Chapter 13: Fears, Doubles and Safes part 2

"Are you sure about this?" Kiba asked, climbing deeper into the hole as carefully as he could manage. He kicked the dirt wall, making a grove large enough to fit his foot in to before he let go of the rock he was holding and took another step downward. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't nervous, he was in complete darkness climbing down an unstable wall made of dirt, rocks and what ever roots managed to make it this deep down.

"Yes." Neji nodded though he knew Kiba couldn't see him, his Bakyugan allowed him sight clearer then a regular person in broad daylight "And be careful."

"Stop worrying I feel fine...but you couldn't have done this in the daytime?" Kiba snorted, feeling the dirt he embedded his foot in slipping away, he pulled it back and dug it in do a place below before it caved completely. "Or brought a flashlight?"

To be honest, Neji hadn't expected him to come, or to be out of bed, when he took this expedition. Nor did expect it to contain so much physical labor. On the other hand these books were practically non-existent, they may not have even been written by humans and from the details described about them they probably weren't. There was no way they'd be acquired, easily, and he should have known there was a catch when he was just told the location.

"So what's the deal with these books?" Kiba asked, "And why are we going in a hole to find them?"

"Well..." Neji leaned back slightly to test the root he was reaching for, he knew he was taking a risk but if wasn't stable he'd fall anyway "There used to be a demon neat here, of what type I'm not sure, but when the demons died out people went in to the land books were discovered. Unfortunately before someone decided to remove them an earthquake came and weakened an area already unstable from the tunnels underground dug by the demons. So the land fell through and the books with it, or so I've been told. But I don't think that earthquake was natural."

"And we're going to look for them." Kiba said, letting out a small yawn since it he wasn't used to being up this early.

"Right." Neji looked down, he could see ground bellow, more like a deposit of piled up earth that blocked the hole from being any deeper, and it looked stable enough. "We can jump down from here, you think can handle it?" They didn't really have a choice since it was blocking the lower levels of the tunnel.

Kiba rolled his eyes "I told you I'm fine." He said, pushing back off the wall and falling an unknown distance, each second he was ready and waiting for impact. He landed smoothly on uneven ground, he figured was standing on objects that had piled up on the fall just from the feel of it, just as Neji had thought. "See, I'm alright."

Neji jumped down after him, gaining his footing and a stable standing. "It's somewhere down here, so be careful and watch your step."

Kiba slowly moved backwards until his back was pressed against the wall and stayed there, he didn't feel all to conformable moving around down here when he couldn't see. This wasn't one of the safest places to go exploring blindly in. "Yeah... I'll just be back here."

Neji gave him a small nod, he could still see him with his Bakyugan so it was easy to keep an eye on him, he didn't trust Kiba's sudden healing so he preferred he stayed inactive anyway. "I think I see something..." Neji walked slowly up the pile of rock and debris, treading carefully up the parts of the hill that crumbled when pressure was applied. A few feet from the top he stopped and knelt down, brushing away a layer of dust and dirt until something loosely a red color appeared, dull from years of being buried.

It was the binding of a book.

"I found one." Neji dug around it, knowing it would be fragile, the lifted it lightly with both hands only when it was completely unearthed then looked the object over. What appeared to be the title was written in a strange script, a demon script, "This is it, they are defiantly here but...It's made of something I've never seen before, it's still in good condition even in this environment." Neji brushed his finger across the cover in an attempt to categorize how it feel, noticing there was a strap across the binding to protect the pages.

With no need to worry about damaging them in haste he started digging more quickly, uncovering more books among other things. And Kiba just sat back against the wall in wait...'?' A light scent in the air became just barely detectable, the scent of something with a low PH balance that was distinctly similar to bleach or ammonia. "Neji..."

"Yes?"

"Are you finished yet?"

"Almost, these books are close to the surface so a should have all of them momentarily."

"You better hurry, we've got something coming our way." Kiba warned "It's those bugs again."

Now Neji was interested, "How many?"

"Hard to say, But they're coming fast."

'Damnit...' Neji gathered the 8 books he'd excavated so far, he was sure there were some left but there was no time to get them all. He couldn't risk fighting down here, not with Kiba. "Alright then, Take these." Neji ran over to him, dropping 4 books in to his outstretched hands. "How close are they?"

Kiba lifted his nose into the air, then drew back at the overwhelming scent "They're right underoooff!" The ground beneath them erupted in a cloud of rock and dirt, followed by a strong and sudden uprising of a grainy material. Before either of them could register what was happening, a loud buzzing filled the air cutting off all attempts at communication. The next thing Kiba knew he was being throw upward in a dizzying spin and tumbling every which way as a wave of the strange insects tore at him and carried his body with their rise.

Both he and Neji were thrown from the hole in a matter of seconds, sent flying through the air and crashing into the hard wasteland ground of the dry desert. "Not the way I would have chosen." Kiba rubbed his head as he sat up, watching the swarm of green and black pour out of the large crater "But were up here now."

"Damnit, why are these demons coming after us?" Neji stood to his feet, clinching his fist tightly as he watched the swarm reconnect it self in the sky and cast a dark shadow over them, "No matter where we go they seemed to come after us..."

The swarm of insects flattened out and spanned over them and about 100 more feet in diameter, then they began to swirl around a gaping vortex, pulling the two toward the center. "What the hell do we do now?" Kiba asked nervously, lifting his arm over his eyes to block the wind being thrown in his face as he body was drawn up.

"Fight." Neji drew both hands back, focusing his charka in to his fist until a visable white aura flowed from them.

"Onigijyu shinto no jutsu!" Kiba stretched his arms outward, glowing in a red energy, and clinched his hands into tight fist that made the energy push from his hands out of his knuckles in long claws that extended at least a foot outward. Right before he was about to be pulled in to the vortex he drew his fist back swiped at the insects, slicing through some of the demons and knocking away others in the flurry of attacks.

Neji's fist were overflowing with an excess of chakra that had been built up, "Koseichi Chudan" He drove his hands into whirlpool first, intruding explosive chakra in to the bodies of nearby insects and detonating Chakra already contained within them in a series of gunshot like combustions. Along with Kiba they were able to disrupt the center just in time and stop the whole vortex in a cascading effect. With out the pull to hold them at their current altitude they were sent falling back to the ground, with the demonic swarm chasing after them.

On landing both Kiba and Neji jumped backwards in opposite directions to avoid the incoming insects. "I don't have the" Kiba's voice was drowned out by increased buzzing sound of the erratically moving mass, and the insects movements became harmonized once again.

Kiba took the opportunity to get rejoin with Neji. "What are they doing?" he had to yell over the noise.

"That buzzing sound is created by their wings, so if it's getting louder they're must be moving their wings faster." Neji explained, drawing three kunais from holder and razing his other hand over them "Koseichi Chudan." The metal started to release a white smoke from blade, Charka. With targeted accuracy, Neji threw the blades in to the top, center and bottom of the mass, watching it dissipate from the eruption of flames but reform immediately .

The flames that covered a few areas were pushed outwards in a burst of hot air, sending Kiba and Neji sliding backward on contact but still steadily standing. The next shockwave, visible from the dust surrounding the dessert they were in, swept them of their feet, throwing Kiba through a dead tree and in to Neji. Then they were pulled to the left by the winds that started to rotate around the insects that were once again moving in to a whirlpool motion, reforming the same vortex.

This time they were pulled in, surrounded in sea of demons that clawed, griped and bit at them, not a good position to be in if said demons could eat through just about anything.

Neji started expelling Chakra at a rapid rate, rotating it around his body then expanding it as far has his limits could reach. '!' Unfortunately his Heavenly spin didn't have the effect it had last time, his attack was actually diminishing. 'No, what's happening?' Neji activated his Bakyugan again, watching the demon's Chakra carefully, they were like a vacuum, the same characteristic he saw in them every time he used his blood line, but this time they were actually absorbing his chakra. The increased numbers were enough to over take the ability this time.

He had no choice but to disable the attack, and immediately he started to feel the insects biting and clawing at him again. Then he felt Kiba tackle him from out of nowhere and knock his body out of the swarm and relive him from the pain. "It didn't work this time." Neji said abruptly, looking down at himself, his arms covered in blood along with minor cuts just about everywhere else. "They're absorbing my Heavenly Spin."

Kiba helped him on his feet, out of breath from all of the struggling he'd had to do to escape himself. "They have to be at least twice as many as last time, we can't fight against that much."

"We just have to hold them off until they leave... " Neji had learned that after a curtain amount of time these monsters always left or moved on to something else, and the amount of time for each fight was longer then the previous one. That behavior was almost as confusing as their reason for coming after Kiba and Neji in the first place.

Kiba sighed, "I " Once again he was cut off by a strong burst of wind being generated the swarm, sending them flying backwards in it's wake and slamming into the ground a far distance off. "Ahhh, Damnit." Kiba growled as he pulled himself on to his feet, stretching both arms out to his side. "Double Gatsuuga!" Chakra drawn wind swirled in to his hands, that he threw forward with one large push, forming a two drill shaped blasts that tore into the swarm, ripping some apart, missing most. With this number it was at best ineffective.

Another bust of wind from the swarm swept across the ground, ripping apart the dry lands in an explosion like outburst and slamming into Neji and Kiba first, followed by a rain of dirt and rock. Neji flew back a great distance before his body hit the ground, even then he slid a few 100 feet, wearing a trail in the ground that grew deeper with each inch he traveled. Kiba landed next to him, only he'd stayed on his feet the whole time out some strange bit of luck and skill.

"It's strong..." Neji sat up, finding that his shirt had been ripped and burned off by the friction, leaving a large scare across his back. He looked up at Kiba...and immediately notice something different about him...he was growling, literally growling like a beast, and chakra was pouring off of him, only it was a different color then usual, black.

Kiba sniffed the air lightly, then flinched apprehensively, the smell was overwhelming causing his nose to turn red and burn. It looked like his sense of smelling was a little too acute. "Kiba." Neji picked himself up, looking over him carefully. "What's with you?"

"What?" Kiba looked over at him curiously, "What is it?" Then he looked down at himself, not seeing any particular change.

Neji shook his head and turned back to the swarm that was coming towards them 'Maybe...that bite acutely had done something to him.' Something he had to think about later, right now "Koseichi Chudan" he was building Chakra into his arms again, the insects were coming at him head on and this was the only jutsu that seemed to do anything against them. Kiba pulled his hands back, another Gatsuuga drawing in air with the black Chakra. Another in-human growl escaping from throat subconsciously.

Another burst of wind came from the swarm, but this time the insects covered the blast and moved on it's surface, seeking to close the gap between them. It was so quick that Neji only had time to lift his hands before the wave struck them both, pushing them back in an oppressive force of air current and demons. Most of which on the surface were exploding because of the Jutsu.

Kiba launched the Gatsuuga, then another, then another, he was throwing with ease, he didn't even have to charge them this time.

After a few more seconds the wind over took them and swept them up again, losing them in a rush of jet stream and hostile demons. "Kiba!" Neji called out, holding his hands across his face to prevent entry into his nose and mouth, which seemed to be the first thing they headed for.

"I got it." Kiba curled into a ball and tried to move as far away as he could, he was fairly curtain he knew what Neji was going to do. And just as he expected, Neji used his Heavenly spin to push Kiba from the current though he knew he was feeding the insects by doing so. But it worked and Kiba was freed, and Kiba was able to get hold of Neji pull him out before he was carried too far.

"Nothing's working against them." Kiba took a few steps back, watching the swarm regroup into it's regular mass. He closed one eye and wiped away the blood streaming down from his forehead, those insects may not have been big, but when they bit they went deep enough to cause a considerable amount of blood , especially when they swarmed like they did. Most of Kiba's body was bleeding. "They're too quick, It's too many for us to handle."

"Your right, I don't have techniques to fight this kind of enemy." Neji watched the swarm carefully, "They're playing with us...we may need to retreat."

Kiba shook his head "Wait, they're going back in to the hole..." he said, watching the insects slowly filter in to the crater where they'd come from. "You think that's where they keep coming from?"

"No." Neji headed to retrieve the books from where they lay scattered but still intact, that material really was durable, he didn't want to provoke an attack. "That couldn't be it, it's not the right type of environment...These books may help me figure their actions out."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"It got away?" Iruka looked around, determining how close they were to D.S.I HQ after a very...interesting mission. He'd been the only one in a fake path by the time the copy took form, Naruto had been chasing after Gaara. The end result was he had to blast himself out of a wall with much recoil, causing his appearance to be ruffled and scorched. He couldn't wait to take a shower. "Do you mean there's an exact copy of you running around?"

Kakashi nodded, "Yes, and unfortunately it may be after you."

Iruka stopped, "I just thought of something, you may be the copy."

Kakashi laughed and put his arm around Iruka's shoulder, he seemed a bit more nervous now. "Come on, if I was the copy you would have known it by now."

Iruka laughed nervously along with him "Yeah...right." This only made Kakashi laugh harder, making Iruka shoot him a look and pull him away and walk faster. By the time Kakashi caught up with him again they were back at D.S.I.

Sasuke was sitting in a tree that sat just in front of the building, Konohamaru laying across his lap with his arms firmly around Sasuke's waist. "Sasuke?" Iruka looked up at him, "What are you two doing out here so early."

Sasuke looked down at Konohamaru, running his hand through the boy's hair softly, "Something attacked Konohamaru, something that couldn't be seen." Sasuke tilted his head back as he thought about it, "He said it kept calling out Reedamaru when it was coming after him, and it seems this wasn't the first time."

Iruka rubbed the back of his head, "Something invisible is lose inside...Any idea what it is?"

"It looked like chakra that had a human form when I saw it, Konohamaru told me when he saw the reflection in the mirror it looked human. Maybe a demon."

"Is it still inside?"

"It's gone now, but there are some damages left behind by the whole thing."

Iruka sighed, there's a copy of Kakashi (as of Iruka could handle two of them) running around, and now something after Konohamaru. On top of that Gaara couldn't stay awake and kept trying to kill Naruto in his sleep, and Neji and Kiba were being constantly attacked by a swarm of demons. Iruka couldn't help but think what strange thing would happen to him, he would soon find out.

Iruka sighed, "We better go check it out."

! - ! - !

It was 20 minutes after his other two teammates had returned when Naruto finally made it back, even Neji and Kiba, though barely, had made it before him. Gaara's gourd was strapped over his shoulder and looked strange because of his size, he was also carrying Gaara in his arms, who had fallen asleep again. Naruto really was worried now...

Sasuke and Konohamaru were still in the same place, Naruto looked over them. "Let me guess, something weird happened to you too?"

Sasuke just gave him a quick look and closed his eyes again, shifting his head slightly against the tree. "..." Naruto knew that was a defiant yes, but he didn't have time to think on it, he had to get back to research and hope that Neji found the books he'd been speaking of and that they could help.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"Blood?" Kakashi knelt down by the stream of blood that covered the bathroom floor and sink, "Did all of this come from what ever attacked Konohamaru?"

"I hope so." Iruka stood over his shoulder looking at the wall that had been blown apart. "I just hope Konohamaru's alright, he must have been terrified. Is he even going to be able to come back inside anymore?"

"Whoa, this looks horrible."

Both of the men looked back to the source of the foreign voice to find none other then Jiraiya the legendary Ninja leaning against the wall, looking on curiously. "What happened here?"

"A demon problem." Kakashi said, "Most likely at least."

"Quite Ironic really." Jiraiya smiled as he looked around the halls, "Looks like S.D.I's doing good."

Iruka and Kakashi looked at each other, "Maybe we should just change our name." Iruka said.

"What? Did I get it wrong?...never mind. But anyway, you guys might have just single handedly saved Konoha." Jiraiya complemented.

"Huh?" Iruka rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment "Sorry, I guess I haven't been keeping up with it. The help never came did it?"

Jiraiya shook his head "Nope, The Leaf would have died off if it wasn't for you guys. Who'd have thought that One Jounin, a Chuunin, 3 genins and the Hokage's grandson could do all of this with out help."

"Well you helped too." Iruka said.

"Huh? I didn't do anything."

"You gave us our first clients, and you still help with the money." The money had to be shifted around a lot so that Konoha wouldn't be aware of where it came from. If Konoha had became aware then so would other villages. "So how's Konoha coming along, I haven't been there since the storm."

"It's coming along nicely, even business are starting to show up, their not doing well...but that's not the point." Jiraiya took one last look in to the bathroom and then just shrugged it off "I'm sorry I couldn't help more then, but I've been doing some cough extra work. But if you need my help just call me anytime."

! - ! - !

Upon entrance in the library he was met by Kiba, Akamaru at his heels, who was tending to his wounds. "Naruto, how did it go?"

"Horrible ." He sighed, "It was Gaara again, he have to find out was wrong with him really soon..."

"Getting worse huh?" Kiba laid his hand on his shoulder and gave him a small smile "You'll figure out something, besides, we found those books Neji was talking about, it might help."

Naruto gave him a small nod, his face lighting slightly at the premise of new hope. He ran toward the back of the room as fast as he could, he didn't want to waste another second. After nearly falling on his stop, he found Neji in his study with 3 books open on his desk, 8 more lay piled at his feet. He was writing a few things down, and his Bakyugan was active for some reason. "Neji."

Neji looked up from his work, "Naruto, just the person I was waiting for. These books may help you, but there is a problem. Some of the text are in a demon script, I do have translation..." Translation that he'd gotten from his family's archive. "I can look it up for you but it's going to take some time, I have many other projects ahead of me. I just wanted to tell"

"Where can I start?"

"What?" Neji turned all the way around and looked at him fully, "You still want to do this? It's in another language, an in-human language."

Naruto shrugged, pulling off his jacket and tying it around his waist. He still had some of the deeper injuries from his fight with Gaara, though most of them had been healed when he unleashed the Nine-tail's chakra. "I don't care, just give me something to translate it with."

Neji couldn't help but think just how determined Naruto was. "I've already translated titles and cross referenced their indexes." Neji handed him a copy of the papers he'd written, containing the indexes of all 8 books, he was skilled enough to translate and transcribe quickly. Iruka had really picked his strong point when he assigned him this job.

"Thanks." Naruto looked over the paper, then knelt down and sorted through the books until he found the one that seemed the closest.

With Naruto's needs taken care of, he turned back to his own studies. First pulling out the concentration stone Lee was going to give to him, which made him wonder "Why didn't he give this too me...Lee wouldn't be the type not to follow through on something...he was too headstrong not to give it to me...even if I wasn't in a good mood." Come to think of it he was never very nice to Lee, the opposite in fact. "Why did Lee even bother to tell me about the safe, it wasn't as if we were friends...I didn't think we were..."

Neji flipped through the pages until he found two pictures, front and back, of the same stone. "Hmm...this is made of a demonic property, of course." He noticed something, the back of the stone had a 7 engraved one the back, Neji looked it over, there was no 7 on his. "Maybe..." He looked into the one drawers in the table and retrieved a brush, lightly dusting off the stone to reveal the number.

Another number in the combination, he had a 4 and a 7 so far, 2 down, 2 to go.

"Lee's 2000 years in the future, I guess I'll never know..." Neji put away the stone and closed the book on artifacts, then picked up the next one in the pile...Translating... 'It roughly translate to Demon Arts...' Jutsu, Genjutsu, and Taijutsus, worth a look.

! - ! - !

"Things are getting too out of hand." Iruka sighed, caring a stack of folders and files against his chest as he walked through the plains around D.S.I (Decidedly but unofficially S.D.I Now.) and Konoha. "I should be back there..." Things were a little too hectic back at headquarters, he had to take his work someplace else more peaceful. Then he could come back and help Naruto, then help Neji ( he'd taught Neji all of his referencing skills.), talk to Gaara (to keep him from leaving.) Then talk to Konohamaru about what happened, he should probably do that first, to see if he could track down what ever did this.

And bunch of paperwork on top of that, being a manager was not easy. It may even be harder then being a teacher. All of this after being awaken at 2 in the morning, it was 6 now.

He was too busy thinking that he hadn't noticed he was walking into a river until he tripped and fell face first...into a blank of sand? "Huh?" Iruka lifted himself up from the solid mass of sand that came between him in the water and back on to shore. "Gaara?"

"Are you ok?"

Iruka turned around and smiled, seeing Gaara standing there with his arms folded and that usual expression on his face. "Yeah, just thinking..." he paused for a moment. "You know, I'm very proud of you Gaara."

Gaara's face shifted a little, showing slight questioning. "Hm? For what?"

"You've come so far, you've proven that you aren't just some monster like everyone says. Your a person, and your worth saving...I'm just sorry I couldn't be there for you."

"What do you mean?"

"It must have been hard for you growing up, but even through years of that you can still became a great person."

"You ...think I'm..."

"Yeah...that's why I don't want you to leave." Iruka rubbed his head and turned away embarrassingly. "I know you don't want to hurt Naruto but stay at least a little longer, I'm trying to help Naruto figure out what's going on. And I'm worried about you, not just because of the...attempted murder...but what's happening to you. One day you might not wake up again, I don't want that to happen to you."

Gaara's questioning look became more visible, "You...really..."

"I have a lot of worked to do, but I want to talk to you latter." Iruka gave him a quick wave before heading off again, he knew this one spot farther off that would be great.

"Iruka..." Gaara just let out a deep breath and gave up on his train of thought, "Watch where your going this time."

"I will. Thanks again."

! - ! - !

It didn't take to long until Iruka reached a tree, far above the waterfall and a few yards away until it was barley in view. "Peace, finally." He sighed a breath of release as sat on the ground and leaned against the trunk of the tree, it was a large tree, a strong tree, one of the few that still stood. Which is why he liked this spot, though it did bring of memories since it was exact same tree he stood in when he went into the past and watched his father die. This same spot he was able to find peace in. Ironic really.

Pick up the first file he started the paperwork... not noticing something creeping up behind him. Something moving fast, something low enough to hide in the grass... it stopped about 10 feet away, pausing to see if it was really him, and then it sprung. "Ahhhhaa!" Iruka jumped, feeling something dig in to his leg.

He remembered this creature very clearly, this had been the fly larva that devoured a spider egg on one of his previous mission, causing it to become a leach like demon with large fangs. He also remembered it mounting itself on his chest and draining some of his blood, a pint at least. Well that blood had been a catalyst for another mutation. The large white fangs were smaller now, and it had taken a brownish red color, and it had eyes and a nose now. 2 sets of fins were on it's body in the place of arms and legs, it even had a tail now.

Iruka reached down to pull it off, but it was draining blood much more quickly then before making him dizzy and weak. His vision started to blur and double, his hand missed completely when he reached down to pull it off. "N...No...!Ehhaaaaa!"

A kunai came from nowhere and sliced into it's body, making it detach and pull away. In a blur of green and black a man landed in-between him and the creature, Kakashi. "Iruka, are you alright?"

Iruka nodded his head and looked at him, scrabbling to stand up in stumble of shaky ground and dizzying spinning. "Kakashi? Yeah..." Iruka fell back and against the tree and waited for his vision to refocused, the stillness was enough to calm the dizziness to a point where he could see his attacker through barly. It was different but defiantly the same one...

The creature scurried back, then jumped forward at a spot on the ground with Iruka's blood on it. This creature had tracked him down all the way from the Cloud country from his blood... Kakashi took a step back, placing a hand on Iruka's arm and pushing him abruptly, just as the creature jumped at the man. Iruka fell to the ground and the creature missed, but oddly enough didn't go for him again when it had the chance... it just laid there and curled into a ball.

Kakashi pulled Iruka on to his feet, both watching the creature act erratically...it was mutating..."Iruka...I think you blood is causing this."

Iruka clinched his leg, holding his hands over the two holes where it's teeth had been. "It sure dose like it."

He gasped and watched with his mouth wide as the creature grew. The body expanded, the fins on it's body growing in to arms and legs, the tail extending and widening. It's eyes divided in half, giving it two sets, one above the other. Then it opened it's mouth, the large fangs seemed to fit now, and let out startled roar. The round body took a more defiant shape, claws formed on it's newly grown hands and felt, even it's tail grew.

"Kakashi..." Iruka's grip on his leg loosened and he fell again, on the verge of passing out. He looked down at his leg, seeing that the outer edges of the bit marks were turning purple "...Poison."

Kakashi knelt down next to him, glancing over at the demon that rolled and flipped on to it's feet in a failing manner, it was human sized now and had a loosely human form. Those two sets of eyes glowing in a green light and the buds of horns on it's skull, "Ka..Iru...Iruk. Iruka." And it talked... but for some reason it ran away, maybe out of it because of the sudden mutation had it as confused as they were.

"It's gone now..." Kakashi said, placing his hand on the man's chest. "But it really likes you for some reason."

Iruka's eyes grew wide, and his mouth fell open. "Those clothes...they're...not the right color." Iruka lifted his hand weakly and pointed at the vest Kakashi wore, it was much duller, and his black shirt and pants were a shade of very dark gray but not quite black. "Your...the c-copy!..." Iruka's eyes fell closed, and his hand fell as he finally passed out from blood loss.

The doppelganger just starred down at Iruka, "He's...afraid of me...they're all going to be afraid of me...Iruka..." Kakashi dropped his head and sighed, scooping Iruka into his arms.

"What happened?"

Kakashi turned around, to see Gaara had finally made it up after hearing Iruka, "Yeah, a demon attacked, it ran away though."

"What about Iruka?"

"He'll be alright, after some rest. I got it, you can get back to training or whatever...what are you doing out here anyway."

"Getting my head strait."

Kakashi nodded. "Don't stay away too long, you might get ideas of leaving. Naruto would pout."

! - ! - !

"Sasuke..." Konohamaru called out sleepy.

"Yes?"

"You must be getting tired of saving me all the time... "

Sasuke smirked inwardly as he released the boy, allowing him to sit up and open his eyes. "No at all."

Konohamaru smiled back at him, "Thanks, I don't know what I would have done with out you." Konohamaru shifted so that his back was against Sasuke's, looking out over the unobstructed view of the sunrise...it reminded him of day he and Sasuke first kissed, the thought made him laugh, how nervous Sasuke was afterwords.

"What?"

"Nothing." Konohamaru laid his head back on to Sasuke's chest and starred outward. "You think that thing is going to come back for me..."

Sasuke wrapped his arm around Konohamaru's waist, offering a small comforting "Maybe..."

Konohamaru sighed, "I know it will..."

Both arms wrapped around the boy now "Konohamaru..." Sasuke lent down, resting his head on Konohamaru's shoulder "Don't worry about it so much, it's just a demon, demons can be beaten. That's what we do, remember." He whispered in a deep voice.

Konohamaru closed his eyes, letting himself sit loosely in Sasuke's embrace. "I don't even feel like I'm apart of it...I'm not strong enough to do much." He held his head down when he said this, letting out a small sigh.

"I already told you, you are important. And don't call yourself weak, or not."

"..."

"You have an incredible power that you just have to focus in on. Your not weak, and you are important to this team... your important to me."

Konohamaru opened his eyes again and glanced back, unable to believe that Sasuke had just said something like that... "Really?"

"Don't ever doubt that."

Konohamaru grinned lightly, feeling himself falling asleep again. He didn't fight it this time, he felt like he was drifting deeper and deeper into the high waters, becoming less awake by the second. "Ok..."

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