Book VII: Iruka

Iruka wandered aimlessly through Konoha. He still had a little while before he needed to report to the Mission Assignment Desk for his afternoon shift, and he wanted to take that time to clear his head. He was worried about Naruto. Rubbing the back of his neck with a helpless chuckle, he turned off the main road and let his feet take him wherever they led. Well, there certainly wasn't anything new about that, worrying about the blonde had become as much of a second nature to him as scolding the young man was. He couldn't help it when it wasn't warranted, and since Naruto had been brought back with such a terrible injury it gave him all the more reason to.

He scratched his arm and turned down a seldom used path through the trees. Seeing Naruto's life hanging by a thread was still giving him nightmares, even though the young man was well on his way to recovery. Logically, his worry should be starting to calm down now that the blonde's life was securely out of danger, but injuries like that and the circumstances surrounding them tended to leave wounds that went deeper than anything a medical nin could heal with skill alone. Still, Naruto wasn't the type to let even that hold him down for long, and Iruka knew he'd pull through just fine.

Unfortunately, none of that logic kept him from worrying. Something had been seriously bothering Naruto that morning. Something he didn't want to talk about. Normally the young man was open and often rudely direct about what he was thinking or feeling, but when he held it in there was simply no prying the information out of him no matter what. In that situation the only thing to do was sit there and talk at him, then wait till he'd figured enough out to give voice to his troubles.

He sighed and stuffed his hands in his pockets, wishing he could just turn the blonde upside-down and shake it out of him like he used to back in the Academy when he was relieving the young prankster of his hidden tools of trade. Iruka smiled warmly at the memory, then laughed quietly to himself at the ridiculous image of trying to hold Naruto up by the ankles now. He wasn't a little kid anymore, being only a few inches shorter than himself.

Of course, it still felt like he'd graduated only yesterday and Iruka shrugged in acceptance, knowing it would always feel that way for him. Now, if he could just come up with a way to weasel a few clues out of Naruto, he might be able to figure out what was upsetting the blonde so much. Sakura had told him about his 'episode' earlier that morning when she'd asked him if he recalled how he got injured, so that gave him a bit of a lead.

The sound of a kunai striking wood brought him sharply out of his thoughts, and he blinked as he realized where he had ended up. The main training grounds were scattered around Konoha, close enough to the village proper in case of an accident, but far enough away to avoid disturbing or endangering the general public. There were a few smaller sites tucked into the woods a good distance from town, but they weren't used a lot.

Silently berating himself for not keeping an eye on his surroundings, Iruka turned on his heel to head back to Konoha. He hesitated after a few steps, curiosity getting the better of him as he heard the sing of wire and another thunk of kunai against wood. Carefully, so as not to disturb whoever was training, he stepped up behind a tree to see who was occupying the small glade. His eyes widened in genuine surprise at the taller Jounin reeling his kunai back with a flick of his wrist as the wire zinged back to where it was hidden in his gloved hand.

"I can find another spot if you need this for classes," Kakashi called, holding the kunai loosely without turning around to look at the Academy teacher.

"No, no," Iruka replied guiltily, coming out from behind the tree. "Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you. I was just walking by and got curious. Do you use this place often?"

"Only when I'm looking for some privacy," he said neutrally, taking a stance and flinging the kunai out.

Iruka bristled slightly at the blunt response, but quelled it under the knowledge that he was the uninvited guest there. Honestly, talking to Kakashi was a somewhat frustrating puzzle. The man wasn't moody, but Iruka never quite knew what to expect out of him. He could be so aloof and distant much of the time that it was like trying to talk to someone across a canyon. He watched silently as Kakashi manipulated the direction of the kunai with the attached wire, winding it through the lower branches of the surrounding trees till he pulled it in to spear the back side of one of the target practice logs.

The exercise in accuracy and delicate control truly was impressive, and he had to fight the urge to whistle in appreciation. That was Kakashi for you, and the man wasn't even using his sharingan. Not that he should be using it in the first place, since he'd just gotten out of the hospital a few days ago. Iruka abruptly felt somewhat uncomfortable about not having visited Kakashi, even if it was to just poke his head in the door on his way to and from Naruto's room. It wasn't like they were close friends, but they were comrades and he probably should have at least said 'Hello'. Besides, there really was something he'd been wanting to say to the Jounin.

"Kakashi-san, I wanted to thank y-"

"If there's nothing important you wanted to discuss with me, you should probably head back to the village," Kakashi interrupted, reeling the kunai and wire back to his hand. "You're usually on duty at the Mission Assignment Desk in the afternoons, aren't you?"

Okay, now Iruka was pissed. Here he was trying to thank Kakashi for saving Naruto, and the impossible man was calling it unimportant?! His own nerves were on the frazzled side, and he clenched his teeth to keep from snapping back. The feeling was too reminiscent of the dispute they'd had about entering Team 7 in the Chuunin exams. Iruka had been wrong then, and he wasn't precisely in the right now after barging in and interrupting the Jounin during his personal training. Despite that, he wasn't going to give in so easily, an irrational desire to make a couple digs on Naruto's behalf fueling his temper.

"I just came back from visiting Naruto," Iruka said, narrowing his eyes at the almost imperceptible hitch in Kakashi's movements as the taller man again took his stance to throw the kunai. "Something's really bothering him, and he won't open up. When was the last time you went to see him?" The kunai sank into the back of the target post, and if Iruka didn't know any better he'd swear the visible part of the handle he could see looked like it might be slightly off center of its mark.

"I'll see him plenty when he gets out of the hospital," Kakashi said, yanking the kunai back to his palm and continuing to stay turned away from Iruka as he again took his stance.

"Sakura said he had a bad time of it when he tried to describe what he remembered of getting injured," he said, forcibly relaxing his jaw so he wasn't grating the words out.

Why Naruto was so attached to that damn man was beyond him, he was as insensitive as a brick. It was like nothing had changed and he'd gone back to...how he used to be? That gave Iruka pause, and he canted his head thoughtfully as Kakashi pulled the kunai to stab the back of the target post at a somewhat awkward angle. He'd never paid a great deal of attention to it before, but Kakashi had changed over the last six years.

It had been such a gradual shift that it was only noticeable when he compared the beginning and end result. But Naruto had that effect on people, so he shouldn't be surprised. What did surprise him was the fact that the Jounin seemed to be backing up into his old self. On top of that he was avoiding Naruto and squirreling himself in the middle of nowhere to train when he should be resting. Something wasn't adding up, and the chilly silence between them did nothing but fan a sense of suspicion he couldn't define.

"After his fever broke he said a lot of strange things," Iruka said quietly, watching Kakashi closely without knowing what he was looking for. The Jounin's shoulders were just a bit too tense as he reached his arm back to aim the kunai. "He didn't know where he was, and he couldn't hear anything I said." The bladed weapon whipped through the branches with more force than it needed, and Kakashi's fingers twitched on the singing wire as he controlled its direction. "He called out for you."

Kakashi's arm jerked back and the kunai flew wild, missing its target completely to sink into the ground between the two men. Iruka stared at the weapon with wide disbelieving eyes. He'd just seen and done the impossible; he'd distracted the great Hatake Kakashi enough to make him miss his target. And not only miss, but miss spectacularly enough to make 90% of his students look like seasoned professionals. Something was very wrong.

"Is it really that surprising?" Kakashi asked stonily, yanking the kunai back by the attached wire and refusing to look in Iruka's direction. "If Naruto was delirious enough to think he was still out there, of course he'd be wondering where the hell I was."

Iruka felt his hackles rise, glaring at the Jounin's rigid back and clenched fists. There was too much self-blame in that statement for his liking, and his anger at Kakashi's earlier interruption of his thanks rose exponentially. If he thought he could pull it off he would like nothing better than to drag the silver-haired jackass to the hospital and kick him into Naruto's room so he could give both of the stubborn bastards the biggest lecture of their fucking lives. Not that either of them would listen to a god damn word he said...

"He needs to talk to someone," Iruka grated angrily.

"He needs a good ass-kicking," Kakashi growled, putting his kunai away and stalking his way out of the small training area.

"That too..." Iruka replied under his breath, smiling ruefully as he watched the taller man disappear into the trees.

He stood there for several minutes, his half-grimace slowly relaxing into an expression that bordered on satisfied. He'd been there the day Kakashi had volunteered to assess Naruto's readiness for field assignments. Truthfully, he'd been more than a little concerned at the grim stoic resolve in the man's eye when he'd proposed the idea to Tsunade, knowing the Jounin was fairly intent on putting the blonde through some unforgiving paces to test him.

However, the more he kept stepping back to look at the larger picture, the more he started feeling rather good about the notion of those two butting heads. They were as opposite as they were similar, and any doubts he had in regards to the inevitable fight that would happen between the pair had been thoroughly dashed when that kunai hit the dirt instead of the target. Unfortunately, it also left him with a series of nagging questions concerning the restless tension they'd both displayed. It was as if he was looking at something that was connected but unconnected; a confusing tangle that didn't have an end or a beginning.

He scratched the back of his head and turned on his heel to walk back to the village proper. It didn't make sense that things felt as if they made absolute sense when he couldn't actually make any sense of any of it. Ah well, he was dealing with Naruto in this situation. Everything always tended to happen sideways and then turn upside-down before righting itself into a perfectly aligned position in the end. Whatever was going on with those two, they'd eventually be able to iron each other out. That, at least, he had complete confidence in.