Naruto isn't sure what happens exactly – but one moment, Dog's eye is open, and the next moment, it's fluttered shut.

Naruto instinctively flinches back, frowning at Dog's face. His head lolls limply to the side, his back thumping softly against the wall behind him. The rabbit lies in his lap, perfectly cooked.

"Uhm," Naruto tries, leaning forward. "Dog-san? You okay?"

Dog doesn't react; his eyes stay closed, his face stays slack. Naruto can hear him breathe, the air wheezing quietly in his throat.

Naruto fidgets in the silence, unsure of what to do. He belatedly looks behind him, looking for an enemy that might've taken Dog out – but there's no one there. Naruto is entirely alone, apart from Dog, who just passed out for apparently no reason. The solitude reminds Naruto once again that he can ask absolutely no one for help. He has to figure out what to do all by himself.

He scrunches up his nose, trying to think. He's occasionally seen classmates pass out, when they push themselves too far during ninjutsu training. Iruka-sensei always sits with the kid in question and pats their face until they wake up, and he makes sure that they don't sit up too quickly. It's an approach that works, as far as Naruto knows. At least it's better than doing nothing.

He scoots closer to Dog, reaches out a hand, and pats his face.

A strong hand catches his wrist, squeezing hard enough to hurt. Naruto yelps in surprise. "Hey, ow!" he protests, and the hand quickly lets him go.

Dog is looking at him through his eyelashes, his gaze unfocused. With a shaky sigh, he closes his eye again. "I warned you not to startle me," he murmurs. "Did I hurt you?"

Naruto examines the bruises on his wrist; they're already fading from blue to green. "Not really," he replies. "It's my own fault, anyway. I totally forgot that I should be careful not to startle you."

Dog gives an exasperated huff, but he doesn't respond much more than that. His face is pale, Naruto notices, and his chest is heaving with irregular breaths; it seems like he's having a hard time breathing. He'd already looked sick before, but he'd at least seemed like he was able to hide it somewhat. Now, though, it seems like what little strength he'd still had has suddenly drained out of him completely.

"Are you okay?" Naruto asks him, and he notices that he sounds worried. He feels worried. It's really jarring to realize that Dog may be even less okay than Naruto thought.

There's very little visible of Dog's face, but Naruto can somehow tell that he's grimacing. "I'll answer your question soon," he replies. His voice is wavering a bit. "I just need a moment to catch my breath first."

"Sure. I get that." Naruto nods at him, even though Dog has his eyes closed and can't see that. "Can I do something to help?"

"Some quiet would help," Dog replies tiredly.

Naruto laughs nervously; being quiet has never been his strongsuit. "I'll do my best."

He manages to stay quiet for a couple of minutes, scratching lines in the ground with his kunai to distract himself – if he doesn't distract himself, he knows he'll just forget about his promise to be quiet and start talking again in no time. Iruka-sensei has yelled at him for that often enough.

Thankfully, before that has the chance to happen, Dog clears his throat and sits up a little. He's moving stiffly, and even the small motion of sitting up makes him visibly wince, but his face is a bit less pale than before.

He notices Naruto's questioning look, huffs a laugh, and says: "To answer your question from before: I'm okay. Just extremely tired."

"That's a load of crap," Naruto blurts out, and Dog's eye widens slightly. "You promised you'd answer my questions honestly."

Dog blinks at him dumbly for a moment, somehow seeming surprised that Naruto saw through his extremely obvious lie. The surprised look soon fades into tiredness, though, and Dog leans against the wall behind him with a sigh.

"Pass," he murmurs, closing his eye.

Naruto splutters in protest. "You can't just pass a question," he exclaims. He'd intended to yell more, but some of his anger fades when he sees that Dog winces at the loud noise. "Fine," Naruto grumbles, crossing his arms. "You know, if you're not going to answer me, I'm just going to guess at what's wrong. All you'll have to do is nod when I'm right and shake your head when I'm wrong, yeah?"

It's another thing that he's seen Iruka-sensei do, whenever someone is too upset or too stubborn to talk. In Dog's case, definitely too stubborn.

Dog doesn't answer him, so Naruto just leans back on his hands and hums in thought. "First of all, I think you were lying when you said you were okay," he starts. When Dog doesn't react, Naruto tells him bluntly: "And I'm right about that, so you're supposed to nod, now."

Dog heaves a sigh, but then his chin dips down into a nearly-unnoticeable nod. Naruto takes the victory.

"And I think you're kinda sick," he continues. "Judging by… whatever happened just now, you're probably sicker than you're letting on."

There's a moment of hesitation, but eventually, Dog nods again.

"And I'm guessing that the blood on your clothes is yours."

Another nod.

"And I think that- I think that all of that is why you're stuck in here. You're trying to be tough about it, but it's pretty clear that you can't move."

Dog looks at him through his eyelashes. He looks resigned. "That's enough questions for the day."

"These weren't questions," Naruto points out. Granted, he's lost count of how many actual questions he's already asked, but since Dog looks as though he feels like crap, he's probably stopped counting too.

Dog looks even more resigned, his shoulders slumping a bit. "Fine," he replies eventually. "You might as well know." He gives Naruto a sharp look. "Just know that if you ever find yourself in my position, you should always lie. Showing weakness is against the Shinobi Rules, and it's also generally considered a really dumb move. People will take advantage of you. Remember that if you want to stay alive."

"But you're not a shinobi, so you don't need to care about the Shinobi Rules," Naruto says. "And I won't take advantage of you. I just want to help, and I can't help you if I don't know what's wrong."

Dog gives him a slow nod, and he rubs a shaky hand across his face. "You were right," he says, "about me not being able to move. I got stabbed in the side, I've been sick for two weeks and I'm guessing it's pneumonia, and I just used up too much of my chakra." He says it all quickly, in a monotone voice, looking away from Naruto. He's clearly not used to admitting weakness, and he clearly doesn't like it.

Naruto finds himself falling silent, trying to process all of that. He only half remembers what "chakra" is, but he knows that not having much of it is bad, and he doesn't have the slightest clue what "pneumonia" is but it's clearly making Dog pretty sick. And a stab wound on top of that…

"You should be in the hospital," Naruto states, and Dog huffs a cough-laugh.

"I wholeheartedly agree," he replies. "Unfortunately, I'm a wanted man, so walking into a hospital would get me arrested immediately. I'd probably get executed for treason." He nods his chin at the room around them. "Hiding out in a hole is pretty much my only option right now."

Naruto scratches at the ground with his fingernail, trying to think. This can't be Dog's only option, right? "Why not ask a medical-nin to heal you?" he asks. "What if I dragged a medic out here and got them to heal you? Or, maybe you could learn medical ninjutsu yourself!"

Dog shrugs. "If I could teach myself medical ninjutsu, I would've done so years ago. I tried, but some people just can't learn it." He shakes his head. "And getting a medic out here sounds far too risky. Unless you know a medic that absolutely definitely wouldn't tattle on me."

Naruto's face falls. He doesn't know many medics at all; he heals really quickly, so he's only been to the hospital once or twice. He's seen the school nurse a couple of times, but definitely not often enough to be certain that she'd keep a secret like this. "I guess not," he admits reluctantly. "I'm sorry."

There's a hint of sympathy underneath the tiredness in Dog's gaze. "Don't apologize. Even if that plan were possible, I wouldn't have asked you to take such a risk, anyway." He stifles a cough. "I've already thought through every plan possible, and this is the one that sucks the least. The best option is to rest up here until I'm well enough to walk, and then I'll get out of here as quickly as possible. I just need to hope that the shinobi from your village don't find me before then. And that I don't die of starvation or cough myself to death before I get the chance to heal."

He seems flippant, but the anxiety is clear in his voice. There's so much that could go wrong here – Naruto isn't sure how long it will take Dog to recover, but judging by his solemn tone, it could be days or weeks before he's well enough to walk. A lot could go wrong during that time.

"Do you think you're going to survive this?" Naruto asks, and his voice comes out small. He hopes he'll never have to lose someone, but he certainly hopes that he won't have to lose the very first friend he's ever made. That just wouldn't be fair.

Dog stares ahead of him. "I can't predict the future," he replies, "so… maybe." He notices the startled look on Naruto's face, and quickly adds: "But I also think that it's not as serious as it sounds. I'm not actively dying, and I'm relatively safe. It could be worse."

"And you have me to help you!" Naruto adds.

Dog nods, his expression turning into something more serious. "That's true," he says, "but, kid, please remember that it's really illegal to help missing-nin. I appreciate your help, but do not get yourself in trouble on my behalf." He gives Naruto a look that would've been scary if he'd been better at hiding his worry. "Understood?"

"I'll be careful not to get in trouble," Naruto replies with a nod. He's not very good at being careful, but he'll try his best. He'll just have to figure out ways to help that won't get him in trouble.

"Good," Dog replies softly, and he lets his eye slip shut, apparently finished with the conversation. He's frowning, and Naruto can hear the slight hissing sound of him breathing through his teeth. His hand limply lies across his injured side; his entire body seems slack, like there's not enough strength left in him to keep himself upright. For a moment, Naruto thinks that he's passed out again, but then Dog speaks again. "I need to sleep for a bit," he murmurs. "Would you mind leaving me alone?"

"Sure," Naruto replies, though his gaze falls on the rabbit that's still lying on Dog's lap. "You, uhm, you still haven't eaten yet, though. Shouldn't you do that first?" He hesitates, some years-old knowledge from a lesson about first aid resurfacing. "Or… Wait, that's a problem with chakra exhaustion, isn't it? I don't really remember…" He trails off; he never paid very much attention in the classes about medical stuff, because none of that information applied to him anyway.

Dog grimaces. "Yeah," he replies. "If your chakra level gets too low, your body won't have enough energy left to digest food. I don't think my chakra level is that low, but if I'm wrong, then eating right now could give me a pretty bad stomach ache. So I'll take a nap and eat later." He gives Naruto an apologetic look. "Sorry. I'm not trying to be ungrateful. I do appreciate your help."

"It's fine," Naruto replies quickly, waving his hands around, "I get it." He gets up from the ground and dusts off his pants. "I'll be back tomorrow, then," he says. "I hope you feel better soon."

"Thanks," Dog says hoarsely, his eyes closed. "Be careful on your way back, kid."

Later that evening, Naruto stands in the middle of his apartment with his hands in his sides and a determined frown on his face. Dog needs more help than Naruto initially thought, but he's not going to let that stop him. He can figure this out.

Now, how could he help Dog-san get out of this alive?

Uzumaki Naruto, Iruka decides, seems far more distracted than usual today.

It's not that he's disruptive, per se – in fact, it seems like he's making an effort to actually behave for once. But, even though he's not causing any trouble, he's bouncing in his seat more than normally, his eyes glued to the clock on the wall. He seems impatient. Like there's something after school that he almost can't wait for.

And, considering that Naruto's after-school activities almost always end with trouble, his impatience worries Iruka.

So, as soon as the school bell rings to signal the end of the day, Iruka walks over to where Naruto is trying to jam his school supplies into his backpack. It seems like his backpack is so full that he almost can't fit his books into it. Iruka's worry increases.

Naruto notices Iruka approaching, and he quickly swings his backpack onto his back and holds his books underneath his arm. He gives Iruka a hasty grin and tries to scurry past him. "See you tomorrow, Iruka-sensei!" he says, but Iruka holds out a hand to stop him.

"I'd like to talk to you," Iruka tells him, "just for a minute."

A couple of the other students pause to stare and snicker. "Naruto's in trouble again," Iruka hears someone sing-song behind him, and he considers snapping at his students for it. He knows it won't help, though. His students' disdain for Naruto is stronger than any authority Iruka could ever have over them.

Naruto turns his head to glare at his classmates, though he returns his focus to Iruka quickly enough. "But, sensei!" he protests. "I specifically tried to be quiet so that I wouldn't have to stay after class! I only shouted in class once today!"

"I know," Iruka replies. "You're not in trouble." Not yet, at least. "I just want to ask you something."

Naruto grumbles, but he gives Iruka a nod. "Fine. But, can we make it quick? I've got somewhere to be. It's important."

Iruka chooses to wait until the rest of his students has left the classroom – even if this conversation only lasts for a moment, he knows that his students will find some way to make fun of Naruto for it if they overhear. Once they're all gone, Iruka closes the door.

Naruto is bouncing on his feet, his mouth tightly pressed shut with barely-contained impatience. "Just tell me what you want from me already," he says, before he remembers his manners and adds, "please, sensei."

"There's just something I want to know for sure," Iruka says. "When I let you out of this classroom, are you going to cause trouble?"

There's no hesitance in Naruto's answer. "No."

Iruka narrows his eyes at him. If he didn't know any better, he'd almost think that Naruto is being honest. Unfortunately, Iruka does know better, and the thought that Naruto has suddenly gotten really good at lying terrifies him more than he cares to admit.

"Then what are you going to do?" he asks.

Naruto narrows his eyes back at him, cautious. "I can't tell you."

Okay. Okay, big trouble, then. Judging by the look on Naruto's face, it may even be something bigger than pouring paint onto the Hokage Rock and throwing stones through windows – this may be something actually illegal.

And if it is, then Iruka needs to know. He may not particularly like Naruto, but he's not letting this kid go to jail.

"I need you to show me what you're carrying in your backpack," Iruka replies, slowly. "I'll let you leave after that, yeah?"

Naruto tightens his fists around the straps of his backpack, almost protectively. His eyes dart through the classroom; he's instinctively trying to find a way to escape, but he seems to realize that Iruka would always catch him anyway.

Eventually, he sends Iruka a look that's filled with fury, and shrugs out of his backpack. "Fine," he mumbles, setting his backpack on the ground with a surprising carefulness. "You can take a look."

Iruka walks towards him and kneels down next to the backpack. He's careful as he zips open the backpack – he's fully prepared for something to explode in his face, but to his surprise, the backpack isn't booby-trapped.

Iruka peers into the backpack. He can't see very much; whatever is inside the backpack is covered by a worn orange blanket. Very cautiously, Iruka reaches for the blanket and pulls it out of the way.

Iruka isn't sure what he'd been expecting to find, but it sure as Hell wasn't this.

Carefully wrapped in the blanket are a first-aid kit, a flashlight, a dented old thermos flask, and several cups of ramen. It's all… weirdly ordinary.

It this a genjutsu? Can't be. Iruka has never seen Naruto successfully perform a genjutsu before, let alone something this elaborate. He bites the inside of his cheek until he tastes blood anyway; if it truly was a genjutsu, it should be dispelled, now. Nothing has changed.

He looks up at Naruto, who fidgets under his gaze. The kid sees Iruka's questioning look and stills, apparently steeling himself.

"There's this… dog that I'm taking care of," Naruto says in a murmur, looking away. "He's hurt and sick, so I've gotta help him. I think he'd die without my help." He shuffles his feet. "I didn't want to tell you because- Well, everyone always seems to think that I'm doing something wrong no matter what I do. But I know that I'm doing something right for once. So I figured that it'd be best to keep it a secret, because if people knew, they'd try to stop me." He looks Iruka straight in the eyes, determination in his gaze. "Please don't tell anyone. And please don't try to stop me."

Iruka chews on the inside of his cheek, trying to think. He's not certain whether Naruto is telling him the whole truth, but regardless of that, the kid sincerely seems to believe that he's doing something good. Iruka doesn't dare think about what it might do to Naruto if Iruka didn't give him the benefit of the doubt now.

After a moment of thought, Iruka folds the blanket back into Naruto's backpack and zips the bag closed. "That's all I wanted to know," he tells Naruto. "You can go. And," he decides to add, "you did well in class today. Keep it up."

"Can't promise anything, but I'll try," Naruto replies with a grin, pulling his backpack onto his back. He seems a lot less tense, now. "See you, sensei!"

He hurries out of the classroom. As he opens the door to the hallway, Iruka calls after him: "One more thing, Naruto."

Naruto pauses, looking back at him. "What is it?"

Iruka gives him an exasperated look. "You really shouldn't give ramen to dogs."

"Huh? Oh. Yeah, that makes sense." He gives Iruka one last grin and hurries into the hallway. "I'll keep it in mind, bye sensei!"

If Naruto truly is taking care of a dog, Iruka thinks to himself, then he sure as Hell hopes that it's a resilient dog.

He ponders the thought for a while, staring out of the window. It's raining cats and dogs outside – has been all day. It doesn't seem like good weather for pranks. But, then again, that hasn't stopped Naruto before… Iruka feels a headache coming on.

"Iruka-sensei?" comes a voice from the corridor, pulling him from his thoughts. One of Iruka's fellow teachers pokes her head through the open door.

"Suzume-sensei," Iruka greets her; his politeness comes out a bit absent-minded. He shakes himself. "Anything I can help you with?"

She holds up a scroll with one hand, and Iruka instantly recognizes it as a mission scroll. B-rank, from the looks of it. "The Hokage has requested a squad of chuunin," she replies. "He asked for us Academy teachers. We should gather at Konoha's gates in half an hour."

Iruka feels his eyebrows shoot up. "Do you know what we've been summoned for?" he asks. Academy teachers are occasionally asked to do regular chuunin missions, though they're usually informed about their missions a few days in advance so that they can plan their days around it. This feels… urgent. Iruka finds himself irrationally doing math to figure out whether Naruto could've had anything to do with this – but, probably not. Probably.

Suzume clicks her tongue. "Two of our jounin have been found dead this afternoon," she replies, "a few kilometers away from Konoha. They were killed, presumably by a missing-nin – there were signs of an Earth ninjutsu. We've been summoned to search for whoever killed them."

Iruka's eyebrows shoot up even higher. "That doesn't sound like it should be a B-rank mission."

She shrugs. "The briefing said that the jounin had been dead for a week or so. The chance that we'll actually find the missing-nin is fairly small," she replies. "That's probably why the Hokage summoned us instead of chuunin who had something better to do."

"Ah. I suppose that makes sense." Iruka is familiar with these kinds of missions: they exist just in case the missing-nin is found anyway, but they're mostly to keep up the trust that the Hokage is doing everything to keep the village safe. There's a very small chance that they'll find the missing-nin – but two jounin were still murdered right outside of the village, and people might start turning against the Hokage if he didn't do something. "All right. I'll quickly finish my lesson plan for tomorrow, and I'll meet you at the gate in thirty minutes."