Izumo breathed out a sigh of contentment as he snuggled deeper into the warmth surrounding him. His mind was sluggish: in a foggy haze between awake and asleep. He was drifting, barely aware that he must be at home. He wouldn't be able to enjoy this half-awake feeling otherwise.

A deep yawn behind him alerted the chunin to someone else's presence in his bedroom…in his bed.

Snapping his eyes open, Izumo jerked awake and jumped out of bed to face the culprit who was skilled enough to enter his apartment, his bedroom, and his bed without his knowledge.

Sprawled out on the other side of the bed was none other than one Hagane Kotetsu, deliciously shirtless with his boxers lying dangerously low on his hips. Izumo's mouth hung open with astonishment.

Wha-?

"'Zum?" Kotetsu's voice was thick with sleep, and he seemed to be upset that Izumo wasn't lying in bed beside him anymore. "What're you doin' jumpin' out o' bed like that? Come back and sleep. 's too early to be awake righ' now." Kotetsu's speech was slurred by his inability to fully wake up. He burrowed further under the covers and was soon snoozing away again.

Normally, Izumo wouldn't have turned down Kotetsu's offer to come back to bed. In fact, Izumo would jump at the chance. It's just that there wasn't something quite right about this picture, and Izumo knew exactly what it was.

Hagane Kotetsu hated Kamizuki Izumo with a passion.

~i~*~k~

Poor Izumo never got the chance to return to bed with Kotetsu. The dream dissipated as soon as his head cleared.

In reality, Izumo was lying in a pile of his own filth and blood, waiting for his tormentors to come back for round…eleven. Maybe it was twelve. He hadn't bothered counting after they hit seven.

All he knew was that it sucked to be tortured by the Mist village. The Mist village knew about the Kamizuki sleep cycle. If he had been captured by any other village, he would have been fine. Hardly anyone knew about the strict lunar calendar that the Kamizuki clan was a strict keeper to. It's just bad luck that Mist contained many clans that had previous encounters with the Kamizuki clan, back before the hidden villages were formed. They knew that the Kamizuki were weakened when they weren't allowed to keep to their lunar calendar.

Kamizuki. God Moon. His clan's sleep schedule revolved around the moon. It's why his elemental affinity was for water. The moon and water are similar to teammates, close friends, even lovers. Point being is that they work in unison and have perfect synchronization. Mist knew they could control Izumo as soon as they found his dog tags. In order to keep him vulnerable, they would just keep him awake during the waxing and waning crescents, the young and old moon, and the new moon. If he slept during these periods, his body would be able to balance itself and reset his psyche and his chakra flow. Maybe even prepare his body to give him enough adrenaline to attempt an escape.

Either way, he could feel the new moon coming soon, and his captors were making sure he couldn't sleep.

Perhaps that was the reason for his hallucination about Kotetsu just now. Kotetsu had been the object of affection when they were friends, and it had persisted even after they had become enemies. His subconscious was probably trying to trick his body into a sense of calm and safety so he could try resting for a long enough time that he'd fall into a deep sleep, even here in enemy territory.

Not that it would have done a lot. There was a guard in the cell with Izumo, and every time Izumo so much as dozed off, the guard would hit him to wake him up.

This just added to his already aching body. He knew for a fact that his left wrist, right thumb, right ankle, and a third of his ribs were broken. He'd been awake enough to remember the pain of when they were broken. He had passed out quite a few times during the torture sessions, and he wasn't sure what aches were from bruising, breaks, or swelling.

All he knew was that he hadn't given his captors any information on Konoha.

Izumo was frustrated. He had been at his strongest during the full moon, approximately three days after he was captured. His tormentors made sure to break his ankle and wrist so he couldn't run or form proper hand signs. Izumo vaguely wondered why they hadn't broken his leg or fingers, but he couldn't focus enough to concentrate long enough to figure out an answer.

Izumo vaguely knew that soon they would resort to other torture methods to keep him awake, not just throwing punches. Water immersion, drowning, heat, cold…anything so his body couldn't get the precious sleep it needed during the time it needed to the most.

He really hated that the Mist Village had been the ones to capture him.

His mission wasn't even directly dealing with their country! As an elite chunin, he was working under Ibiki's orders to infiltrate a worrying group of Hidden Cloud shinobi from the Land of Lightning that had come under the Hokage's radar. He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Except that was the story of his life, certainly.

Izumo gasped as the guard hit his stomach especially hard. He hadn't even been dozing. Just resting his eyes.

Izumo breathed through the pain as much as he could. He wondered if there was a rescue mission coming for him. He doubted it. Knowing Ibiki, he'd leave him to die. If Izumo let information slip; well, then there'd be a squad after him but not for retrieval purposes.

Either way, death was on the end of this scythe.

~i~*~k~

Izumo gasped and sputtered as he was pulled from the freezing cold water again. His muscles were tremoring, he was completely numb, and he only knew he was in bad shape because he could see that his skin was tinged blue.

If they didn't warm him up at least a little, they were going to succeed in killing him.

Not that the head of the torture operation would let that happen. Not when he was their only captured prisoner, far as he could tell.

When he was aware again, he was being dragged across the floor. When he was forced under water again, the water was slightly warmer. Not too warm, though. Didn't want to throw the prisoner into shock while they were warming him up.

While he was being held under, Izumo tried taking a deep breath of water so he could just drown himself, but whoever was holding him under must have been looking for signs that he would try this. As soon as he took a deep enough breath of water, the hands would pull him up, and he'd be coughing and sputtering again.

This time, though, Izumo heard a distinct lack of sound when his head reemerged from his cold bath. That's odd…where were the voices he had been hearing every time they had pulled him out of the water? A loud splash startled him, causing his body to jerk. He was going under again, unable to push the body off of him or even move his arms or legs. Vaguely, he wondered if hypothermia had set in yet. Was he finally going to drown?

Hands pulled him one more time from the water, before he was coughing and shaking and falling on his side because it was just too much effort, why couldn't they just leave him be and let him die?

But then, he felt someone pick him up and surely his captors wouldn't carry him around; they had just dragged him across the floor. What was going on?

His breathing sped up before he felt a slight pressure on his neck and all was right in the world because he could finally sleep.

~i~*~k~

"…bad shape…no sleep…forced awareness…ice water immersion…found…barely stable."

Izumo couldn't even register those words before he was passed out again.

~k~*~i~

Kotetsu felt relief swarm through him when he finally starting recognizing the area he was in. He had admittedly been lost for a few days now, but he was back in Konoha territory, and there was a safe shelter not even half a day from where he was. He really needed to restock supplies before he could head home, and his chakra was becoming worryingly low. He figured he could stay at the safe shelter a day, two at most, before returning to Konoha with his mission report in hand.

Kotetsu nodded to himself and set his course.

Things had been insanely busy in the village these past few years since the Third had to step back into the saddle, but recently the havoc was calming down, and the village was returning to normal life as the reconstruction from the fox was finishing up. That meant that Kotetsu and other shinobi alike were returning to routine missions. In fact, Kotetsu currently was working under Ibiki as one of his elite chunin, and damn did that man crack the whip. He'd been going on missions nonstop for the past few months, and he couldn't wait for a break.

Maybe he should only spend the rest of the day and night there before returning to Konoha. Kotetsu knew he was pushing the time limit for this mission as it was, and he didn't like to be yelled at by Ibiki. That man was mean.

Sighing, Kotetsu quickened his pace as much as he dared with his limited chakra supply. The faster he got there, the faster he could get to rest, and the more energy he would have to travel back to Konoha in the morning.

~k~*~i~

When Kotetsu managed to find the safe house, he hadn't imagined it would be in use. In fact, he had thought that it would be rundown and overgrown, and he would have a harder time finding it.

Well, that couldn't have been further from the truth.

As soon as he got within a short distance from the safe house, a Konoha ANBU appeared in front of him and asked his name, rank, ninja registration number, birthday, and blood type. "Hagane Kotetsu. Elite chunin. 012050. July 21. Type B." After listing off the required greeting to the ANBU, Kotetsu was beyond curious about what was going on. He had told the ANBU that he was returning from a mission, and he was low on chakra, in hopes of not being turned away and having to seek shelter elsewhere. After a quick nod and a wave of his hand, the ANBU led Kotetsu to the safe house.

The safe house was swarming with medical personnel and ANBU members. Kotetsu wondered just what he had stumbled in upon.

He was led inside and made to sit out of the way, which he didn't mind, because he really didn't feel like getting trampled on thanks very much.

As he scanned the room, his curiosity was fueled when he saw another elite chunin's uniform hanging by the fire mantle. Granted, the uniform was in awful condition. It was slashed and stained and, really, more in bits and pieces than in full working condition.

He figured whoever was injured was probably the owner of that uniform. One didn't need to be particularly bright to put two and two together. The medic ninjas, the ANBU, the elite chunin uniform - it was obvious to Kotetsu that Ibiki finally got his favorite elite chunin back: Kamizuki Izumo.

The guy Kotetsu detested.

At least, that's who Kotetsu was assuming it was. No other elite chunin had been on a mission that could have been particularly dangerous, and Izumo had been missing for quite a long time after his last mission's return date. That usually meant one of two things: captured and tortured or dead.

Kotetsu heaved a sigh and came to a decision. Just because he hated the guy didn't mean he'd want the guy to be captured and tortured. So, pulling off his knapsack, Kotetsu rummaged around until he found the spare uniform he kept in the bottom of his bag for purposes such as the ruination of the one he was wearing. Figuring Izumo didn't have a spare uniform on him, and being highly suspicious that Izumo would want to return to the village wearing a standard issued elite chunin uniform and not rags, Kotetsu stood up and approached one of the medic ninja with his spare set of clothing.

"Here. We're about the same measurements, and he would want to be dressed in these instead of those ruined ones." The medic looked slightly grateful as she took the clothes from Kotetsu. She had probably thought the same thing Kotetsu did: that the clothes hanging by the mantle were in awful condition and not meant to be put back onto a living body.

Kotetsu walked over to the ruined uniform and began looking for anything that might have been sewn into the hems. Normally, tormentors stripped their victims of their old clothes, but these guys must have thought Izumo wasn't much of a threat after they'd emptied out all of his pockets.

Well, they hadn't been wrong. Kotetsu thought grimly. Not one weapon sewn into his uniform anywhere. Granted, they could have found those and taken them, but Kotetsu highly doubted that since there were no ripped seams he could find.

The dark haired young man sighed, and he was about to toss the uniform in the fire when a voice commanded him that he stop.

Kotetsu turned slightly and met the gaze of the ANBU who escorted him here earlier.

"Izumo-san wanted that uniform preserved. As such, we're leaving it to dry before packing it away."

Kotetsu nodded and hung it back where it had been. So, that's why they hadn't already burned it. It made Kotetsu wonder why exactly Izumo didn't want the uniform burned. Strange guy.

Kotetsu didn't want to think about Izumo anymore. He didn't like to think about the other chunin that much, and he needed to rest. So, Kotetsu wandered off to find a relatively quiet area to sleep in.

~i~*~k~

Izumo woke up screaming and thrashing. He was underwater again, and his tormentors were holding him down: not letting him move. He didn't understand why he was breathing in air. Weren't they trying to drown him? Why let him live if he wasn't going to give them any information?

"IZUMO!" At the sound of a familiar voice, Izumo calmed some, waking up fully and taking in his surroundings. That's right…he had been rescued. There were ANBU, medic nins, and…Kotetsu?

Izumo blinked. No. He couldn't be hallucinating again. He had been rescued! Earlier, he had woken up lucid enough to remember the ANBU explaining to him about his recent salvation. Kami, please please PLEASE! He hadn't hallucinated being rescued, had he!?

Izumo was starting to panic again before he felt a wave of calm rush over him. A medic ninja's green chakra glowed behind his head, calming him down and making him think straight.

A voice from behind an ANBU mask addressed him. "Kamizuki Izumo. Elite chunin. 012049. November 25. Type A."

Izumo relaxed slightly. That was Konoha's required dialect when two leaf ninja who didn't know or recognize each other met up. It had a specific order. Last then first name. Ninja rank, specifics if not ANBU, like elite or tokubetsu. Ninja registration number. Birthday, not year. Blood type, always saying the word "type" before giving the denoting letter. Normally, he would have been the one to say all of this, but the ANBU must have realized Izumo would calm down if he knew that he was in the presence of friends.

If this wasn't another hallucination that is.

Izumo shook his head slightly to clear away his negative thoughts. No. This wasn't a hallucination. He really had been rescued. Earlier. He had been awake earlier and had told the ninjas to save his uniform. He saw it hanging by the fire, so he knew this was real. None of his hallucinations had his uniform in them, so he knew, he hoped, this had to be real.

That still didn't explain why Kotetsu was here.

Izumo glanced at the other elite chunin, before looking away as Kotetsu met his gaze.

Sinking into himself, Izumo curled up. He was still so very tired.

As he drifted off into unconsciousness, the whispers of the other ninja around him faded away.

~k~*~i~

Kotetsu had been in the safe house nearly a week. Ibiki had sent word that Kotetsu was to stay at the safe house with Izumo until the brunet was ready to return to Konoha.

Kotetsu really hated Ibiki and Izumo the moment he had read Ibiki's return letter. Of course, Kotetsu should have kept his mouth shut in the first place about being at the safe house where Izumo was being treated.

The only upside in this whole mess was that it was looking like they were going to leave soon. Izumo's body was recovering rapidly, and soon he would be fit to travel, albeit slowly. Maybe another couple days.

Kotetsu knew that Ibiki had good reason to have him stay with Izumo. It allowed all the ANBU, except for one, to return to Konoha and their duties. It also saved Ibiki time, because he didn't have to come get Izumo himself. It also allowed Kotetsu to keep an eye on Izumo's psyche.

Kotetsu knew, with just what he saw this past week that Izumo's psyche would need to be checked out. Ibiki didn't want Kotetsu to stay with Izumo because it relieved ANBU to go back to their posts. He didn't even make Kotetsu stay because it would take away from Ibiki's time.

No. The reason Kotetsu was to stay with Izumo was so that he could report back to Ibiki about every little detail involving Izumo's psyche that he had witnessed in the past several days. Kotetsu was there to make sure that Izumo didn't break before he was safely under the roof of T&I headquarters.

Ibiki had a special way of doing things. The Third Hokage and Ibiki got along fairly well, but when a ninja broke, the two approached the situation as different as oil was from water.

When ANBU broke, the Third relieved them of duty. Made them go to counseling sessions. Tried to get them to heal their psyche before putting them on active duty again.

When T&I ninja broke, Ibiki got into their heads, worked them over a little bit, and made them get back to work.

So, if Izumo was going to break, Kotetsu had to make sure it was after they were well into the T&I headquarters. Otherwise, the Third would get involved, and Ibiki would get pissed off.

Kotetsu sighed. This was all just such a hassle for someone he didn't even like.

~i~*~k~

Izumo's skin prickled with warmth. It was pleasant, not overbearing, and he was about to be lulled back into sleep by it, when he heard a voice cut through his thoughts.

"Kamizuki Izumo, wake up for fuck's sake!"

Izumo's eyes twitched opened, and he glared at the bright light shining in his direct line of sight.

Ibiki turned the light away, frowning at Izumo's reaction.

"Kamizuki," Ibiki growled. "You pussy. You think being worked over for a couple of weeks earns you time off? You better think again."

Izumo inhaled sharply then released his breath slowly. He gathered his bearings and recalled what had happened.

Two weeks of rest and healing sessions were what Izumo needed before he was able enough to travel again. Kotetsu had been quite impatient, so Izumo tried to appease him by traveling at a moderately fast (at least for him at the time) pace.

Naturally, this meant the ANBU member and the medic ninjas that had remained at the safe house grumbled about him pushing himself too fast too far too soon. Izumo didn't care. After what he'd been through, it didn't hurt that much to force his body to walk fast.

Upon arriving back in Konoha after a painfully slow four days of travel, they were met at the gates by none other than Morino Ibiki. Ibiki took Izumo, had him relay his mission and his torture session details, before letting him get patched up some more by T&I medic ninjas.

He was given a room to rest in for a couple days before Ibiki returned.

Izumo had undergone something akin to an interrogation session, to double check that Izumo didn't let any details about Konoha slip to the Mist ninja. At some point during this time, psych ninjas were in the room, and they evaluated Izumo thoroughly: scanning his memories, analyzing his emotions and mental state, among several other things that Izumo didn't care to remember.

After another couple days of rest, Izumo had been left in a room with only a single uncomfortable leather chair – akin to one that would be found in a dentist's office – occupying it, and he had been told to sit down and wait.

He must have fallen asleep, because this was when Ibiki had come in and shone the bright light onto Izumo's face, forcing the elite chunin to wake up none too kindly.

Looking at Ibiki, Izumo wondered why he ever became an elite chunin in the first place.

"Kamizuki. You've requested time off because you're afraid you'll be a liability in the field?" Ibiki's gaze narrowed, and Izumo jerkily nodded his head.

Izumo shuffled nervously under that piercing stare before Ibiki continued talking. "I'm not giving you leave for time off. You've already had enough of that. You're going to be assigned a teammate from now on, until I deem you stable enough to return to individual work. What I will do is give you another week to re-train your body. It's out of use and that will put your teammate at risk in the field. You also need to adjust to all of your broken and re-healed bones. Your reflexes will be different, so you better memorize the difference in angles quickly.

"Your teammate and you will be put on lower ranking missions until you feel that you are comfortable within your body again. Luckily for you, the chunin exams are coming up. I've arranged so that you and your teammate will be assigned to travel to Kumogakure in the Land of Lightning to help proctor the exams. I suggest you also keep an eye on the group that I had you investigating before this whole mess began."

Izumo nodded to show his understanding. "The chunin exams, will it only be my teammate and I going from Konoha to proctor? How many Konoha teams are participating this year? When will we leave?"

Ibiki smiled. There was the quick intelligence that he liked so much about Izumo. "You, your teammate, and one ANBU member are going to proctor. There are six teams from Konoha participating this year. You will leave in one week to travel to Lightning."

Izumo nodded in understanding. It was unsurprising that an ANBU member had been assigned to go proctor the chunin exam in the Hidden Cloud Village considering the unsteady relationship between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning at the moment.

What was surprising was that Ibiki wanted him to proctor, even with what just happened. Usually, nations set limits on how many proctors could come in from different villages. Depending on how many teams there were and where they were from determined which country brought how many proctors.

Since Konoha was allowed three proctors and there were six teams participating, this meant that Konoha was taking up a decent portion of participants for the chunin exams this year. So, it was surprising that Ibiki wanted to waste a position of proctor on Izumo. He should have had two ANBU go, or even two fully collected elite chunin.

Being a proctor for something as politically involved as the chunin exams was a fairly easy mission as long as everyone got along all right and didn't try to kill each other or start a war during the exams. So, Izumo could also see Ibiki's reasoning in having him take a position in this.

Izumo grimaced slightly, thinking that he had better train his ass off in the next week before their leave date; otherwise, he might cause more trouble than he was worth.

"As to the matter of assigning you your teammate, I have decided to pick Hagane Kotetsu. I know you two don't get along too well, but that's mostly his problem, so he's going to have to deal with it until you are able to take solo missions again.

"Being your teammate means he's also a proctor for the chunin exams. You two had better get along for the duration of your stay in Kumo. To jump start your bonding time, he and you will be training with each other for the next week. This will also help you relearn your body's balance, technique, angles, reflexes, and the like when you two spar. And I mean when. Not if."

Izumo nodded glumly at Ibiki's orders. Great. The man who hated Kamizuki Izumo more than anyone, and they were stuck together as teammates until Izumo was back at solo working capacity.

Ibiki rolled his eyes as he saw Izumo breathe out a long suffering sigh. "Don't complain, or I may assign you someone that you like even less. If you have no further questions, leave and get to training. Hagane is waiting for you in training area three."

Izumo nodded and stood. He bowed to Ibiki, showing his gratitude before swiftly leaving the T&I building.

Izumo hoped with all of his being that Kotetsu would be civil toward him during the time they were forced to be together. Izumo also hoped his body and his psyche would heal quickly. Otherwise, Izumo feared that his heart would be broken beyond repair.