Byakuya

Chapter 2

Iruka walked around the outskirts of Konoha, enjoying the drenching rain that made his clothes grow heavy and uncomfortable. He gave the comfort or the lack of it no other thought however as he breathed in deeply.

Ever since Iruka had been small he had always loved the rain.

When his parent's had still been alive, they had always closed the windows and the blinds and gathered around in front of the living room fire. His okaa-san would make hot cocoa, and his father would tell stories from the time he was young and had just became jounin.

Iruka had laughed from under all the blankets he had been buried under, basking in the warmth, both physical and emotional.

After his parent died sorrow would fill his heart and he would visit the stone in which his parent's names were incraved. Then the rain would hide the tars he had stopped shedding since he became chuunin…--

Iruka was startled out of his thoughts when he heard the distant clashing of kunai; a sound he would recognize from everywhere. Normally he would've ignored the sound and assumed someone was training, but something in the sound was off.

Besides…who would train in the rain anyway?

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Iruka halted his hurried steps as he walked on the edge of the clearing, just in time to see Hatake Kakashi twist the neck of the last enemy ninja. The copy-cat ninja was breathing heavily, his hair plastered around his face, reaching below his shoulders. His clothes and skin were shredded, dirty, wet and bloody. This was understandable considering that the ground around him was filled with scattered bodies and body-parts, some of them half covered by the rising water.

Iruka froze when he felt the Sharingan gaze lock into him, testing and evaluating him. He suppressed a shiver at the feeling of nakedness. Could the Sharingan see through clothes?

"Iruka?" Kakashi's voice asked in a rasped whisper that could barely be heard under the noise of the rain. Iruka was hit with the sudden realization that Kakashi had to be quite out of it if he didn't realize who he was.

"Yes Hatake-san. Are you wounded?" Iruka said worriedly while starting to walk closer the jounin, not letting the Sharingan hinder him. The wheels of the Sharingan swirled once before the redness totally faded away, revealing a dark grey, tired eye with a greenish tint.

"No. I'm fine. Just a bit tired." The jounin shrugged even though Iruka could see him shaking slightly as the adrenaline left his muscles.

"Liar. You can barely stand." Iruka said in his teacher voice, reaching to put Kakashi's arm over his shoulder, letting the other ninja lean on him. He was surprised when Kakashi snorted softly, finally seeing some of the tired irony of what Naruto had said earlier.

"Sorry. The rain told me to lie." Kakashi giggled, leaving Iruka stare at the man slightly confused before starting to trek towards Konoha.

I'm never going to understand what is going through his mind, am I?

Ah, but the rain is pretty.

Wonder if it covers over his tears too sometimes?

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"Rock Lee is in a coma, Hyuuga Neji has four stab wounds and chakra shortage and Nara Shikamaru is sedated to keep the pain away because somehow he got burned by a Katon jutsu on the other side while his other side was electrocuted by a thunder nin." Tsunade explained exhausted after all the heavy healing she had to do. She crossed her fingers under her chin, leaning on her desk and throwing Naruto one of her piercing gazes.

"But they'll be all right, right?" Naruto asked and Tsunade rubbed her temples as the suddenly unusually high pitched voice entered her brain.

"Yes, yes! Now do you mind explaining what happened?" Naruto froze and his brow started to twitch at the thought of explaining once again what had happened for the third time that day. And all that because he was the last one conscious.

That's it! He raged inside his head. The next time…the next time I'll pass out first so that I won't have to be the one explaining everyone!

Suddenly the door opened and Sasuke walked in. Naruto looked at the Uchiha interested, the years having been more than kind at his rival. Sasuke's hair had grown longer, now tied with a white string to hold it back, with his bangs still covering the sides of his face. He was wearing pair of navy blue pants, a long sleeved black top and a chuunin vest. All of which looked really dry and comfortable. Naruto almost sniffed at the thought of his own black tank-top and orange cargos, which he was still wearing because Hokage demanded he report in first.

"Hokage-sama, there has been a failure. The waterfall-nin group that we were tracking disappeared suddenly a couple of hours ago. We tried tracking it but it seems as if they just disappeared." Sasuke said his tone impassive as if little dismayed at their failure, something Sasuke wasn't used to. Naruto was just about to jump up and yell at Sasuke as a sudden cough attack came over him.

He would've laughed at the gob smacked impression on Sasuke's face as he saw him, had he not been coughing his lungs out. Naruto gave his hand a look before shrugging the specks of blood in it as unimportant. He turned to Sasuke only to see something akin worry? Flash across his features. But when he looked closer, it was gone.

Naruto gathered his wits and jumped standing from his chair with a speed that startled both the Hokage and the chuunin. Naruto moved to point a finger dramatically at Sasuke.

"I knew it! I bloody knew it!" The orange and blood glad ninja yelled triumphantly. Sasuke looked confused; after all, he hadn't seen his rival in over three years. Tsunade sighted, almost guessing what was to come.

"What did you know dobe?" Sasuke sneered, which only seemed to infuriate Naruto further.

"If I weren't too tired after fighting over six different nin groups just today and if I had the power to do more that stand, I would so kick your ass, Sasuke-bastard!" Naruto yelled the fact that he was barely standing becoming oblivious. Sasuke frowned.

"Six different nin groups, what are you--"Sasuke started to protest just as Naruto cut him off.

"Oh yes, oh yes!" Naruto continued to rant and Sasuke refrained from saying how perverted noises Naruto was making. "The waterfall-nins you let go, came after me, which in turn led the stone nins on our tracks again, before practically yelling our position to the thunder nins! And Neji had a good genjutsu going too!" Naruto yelled, while Sasuke just looked confused.

What was the dobe going on and on about?

"Look, Naruto, obliviously you're too tired to do this today. I have the scroll now and I'm sure everything can wait for a while. Just go home, and sleep your exhaustion off. You've just come home from a very complicated mission."

"Complicated? Complicated? Oh no, there's nothing complicated with trying to hold tracks on dozen nins patrolling searching for you while holding an eye open for Itchy bitch and his merry weasels!" Naruto raged before starting to giggle uncontrollably. Tsunade snapped.

"Fine! Uchiha, get him out of here and make sure you put him to bed. And make sure he doesn't bother me tomorrow. Knock him out cold if you have to!" The Gondaime yelled and Sasuke hurriedly grabbed Naruto and pulled him out of the room just before to sheath of a random katana was thrown at them.

Naruto struggled against the hold Sasuke had on him weakly. Sasuke sighted.

"If that's the best you can do, then you must be really tired." Sasuke noted which sent the Uzumaki off again. Naruto continued to complain all the way to the stairs, conveniently forgetting how he was leaning on Sasuke and would have surely fallen down if not for the stoic chuunin. Soon, however, the loudmouth ninja fell asleep, only to be gathered up by Sasuke.

Sasuke put an arm under Naruto's knees and another under Naruto's arms to carry him easy. Naruto let out a half sleepy protest before snuggling into Sasuke's neck. Sasuke frowned at the bodily contact before deciding to just ignore it.

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So, now I got Naruto back to Konoha. Umm, I know some things are confusing here, and there is couple of reasons to that. First, some things just happen randomly, and there are hints and stories behind every move that may or may not be more noticeable later. Second, I wrote the beginning of this fic actually on my Palm handheld…so I hope you excuse me for the grammatical mistakes. I, umm… updated the first chapter yesterday like three times because every time I read it I spotted more mistakes…but, I'll read it again today so that it'll be easier for you guys to read.

And I'll redo the summary soon, I just wrote I half tree last night, so it's kind of hurried. Just wanted to post this as soon as possible, because I know the beginning of this fic is kind of boring. I think and hope and the story gets better and better, when I actually get to the parts I want to write.

So, umm…review! …Oh, and If I get like three reviews I'll post another chapter today... deal?

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