Fan Fiction Name: Requiem for the Rokudaime
Chapter Name: Comrades Lament: Iruka
Info: As all in Konoha gather to pay respects to the Rokudaime Hokage as he takes his place on the Memorial Stone, some people take some time to remember his exploits and his quirks. The Rokudaime is not who you think! Rated T for general cursing.
Disclaimers: Well, I do not own any of Naruto, nor do I own the many characters of these fan fictions, save my own creations. It's sad, but all too true. How I wish I owned them….waaaaaahhhhh!
Requiem for the Rokudaime
Chapter 4
Well, here we are, about to bury another Hokage far before their time. I was only a young boy when the Kyuubi attacked and the Fourth faced down the bloodthirsty beast. And, more than eighteen years later, another Hokage has fallen as a foe from our own past threatened all we knew. This time, I was on the front lines, fighting with those I have come to see as friends. Unlike the last time, I was able to help those I cared about, from my son, to my wife, to my soon to be son.
Even though he isn't really my son, Naruto is as close to one as I ever had. At least, before Anko-chan got pregnant. I was ecstatic when she told me she was expecting and a week after that I asked her. Anko, being Anko, decided to mess with me for a week before she said yes. When I had told Naruto, he was happy beyond belief, as was Sakura.
You, on the other hand, decided to be a smart ass. After getting that kind of response from Naruto and Sakura, before Sai could say anything, you said one of the funniest things ever.
"You know, snakes eat their mates."
I was about ready to laugh at what you said, but Sasukes replacement on Team Seven looked thoughtful. After you had said that, Sai was convinced of this and decided to do some research. He found that three forms of snakes native to the Fire Nation were cannibalistic, one of whom resembled the snakes Anko summoned. Of course, when this was brought to my attention (Sai lacked the tact to not only be discreet but to say it when Anko was there as well) Anko was furious. Well, Sai knew right then and there that his books told him nothing of the wrath of a woman whose body was wracked with massive hormonal changes. I pretty much had to pull Anko off of Sais thrashed body. It took Sai a week to recover from his wounds, and you gave him a little talking to about tact.
Even then, with your sense of humor and your chronic problems, you were always willing to help others with problems, even when your life is at risk. I should know. I was there when Danzos coup started.
I was reporting a mission that my team had just completed when the attack started. I tried my best to get to her, but I couldn't. I was about to go find Anko-chan (I often wouldn't want to drag her into anything, but in the end she IS also a powerful jounin and can hold her own. Plus she would kill me should she hear that I wouldn't come to get her when there was a great fight going on) when I saw you fighting off ANBU members and coming towards the main force attacking the Hokage. You and I hadn't said a word between us for quite some time, yet we worked flawlessly together. You and I managed to fight our way to Shizune-samas side, where she told us not only where Hokage-sama was but where Danzo was. I darted forward, not realizing that you had stayed with her for a little longer. But, stupid me, got involved in a fight with an ANBU member who was a bit too much for me. I was about to get a kunai in the chest when you came out of nowhere and took the blow.
Well, technically it wasn't you, but a Kage Bushin. The Kakashi in front of me disappeared in a flash of smoke and you came out from your hiding place, a glistening kunai cutting deep into the ANBU members side. You managed to save me once, and when I returned to favor you accepted it wholeheartedly. We fought against Danzo, and even at his age he was besting you and I. You said "Kage Sennpu" and I put it around both of us. I managed to keep it up while you charged your Chidori. When I was about to release it, you stopped me and, in a flash I could barely follow, went through the vortex of shadow and chakra.
Through it. I had never once seen that happen to anything. My skill with the Kage Sennpu is now second in defensive power only to the Hakkesho Daikaiten. And yet you charged through, disrupting the whole thing and plunging your hand through Danzos chest. After a few seconds, Danzo slumped and…well…that was it. Danzo was dead and the coup was over. The ANBU who supported Danzo were rounded up and prosecuted. You and I were hailed as heroes. However, you got most of the fame. After all, you were the one who killed Danzo.
I didn't mind. I've never really been one to care about fame or fortune. Once upon a time I was more about infamy, but even then I didn't do that bad. I didn't care to be famous. I simply wanted to help in my own way. So when Tsunade announced that she would be training you to become her replacement, I was more than happy for you. I wasn't the only one. In fact, it was just after you went to begin your training that Anko told me the good news.
It's been a while since things have been good with her. I know women can become very unpredictable when pregnant, because of the changing hormones throughout the pregnancy and whatnot. With Anko-chan, the result was one extremely thrashed apartment and a series of public displays of violence. There were many times that she had become hormonal and nearly sent me (or actually sent me) through a variety of materials.
I never knew that sheetrock was so bad on my back.
But, now Anko-chan is due any day now, and I know she's glad to get our boy out of her. I know Sakura is happy for me. She'll probably ask to be the godmother. Well, Anko-chan and I need to discuss those kinds of things. Name, too. I was hoping Satoshi, after my father, but Anko has been leaning to a bunch of weird names.
Speaking of weird names, I was leading a team of chunin when Orochimaru attacked. I personally led an attack against the sound ninja. I got separated and somehow managed to get caught near where Orochimaru had his base camp. I managed to come behind him when you, Gai, and Sai were leading the attack straight to Orochimarus doorstep. I darted forward, about to flank from the rear when Kabuto cut me off. I went to attack him, knowing full well that I probably would have a lot of problems. But as I moved forward to attack, Kabuto backed off. I moved forward to attack again but he moved off. Again. And again.
Then he stopped me. He said that he wanted to help because he was bored with Orochimaru and his idiotic idea of immortality. I was so confused that I missed not only most of the fight but also the final attack against Orochimaru. I just looked past to see Orochimaru with a glowing hand through him. Then, I saw Orochimarus body shudder and then begin to tear itself apart. Suddenly…
Kaboom!
I found out that you had perfected a variant of the Chidori that was developed from your year of training. It looked exactly the same externally, but I found out from Hokage-sama that when you struck through the opponent, you left some of your own chakra behind and unbalanced the whole chakra system. Normally, it just makes the person very uncomfortable and extremely ill as the foreign chakra works through that persons system. But when dealing with a man whose chakra system was as immense as Orochimaru and yourself, the amount of chakra left behind by you made the whole system overload and make the person essentially explode from the huge amount of pressure built up.
When Naruto saw it, he was in awe. Even with his new abilities and that new wind jutsu of his, he never would have expected something like that to happen. And I know I couldn't pull off anything like that. I don't know if Jiraiya-sama and Hokage-sama taught you that, or if you developed it on your own. But in the end bits and pieces of Orochimaru were going everywhere, you collapsed and the whole battle was over. I went to Anko-chan after I found out about your situation, and both she and I worried (well, as much as she can worry). As I anxiously waited for the news, she simply looked bored, like she was expecting you to just up and walk out, with book in hand like nothing happened In fact, I remember her specifically saying that "the old pervert brought down Orochimaru. He wouldn't just up and die on us."
Looks like she was wrong. And here we are adding another name to the stone as another friend.
But as a shinobi, both she and I know that death is something that happens. In a life such as our own, we are expected to put our lives on the line not only to perform the mission but also to protect the village. It's the life that you, I, Anko-chan, even those young men and women here have chosen. At the very least we honor those who have died protecting everything that we hold dear. It's my nindo, and I know it is often the basic philosophy of all those I care about as well. From my lovely (if slightly unbalanced) wife, to the young life now growing in her belly, I would give my life to protect them all.
Say, that reminds me…we still haven't chosen a name for the baby. I wonder what she'll think of Kakashi…
END
A/N: Now Iruka-sensei, my third-favorite character of all the Naruto series, has his thoughts up on the board…story…whatever. Well, I guess the next chapter will be ready in a little bit.
Now, I may have spelled the better version of the Kaiten wrong, but don't hold it against me, please? My Japanese sucks serious ass, so I'll look it up on Wikipedia just to make sure.
Also, as a final note, does it at all surprise you that Anko is as violent as she was when she was pregnant.
