Just to Survive
By: Xzotic
Chapter 5: The Jig is Up
Kakashi was cursing the entire situation futilely. As soon as Deidara opened fire on the brat, he dropped to the ground and shot at both criminals with deadly aim. He grabbed the mic from his breast pocket and angrily shouted the command "all units move in! NOW!"
The kid was only a few feet in front of him, sprawled out on the concrete motionlessly. Deidara and Sasori were trying to make a break for the exit on their side but Kakashi knew that that area was heavily swamped with his people. He wouldn't have to worry about them escaping. His number one priority right then was to make sure Naruto was alright.
Angrily, he stomped over to the kid and turned him onto his side. He'd tried his best to keep young Naruto from getting involved in all of this. Iruka Umino had sworn to him the day before yesterday that he'd keep a close eye on the troublesome kid but here he was almost singlehandedly ruining an operation that had been planned out for months. Kakashi really hated kids. Why did they always cause so much trouble?
As Naruto rolled onto his back, Kakashi was glad to see that there was no blood on his clothes or on the ground. The kid must have been lucky enough to dodge the bullet.
"Stand up," he ordered roughly.
Naruto snapped out of his frozen stupor at the anger in the older man's voice and blinked rapidly to clear his vision. "Wha- What happened? Where'd they go?" he asked worriedly as he slowly climbed to his feet and looked around. He noticed a bunch of guys swarming into the clearing from both sides, all of them wearing black vests that read 'S.W.A.T.' on the back. "What's going on?" he asked dazedly.
"You're really lucky kid. Deidara was aiming to kill," Kakashi deadpanned. "Next time some drug lord asks you to do a job for him, I hope you're not dumb enough to go along with it a second time."
Naruto snapped his eyes up to Kakashi, confusion written all over his face. "What are you talking about?"
Before Kakashi could even so much as sigh, one of his subordinates ambled up to him with a sharp salute in greeting. "Captain," the man said, "Sasori and Deidara have been detained. Intelligence says that Itachi and his men went quietly as well. It appears they were taken by surprise."
Kakashi tilted his head in thought. "I doubt that," he said with a slight 'hmm.' "But as long as they're all caught that means this nightmare is almost over. Go get Teri and the rest of her team in here with their equipment. Tell her we have a possible bomb in the money bag, approximate time has been 4.5 minutes."
"Yes, sir!" the man quickly shouted and ran off to do as asked.
Kakashi turned to address the kid again and was surprised to see that he'd been slowly backing away from him the entire time he'd been talking. His strange, mismatched eyes narrowed slightly. "Where you going, kid?" he demanded.
Naruto backed away even faster, fear in his eyes. "You're…" he pointed a finger at him accusingly, "You're a cop!"
An annoyed sigh escaped from Kakashi's mouth. "Yes, Naruto, I'm a S.W.A.T. officer. Wouldn't it make sense to be more afraid of drug and arms dealers than someone like me? Why don't you come with me back to the station so we can have a little chat?"
Naruto gave a little jump at his words. "No!" he shouted angrily, "You're not going to lock me up in another stupid facility!"
"Be reasonable, kid. I'm not going to make you do anything. But think. Where are you going to go? You can't just go running around the streets and sleeping in abandoned buildings. Like it or not, you're a minor. The state has a priority to make sure you don't have to live like that!"
"I've been fine on my own so far. Much better than I ever was at that stupid orphanage. I'm not going back!" As Naruto finished shouting, he quickly turned on his heal and took off at a desperate run.
"Kid! Get back here!" Kakashi shouted, unable to give chase as a group of officers suddenly passed in front of him. "Someone stop the rugrat!" he ordered angrily but watched as a few officers futilely tried to make a grab for the extremely fast blond. In only a few seconds, Naruto Uzumaki was long gone….
***
It was five in the evening when Iruka Umino was just leaving Green Leaf to drive home. He was stepping outside when he saw the strange man he'd met just a few days prior leaning against a light post patiently.
"Captain Hatake, was it?" Iruka asked dubiously.
Kakashi stood straight and met the high school guidance counselor's eyes with a serious look.
It took Iruka's tired brain less than a second to realize what this visit could mean. Naruto hadn't come to school today just like the Captain had warned him might happen. At first, he'd been worried sick but he'd had his hands full with a new, bigger problem ever since the first lunch period… when drugs had been discovered in the courtyard. They weren't illegal drugs but they were falsely labeled prescription drugs that had terrible side effects. After much investigation, the school guards had discovered that the pills belonged to a senior named Kimimaro Kaguya. Iruka had been in counsel with the boy for most of the day and had unraveled some despairing facts about his past and home life that had led him down such a dark path.
After fighting with the board on the bases that Mr. Kimimaro was a minor and a graduating senior. Iruka had been able to reduce his sentence from expulsion and imprisonment to two month's suspension from classes (in which he, of course, would have to keep up with assignments) to be accompanied with a mandatory stay at a rehabilitation facility and one overnight lockup in the local county jail. Kimimaro himself expressed very little emotion on the matter.
Now, as Iruka took in the look on Kakashi's face and realized that Naruto had been in danger all this time, he could feel his heart start to beat frantically and his chest constricted with fear. "Where is he," he choked out, "Where's Naruto?"
***
After only a few hours on the run, Naruto was feeling dead tired and more than a little hungry. He despaired at the thought that the free meal he'd gotten from old man Teuchi just that morning may have been the last warm and decent meal he was likely to have for a while.
So much had been going through Naruto's head after his decision to run. What about school? What about the promise he'd just made to Teuchi? How long could he realistically stay on the run from everybody with only a hundred dollars in cash? All of these things plagued his mind and yet every time he saw an officer or a squad car he instinctively turned in the opposite direction.
There was nothing he could really do. He didn't want to drop out of school and he didn't want to disappoint old man Teuchi again but there was no way in hell he was going to allow the alternative to happen.
Memories of his days at the orphanage assailed his mind and Naruto had to stop moving as a wave of nausea rushed through him. From the time of his birth until age twelve when he'd been saddled with the first and only family to ever foster him, Naruto had lived out his days in a state of constant vigilance. The caretakers at the facility had enjoyed torturing the young, helpless boy that he had been. They'd turned all of the other children against him and he had been forced to endure day after day of beatings from multiple sources. Sometimes an entire group of kids - some of them younger than him but stronger since they were fed properly - would gang up and beat him into submission. Naruto had been forced to spend much of his time there attempting to hide in order to nurse his many injuries.
The vicious game of hide and seek that the other kids used to play with him still gave him nightmares even now. The slapping sound of a meter stick as it's slammed against a table threateningly still gives him rapid chills as it used to be the weapon of choice to start his beatings with. Nothing scared the 16-year-old boy more than hearing that terrible sound from his childhood.
To keep himself fed at least once a day, he'd also been forced to learn how to steal: slight of hand and blending into the scenery even while wearing the brightest colors of the rainbow had become two of his best skills.
To this day, Naruto was absolutely mystified about why they'd all hated him so much and why no one but the Mizukis had bothered with taking him in. There was something to be said about a boy who could still smile and laugh after experiencing all of that but he became more than just a little hysterical at the thought of being forced to go back to that life. He didn't care if he had to live out the rest of his days in hiding, there was absolutely no way he could put his life in the hands of another stranger like that.
***
It had only taken a few minutes to fill Iruka in on the events that had led to Naruto's disappearance but by the time he was done, it had looked as if the poor guidance counselor had aged ten years. After reassuring the poor man that he was on the case until the brat was found, Kakashi decided to leave off questioning the poor guy until a later time. He had a much more satisfying job to do now that he had no concerns about blowing his cover.
As he knocked on the nice, cherry oak door of the rural, suburban home, Kakashi tried to reign in his formidable temper. It took quite a lot to make Kakashi Hatake mad but if you were unlucky enough to accomplish that feet then you'd better have a coffin nicely picked out for yourself because you were as good as dead.
The door opened and a man with white hair poked his head through curiously. "Umm, can I help you?"
Kakashi grinned beneath his mask. People always express reservations when they first meet him due to his mismatched eyes and the somewhat suspicious mask he habitually wore. He rarely ever bothered to assuage those people's fears, however. If he cast a frightening picture to a grown man who abused little boys then it would only help to serve his purpose.
"Are you Touji Mizuki?" Kakashi deadpanned.
Mizuki slowly nodded his head with slightly wider eyes.
Kakashi flashed his captain's badge and watched the man start to tense considerably. "I'd like to ask you a few questions, Mr. Mizuki," Kakashi purred with a deadly glint in his eyes. "May I come in?"
Mizuki looked over his shoulder nervously and back to the calmly waiting officer. "The boy isn't here right now. He won't be home until later."
"I'm sure he won't be," Kakashi muttered sarcastically. He stoically put his badge away and stepped through the doorway and into the Mizukis' home as though he'd been warmly invited.
"I'd like to take a look around young Naruto's room, if you don't mind. Why don't you join me, Mr. Mizuki, I have a few questions to ask you." Kakashi spoke with cold steel in his voice and his words as he led the way up the stairs of the Mizuki home left no doubt that he was making orders not requests.
"I-I don't think you're allowed to do this, sir!" Mizuki shouted after him as he followed. "You don't have a warrant!"
"Hmm?" Kakashi lazily mumbled as he opened the first door he came to and checked inside. It was just the hallway bathroom. "You say something?" he asked as he blithely moved on to the next door. This one was locked and Kakashi didn't hesitate in standing back and slamming into the door with a forceful kick that broke the doorframe and put a huge hole in the door.
"HEY!" Mizuki shouted indignantly. "That's it! I'm calling 9-1-1!"
Kakashi easily grabbed the man by the back of his shirt and dragged him into the small bedroom with him. "I am 9-1-1," he growled, letting his anger pierce through his cool façade finally. "And I suggest that you sit down and be grateful that I haven't already slapped the cuffs on, Mizuki." With that, Kakashi threw the grown man onto the neatly made bed with a flick of his wrist.
Touji Mizuki was wide-eyed and breathing heavily as he watched the scary policeman poke around the room.
"This is an awfully neat room, Mr. Mizuki. I don't think anyone would expect a 16-year-old kid like Naruto Uzumaki to keep his room this spotless."
"W-we…" Mizuki gulped audibly as he tried to choke out his words. "We, um, make him clean his room twice a week."
"Hmm…" Kakashi commented absently as he continued to poke around the showroom. "Why wasn't Naruto at school today?" he asked as he opened the closet doors.
"He was feeling sick this morning," Mizuki answered immediately. He let out a sigh as he considered the possibility that this police officer was only bluffing. He was probably only here because the stupid brat had missed a day of school, he thought hopefully. No need to panic.
Kakashi smirked as he observed the man's sudden look of relief from the corner of his eye. Touji Mizuki was the worse kind of con artist. It would be all too easy to corner the bastard, he thought as he pretended to sift through the neatly hanging clothes in the small walk-in closet as though he were looking for something.
"And where did you say Naruto was again, Mr. Mizuki?" he asked nonchalantly.
The smile on Mizuki's face seemed to develop an awkward twitch. "O-oh, u-um, I believe he said he would be out with friends," he stuttered out lamely.
"Really?" Kakashi peeked over at him with an innocent look of curiosity. "Neighborhood friends or school friends?"
"School," Mizuki immediately responded. He quickly decided that the officer could easily spot the lie if he'd said Naruto was with friends in such a small neighborhood. The school, on the other hand, was too big to be able to pinpoint a specific group of 'friends' for the brat.
"Hmm… that's interesting." Kakashi calmly turned to face Touji Mizuki with a hand rubbing his chin in thought. He looked the sweating, slightly twitchy man in the eyes and slowly moved closer. "You said that Naruto was too sick to attend classes this morning, correct?"
Mizuki's eyes widened slightly in fear but he managed a small nod. He realized the slight slip-up in his story but he hoped that the officer wouldn't make it a big deal.
"So then," Kakashi drawled as he stopped right in front of his seated prey and stared down at him coldly. "Why would he be too sick to attend his regular classes but still be able to meet up with friends, not even from this neighborhood, and stay out until much later than regular business hours?"
"Well, a-a-actually-"
"And furthermore," Kakashi growled, viciously cutting the shaking man off, "if a sick child stayed in this very room all day while his school friends were in school and his parents presumably at work, why is there absolutely no sign in this room of his presence?"
"L-like I said b-before-"
"Cleaning a child's room only twice a week, Mr. Mizuki, should not mean that a specially trained police officer comes in here and is unable to find a single fingerprint on any surface. Even the hotspots such as that gaming system you have hooked up or that small computer sitting on the desk over there – both distractions that I would expect a child who stayed home on a school day to make use of – are covered in a light coat of dust without a single spot or smudge anywhere.
If you're telling me, the captain of the first division S.W.A.T. team of Kage city, that a blond, 16-year-old boy sleeps in this room every single night, cleans it twice a week, and moves in and out of that bedroom door at least three times a day then we have a very big problem here, Mr. Mizuki. There's not a drop of that boy's DNA in this room and the hinges on that door were way too tight to have seen that much regular use. Which leaves me to believe that you are lying to me." Kakashi cracked his knuckles threateningly as he stared the man down. "And you don't want to know what happens when someone lies to me."
Mizuki's eyes looked large and watery as he glanced back and forth from the angry man to the broken door. He was frantically trying to figure out how he had come under the radar of this high-ranking official. What had set this man off? "I… I-I-"
"You're foster son, Mr. Mizuki, has been missing since 12:15 this afternoon. He has not slept in this home for at least a week. I suspect that it's been much longer. Then add to the facts that I have evidence of the kid sleeping in abandoned buildings and alleyways in this lovely fall weather and I'd say that you and Mrs. Mizuki are in very real trouble." Kakashi pulled out a pair of handcuffs and scowled menacingly at the pathetic man. "Why don't we take a trip outside to the squad cars that are waiting to pick you up? I'm sure your wife's already waiting for us in her cozy little cell at the station."
As Mizuki watched the frightening man loom closer, those freaky mismatched eyes narrowed, he realized that he was in very big trouble….
A/N: Wow... school is over... I just don't know what to do with myself right now. As soon as I get used to it, though, spring semester will start. Anywho, several things happened in this chapter that are key elements to the plot of this story. First, of course, you finally know Kakashi's real identity (I debated whether or not to call it SWAT or ANBU but I thought it was best to let there be a division between the Naruto-verse and my AU). Also take note that Kakashi alludes to the fact that brats are always causing him trouble.... I also gave you a small glimpse of what Naruto's life was like at the orphanage (and there will be more of those pleasant little flashbacks) and why he's behaving the way he is.
I'm trying to make all of the elements come together as neatly as possible but if there's anything that you all find a little hazy please let me know as it means I haven't touched on something clearly enough (aside from the mystery of Naruto's life, of course). Thanks for reading and please review!