Day 5: No pressure, no point, no shinobi

When one becomes a shinobi, it gets drilled into their heads that what matters the most is succeeding the given missions and reigning in the unnecessary emotions. One may not like the situations they are forced into, one may even resent the ways the diplomacy is handled and curse the times when there's no other option than to use violence towards their fellow nin, but nevertheless, the unwavering mask of professionalism should be held on its place when performing the received mission parameters.

For some, over time, those masks become physically visible parts of their characters.

For others, however...

"One, two, three!"

"One more time!"

"One, two three!"

"Again!"

"I'd say that you're cheating, sensei."

"Saa, is the pot telling the kettle black - no way!"

"Ah-ha!"

"Damn it!"

"Didn't think I'd go for that one, eh?"

"You cheat, you were clearly going for paper first!" Iruka glared with a poorly disguised grin as he sat back and struck out his tongue at the laughing man in front of him.

"Maa, I warned you I've had plenty of practice in this, sensei", Kakashi drawled as his eyes crinkled in a bright smile. "Now, as our agreement was..." In mocking delicacy, he took the tray with the leftovers of their breakfast and passed it to the chuunin who, on his behalf, rolled the dark eyes as he took the offered dirty dishes from the very smug jounin.

"You know, I'm starting to doubt that your training is nothing more than children's games being modified for adults, with all the bell-chasing and now this", Iruka cast an amused look over his shoulder at the older man who followed him inside the house. The silver-haired nin settled to lean against the kitchen counter and observed in a lazy manner as Iruka cleared the empty plates, bowls and cups from the remnants of their food and drinks before putting them into the sink.

"Ah, but with all the crazy jounins wrecking your mission room it should have been obvious to you by now. You'd be amazed with the results we achieved by combining touch rugby with hopscotch", Kakashi mused and felt his grin spread even wider at the bright laughter bubbling past the younger man's lips. As far as the current mood was concerned, he wouldn't mind waking up more often at eight-thirty, even if it did clash with his carefully created reputation of an insufferably phlegmatic person enough to rival one young Nara.

"Undoubtedly so, Kakashi-san", Iruka snickered and shook his head as he started to wash the dishes, the wide smirk etched on his face. The friendly ambiance they shared was more than welcomed for him, and Iruka was glad that Kakashi didn't seem to hold a grudge about the issue of the broken nose. Even losing in 'rock-paper-scissors', of all things, couldn't threaten his good mood, as annoying as the boasting grin on the masked face was. "You make us chuunins sound so serious, though. I wish I could play games and get paid for it."

"Oh? And here I thought that that's what teachers do all the time", Kakashi cocked a playful eyebrow at the tanned man's musings. The brown eyes gave him a sternly pointed look, but the grin was there.

"Be my substitute for a week and then we'll see what you think, Kakashi-san." Iruka couldn't help but smirk even wider at the slightly concerned look passing in the gray eye. Sure, the civilian schools did have time for games and the teachers were considerately less stressed out compared to their shinobi colleagues, but Iruka did like his more serious-minded curriculum. Furthermore, if he remembered correctly, the closest the tanned teacher ever got to play a children's game at work was a rather nerve-wrecking version of hide and seek with Naruto, Kiba, Chouji and Shikamaru, his important folder of their grades and a box of explosive tags.

If the kids survived long enough to play games after becoming jounin, he was more than happy to sacrifice his personal desire for having fun in order to make them achieve that.

Including them surviving his wrath after the insane stunts, that is.

"Ah, but then again, as one could see you as the prime example of a capable chuunin, I'd say your rank is far from being dull, sensei", said the low, warm voice next to him. Iruka's hands slowed the scrubbing for the briefest beat, but then he fluently picked up the next plate and cast a sidelong glance at the gray eye he felt on himself, the unyielding gaze of the other man as unreadable as ever. Then he flashed a mocking smirk at the older nin.

"Are you trying to flatter your way out of today's chores, oh mighty copy-nin-san?"

Against his expectations, a mere lazy shrug met his teasing words and the gray eye stayed calm, the jounin still keeping his eye on the darker man. "Take it how you wish it, sensei. You're in charge of today's dishes and food, as yesterday you not only insulted me and used my property despite the shinobi protocol, but then broke my nose after dipping me thoroughly in mud, and now even lost in a simple children's game, plus, if my superior mind remembers correctly, yesterday you did offer to cook as a placating gesture for your rash actions." Pleased with his uncanny logic, the jounin smirked and waved casually as the strolled out of the kitchen back to the sunny terrace, leaving one gaping chuunin with his dirty dishes.

Not that he expected to silence the loud man long enough with that.

"Did your genius brain also remind you that you'd be preparing the fish today as you said you would, Kakashi-san?" Iruka called after the man and felt his eyebrow rise at the cocky glance he received over the other's shoulder.

"...Maa, but that was agreed before you attempted to decrease the number of my senses with one, sensei. Thus, as the rules of compensating go, you get the fish as well", the older nin winked evilly and chuckled at the glorious blush spreading on the horizontal scar. Hell, he was really having second thoughts of sleeping so long every morning if waking up early meant spending more time with the smart and, admittedly, quite -

A sudden jolt of electricity resembling disturbingly his most powerful raikiri, surged through his upper chest. His hand shot out to get a hold on the wall to keep himself standing as he felt the strength vanish from his muscles. Through the numb haze he could see Iruka's lips move in what seemed like an alerted, shocked cry and the man rush to him from the kitchen, the jounin not really understanding why since the terrace floor seemed more than excited to catch him as the last threads of his consciousness dissolved into darkness.


For active duty shinobi, as it was taught, the primary goal should be on succeeding the given missions. That goal on one hand also meant to take care of one's mission partners, since they were usually the key factor for everything to go well. But sometimes, far too often for everybody's liking, finishing the mission meant leaving someone behind, either injured and waiting to be collected later on, or dead and taken care of accordingly.

Iruka disliked both options.

One could suspect that to be the very reason why he was so keen on learning different barriers and traps that were rumored to have the largest range and best endurance among the chuunins, at least more likely than using them only for getting on his co-workers' nerves. Except in the case of the one specific, laid-back jounin who had been taken to the hospital the moment Tsunade had arrived into their house.

Iruka cast an absentminded look at the clear sky above him as he sat on the terrace, his tea long cold in his apathetic hands as his mind examined the things that had happened in the past minutes. Whatever it was that had floored one of the best jounins their village had, the teacher was sure that he wasn't going to like the news they'll send him. He had realized that they were hip-deep in something when he had spotted the disbelieving look of agonizing pain in the gray eye before the older man hit the ground. Seeing the faint blue glow inside the man's chest on the spot where he knew the seal was had been the final confirmation regarding the severeness of their situation.

Never before had he sent a summon for ANBU so quickly.

Having put his cup down on the tray, Iruka folded his hands on his lap and regarded the muddy mess they had created on the ground the previous night, the dark eyes unseeing as the vigilant mind worked on their newest predicament. As the work at the Konoha's ninja academy had trained his memory, the chuunin meticulously replayed their sparring sessions from each day up until the latest one the previous night, the man trying to find any clues that could offer any help for the medics and their Hokage in order to get to the bottom of Kakashi's collapsing.

For how long he sat there until he sensed Tsunade behind his back, he couldn't tell.


"...The pathways? How can that be?" Iruka stared stunned at Tsunade who stood next to him in their training room, them both regarding the unconscious, silver-haired figure on the futon in their bedroom. Iruka could see the unsettling level of paleness on the already pale man and the slight stress tensing the the man's face, his own brows furrowing in deep concern at the sight which was unusual for him to see. He did know about the other's habit of coming back from his missions with chakra depletion more than once, but to actually see the man knocked out cold was a whole different matter.

"This can be taken as the first side effect, Iruka-sensei", the blond woman said with a quiet voice. "It seems that the amount of chakra that you two were given wasn't enough to keep the pathways in good condition. From what we have managed to gather, it appears that a certain minimum amount of chakra must be circulating in your system in order to reach every pathway within your body, not only the main paths but the minor ones as well. Otherwise the result would be that the body starts to dysfunction progressively, assumably beginning with the loss of the fine motor skills and ending with the downfall of the vital functions. We're not as independent from our chakra system as we seem to think, sensei. No wonder the chakra restraints work so efficiently", Tsunade cast a dryly amused look at Iruka, who felt a cold uneasiness creep up in his veins as the look in the amber eyes told him clearly that it wasn't all that the woman had witnessed during the years she had worked with chakra.

He'd be a fool for asking about it.

Instead, he focused on the matter that was undeniably his business as well. "Do you wish to examine my pathways as well, Hokage-sama?"

The blond woman nodded and they turned to look at the terrace where the sound of approaching footsteps caught their attention. After a moment Hyuga Neji stepped in sight, the pale-eyed young jounin carrying a tray of three cups and a tea pot in his hands.

"Good afternoon, Iruka-sensei."

In an odd sense, the calm, stoic smile on the younger shinobi's face did comfort him.

If only he didn't know better.


Despite the sunny afternoon outside, the silence that circled the two shinobi and their Hokage felt like it had attempted to swallow the light itself with all the sounds of the surrounding world, not daring to interrupt the deep concentration of the pale eyes that scanned through the immobile, if only slightly nervous, tanned body. Having enjoyed their tea, they stood on the matted floor and Iruka focused his thoughts on the evenly breathing figure tucked in a bed a dozen feet away as he felt the young byagukan user stand closer to him than was necessary in his opinion. Sure, Neji's generation had lived in the time of peace and Iruka wasn't one to flinch away from a comrade, but he still valued his well established safety range both with friends and foes.

One could never be too sure when interacting with the equally distrustful individuals.

"...He's fine now, Iruka-kun." Iruka turned his eyes to Tsunade who regarded him with a sliver of smile on the red lips. "We managed to balance his system and I boosted his pathways for extra precautions. The brat has now an amount of chakra that should suffice to keep him walking and talking. He just needs plenty of rest, and I suspect that it will take until the next morning when he'll wake up again."

"I still can't understand how, Hokage-sama", Iruka frowned and leveled his leader with an apprehensive look. "If our situation could lead to serious damage then how come the chakra restraints that are used for prisoners and enemies don't seem to cause the same result?"

"Well, for one, the restraints are rarely used for a long period of time since the prisoners are usually taken care of quite quickly, but more importantly, those restraints don't take away the person's chakra, but merely block the use of it. In other words, they still have their chakra reserves intact but without the means to use them. That's why we also didn't anticipate for this to happen, as we reasoned that giving you any amount of chakra should cover the needs of your pathway system. It seems that we went wrong with that assumption." Tsunade gave Iruka a curt look and then shifted to watch as Neji was apparently finishing his check-up on the young teacher. "Well?"

Neji stepped a bit further away from Iruka, who thanked the boy in his mind for that small gesture, and both Iruka and Tsunade could see him carefully asses his answer. Finally the young man seemed to reach a decision and turned to look at the chuunin while his words were directed to their Hokage.

"The second and third sector of the right leg are close to collapsing, as the first sector on his left ankle is endangered. The lower 56th and 67th points have almost none chakra inside them, so that might explain why you were careful with putting some weight on your left leg, Iruka-sensei", the Hyuga gave the slightly blushing older nin a small smile, apparently the tanned man had only considered his muscles to be too sore, "As for the hands, the finger points are doing better than the ones on the legs, but they also need more chakra in them, plus the lower back has somehow received less chakra than the rest of the spinal area, and furthermore the 35th, 34th and 33rd points on the right shoulder have seen better days."

Iruka felt his cheeks blush further as he realized that to explain the throbbing ache on his shoulder that has grated on his nerves the past days. Why didn't they even consider that possibility?

"All in all you're in better shape than Kakashi-san was when they brought him in, but..." The look in the pale eyes turned into more serious and the mouth of the ever so calm-looking young clan prodigy turned into a grim line.

"You have collapsed once already, haven't you, Iruka-sensei?"

The moment Iruka felt Tsunade tense considerately and heard the woman cuss sharply he dodged down on well-honed reflex as the perfectly manicured fist flew past his head. He heard Neji call Tsunade in surprise but as his situation was he was far more interested in surviving the pummeling he was sure to receive once the now loudly cursing woman managed to get a grip on him.

"You collapsed? What the hell, Iruka? I thought I told you to inform me at once when something happens!" Tsunade roared in outrage as she grabbed the fleeing sensei, bunching up the fabric of the man's black muscle shirt as she pulled him face to face with her furious eyes.

"But that happened before you visited us, Tsunade-sama! And the ANBU who checked on me said that it was only physical exhaustion-" Iruka could feel the woman's breath waft against his skin as he tried to free himself from the grip of the homicidal Hokage. If he was feeling fine this morning, he was sure to get that mishap corrected by not only his collapsing chakra system but the fists of their village's best medic.

How he loved the irony that was his current life.

"To hell with the things that an ANBU says, they know only advanced basics to look at when doing the healing, you idiot! How can you act so stupidly, what! Do you have any idea that this situation could have been avoided if you had just opened that goddamn mouth of yours the other day instead of pouting over a stupid bite mark and sipping your tea all the time?!" Tsunade's bellowing echoed in Iruka's ears and for once he felt sorry for his students who had been unfortunate enough to experience the same treatment from him. "How about I give you a good reason to lose your consciousness for, huh?!"

"Tsunade-sama!" Both Iruka and Neji shouted in unison, the other from the sheer rising panic for his suddenly shortening life and the other from the utter annoyance on the whole situation. Annoyance that turned into deep concern in a split of a second. "Hokage-sama!"

"What?!" Tsunade snapped to look at Neji and from the other's shocked face she whipped her head back just in time to see Iruka cough up clear liquid from his mouth, the tanned features suddenly pale and nauseous as the man heaved for breath with sickening gurgles bubbling in his throat as more liquid forced its way out of his figure. Although what turned the murderous urge quickly into professional healer's hard logic and efficiency wasn't the watery liquid half-vomited on her sandals.

It was the map of chakra points glowing faintly like dying flames under the teacher's black shirt.

The next things Iruka's reeling mind registered was him to be slammed on the ground on his back, two sets of hands ripping away his shirt and the other taking a hold on his head and tilting it backwards while the other seemed to work through a series of signs, as far as the enormous chakra spike he numbly sensed indicated, and before he knew it a shockwave of pain with a force he had never thought could exist surged throughout his body, reaching for every vein inside his system and flaring up every nerve and pressure point on its way towards his head that jerked and twisted in the firm hold kept on both his jaw and the crown of the head.

The last thing he felt and heard was a raw, wet scream of pain ripping through his choking throat as the electric blue light accompanied with searing pain invaded both his mind and his lungs and the hold on his head slacked for a second.