek, I couldn't even fight off those guys.

The handsome boy bent over Iruka and hushed him with a soft finger. He looked deep into Iruka's eyes, seeming to read the thoughts portrayed there; he smiled.

"Iruka," the smooth voice washed over the injured boy, quelling his worries instantaniously, "don't be stupid; nothing could ever make me think less of you."

Iruka just lay there, taking in the reassuring information while Kakashi started a quick analasys; his other hand proceeded to gently wipe the stream of blood trickling from the offensive cut across Iruka's scarred and bruised face.

"Don't try to talk Iruka," said Kakashi, tenderly taking charge of the situation at once. "God, these injuries… you must be soaked; you're sure to get sick…"

Iruka coughed promptly and Kakashi sighed as if to say 'I told you so,' but otherwise didn't comment.

"How long have you been out here? No, don't answer that. Okay, I'm going to pick you up and carry you to my place alright?" Kakashi's words were all a jumble to Iruka, though he faintly heard his friend add, "I thought it was weird that I was there before you…" as an after thought.

Iruka smiled to himself as his boyfriend carefully lifted him from the cold ground, it was just like Kakashi to be faced with a serious situation and still be stuck on trivial things; he was funny like that.

As Iruka was carried bridal style out of the alley, he couldn't help but notice that the rain had ceased to fall.

"Hey Iruka," said Kakashi, looking down at him with a reassuring smile on his smooth face, "Don't worry, I'll get you all fixed up, everything is going to be okay."

Iruka did his best to smile back at Kakashi before the older boy bent down to kiss him lightly on the lips, the taste of blood and salty tears not detaining him in the least. The kiss didn't last long and when they broke apart Iruka snuggled into his boyfriend's warm chest, sighing contently. He absently realized that now, since he was completely frozen, his fantasy from earlier was sure to come true. With that uplifting thought in mind and a few tender wipes at his runny nose, he peacefully dozed off, safe in his love's arms.

While Kakashi carried the sleeping Iruka to sanctuary, both boys failed to notice that the once dark and haunting clouds had thinned out, letting the sun's rays shine through.

Quick Note:
Kurayami (the word used as the name of the street Iruka was on) means darkness.

There are some parts to this story that I'm not quite sure about but I've worked on it long enough. If I ever do feel the need to change something I will probably do it for my own sake (it'll probably be so small a change that a re-post won't be necessary).

Before anyone says anything, I am aware that Kakashi doesn't have a mask in this story. I'm also aware that Iruka had his scar before his parents died (there is a flashback that shows this, I forget which episode). Do not comment on the these things because it will be pointless. They are small details and if you did notice them, good for you.

Please Read & Reveiw. If you have the intention of flaming me, I'm not interested, but constructive criticism is always welcome. Thank you for reading.