With a backpack filled with food, Iruka steps outside the village gates after sundown.
It'd taken him longer than expected to get ready to leave. Preparing the food wasn't the issue – he wasn't all that capable in the kitchen, but he knew how to cook rice, chicken and an egg – but he realized halfway through that this task was more complicated than just bringing the food to the dog and leaving. If Iruka left the food out in the open in the middle of the forest, it would expire quickly, or get eaten by other animals. Iruka could put it in a container of some sort, but the dog wouldn't be able to open that.
His solution was to figure out a seal that would open a container automatically if it was touched by a living animal, and then – because apparently he loved giving himself headaches – combine that seal with a different seal to keep the food fresh for longer. That seal then needed to be made small enough to apply onto the top of the food containers.
He'd still been figuring out a way for the dog to close the containers again when he realized how late it was, so he'd left that for what it was. Even without that function, it truly is a pretty ingenious seal. It's just a shame no one will see it apart from Naruto's stray. He might've overdone it, but then again, he doesn't like half-assing things.
At a brisk pace, he follows the instructions Naruto gave him for finding the dog. "From the gate, follow the path to the left until you've walked halfway around the village – do you remember that one tree where Choji puked when we were running laps around the village? You leave the path there and walk straight, uh, in the direction of the sunset? East? Sorry, West. You walk West for about fifteen minutes and then you'll see a really ugly plant with purple leaves. One of the bushes around it is loose. The secret hiding spot is behind it. If you hear the creek, you're too far."
Iruka had been a bit concerned about how vague Naruto's instructions were, but they make a surprising amount of sense once he's actually out in the forest. He has a bit of trouble finding the "really ugly plant" in the moonlight, but he happens to spot it when he's busy pulling his pant leg from a thorny vine.
As Naruto said, a loose bush nearby hides the entrance of a tunnel. He rolls the bush aside and crouches, looking into the tunnel.
Awkwardly, he clears his throat. "Excuse me, uh, Dog-san?" he calls. He's not used to talking to animals, but Naruto said the dog would bite if he didn't, so he supposes he'll just have to get over himself. "Naruto sent me."
He doesn't realize that he'd been waiting for a response until seconds later, and he shakes himself. There's just something in the air here that makes him think he's talking to a person. Just in case, he takes out a kunai.
"I'm coming in," he adds absent-mindedly, before taking a breath, mentally preparing himself for the possibility of this being a prank, and entering the tunnel.
He descends the tunnel slowly, squinting in the darkness. It brings with it a sense of déjà vu; the feeling of the vaguely-damp dirt underneath his hands, the smell of old blood and whatever it is that sickness smells like. He can't remember anything like this happening before, though. Maybe a childhood memory. He used to spend a lot of time in these woods when he was young, too.
As he nears the end of the tunnel, Iruka hears a new sound: heavy breathing. It makes the hairs on the back of his neck stand upright. He tightens his grip on the kunai. Of course he wouldn't just stab a dog – but he feels increasingly certain that whatever is waiting at the end of this tunnel isn't a dog. Something's wrong here.
…Naruto wouldn't actually put him in danger, right? Iruka can't be fully certain. Carrying a weapon seems only natural.
The light of a flashlight illuminates the end of the tunnel, and Iruka pauses, hiding in the shadows. Every muscle in his body is tense. He'll risk a look, he decides, and if he doesn't like what he sees, he'll turn around and get backup and make Naruto write "I won't put my teachers in danger" on the blackboard until his fingers fall off.
Cautiously, slowly, he leans forwards.
There's…
A large white dog, lying on its stomach on the ground, covered by an orange blanket.
"Huh," Iruka finds himself saying. He suddenly feels really guilty for not believing Naruto. Quickly, he puts his kunai away and crawls into the light.
The dog watches him, one dark eye open. Its body language gives off the impression of laziness, but it's watching Iruka's every move. Iruka gets the sense that it's assessing whether to attack or not.
He sits down on his knees and holds out his hands in a placating gesture. "I'm not here to hurt you," he says. "I brought food."
He shrugs out of the backpack, making sure not to make any sudden movements, and zips the backpack open. The dog tenses up when Iruka reaches his hand into the backpack; it doesn't relax when Iruka pulls out food containers instead of a weapon, but it doesn't tense up further, either.
Iruka spreads out the containers on the ground, careful not to touch the seals on the lids. With an exasperated sigh, he also sets down the ramen cups Naruto packed, and the bottle of water. The dog idly watches him empty the backpack, then shifts its gaze to Iruka.
Iruka studies the dog in turn, wondering. Would this dog be sufficiently used to shinobi to know how a seal works? He can't really tell based on looks. At the very least, it doesn't look like any of the Inuzuka's dogs. If Iruka didn't know any better, he would've thought that this was an actual wild animal – a wolf of some kind. It's certainly big enough to be a wolf.
It could be used to seals, but Iruka would rather not assume. "These are seals," he explains. He feels slightly less awkward about talking now; if he's right and this is a ninja hound, it can understand human speech a little bit. That makes him feel much less stupid. "If you touch them, the container will open. Like this." He takes one of the dog's front paws, intending to touch it to the lid to demonstrate the seal. The dog immediately bares its teeth with a growl, and Iruka quickly backs off. Not a fan of being touched, then.
With a muttered apology, Iruka instead touches the seal with his own hand. The seal summons exactly the right amount of pressure underneath it to pop the container open, but not enough to splatter the food everywhere. It took a couple of tries to get it right. Iruka's eyebrows are still sticky from when he got a face full of scrambled egg.
"So," he says, "that's how it works." He puts the opened container – filled with cooked rice – as close to the dog's head as he dares. The dog doesn't look at the container; it doesn't take its eye off Iruka.
Iruka watches the dog for a while, waiting to see whether it will eat, but it doesn't. Eventually, the dog raises its head to cough, then glares at him.
Iruka gets the impression that he's overstaying his welcome. He quickly zips Naruto's empty backpack closed, swings it onto his back again, and gets his feet underneath him.
"It was nice meeting you, Dog-san," Iruka says, more as a joke than anything else. "Hope you feel better soon."
The dog gives a huff in response, as if to say "thanks" or perhaps "hurry up and screw off".
As soon as Naruto's teacher moves beyond where Kakashi can sense him, Kakashi dispels the henge, rolls himself onto his good side and coughs harshly into his sleeve. His bad side smarts; he'd hidden his weapons pouches and the medicine underneath his stomach, and it put pressure on the wound. He allows himself to groan now that there's no one around to hear it.
He managed to pass for a dog for just barely long enough; a few more minutes and his control on his chakra would have slipped, or he would've made a sound that was just a bit too human.
He leans his forehead against the ground, panting. That entire henge was a wild damn guess – a gamble based purely on the fact that Iruka called him "Dog-san", and apparently he lucked out. Naruto must've thought up a cover story. Kakashi would've appreciated it if he'd told him about the cover story, but, well. More pressing matters are on hand.
His head throbs sharply from the adrenaline. Something must've happened to Naruto. He wouldn't just send someone else out here for no reason. Something must have happened-
Despair is already crawling up his throat, but he swallows it back down. There's no use panicking just yet. Iruka said Naruto sent him, which at least means he's not dead. Maybe the kid left a message somewhere hidden, like the Academy teaches its students to do.
On the inside of the wrapper around the cup of ramen, he finds a message in messy handwriting, written almost entirely in hiragana and filled with misspellings. He hasn't seen Naruto's handwriting before, but he can absolutely imagine that it would look like this.
Dear Dog-san:
I'm sorry. I messed up. The Hokage knows you're here and he said he was going to kill you if I didn't admit I was helping you. So I told him. Even though I promised you I wouldn't tell anyone about you. I'm really sorry. I get it if you're mad at me.
Anger does well up inside Kakashi, but it's not directed at Naruto. He doubts it's Naruto's fault that Hiruzen knows he's here. The kid seems to take his promises seriously, and he seems careful; if he'd been careless, they would've already been in trouble days ago.
Naruto must've been on the receiving end of Hiruzen's interrogation skills. Kakashi can only imagine how devastating that conversation must've been. He knows of other Kage who have lost verbal battles to Hiruzen. Naruto, ten years old and a terrible liar, didn't stand a chance at all.
With that anger buzzing underneath his skin, Kakashi continues reading.
The Hokage said he'll keep his shinobi away from you, so that's good, but I'm not allowed to go outside the village anymore. That's why I sent Iruka-sensei. Sorry for the surprise.
It's probably safe for you to stay where you are, but I won't be able to help you anymore. If you decide to stay there, I'll ask Iruka-sensei to bring you food once in a while.
Kakashi chews on the inside of his cheek. That plan could work for a while, but it won't work forever. Academy teachers aren't just any chuunin; they're smart. It's only a matter of time before Iruka figures out who "Dog-san" is. Keeping him in the dark would use up far too much energy and chakra. Hell, successfully making anyone think Kakashi is an actual dog for longer than five minutes would be dangerous and exhausting.
But even if nobody found out who he is, he still wouldn't feel comfortable staying here. Hiruzen knows he's here and Kakashi can't know for certain that he won't use that information against him eventually.
Naruto must've considered the same things – his note continues:
I tried to think of some plans that would allow me to help you again (safely), but I couldn't think of much. Maybe you could hide in my apartment? It's pretty safe: I don't have any visitors or direct neighbors, and I've set a lot of traps around the place to make sure nobody mean can get in.
Well, that certainly raises some horrifying questions.
Getting to my apartment would be risky, though. It's not very far, but you'll have to sneak around a lot of people. But you're smarter than me; maybe you can think of a way to make it less risky.
You could also just leave and hide somewhere else. If you do that, I probably won't see you anymore.
…I was going to write "goodbye" here, but I kinda hope it's not.
- Naruto
Almost like an afterthought, Naruto has added his address at the bottom of the note. Maybe it's Kakashi's imagination, but it almost seems like the kid expects Kakashi not to need his address. Like he's assuming he'll just leave.
With a sigh, Kakashi puts the note down. He has much to think about, and such a bad headache. He presses his palm against the space between his eyes.
Whatever he decides, one thing is clear: he cannot leave Naruto behind. Leaving by himself is not an option. And staying here is also kind of not an option – it could be a week before the antibiotics start working, if they start working, and it'll be even longer before he's well enough to face the risks of his normal life again. Staying here all of that time is a gamble he doesn't really like taking.
All things considered… Maybe Naruto's apartment could be a less dangerous place to stay than the forest has become. They'll have to take a lot of precautions, though. He's hidden himself in Hidden Villages before, but he was always alone and healthy. Even then, being a missing-nin in a Hidden Village is an endeavor with a high probability of ending in chaos – chaos that he really wants to keep Naruto out of.
But Konoha is a village he knows, and Hiruzen is a Kage he knows, and Kakashi thinks that if he prepares this well enough, it could work.
Kakashi wraps the blanket around his shoulders and settles into a cross-legged sitting position so that he can write in the dirt on the ground with his finger. He has a lot of plans to think up, a lot of worst-case scenarios to mull over.
Tomorrow, he will leave this hiding spot for the first time in almost two weeks.
