Note: Remember, character death story.
Chapter 5:
-:Kakashi being grilled by the group:-
Kakashi slumped down in his seat a little as he finally gave into the pressure of his friend's glares - and in all honesty, Kakashi was feeling a tad bit guilty.
Okay, more than a tad. A lot more.
"Iruka and I were dating for a while..." Kakashi trailed off as gasps of shock rang throughout the group. Obviously, that was not something they were expecting, and Kakashi cringed at what he was about to say next. "He moved in with me and we were good for a long time..."
"But..?" That was from Genma. He looked like he was ready to jump up at Kakashi and pummel him, or stab him with his senbon that he had clenched between his teeth.
Kakashi cleared his throat before answering. He wasn't proud of what he was about to say, but he was going to do it. Seeing Iruka... and seeing how hurt he still was, even though the man tried to hide it... Kakashi had messed up big time. "I... I freaked and started pushing Iruka away… I stopped talking to him, I avoided him as much as possible when he was home..." With that, Kakashi trailed off.
"You're an asshole." A quiet voice said. It was Kotetsu. "Iruka was practically working himself to death, and you're the reason why?"
Kakashi nodded, wincing a little as everyone glared at him. "I... I know that I shouldn't have done that, but he was getting too close..."
For a second, no one said anything after that. Then Asuma sighed, shaking his head. Having known Kakashi the longest, he knew that Kakashi had commitment issues. As soon as he started feeling that someone was getting too close, the man would do everything within his power to chase them away. No matter how much he liked the person, Kakashi inevitably drove them away. Though, this time the other person being a man was a bit of a surprise. "So you got scared. Kakashi... how many times have I told you?"
"I know, Asuma. I.. I lasted longer with Iruka. I really thought... but I just... One day, I came home and he had been in the kitchen. When he looked up at me... I just..." Kakashi stopped, not being able to say the words he wanted. "I panicked. He smiled at me, looked at me... he had this look in his eye and I just couldn't take it. I brushed him off."
"You are an asshole." Izumo spoke up, pushing his chair away. Kotetsu followed his lead. "Did you also tell Iruka not to say anything about your relationship to anyone?"
At Kakashi's slight flinch, Izumo snorted in disgust. Both Izumo and Kotetsu left the restaurant without looking back.
Genma too stood up. "Kakashi... I'm your friend, but I'm also Iruka's friend. Right now, I want kick your ass, but I don't want to hurt you. So I'll see you later."
The rest left as well, until only Azuma was the only one besides Kakashi.
"I really messed up."
Azuma lit a cigarette, took a drag, and let it out slowly. He watched the smoke drift up, before looking back down at Kakashi. "You never talked to Iruka."
Even though it wasn't really a question, Kakashi nodded. "We avoided each other after Iruka noticed that I was... After a while, he moved out of my place. He didn't even tell me he was leaving. He just didn't show up one day. A few of his things are still there, but I don't think he was planning on stopping by to get them. They're mostly clothes and a few things I gave him."
There was a silence after that, and Asuma didn't break it. He was waiting for Kakashi to come clean. Completely.
"I had someone over the last time he stepped into the house. It wasn't anything inappropriate or anything like that, but… I knew that if Iruka heard anything, that that would be what he'd assume…."
There was silence, a silence that Asuma didn't break. He stared at Kakashi, waiting for him to continue.
"I regret it." Kakashi said finally, head tilting down. "The other day I was with Naruto and we spotted Iruka. He wouldn't even look at me. I hurt him."
"Of course you did. Kakashi... You're a genius, but sometimes..." Asuma trailed off with a shake of his head. "Come on, I'll walk you home. You're gonna be the target of many pranks for a while. Especially if Naruto hears about this."
OoOoOoOoOoOo
Iruka purposely walked through the camp, making sure that his face was set in a scowl so that if anyone saw him, they would leave him alone, thinking that he had something to do that couldn't be delayed. Not that there was a lot of people around.
Iruka's distractions, though time consuming, had been placed strategically to lead the guards away from where he was sure the information he needed was located. The explosions had worked pretty well. The area he was in was mostly deserted, with only a few stragglers every now and then. But those few were easily sent running with just a look at Iruka's face. His disguise was obviously efficient, but not wanting to push it, Iruka made his way quickly to the tent that was usually under intense guard.
During Iruka's initial reconnaissance, he'd gone through the camp, mapping everything in his mind. He'd studied the guards routines, the rotations, the types of weapons and anything else that would have been able to help him. The Captain's tent had been one of the first places that Iruka had looked for, hoping to find the information quickly and get out without being noticed. Iruka had been disappointed with that fast retrieval hope. When he had found it, the tent was heavily guarded and Iruka hadn't been able to get close to it at all. Suspicion was high, and that led Iruka to believe that something big was being planned. Iruka had left, and taken a day to formulate a strategy.
He'd even sent the hawk with a copy of his plan but Iruka hadn't been expecting to hear anything back from the Hokage. She'd given him leave to come up with his own strategies since he'd had a high success rate during the year he'd going back into Infiltration and Information Gathering.
The confirmation that they needed was extremely crucial, but at the same time, Iruka couldn't leave any evidence behind incase they were wrong. Kohona could not be associated with this mission.
With that in mind, Iruka had planted and set a few timed traps and explosions as far away as he could from where the Captain's tent was located so that area would become less guarded. The explosions would be small at first, then they would escalate to keep the attention away from his destination. Sure, the tent wouldn't be left completely undefended, but it would even the odds enough for Iruka to be able to get in.
He hoped.
When Iruka got to his destination, he froze a bit in surprise. It looked completely deserted. He couldn't see anything. Eyes narrowing with suspicion, Iruka brought his hands up and formed a few handsigns. A second after he was done, Iruka sent out his senses in small waves that would pick up anything in the area. Even if the person was cloaking their chakra, Iruka would be able to detect it. It was a risk, but Iruka couldn't afford to leave without the information. He took out his senbon that were coated with a sleeping toxin that would work within seconds. He couldn't afford to kill anyone yet. At least, not unless their information could be confirmed.
He found three chakra signatures that were significant enough to be a threat. Iruka quickly and quietly made his way to the first one. Once he was sure that he wouldn't miss, Iruka threw one of his senbon, hitting the man in the neck. The next one headed to the presence hidden just a bit farther, and the last senbon went to his right.
Three thumps were heard as the bodies hit the floor. They wouldn't be getting up anytime soon.
Quickly, Iruka darted into the tent and immediately headed for the table in the middle of it, hid henge fading away as his concentration went to searching for the information.
Papers were scattered everywhere as he looked through drawers and table tops. Nothing that had to do with what he was looking for caught his eye. Iruka glanced around and saw that there was a desk almost hidden against the tent walls. Iruka went to it and immediately found what he was searching for.
Attack plans, and records of some missing-nin and a few villages that wouldn't mind allying themselves with whomever the leader was.
As Iruka skimmed through them, his eyes narrowed.
He'd found what he was looking for - and more. This was the confirmation that the Hokage needed.
Suddenly, Iruka turned away as he felt of of his tags burst, sending chakra to alert him that someone was heading back towards his direction.
"Damn it." Iruka hissed, turning back to grab the papers. Hopefully, they wouldn't notice that they were gone any time soon. He whistled, as he left the tent, a hawk immediately flew down to him. Iruka placed the papers on a sealing scroll when he heard yelling.
"Ichigo and Misako are down! We've got to spread out!"
"Shit!" Iruka cussed softly, before tearing his leaf headband off and placing it on top of the plans. He quickly sealed everything into the sealing scroll and tied it to the hawks leg. But before Iruka let the hawk fly, he threw a kunai with a explosive tag attached to his right, as far from his location as possible.
The resulting explosion had the guards heading towards it, and with that distraction, Iruka sent the hawk up into the air. It disappeared quickly high into the sky.
"Shit, check the Captain's tent!"
Iruka moved swiftly, trying to get as much distance between himself and the enemy as he could without attracting any attention. He had to get out of the camp, and fast. He'd sent his headband just as a precaution but he really would rather avoid getting captured.
Iruka dashed in between the tents, making sure to send out his senses every now and then so that he could avoid any enemies that could be in his path. While running, he threw out a few tags that were connected to each other and would only explode when he triggered the closest one with his chakra. They blended into whatever they stuck onto, they wouldn't be obvious that way. It would be his last ditch effort to get away.
Suddenly, Iruka sensed three small objects flying towards him from the side. He jumped back, letting the kunai slam into the ground where he'd just been, and took out two kunai of his own. An enemy darted through the tents, and jumped towards Iruka with kunai in each hand. Iruka jumped back again, avoiding the slash from one and blocked the other with a clash. He slipped around the man, and sent a little bit of chakra to the bottom of his foot, sticking one of the kunai that was on the ground to his sole. Quickly, Iruka dashed away and spun, kicking his foot out. He stopped the chakra going to his sole, and let the kunai fly. It hit the man straight in the chest with a loud thud. Iruka didn't stick around, but he was sure that there was no way that he would survive.
He quickened his movements, dashing between tents once more. Iruka was almost to the trees, and he didn't sense anyone close by. He just had to get past the last row of tents and he would be able to disappear, maybe with a few pursuers but they would be easier to lose the farther he went from the camp.
There was just a few feet left when Iruka sensed something below him. But it was too late to do anything about it. At that moment, the ground underneath him opened up. Someone took a hold of his leg with one hand and stabbed him with a kunai with the other. A grunt of pain escaped, but before he could do anything to get out of the shinobi's grasp, his vision wavered, his body grew weak, and then his world turned black.
OoOoOoOoOoOo
Tsunade looked up grimly as the shinobi and kunoichi she had sent messenger birds to, filed into her office. Once they were all there, Tsunade spoke. "An hour ago, we received confirmation about an enemy invasion. Luckily, we have enough time to send a few squads to interfere while we also secure and prepare the village for attack. Asuma, Kakashi, Shikamaru, Gai, and Genma- you will each be leading a squad to the enemy base camp. Iruka is there, you will need to reconvene with him, if you are able. If not, you will attack the camp and take out the commanders."
"What do you mean 'If you are able'? And I thought Iruka was just going on escort missions..."
Tsunade shut her eyes, forehead furrowed slightly. There was a few seconds of silence before she opened her eyes again and answered. "Iruka has been infiltrating a few areas. This time I sent him into a camp just outside our borders, in Sound. There have been rumors that it was a war camp but nothing more than rumors. We needed to know if they were really were planning anything, and we couldn't just attack them without proof of hostility. Since they're not in our border, the only thing we could do was infiltrate, and get information. Iruka left two and a half weeks ago, earlier then he was supposed to but we got wind of some concerns so I sent him. Since he's gotten there, Iruka has been sending me constant updates every day with informations about what he's found and the layout of the camp. Today he was planning on going into the camp. If he was successful, Iruka would have sent the information, along with a report of what he was planning to do next with one of the messenger hawks. He sent the messenger hawk, but Iruka wrote no report... His headband was there as well. We now have proof that Konoha and a few other villages are their target, and we need to neutralize the threat. My guess is that he was compromised and had to make sure we got the information."
"Why would he send his headband...?"
Tsunade looked up, her eyes showing her frustration and sorrow. "He didn't want them to know what village he was from. I told him the information was vital, but Kohona could not afford to be caught implicated with anything. He's giving us time to set up plans."
There was a grim silence throughout the room, every single one of them felt dread at the thought of Iruka being compromised.
"You will be leaving immediately."
"Hai, Hokage-sama."
OoOoOoOoOoOo
Iruka came to slowly. Everything felt heavy, and he couldn't move a thing, not even his fingers. His vision seemed to be weaving slightly. Every time he tried to focus, it felt like the room was spinning and in the end, Iruka had to close his eyes to keep the nausea at bay. Throwing up was not something he wanted to do when he couldn't move his body properly.
"It looks like you're finally up, my lovely leaf shinobi. Caused us quite a bit of chaos, you know..."
Iruka's eyes snapped open in surprise at the sound of the voice. Not because he wasn't alone, but because he recognized it from somewhere. And the fact that he knew that Iruka was from Konoha was unsettling.
When he could finally see without the world spinning, Iruka's eyes flickered over to the man and saw why he was identified so easily. The word that left his mouth was slightly slurred, but still recognizable. "Taka...?"
"I see that you recognize me, Iruka." Taka smirked, eyes sparkling. "Surprised? I'm sure you weren't expecting me. I definitely wasn't expecting you. A pity, really. I was hoping for some unknown. I'll hate killing you. But, it's no matter. Konoha will get it's message, written in your lovely blood."
Iruka couldn't help but glare at the man. Or, he tried to. His face wasn't cooperating with him. In fact, his entire body felt like there was a ton of rocks lying on top of it. He managed to speak, but again, the words were hard to get out. "S-so you are planning on a-attacking Konoha." He didn't want to give the man the impression that he'd already found the plans, not that Iruka had been able to read much about what they were planning, other than the fact that it was against Konoha..
Taka smirked at Iruka, eyes full of amusement. "I'm planning more than that, my dear Iruka. Much more. You have horrible timing, just a few hours later and it would have been too late to stop anything…. No matter, you won't be able to move for a few hours either way. It will amount to the same thing. Now, I'll be back for you later. It seems that we will be going ahead of schedule. Since they sent you, Kohona obviously has heard about some rumors... but we stopped you before you could get our plans into your Hokage's hands. Hmmm, such a dilemma."
For a second, the man just stood there, watching Iruka, eyebrow quirked a little. Then he walked over to Iruka and reached out towards him with one hand. Iruka flinched away. Or tried to. His body still wasn't even twitching. That was disheartening but Iruka wasn't going to just give up. He would do everything possible to get out of this mess. Normally, he had a high tolerance of poisons and they got out of his system faster than normal. Though, he wasn't sure how long he'd been out, the fact that he couldn't move a thing yet was more than slightly disconcerting.
Taka smirked, like he knew what Iruka was thinking. His hand finally brushed against Iruka's face and he then ran his thumb gently over Iruka's jaw before gripping it tightly between both of his hands. Then he lowered his face until he was kissing Iruka's lips.
If Iruka could have pulled away, or even swung a first, he would have.
Since he couldn't, and Taka knew it well, the man pressed more firmly into the kiss. He even slipped his tongue into Iruka's mouth, almost teasingly, as if he was daring Iruka to bite it. It lasted for the longest time, and then Taka pulled away.
"If I didn't have to kill you…" The man sighed, trailing his fingers along Iruka's jaw, then down his neck, chest, stomach, before gripping his hip slightly. His hold tightened, making Iruka gasp in pain. Taka abruptly stopped, and stepped away from a slightly shell shocked Iruka. His eyes trailed down Iruka's form once more before turning.
Iruka watched as the man left, leaving him completely alone, though Iruka was sure that he was surrounded by guards. He shook the uneasiness as best he could, before focusing on escaping.
He would have to escape somehow, and if he couldn't... he'd have to trigger the rest of the bombs or possibly set a few more before triggering them. He could take out a majority or at least a good chunk of the camp if he could do that now that he'd sent the camps plans to Lady Tsunade. He doubted that he'd get the whole camp, but he could at least cut the numbers by quite a bit.
So, to start with, Iruka tried moving his fingers and toes a bit. The first few minutes, nothing twitched, not even a little bit. Then, after a few more moments of trying, his finger twitched slightly.
It wasn't much, but it was something. It meant that whatever they used on him was making its way out of his system. If he managed to avoid being dosed again, then he had a chance of escaping and detonating his tags.
If he couldn't leave, he was definitely going to die. If he escaped…. There was still a chance(big chance) that he would end up dead… but there was a slight chance from that, that he would be able to escape. Small though it might be, it was still a chance.
Crappy though his life had had been for the last year, there was still plenty there that he wanted to live for. Kakashi wasn't within his sphere any longer, but Naruto, and all Iruka's friends were still worth not giving up. So he would do everything possible, to make it out of the camp alive.
Hours later, or at least that's what it felt like, Iruka was finally able to move. Hesitantly, Iruka got up and looked around the room. It was bare, with the only thing in it was the thin blanket on the ground where he'd been placed. There was nothing he could find that he could use, but he wasn't necessarily surprised by that. After a quick check to confirm that yes, he'd been stripped of all his weapons and tags, Iruka rolled up his right sleeve, exposing a tattoo that he'd gotten on his forearm just after he'd started going on regular infiltration missions. He coated his fingertip with his chakra and slowly traised the outer line of the tattoo.
He unlocked it, and chakra flowed out and rushed through his body, almost like he was recharging himself. It wasn't much, he never could store a lot, but it was enough to do what he had to.
Iruka then passed his hand over his left forearm and unsealed his bag of explosive tags from the tattoo on that one. Never before had be stored anything other than his storage scroll full of his personal and treasured things in that, but he'd added the tags and a few senbon just in case this time because he'd had a feeling that he would need them.
Iruka was glad he had, and that they hadn't noticed anything odd about his two tattoos. After a few seconds, Iruka closed his eyes, took a breath, and sent out his senses in waves. What he found was more than a bit unsettling, but nothing that he hadn't thought would happen.
Surrounding him, there was a group of four chakra signatures. One was constantly moving, while the other three were stationary. He sent his senses a bit further, and found one of his planted explosive tags. It was just out of his reach. Iruka opened his eyes and quickly placed a few of the tags around the room.
He rolled his sleeves down and just to be on the safe side, Iruka sent out his senses one more time and was glad that he did. He immediately hid his tags in his pants pocket (sliding the senbon up his sleeve) and dropped onto the blankets. One of the guards walked in and over to Iruka, face set in a scowl. "They want you, get up." He kicked Iruka's side hard, making Iruka grunt at the force.
The man snickered, and reached down, hauling Iruka up to his feet roughly. Then he dragged him out the door, back towards the direction of Iruka's planted explosive tags.
Iruka pretended to struggle to stay on his feet, and discreetly struck another tag just underneath the tent that he'd stumbled next to. The guard gripped his arm and dragged him upright again. Iruka cast a discreet glance backwards and noticed that the other three guards were following, but from the looks of it, none of them thought that he was a threat. That was Iruka's one advantage. It also helped that he had replenished some of his chakra. Iruka would drop a few more tags before making a run for it again. He wouldn't be able to go far, but maybe he would get far enough that the blast would send him away, instead of killing him.
Again, Iruka stumbled, sticking another tag on the side of the crate he'd fallen against.
After a few more tumbles, Iruka struck. The senbon that he'd hidden up his sleeve, slammed into the guard's neck with one flick of his wrist. The guard instantly fell to the floor, dead. The other two immediately rushed him, one yelling out to alert the area around them.
Iruka took off, ignoring the pain in his ankle where he'd been stabbed with the kunai. He quickly threw a regular exploding tag at their feet. He didn't have to look back to know that his aim had been spot on. With little else but to run, he did just that. The chuunin did fling the rest of his tags, making sure that they would all be close enough to the other to set them off.
Sounds from his captors reached his ears, and Iruka couldn't help but grimace as the last time he'd been running from them, he hadn't made it out. He shook it off, running, and throwing tags wherever he could. Suddenly, a body slammed into him, making him crash through a tent.
Pain flared through his body as something pierced through his shoulder, pinning him to the ground. A harsh gasp of pain escaped his lips, though he managed to hold back the scream. Then, whatever had gone through his shoulder twisted and Iruka couldn't hold back the scream. Pain tripled from before, and his vision wavered dangerously. He was about to pass out when whoever had a hold of the kunai, stopped twisting it. He was still in pain, but he no longer felt like he was about to fall into darkness.
"Oh dear… My little prisoner still had a trick up his sleeve, I see." Taka's voice drifted through the roaring in Iruka's head.
Iruka blinked, trying to focus on the man that had him pinned down. Taka had a smirk on his face. He leaned in close to Iruka's ear and whispered. "But it was all for not. Konoha will fall, and there's nothing you can do about it."
"They'll stop you. Whatever you're planning, it won't work." Iruka managed to say through gritted teeth.
"Ah, but that's where you're wrong… those plans you found… they weren't everything…"
Iruka's eyes widened frantically as the implications of those words. That he knew that Iruka had seen them. That he'd likely sent them off.
Was it a trap?
Taka smirked, eyes boring into Iruka's.
It was a trap!
Panic rushed through Iruka at the thought of leading Konoha Shinobi, his friends, into a trap. He couldn't let that happen. He couldn't!
Taka's smirk grew bigger as he watched the panic go through Iruka's eyes. "Like I said, it's really too bad that you were the one they sent. I really would have prefered some unknown. But, it was fun, seeing the look on your face… Especially now… I wasn't going to tell you but I rather enjoy that look. The utter helplessness, and the fact that you lead them to their deaths. "
Iruka's gritted his teeth, then smiled. That smile made Taka frown, and Iruka brought up his hand, with a paper bomb held between his forefinger and middle finger.
Taka jerked, but not soon enough.
"I'm sorry Naruto…" Iruka whispered as he activated the bomb. Within seconds, it would trigger the rest of them, creating a mass explosion.
The paper ignited and pain rushed through his body, and then everything turned white.
OoOoOoOoOoOo
Kakashi, along with the rest of the squads on their way to the enemy camp were thrown off their feet as something exploded in the direction from the enemy camp.
Everyone jumped to their feet again, eyes wide in shock, before they all headed for the explosion sight.
"Kami..." Asuma said softly, eyes looking at the destruction in front of them. Burning tents, bloody body parts, soot, fires, smoking trees... Nothing moved, nothing breathed.
"Iruka..." Kakashi whispered, body trembling in shock.
The first one to make a move was Naruto, who headed straight for the area that looked the worst off. When using these type of explosives, the area that was tapped with chakra had the worst damage and that was where Iruka would have been, unless he'd used a timed explosion, which Kakashi had doubted because of the amount of damage throughout the whole camp.
The rest followed, though they checked the tents that were still somehow standing on their way there.
Nothing was found.
Iruka was gone.
A/N: Sorry for the wait!
To be honest, I've been having a lot of problems focusing lately. I finished most of this before my troubles, but still had to add a bit. It's not as long as I had planned but with the way I've been feeling, it's the best its gonna be. I do still want to rewrite it but that's a long shot that might not happen especially if I keep feeling this way. I can't even read others fanfiction without feeling foggy and just not there. Hope this passes soon though and get back into writing. Again, sorry for the long wait and I hope you guys are well.
Thank you for reading! And thank you for the reviews Alublad, Lala Em, Emy and Leki!