Chapter 17: Iruka

"Was it really alright to do something like that?" Lee asked, sitting in the front seat of Gai's car with his eyes fixed on the radar mounted on Gai's dashboard. It was calibrated to a GPS satellite, so it showed the exact location of Iruka. "I mean just giving them up, to Kabuto. Iruka can't stand Kabuto."

"Don't worry about Iruka." Kakashi said from the back seat, staring blankly at his radar and the blinking red dot tracking the man. Even though his voice was as calm and cool as ever, he was worried, and he knew Lee was right, Iruka couldn't stand Kabuto, especially after what just happened. But he wouldn't do anything stupid, would he? Iruka wouldn't, not calm, safe, sensible, Iruka. 'How dose he keep getting put in these situations?'

"I so worried, what's going to happen to him!" Gai said worriedly, struggling to see the road ahead with headlights that didn't seem to give him any visibility in the pitch black night. The rain made it even worse, and the windshield wipers could never seem to give him a clear view, he never realized how much the lights of the city effected things. "I can barely follow, are we going to make it?"

Kakashi took a deep breath and sat back. "If we don't, Asuma will."

"Where is Asuma?"

"Right above us."

! - ! - !

Shikamaru returned to consciousness with a loud gasp, as if his lungs had been deprived of air for the last few hours, His eyes shot open. His first awareness was that his body hurt, especially his left arm where he'd been injected with the tranquilizers, it throbbed horribly and was getting worse by the second. Shikamaru looked around, devouring large breaths as if his lungs couldn't hold enough, 'W-where am I! What's happening!' His mind scrambled to find an answer as his mind started remembering the past events before he woke up here.

He remembered fighting, in the hospital...he was tired...his Chakra was completely depleted, then he felt someone come behind him and a puncturing pain in his arm...that's when it happened. But where was he now? Shikamaru tried to lifted himself up to find that he was already standing, but was bound by his arms, his legs and his torso.

He looked down, seeing thick, metal straps around his wrist that forced his arms to stay outstretched to his sides. And the fact that every vein in his left arm was visible in red streaks was making it self more visibly evident, it seemed fitting to the pain. 'Ahhaaa...damnit.' He looked around, a large room with no windows and seemingly bare from his stand point, but behind him was a much different story. Machinery spread across every corner of the room, most it connected to him by electrodes attached to just about every part of his body along with tubes. Whatever he was strapped to, whatever wall was holding him up, was covered in small little pads that were pressed against his bare back. He could also see his clothes thrown in front of him as if whoever stripped him was rushing.

And then he noticed that it was pitch black in this room, he shouldn't have seen anything at all, he shouldn't have seen behind him... 'It's just like before during the storm.' Right after he went through a chemical fire. '...it's these chemicals, they're causing some type of reaction...' His body wasn't close too handling foreign chemicals and additives in this time, and his body was having reactions to them, mutative and Chakra reactions. How could he see in the dark now? It didn't matter 'Those men from the sound must have captured me...' He remembered Kabuto saying that he was a source, the only thing Shikamaru had was Chakra. 'He wants my Chakra...'

"Ahaaaaa...Ghaaaaa!" Shikamaru groaned loudly as the pain increased and his arm felt like it would explode. Apparently that drew attention to himself because the lights came on and 3 men came through the door, all of them armed. Shikamaru saw them, he saw their lips moving, but he couldn't hear a word they were saying from an increasing ringing in his ears. His head was starting to pound from that alone. "Uuuggaaaaaa!"

The shadows in the corners of the room started to spread outward in spite of the light, the darkness crept up the walls, the ground and along Shikamaru's body while the men looked on in confusion and horror. Shikamaru barely seemed to notice "Ahhaaaaaa!" The darkness moved faster, coming from all sides seemingly as if it was alive, and drawn toward the light bulb sitting in the center of the ceiling. Then the shadows covered it, making the light flicker and then disappear completely. Directly after, Shikamaru felt himself falling in the darkness, free of his restrains, and the second he hit the ground the lights clicked back on and the shadows were completely gone.

Not with out leaving evidence of what had just happened was real, Shikamaru had his doubts that the pain wasn't making him hallucinate. The machinery behind him had been completely ripped apart and smoking, the wall everything had been connected to including him was now just rubble. And the 3 men, all of them lay dead before him with blood running out of their mouths. "What...did I just do?"

! - ! - !

"Iruka, wake up."

Iruka was pulled into awareness by the familiar voice of Kabuto, his body at first was hesitant, but a sharp piercing pain in his left bicep made his eyes shoot open. First staring into Kabuto's eyes, then immediately shifting to his arm where a thick, silver liquid was being pushed in. He immediately tried to struggle, but found himself bound to a chair. "Kabuto! What did you just do?"

Kabuto smirked "Don't worry, it's not the same manipulation sedative I used before...your my first test, you should be honored to be apart of such a ground breaking experiment."

Iruka looked around, finding he was sitting in a bare room where the whole left wall was made of glass windows. He couldn't see anything though, nothing but darkness and rain, so he turned back to Kabuto and glared at him. "Where is Naruto and Shikamaru?"

"Believe me Iruka, you have more prominent problems to deal with." Kabuto reached into his back pocket and retrieved a remote or controller of some type, pressing a few buttons. "Your a fascinating person Iruka, not at all suited for this type of work."

Iruka started to feel dizzy, very dizzy, and hot, his whole body. He started to feel disoriented, and almost like he was falling asleep, a tiredness gripped him, strong enough to make him feel weak but he didn't lose consciousness. "What did...you put in me?" Iruka called out, his breath becoming heavy.

"I told you that you were the first experiment, right now billions of machines about 2 nanometers in size are circulating through your body." Kabuto adjusted his glasses, then continued pressing buttons "They can change your body on the level of your very DNA, and right now are replicating rapidly. This is so much more then a simple chemical that can only effect the body in one narrow sense, I can control your body in anyway I chose." Kabuto walked behind Iruka and untied him, letting him slump in the chair, just to prove his point.

"What...what are you doing to me now..." Iruka's head dropped and his eyes became half-lidded, still panting heavy breaths.

"At this moment, changing the genetic compounds of a few liquids in your brain. A simple truth serum test. So Iruka, your going to tell me what ever I want to know."

"Where...is Naruto...?" Though weak, Iruka's voice held some audible sediment.

Kabuto ignored the question for the moment "So Iruka, do you hate me?"

Iruka's panting became worse "More...then anything."

"Really, so, do you think you can kill me?" Kabuto asked interestedly.

"I don't know."

"Then why do you persistently come after me, even though your not nearly smart or skilled enough to stand a chance?"

"Because you have to be stopped."

"Stopped?"

"You betrayed Konoha, used our information to create an attack that killed thousands of people. You kidnapped Sasuke, Naruto and Konohamaru...and I hate you."

"Hmm..." Kabuto looked over Iruka, thinking for a moment "You interest me Iruka, your a very passionate one. The only thing you have that surpasses that is your stupidity, I can't believe you've managed to stay alive this long. I may just keep you alive just to see what you do next."

Iruka lifted his head. "Where is Naruto and Shikamaru?"

"Don't worry about them, they're alive for now."

! - ! - !

"Are you sure Lee can use that thing?" Gai asked, looking up through the darkness and at the shadowy form of a building before him. He waited uneasily, holding off on the urge to rev his car.

"He'll figure it out." Kakashi said, watching the opposite side of the building carefully. "Asuma better be ready though."

Gai nodded and waited silently... both watching...Then it happened, A loud explosion followed by a rush of flames from the other side of the building, just barely giving a split second look at the whole facility. Small, discrete, prefect. "Wait..." Kakashi said, knowing how impatient Gai could be "Wait...Go!" Upon his words the green car accelerated.

! - ! - !

"Let them..." Iruka's words trailed off as he looked to his left out the window. Kabuto paused and followed Iruka's eyes, and flinched as a green car came flying through the glass, landing almost agilely and sliding to a stop next to a still unmoving Iruka. Asuma kicked down the door and ran into the room right after, radar in hand.

Iruka sat there, looking completely dazed and confused. "Iruka?" Asuma ran over to him as Kakashi and Gai emerged from the car, "Are you alright?"

"Not...really."

Kakashi felt his forehead, then his pulse "What happened to you."

"Kabuto. Where...is Kabuto?"

The three of them looked at each other, then took a quick look around. Kabuto had disappeared. "Go find Naruto and Shikamaru." Asuma said, "I'll take care of Iruka...and where's Lee?"

Gai looked as if an alarm had just went off in his head "The distraction! They're heading right for him!" Gai took off out of the door, not sure where he was going except for the express knowledge that an ambush was heading for his number one student who was somewhere on the other side of this floor.

! - ! - !

Lee looked up at the raging flames that encircled a hole that spanned a whole wall, how could one little box do all of this "Wow, how did this Zabuza guy make something so small, so powerful?"

His thoughts were irrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps coming his way from the direction of the hole. A lot of them. 'Oh wait...was I suppose to--" Lee had to veer to the side to avoid a bullet. Men were rushing out of the hole in groups of 4 or 5, all of them coning right for him. "!" Lee jumped into the air, coming down in the center of the group, then punching the first person he saw, a man tried to grab him from behind. But Lee threw a swift kick backwards into his head, then he jumped into the air and spun around just enough to kick the remaining three in with one blow. His strength was enough to knock them out with a few well placed attacks.

It seemed to be over for the moment, but it wasn't more then a second after he landed that he heard the click of a gun behind him. Lee drove his elbow backwards, feeling it connect with something and the sound of air being forced out of someone's lungs. Lee stood up quickly enough to drive his head into the man's chin and knock him to the ground. 'Huh?' Lee turned around and found himself staring into the barrel of a gun, they were coming to fast!

Lee reached forward and grabbed the man by his arm, crouching down and pulling him forward before he could shoot, Lee drove his shoulder onto the man's torso and tossed him aside by his arm.

"Lee look out!"

Lee turned towards the sound of the voice and flinched when he saw Gai flying from seemingly out of nowhere and into another man he hadn't seen. "Gai-Sensei?"

Gai pulled his riffle from his back "Come on, we have to get out of the open." Only seconds after he spoke, gunfire was drawn towards them.

! - ! - !

Sasuke kicked the door as hard as he could mange, each strike made the heavy steel barrier drag more and more along the ground in a heavy scraping sound. Sasuke took a step back and rammed the door with his shoulder, 'Just a little more.' With one more step back, and one more thrust of his shoulder he knocked the blocked door from it's hinges.

A loud smashing sound echoed as the steel smash into the ground and Sasuke moved hastily through the door way. "Naruto!" Sasuke looked around at the room filled with equipment and machinery, there were more wires then he could count. All of them were either hooked up to strange wall Naruto was strapped to, or to Naruto himself.

Naruto was bound by his arms, legs and torso just as Shikamaru was, but unlike Shikamaru most of the wires and tubing was connected to the tattoo like mark on his stomach. "Sasuke? Wow, you made it." Naruto said with a smirk.

"Hold on." Sasuke ran over to him "I'll get you out of there."

"Don't bother." Naruto's smirk grew into a large smile "You think I haven't been tied down before?" Naruto shifted his body around carefully, and then spit out a long, thin needle into his hand.

Sasuke thought about it, "When were you ever tied down?"

Naruto began working the needle onto the metal strap's lock, even from this strange angle he was able to do it correctly "I told you people hate me right, I know how to get out of locks."

"I see you came prepared. Comforting." Sasuke snorted sarcastically, watching the lock on Naruto's left arm open and the boy quickly start on the other 4 holding him down. "Why would they hook everything up to this, what's with this mark dobe?"

"I don't know." Naruto shrugged, now both arms were free "I thought it was just a birth mark but that guy Kabuto started doing things, he said it was special. And he said I was a source of Chakra. Weird." Naruto pulled himself off of the wall now that he'd gotten out of all of his restraints.

"Chakra? The only person who can use Chakra is that guy Shikamaru who came from the past."

! - ! - !

"What happened here?" Kakashi looked around carefully as he stepped over the wreckage to enter the room, there was no shortage of it since nothing was left in one piece. "You must really pack a punch." Kakashi stood over Shikamaru with his hands in his pocket, watching the boy on his knees panting and clinching his arm tightly, then glancing at the 3 dead men nearby. "Are you alright?"

"Fine." Shikamaru grunted, he felt the pain from before subsiding. "I presume you came to rescue me."

"Of course." Kakashi took another look around "You did all of this? Must be pretty strong, how'd you do it? Jutsu?"

"I don't know...the tranquilizers they gave me cause some type of reaction, the next thing I knew I was doing all of this."

"This one hell of a reaction."

"Yeah..."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Zabuza stared blankly at the ceiling with his hands resting behind his head and one knee draw up, listening to the anxious and excited words and movements of the people outside his door. Rushing to the patients that they'd left behind during the attacks, making rooms for new ones. His shirt was gone, his torso cleaned in bandaged, and he got the feeling that when they removed the bullets from him it was a rush job. All of it just made him wonder why he was sitting in a Konoha hospital, he should have left by now.

It wouldn't have been hard, no one knew who he was, or was barely paying attention. Why was he still here?

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"That was easy, was it supposed to be easy?" Shikamaru asked, laying in a bed in Gai's house 3 hours after the fact. "I couldn't have been captured more then a half hour."

"It's simple Shikamaru." Gai leaned against the door way to his room, standing over Lee "The Sound doesn't have the resources to create a large scale defense, or safe guard against detection. Plus, Kabuto was in Konoha, this looked as if what he was doing was supposed to be quick and subtle, he was intending to move out today. So if a plain so complicated was done so hastily, of course it would have critical errors."

"I guess...but what exactly did Kabuto need all of those things for." Shikamaru asked as if this was really bothering him, it wasn't surprising it would be. "And what did he need me and Naruto for?"

"Don't worry too much about it Shikamaru." Gai said reassuringly, "I'll be back, I have to do some reconnaissance work. I'll be back." Gai gave a quick wave before he turned and left "Call me if you need anything."

Lee watched the man leave, before he sat down on the bed next to Shikamaru. "I was sooo worried about you! Are ok?"

"I'm fine Lee." Shikamaru told him, his eyes shifting down to his arm. "But...something strange happened to me."

"Like what?"

! - ! - !

Kakashi had a hard time getting up here, especially since there were no longer any stairs leading to this place, which made him ask why he was even bothering to look up here. But it would be stupid to turn back now, now that he' done all of this work to get here in the first place. With that thought in mind he pushed his way through the debris of broken concrete and wood, he knew he reached the surface when he felt rain hitting his head.

Kakashi forced his way out of what used to be a doorway and climbed up to the roof of Konoha hospital. Long since changing out of his bomb suit and into his regular attire and mask. And as soon as he did he found who he was looking for, Iruka was standing only a few feet away, leaning against the concrete boarder surrounding edge of the roof. He was just standing there, looking down at the flashing red and blue light of police EMS that finally arrived. He didn't seem to care that it was cold out here, or that it was raining.

"Don't jump." Kakashi called out, walking towards Iruka who didn't look back "My car's down there."

"..."

Kakashi stood next to him, propping his elbows on the waist high wall and leaning back against it. "How'd you get up here?"

"Fire escape."

"Fire escape? There's a fire escape?" Kakashi mentally kicked himself, why couldn't he seem to find it. But that didn't matter right now. "What's wrong, and don't tell me nothing."

"I'm fine."

"Your standing out in the rain, your not fine." Kakashi said firmly "What's wrong?"

"Can't lie to you huh Kakashi?" Iruka sighed. "I can't believe what I just did."

"What?" Kakashi was confused for a moment, but then he only had to think of what Iruka would feel bad about. "Oh that...It wasn't your fault. It had to be done."

"Had to be done?" Iruka shook his head "No, I could have found another way, I shouldn't have given up Naruto!"

"If you didn't, you both would have been killed."

"You don't know that! I should have just kept fighting Kabuto."

"You would have been killed." Kakashi repeated "You couldn't have stood a chance against odds like that."

"I don't care! There were chances that I could have." Iruka shouted. "What if something would have happened to Naruto?"

"Calm down, nothing did happen to Naruto." Kakashi emphasized "And if you hadn't done what you did, then we wouldn't have been able to get Shikamaru back."

"That still didn't excuse what I did!" Iruka said...there was a small silence that settled between them, Iruka just stared at Kakashi...then he took a deep breath, he was getting pretty excited over this.

"Iruka..." Kakashi pushed himself off the wall and stood face to face with the man, looking him in the eye.

"Kakashi, tell me how you can stand doing things like this?" Iruka asked "You make decisions like this all the time, decisions that can result in someone's death, how can you do it? You make it seem almost easy."

"This is a horrible, mean spirited occupation and I take no pleasure in it, it just comes easily to me." Kakashi told him, he lifted his hands on to Iruka's shoulders. "It's not easy for me to say this but, I'm telling you get away from it."

Iruka looked up at him questioningly "What?"

"Your a pure, kind, nice, person, you need to think long and hard to yourself do you want to wake up every morning with as many good traits as you have and your potential...and come to a job like this? You obviously don't want to hurt or kill people, you can't handle that. That's why you shouldn't be here "

Iruka was silent for a moment, staring up at Kakashi "Run?...Kakashi, I can't believe you...your such a liar."

Now Kakashi was confused. "What?"

"You keep saying how this doesn't effect you." Iruka said.

Kakashi shook his head. "Unfortunately, it doesn't."

"I'll admit that your really strong, and skilled, but even someone like you can't tell me it didn't effect you when you told me to give myself up to Kabuto." Iruka couldn't seem to look him in the eye anymore. "I know you Kakashi, I know it did, and if you realize it or not I think your not telling me to stay away from this jobs, your telling me to stay away from you."

Kakashi looked blankly at him, thinking... "...?"

"Tell me I'm wrong, say something."

Kakashi he should have immediately denied it, he should have tried to convince Iruka he was wrong, and would have. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized he couldn't...Iruka was wrong, he just thought that and he was wrong...wasn't he? Kakashi knew he was mad at himself for some how always getting Iruka into these situations...it seemed like every time Kakashi was involved, Iruka was placed in some type of danger.

Before when the Nine-tails came from the past and attacked the city, and when he sent Iruka to the NDAFA when he knew something was happing there and Iruka ended up in a very outmatched fight against Kabuto. And when he went after Kabuto and used Iruka as his pilot to do so. He could have gotten Asuma to do it, Asuma was a better pilot then Iruka and Kabuto, he didn't and Iruka was still getting over his injuries from that...Maybe he was telling Iruka to stay away from him, he always ended up getting him hurt.

"I think your right..." Kakashi watched Iruka's head dropped. "Things always seem to happen to you around me."

"So this is it?" Iruka turned away from Kakashi and leaned on the wall again. "Do you really want this, because I don't."

"Yeah." Kakashi stood next to him again, "I do. I can't keep putting you in danger, I can't live with my self if I willingly put some one like you in those types of situations again. And it's going to keep happening if you stay with me.."

"Kakashi, It's going to keep happening no matter what." Iruka told him.

"Probably."

"This is really happening, Come on Kakashi, I've known you since I was a kid, do you really want to do this?"

"It's not like that, we're still friends." Kakashi pushed himself off the wall and headed back the way he came. "Don't stay out here to long, you'll catch a cold."

"Kakashi..." Iruka felt like an idiot, unable to do anything but stand there and watch him walk away. He wanted to say something, but he just...couldn't, he couldn't find the words for some reason.

"I know, You don't have to say anything." Kakashi threw him back a small wave. "See you later."

"Yeah...see you later Kakashi." Iruka turned back around and looked over the edge of the wall again, "..."

! - ! - !

"Holy crap! Look at this place!" Naruto looked around the Uchiha home excitedly, he'd never seen a house so big, "You had this place, and you were living with me?"

Sasuke pulled off his wet shirt and tossed it aside "Yes."

Naruto looked through the door behind the living room, it lead to a dinning room, an extravagantly decorated dinning room. "Why? Look at this place, it's so cool."

Sasuke picked off a towel from the couch and ran it through his hair. 'Because I wanted to stay with you.' Sasuke just shrugged as if he wasn't thinking about it. "I don't know dobe."

Naruto closed the door and crossed the living room to the hallway opposite the one leading to the front door, where the kitchen resided. 'It's so huge! Why didn't Sasuke just go home to this place instead of living with me all those years...' Naruto's excitement subsided as the thought worked it's way through his head, he looked back toward Sasuke, who was sitting on the couch on top of the towel he'd been using to dry himself off. 'He's rich, and he owns a whole bunch of houses, and stuff from his family. Why didn't he just go back home...'

Naruto sat down, not caring if he was soaking wet. He just kept thinking about it...before he realized it a substantial amount of time had passed and neither of them had said anything. "Hey Sasuke?"

Sasuke laid his head back on the couch and glanced at the boy. "What is it Naruto?"

"I really forgive you this time."

"What?"

"I wasn't so sure last time but..." Naruto paused, letting his head fall on to the wall. "..."

Sasuke nodded. "Hn."

"So what was it like living here?"

! - ! - !

"What's with you kid?" Kisame asked, "11:30, what are you doing here...better yet, how did you get out? Weren't you in the hospital."

Kisame sat back on to the couch next to Konohamaru, apparently tired. Konohamaru dropped his hands into his lap and looked up at him, "Something really big happened and they discharged me. And I snuck out, Itachi taught me how."

"But you didn't answer the question." Itachi sat down next to him, folding his arms and closing his eyes. "Why are you here?"

"I don't know...I just wanted to."

"What was wrong with you anyway?" Kisame said with a dead look across his face, Konohamaru wasn't even sure he saw his mouth move.

"I'm not sure, all of a sudden everything started hurting really bad, I couldn't breath, I don't even think I could move. Those guys at the hospital said it was a reaction from something put into me some time between last week and now."

Kisame opened his eyes and looked at Itachi, once again in silent agreement. "Konohamaru, what happened when--" Kisame didn't get to finish his sentence.

"Nothing! I told you guys nothing happened!" Konohamaru shouted, he wished they'd just stop asking, he didn't want to think about it let alone divulge details of it.

Kisame shrugged, then turned to Itachi 'You said you could make him talk, go for it'.

"Konohamaru." Itachi walked over to him seemingly with purpose. He knelt down in front of Konohamaru. "Look at me."

"Huh?" Konohamaru glanced over at him cautiously. "What is it?"

Itachi placed his hand on Konohamaru's shoulder and looked him in the eyes, at first Konohamaru was confused by it ... but some how Konohamaru was tempted to look a him completely...he found himself staring into those eyes that he could have sworn just turned red. He didn't even notice himself falling back against the couch, his eyes becoming wonton and half -lidded. "I-Itachi..."

Kisame sat up and looked over the boy carefully, one second he was mad and now he just looked barely awake. With one look from Itachi. "What did you just do?"

"I hypnotized him."

"You can do that?" Kisame asked, Konohamaru did seem unusually docile.

Itachi slowly laid Konohamaru down next to Kisame, then he stood up to leave the room. "Go ahead, ask him something."

"Uh...ok, What did Orochimaru do to you " Kisame was skeptical about Itachi's 'Hypnosis' until Konohamaru started talking. The boy described every detail of what happened to him, each second making Kisame more infuriated at Orochimaru then the next. Especially the part about Konohamaru's parents, more specifically what Orochimaru did to Konohamaru with them. And to think he used to be his teammate. "...Orochimaru's a dead man."

"I thought you weren't getting attached to him." Itachi reentered the room, holding a stack of papers under his arm .

"I'm not." Kisame snorted.

"Then why are you so angry."

"I can't stand Orochimaru, now how do you change him back?"

Itachi lifted his hand and snapped his fingers, and in an odd manner Konohamaru sprang upright, his eyes completely aware "What happened?"

"Nothing." Kisame closed his eyes and folded his arms, waiting silently.

"Hey Kisame, can you give me so more training?" Konohamaru asked.

"Not tonight brat, I have a mission tomorrow."

Now Konohamaru was more interested. "Really? What do you have to do."

Kisame laughed lightly "You know I can't tell you that, and even if I could, why would I?"

Konohamaru jumped into Kisame's lap, effectively waking him up. "Come on, Please?"

"If you get the hell of me I'll give you a hint." Kisame unfolded his arms and pushed Konohamaru forward abruptly, watching the boy tumble to the ground and roll along the carpet in a sloppy mass of body and scarf. By the time he hit the wall on the other side of the room he was completely tangled in it. "It's simple, just watch TV tomorrow, doesn't matter which channel."

! - ! - !

"Your still here?" Kakashi hadn't expected Zabuza to still be in the hospital room, he wasn't even sure what drove him to come to this room. He'd been wandering around unmethodically for the last half hour after he talked with Iruka on the roof, his body may have been moving, but his mind was elsewhere. In fact he hadn't even noticed he was here until he saw Zabuza.

"Yes Kakashi." Zabuza said, slightly annoyed that Kakashi was pointing out the obvious.

Usually Kakashi would have made a smart remark for a comment like that, but it just didn't seem like he could do it at the moment "You'll have to forgive me, I'm not in my usual humorous mood. I thought you'd be gone by now."

"Then why did you come?"

"Why didn't you leave?"

Zabuza looked back up towards the ceiling, honestly he didn't know. "Humph."

Kakashi sat down on the ground, his back against the side of the bed, he was feeling in a curious mood at the moment. "Zabuza, why are you here?"

"I told you already, trying to get to Orochimaru. You guys seem to attract him. "

"Fair enough..." Kakashi leaned his head back, staring up at the ceiling as Zabuza was. "When you said he took someone important from you, how did that happen?"

"Trying to get in to my head, I killed the last person who did that."

"I don't doubt it." Kakashi didn't seem surprised, "I don't think I have to worry about that. But what happened?"

"Why are you so interested in it?"

"I don't know." Kakashi shrugged "I'm not sure of anything right now, And I can tell you aren't either."

Zabuza turned towards the window "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Come on, what the harm in telling me."

Zabuza sat up and slid off the bed next, sitting next to Kakashi on the ground, "There's plenty of harm in telling you, so stop asking."

He guessed there would be, considering who Zabuza was "Don't worry, I promise I wont tell, I wouldn't want people getting suspicious. "

And Zabuza thought Kakashi wasn't in a humorous mood, that didn't last long, and it didn't surprise him, this was Kakashi after all. "So you found out, slow on the draw aren't we." Zabuza returned to his former position with his hands behind his head and one knee drawn up.

"I suspected as much before I found out, since your pretty good at disappearing." Kakashi complemented in a mocking way. "So why did you pick bombs?"

"Why did you pick the bomb squad?" Zabuza found it was strange how much they conflicted, picking two completely opposite positions. "You know you could get in a lot of trouble with your country for talking to me."

"Trouble seems to follow me around, I'm very good friends with it." Kakashi said "It owes me one, tomorrow it's my day off and we're going out for drinks. Wanna come?"

"So why do you care?"

"Cause I want to know you."

Zabuza glanced at Kakashi curiously, then looked back towards the ceiling. He didn't know why he was doing this, especially since Kakashi could possibly ruin any attempts he had at getting to Orochimaru. Or let Konoha use him to boost diplomacy with the Mist country by handing over their most wanted criminal. "And what do you want to know?"

Kakashi smirked "What's your favorite color?"

Zabuza wasn't at all surprised by the question, this was Kakashi. "Black."

"What's your favorite food?"

"I don't have one."

"What's your least favorite food?"

"Anything sweet."

"What's your favorite element?"

"Water."

"Why'd you save me back there?"

"Because I wanted to."

"Really?"

"Yes Kakashi."

"What's with the bombs?"

"I like seeing things explode."

Kakashi paused for a moment, moving on to a more serous question. "When you said we attract Orochimaru,... is that really the reason you keep showing up?"

Zabuza shrugged "Honestly, I don't know."

"...What's behind that mask?"

"...You show me, and I'll show you."

Kakashi smiled as he reached forward and tugged at the rim of the white bandages surrounding Zabuza's face, he didn't shy away when he felt Zabuza pulling at his. It was like electricity was running through him with each breath he took. He felt anxious when he did this, forcing him to stop and take a deep breath before he pulled down the covering and reveling the other man's face. Zabuza reveled much more then he expected, Kakashi's other eye was a deep red, contrasting to the darker one. "I knew some thing was different about you."

Zabuza had a fitting smirk across his lips as he leaned forward and kissed Kakashi, staring into the conflicting eyes as he went deeper into the kiss and explored every inch of the man's mouth. They pulled back only for air.

Kakashi leaned forward and laid his head on Zabuza's shoulder "..."

"What's wrong?"

! - ! - !

Sounds of metal scraping and pounding greeted him as he descended the stairs, stepping carefully downward through the dark with bags a bag in his arms. "Iruka?" Asuma stepped into the large underground hanger that still hadn't been repaired completely, since no one got around to this place yet. "Are you down here?"

Asuma looked around, there was only one light on and that was a flood light hanging from the ceiling above the stripped frame of Iruka's ship. Iruka was of course working diligently, welding parts of the steel together. Iruka looked up "Asuma? What are you doing down here?"

"I couldn't find you, I went by your house and you weren't there so I finally ended up coming here." Asuma set the paper bag down and walked towards the frame. "What are you doing here?"

"Just thought 'd get some work in since I haven't done anything in a while." Iruka told him, climbing down from the inside of the frame and looking over his recent work.

"It's late, and this has been a...stressful day." For lack of a better word Asuma could find. "Especially for you, you should be resting right now, or at least not working."

"Yeah, it's been...interesting, but I'm alright."

Asuma sat down against the frame of the plane and lit a cigarette "What's wrong? The only reason you'd be working at this hour is if something was bothering you." Asuma reached over to his bag and started shifting through it, "Care for a drink?"

"..."

! - ! - !

"Don't drink often?" Asuma lifted the glass to his lips and took a sip, watching Iruka who seemed disoriented already.

"How can you tell?" Iruka looked up at him solemnly.

"Because your half drunk. And no, that wasn't what I was trying to do." Asuma said with a small laugh. "So what's wrong?"

Iruka drew his knees up and buried his face into his lap, "I can't believe myself. There's no reason I should have given up Naruto."

Asuma rubbed Iruka's back lightly "I know it was hard for you, but it had to be done."

"Had to be done? How could something like that have to be done?" Iruka lifted his head "I should have tried harder to get back up."

Asuma sighed. "There was nothing that would have made them come any faster, you didn't have any proof, and it didn't seem likely that something like that would happen at a time like this."

"That doesn't change what I did, and I was mad at Kabuto for doing the same thing." Iruka stared up blankly at Asuma. "I gave someone I love up to my worst enemy, where he could have gotten killed or any number of horrible things could have happened to him. Maybe if I wasn't so weak I could have stopped Kabuto."

"Iruka, your not weak." Asuma emptied the last of his third glass, starting on his fourth.

"Yes I am!" Iruka yelled. "I willingly put Naruto into the hands of the Sound because I was too weak to stop Kabuto myself."

"Hmm...Your really bother by this." Asuma grabbed Iruka by the shoulder and abruptly turned him so they were face to face "Your not weak, in fact this might be the alcohol talking but your kinda scary when you mad."

"What?" Iruka looked up at him inquiringly. "What are you talking about?"

Asuma finished off the glass, thinking better of it not to start a new one, he was sure he'd had too much already by the way his words were starting to slur "Your not weak, and this wasn't your fault."

Iruka sighed and dropped his head from Asuma's view "Then why do I feel like it was?"

"Because your a nice guy." Asuma placed his hand under Iruka's chin and lifted his head. "So stop it, I hate to see you so depressed."

Iruka laid his head back against the metal frame of his unfinished ship and closed his eyes "I guess so."

Asuma sighed and rubbed his head, waiting a few moments before he started to reach for another cigarette. 'huh?' Asuma glanced over at Iruka...he was asleep already, he'd been so tired to start with. 'Something really must have been bothering him if he came here at this time of night...'

Iruka's dormant body feel to the side, and he landed in a sleepy daze on Asuma's lap. 'Huh?'

Iruka shifted lightly and buried his head into Asuma's stomach, then his arms wrapped around Asuma's waist almost defensively. "Asuma?" His voice was tired and slightly slurred, partially from the alcohol. "Can I...stay with you like this?"

"Iruka?" Asuma ignored the fact that Iruka wasn't one to hold a few drinks well, and most likely didn't know what he was doing. "Are you sure?"

"You make me feel...better. Safe." Iruka said softly, before he drifted back to sleep.

'Is this really...ok?' Asuma asked himself, looking down at Iruka who did seem much calmer now. "I guess so. As long as your safe." With the thought of sleeping in this place all night bearing in his head, Asuma softly scooped Iruka up into his arms, carefully so that he wouldn't wake him.

! - ! - !

The feeling of warm sunlight shining in his face stirred him back to consciousness after his body tried to ignore it for a while now, Iruka's arms wrapped more tightly around the object that offered firm warmth before he could no longer fight against it. Iruka inhaled deeply, smelling a familiar scent that made him feel as if he was in a familiar place. He slowly lifted his head and rubbed his eyes before he looked around, he found himself in Asuma's lap, the older man warring nothing but a t-shirt and a pair of boxers. Iruka found himself in similar attire, though the clothing wasn't his, he could tell by how big they were on him.

He was laying on a bed, his head in Asuma's lap and his arms around the man's waist while Asuma was sitting up. His back against the wall his bed was placed next to and his hands resting behind his head. "Huh?" Iruka blinked and took another look around, this time he saw his clothes laying across a chair, still damp from the previous night's rain. "Asuma?"

Asuma yawned, lifting his head in a light stretch. "Oh, Iruka, your awake?"

"Where am I?"

"My house."

Memories of last night drifted back to him, now Iruka understood "We didn't...do anything last night did we?"

"No." Asuma said, of course he wouldn't think of taking advantage of Iruka. "I guess you want to leave now...but...uh, you can stay if you want." Asuma seemed nervous when he said this, waiting anxiously for an answer.

Iruka leaned upward and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek, then let his head fall back down into Asuma's lap, closing his eyes. "Thank you for being there for me Asuma."

Asuma rested his arm on Iruka's back and rubbed his head lightly. "Iruka."

! - ! - !

"So you had both sources, and they escaped." Orochimaru growled annoyedly.

"I'm sorry to say yes, but I did get more parts I needed." Kabuto added. "Getting the sources a second time maybe harder since they know were after them. Naruto is harmless...but he maybe the most important one, his Chakra level is substantial, and all of it resides in a tattoo of some sort on his stomach. It's much more easy to extract Chakra from Shikamaru, but he's more dangerous. You should have seen what he did to his restraints and the equipment..."

"We can't afford mistakes like this!" Orochimaru yelled. "Next time, no errors, no mistakes, everything will go according to plan."

"That could be a problem, every time I enter Konoha, I'm continuously intercepted by the same people. It's annoying." Kabuto removed his glasses and carefully wiped the lens "We need to take care of them."

Orochimaru annoyedly stood up, glancing around the dark room "Kidoumaru, Sakon, Jiroubou Tayuya." A subtle but distinct sound could be heard at Orochimaru's back as his 4 generals appeared behind him "Kidoumaru, I want you to take out this Hatake Kakashi, Sakon your assigned to Maito Gai, Jiroubou kill our old friend Momochi Zabuza, Tayuya you should be able to handle both of the source and Umi--"

"Wait." Kabuto interrupted. "I want Iruka."

"Fine, I'll handle Sarutobi and his brat grandson myself." Orochimaru left the dark room, his 4 generals following, Kabuto at his side. He was sure this time that Konoha would fall, because his plan was fool proof, and the key to a good plain was Failsafe. And his failsafe was the SDI.