Light the way
'Eventually we all go home
it won't be long
it won't be long'
- Thursday, 'Autumn leaves revisited'
Nothing to me. To MeeLee who was the first one to review and never failed to do so for each chapter. Thank you.
It's the regular sound of pages turned that made him realize he had fall asleep on his self-assigned task – again.
Even if the quantities of painkillers had been lowered, he couldn't help but sleep; way too much in his opinion. And when he was not sleeping, he was sleepy. He hated painkillers – made his thinking blurry, forbade him from keeping his meals down, made him sleep.
But he was forced to agreed that he needed the sleep – and the drugs. Healing was taxing, though less now than at the beginning, when he couldn't stay awake, conscious and aware of what was going on for more than a few minutes.
He felt the warm coming from the window by a stray ray of light falling on his hand. He briefly wondered what time of the day it was now – his sense of time was totally screwed up.
The sound paused, then resumed.
There was someone else in the room.
Wow, what a wonderful shinobi you make…not even able to feel someone presence in the same room as yours…no wonder you ended up in this state.
He abruptly cut the voice rambling in his head. He had heard it enough already – since he managed to woke up and stay so long enough to remember. He did not like to remember.
The skin – or what felt like his skin – under the plaster cast begin to prickle again. He unconsciously breathed deeper, anticipating the pain that would not fail to come with. Damn painkillers that weren't doing their job.
The pages stopped being turned.
Iruka opened an eye, blinked, narrowed it under the bright light. The skies were a bright blue, uninterrupted by clouds, almost a pure color. The kites were sharply standing out against it.
He dropped the pen he was still gripping on the notebook by his arm to rub the sleep from his eyes. The move was not a complete success – but at least his environment was clearer.
The someone was seated at the other side of the room – not that far – in front of him in a way he did not have to move his head to look at him.
Because it was a him, elbows on his knees, infamous orange book in hand, waving the other, the visible eye curved in what he supposed was a smile.
"Good morning Iruka-sensei. Though I should say 'afternoon' now."
Iruka blinked some more.
"Kakashi-sensei?"
What was he between all people doing here?
"You know, you could sound a bit less surprised… it's a bit on the vexing side there."
Even with a foggy brain, Iruka could notice that Hatake's words were less caustic that what he was – surprisingly – used to.
"Anyway, you certainly look better than last time I saw you."
Iruka's mind did a double take. Sure, he seemed to recall that there had been someone here at a certain time, when he was completely out of it – but, in the same time, there was things he had no remembrance of even if they did truly happen in front of him when he was supposed to be partly awake. This someone could not have been Hatake, no?
Iruka, if asked, would go through a hell lot of thinking about what was the nature of his relationship with the jounin. They could not really be tagged as friends, coworkers was not really that… maybe work acquaintances. Without forgetting the whole Chuunin/Jounin, Academy teacher/desk nin compared to special Jounin - the legendary Copy-nin dammit - hierarchy deal. Though he finds that the jounin was less an ass than he acted – not that he would ever said it out loud – and was even fun to bicker with. Without forgetting that he looked forward each visit of the older man after some long mission away, when he would give him carefully collected tidbits of information about their former blond student.
But still, they were no more than work acquaintances. Are we?
The chuunin's foggy brain wondered.
"Huh? … when?"
Hatake seemed embarrassed – not, it wasn't that. Hatake was generally not looking himself.
"Maa… around two weeks ago. Seen Sakura too. She was worried about you. How did you managed to end in this state?"
Iruka's eyes stared at the ceiling, unfocused. He could still see the kites cheerfully flying upside the roofs of Konoha by the corner of his eyes. He did not wondered why they were here. They just were, end of the story.
The silence stretched uncomfortably, thickening the air in the room.
He could see Kakashi too. The man was not moving on his seat, managing to look at him without being obvious about it.
"Sorry I asked."
The silence thicken some more. By a play of light, Iruka could notice the tense jaw under the mask of the other man, the drawn lines of his face exposed between the cloth and the askew forehead protector.
Hatake rose from his seat, stepped toward the door. Iruka did not move.
"Get well soon sensei," said Kakashi to the door, reaching for the handle.
"Did you know…," began hesitantly Iruka. Kakashi froze on his spot. Iruka wished he would not move. It was easier to speak to a back than to this man face to face. A back was not looking at you with a single grey eye which was carrying hurt, despair, sorrow hidden behind a like-wall of false cheerfulness. A back was not pulling faces at you from behind a cloth mask. Kakashi's back seemed tired.
"Did you know that mercenaries, probably hired by Oto, used delayed-effects jutsus?… It destroys first chakra paths where it hits, then bones, flesh, skin and nerves at the last – making you wish you had been killed with the first blow."
Iruka's voice brook. He could still heard the screams, the plea for ending the sufferance… He had not realized he had close his eyes, until he opened them again. Hatake's hand was in his, and Iruka was gripping it like his life was depending of it.
"Is it what happened?" Kakashi gestured to the plaster cast with the head. Iruka failed to notice the move.
"They killed Megumi…by the end, she wasn't screaming anymore… like most of the people from the merchants caravan we were supposed to protect…"
The man was shuddering violently, still clutching Kakashi's hand, and Hatake was gripping hard in response. Then Iruka found himself sitting against Hatake, clutching the man vest in a death like grip, the jounin's arms carefully put around the Chuunin.
Neither man was stranger to breaking.
When Kakashi left, later in the afternoon after this episode which, in an unspoken agreement, neither of them would talk about again, he eye-smiled to the Chuunin.
"Get well soon sensei, and if you're a good boy, maybe I'll treat you to ramen when you'll be released."
Iruka half-smiled.
He was so sleepy… By the window could still be seen the brightly colored kites in the skies tainted with orange and red by the setting sun. He suddenly knew why those kites were there.
It had been a clear and bright full moon night like this one when the Kyuubi struck for the last time, taking his parents' lives.
Ah, erm… sorry I didn't update this one sooner ? Where are the muses when you need them? ( insert conscience here: thou should be revising for thy finals exams…). Scared you, huh? Thought you would never know what happened… I'm not that cruel ( even if I'm very cruel with the characters of other people – btw, Megumi is an OC but she's here just 'cause I needed a name.) To the next one dear reviewers!
Self-advertisement: I got another fic in English now: 'A shinobi is a high school student like an other', an Alternate Universe, modern days fiction seen through the eyes of our favorite jounin Hatake Kakashi. Two parts on line and the third one shouldn't be long to come, since there's already eight parts done in French.