Chapter 9

Hands grabbing Iruka jarred him awake. His eyes snapped open in the darkness. Before he had a chance to orient himself, he was tossed out of bed. In his groggy state it felt like it took forever to hit the floor. He rolled to absorb the impact, his training kicking in, and he leapt up. His hand lashed out and turned on the bedside lamp.

Kakashi shielded his eyes with his arm and sat up.

Iruka's face went slack. There was no one in the room other than himself and Kakashi, and he didn't detect any foreign chakra. There was no intruder, no killing intent. "Kashi…did you throw me out of bed?"

Kakashi's eye widened. Then he dived under the covers, hiding. "I'm sorry!"

Iruka sighed and sat down on the bed. He laid a hand on the uneven lump that was Kakashi. "It's alright. I'm not angry."

"I do it in my sleep," Kakashi said, muffled. "I can't help it. This is why Gai doesn't share the same bed with me."

Are you sure you're not in a sexual relationship with Gai-san? Iruka wanted to ask. But he knew the timing wasn't appropriate, and he wanted to give Kakashi the benefit of the doubt when he said Gai wasn't in love. He frowned at himself. No, I'm the one who's in love, and I'm jealous. He didn't think that would appeal to Kakashi nearly as much as Gai being jealous of him.

Iruka climbed back under the covers and gently fished for Kakashi with both hands. He found Kakshi's shoulders and gently pulled Kakashi up to rest against his chest.

"I'm sorry," Kakashi said again.

"It's alright." Iruka stroked Kakashi's hair. "I'm not angry. I'm sad. I'm sad life has been so scary that you want to throw people out of bed when you're asleep."

"Scary?" Kakashi mumbled.

Iruka kept stroking Kakashi's hair. "Yes. It's scary when you feel like you can't trust people to be close to you. It's scary when you think people that come near you when you're asleep as bad people and you have to protect yourself."

Kakashi fell silent for a moment. "It is scary," he said, in the tone of someone deciding on something as they said it. "I feel scared when someone jumps out at me and I have to react now – now – or else I'm going to be injured."

The use of the word 'injured' jarred Iruka. He wondered if Kakashi was quoting part of an instructor's feedback during a training session. "It's okay to be scared, Kashi."

"Huh?" Kakashi said sleepily.

"It's okay to be scared," Iruka repeated. "Fear is a normal emotion. It doesn't mean you're broken."

"Ruka-chan…I like you." Kakashi passed out on him.

Iruka hadn't expected to have to sleep in this position. Kakashi was heavy. He held in a sigh, since Kakashi was probably a light sleeper, and tried to mentally get himself comfortable. And not think about the possibility of being tossed out of bed again. He briefly considered sleeping on his sofa and leaving the bed to Kakashi from on. But he'd have to gauge whether or not Kakashi would see that as a form of abandonment.

Eventually, his body relaxed and he fell asleep.

xXx

Iruka woke up to an empty bed and nearly had a heart attack. Where is he? He looked around wildly, leapt out of bed, and barged into the bathroom. Not there. Then he heard Kakashi's voice coming from the kitchen, lilting cheerfully. Iruka groaned, rubbed his eyes, and considered going back to bed. He'd had disconnected nightmares after falling asleep again.

He dragged himself into the bathroom and took a shower. Showers always helped him wake up. Kakashi probably needs a shower. Can I trust him to shower by himself? He guiltily stirred at the thought of seeing Kakashi's body. I definitely need him to shower by himself. I'm the one that can't be trusted. His hard-on wouldn't go back down, and he had to relieve the pressure in the shower.

When he dressed and entered the kitchen, Kakashi looked up from doting on Mr. Ukki. Iruka could tell by Kakashi's expression that he was dealing with a child. Kakashi's expression was unguarded. "Good morning, Ruka. I was saying good morning to Mr. Ukki and feeding him."

"Feeding him?" Iruka asked.

"Plant food," Kakashi said. "And then I gave him something to drink. Isn't he pretty?" He turned back to Mr. Ukki and said, "Yes, you are. You're very pretty."

"It's very thoughtful of you to feed Mr. Ukki first thing in the morning. What would you like for breakfast, Kashi?" Iruka asked.

"I don't know," Kakashi said.

"Is rice and eggs okay?"

Kakashi nodded. "It's okay. Do you want help? I can crack eggs with only one hand! Wanna see? Gai showed me how."

Iruka was disarmed. Any lingering crankiness about his poor sleep disappeared. He found himself smiling softly. "Sure."

Kakashi showed him the egg trick and then insisted on teaching Iruka. They ended up going through six eggs that way, which was a little too much food, but Iruka salvaged the situation by scrambling the extra eggs so that he could add it to stir-fried rice later. It was better to scramble the eggs in the rice as it fried, but he was making the best of the circumstance he'd been handed.

"Will you set the table?" Iruka asked.

"Yes!" Kakashi set the table in a matter of seconds.

"Be careful," Iruka said. "You're supposed to be resting."

"I feel okay," Kakashi said. He bounced on the balls of his feet. "I bet I could go back to work soon."

Iruka's chest tightened painfully. "We agreed to give you two months. It's only been a week." Less, his mind said.

"But I could," Kakashi said. "I could fight." He looked at Iruka questioningly.

Iruka sighed and walked to Kakashi's side. He kissed Kakashi's forehead gently. "I don't doubt that you'll fight with every ounce of strength you possess."

"Ruka-chan?"

"Mm?"

"Why are you sad?"

Iruka's arms tightened around him. Because I won't get to keep you. Fragments of his nightmares came back to him. "I don't want you to go back to work yet. I'm having too much fun spending every day with you."

Kakashi blushed.

"So let's make the most of our vacation, right?" Iruka said.

Kakashi nodded. "Okay. Let's do lots of fun things."

"That's the spirit." Iruka squeezed him and then let go. "You can start eating. I'll get the paper."

Kakashi sat down at the table.

Iruka picked up the Sunday newspaper from his doorstep and padded back to the table, sitting down.

"Do you like the Sunday comics?" Kakashi asked.

"You can have them first," Iruka said. He fished through the newspaper and separated out the Comics section for Kakashi.

Kakashi smiled, eye shining with anticipation. "Thanks." He accepted the Comics section and laid it flat on the table so he could read it over breakfast.

Iruka sat down and skimmed over the front headline.

The front headline was about the groundbreaking of a new apartment complex. The complex would provide 500 new apartments. The number of Konoha shinobi in service had increased to pre-Third War levels. The apartment complex that had been on the same site as the new one had only houses 200 people. The partial devastation of the Invasion had opened up new possibilities for city planning. The new apartment complex had been in the planning stages for a long time to ensure that it was a "truly modern" housing solution "worthy of our ninjas".

Iruka imagined that most of this year's graduating class would end up living in the new apartment building. Next he flipped through different smaller sections, skimming the stories there for anything of interest. The Opinion column caught his eye. And then he stared. Underneath the usual disclaimer by the editor that these were letters written to the newspaper and chosen for their public interest, and thus did not reflect the opinions of the newspaper itself, there was a message directed at him.

For Umino Iruka:

You are serious about being Hatake Kakashi's caretaker. I'm not arguing about that. I'm trying to help you. Hatake Kakashi has been diagnosed with a dissociative disorder characterized by maladaptive ego states. What's an ego state? Look it up. We all have them. Ego states are supposed to work together so closely it creates the appearance of a single mind. Hatake's are out of sync with each other. This means at any moment you could be dealing with a different Hatake. Some ego states will be aware of other ego states in the same mind. Others won't be. Each ego state Hatake possesses has different top secret information in his memories. You're responsible for those secrets now.

This is classified information. I trust you to be prudent.

Morino

As soon as Iruka glanced up at Kakashi and then looked down at the paper, the letter was gone. In its place was something complaining about the lack of senior center services. What? He scanned the entire Opinion column and found nothing. But I know what I saw. Someone but a jutsu on my newspaper to give me that message? How did they do that?

Kakashi, oblivious, chuckled at the comic strip he was reading.

A chill washed through Iruka, and his skin prickled. Why can't Morino-san stay out of this? I don't need his help! At the same time, a different part of him was putting together the pieces. When Kakashi said he shattered, he meant it literally. All of the children from the abandoned program are in the same condition. Sandaime knew Kakashi is like this and still approved Kakashi for duty. Morino-san thinks Kakashi isn't fit for duty. Who's right? Iruka wanted to believe Sandaime. Sandaime's kindness had turned his life around after his parents died.

He glanced at Kakashi. Kakashi was absorbed in reading, or perhaps rereading, the comics. His chopsticks disappeared through the genjutsu of his mask, delivering another bite of eggs and rice. This is the man who graduated from the Academy at five years old. Even if these different Kakashis – these ego states – include children, are any of the children I'm seeing not ninjas who passed the graduation exam?

Kakashi met his gaze and smiled. "It's really funny, Ruka. You should read this week's Po-chan." Po-chan was a gag strip. A joke was delivered in the space of five panels. It was usually a pun or slapstick.

Iruka smiled back half-heartedly. He held out his hand.

Kakashi passed the comic over.

Iruka read it and chuckled. "Po-chan's always having problems with his next door neighbor, isn't he?"

"Yeah," Kakashi said appreciatively.

Iruka put the Comic section back in the newspaper and set it aside. "What do you want to do today?"

"We're visiting my team," Kakashi reminded him.

Iruka nodded. "Mm-hmm. And after that, what do you want to do?"

"I don't know. What do you do on your days off, Ruka?" Kakashi asked.

"Chores," Iruka admitted ruefully.

"What about summer vacation?" Kakashi asked.

"I like to go swimming, but it's too cold to go swimming now," Iruka said. An idea occurred to him. "We could go walking in the forest, though. When they turn red, we can collect them." It was a traditional activity in Konoha to collect pretty leaves and make decorative displays out of them while they lasted.

"I've never made a leaf display before," Kakashi said. "Is it fun?"

"I think it's fun," Iruka said. "We can try it and you'll find out if you think it's fun or not."

"Can we go to the book store?" Kakashi asked.

Iruka wondered if any ego states of Kakashi's besides the adult one ever read Icha Icha Paradise. He tried not to feel like a parent about it, but he still thought, You can't let children read that. "Is there a book you want to buy?"

"I want to see what's in the latest issue of Victory!," Kakashi said.

"Sure," Iruka said, startled. Victory! was a shonen magazine for boys ages 8-12.

Kakashi seemed satisfied by this.

"What do you do for fun, Kashi?" Iruka asked.

"I play with Gai but I'm not supposed to call it playing or I'll get in trouble," Kakashi said.

"Gai-san doesn't want you to call it playing?" Iruka asked.

Kakashi looked at Iruka and shook his head. "Not Gai. D-Director-sama. He's still here."

"What do you mean, he's still here?" Iruka demanded. Chills broke out across his body.

"Sandaime didn't exile him or anything," Kakashi said. "And he's not that old." He finished his breakfast and stood, walking his bowl and chopsticks over to the sink and turning the water on so he could wash them. "He watches me. He watches all of us. The ones that survived. A lot of us committed suicide or died in the war. There's hardly anybody left. I still have a friend, though. I'm not sure he would want me to call him that, because he's still in ANBU and ANBU isn't very different from MYS."

"MYS?" Iruka whispered.

"Mumeishi Yougeki Senshudan," Kakashi said.

"The nameless people ambush attack force?" Iruka repeated. That fit with what Kakashi had said about being denied even the right to a consistent name.

"Director-sama still watches us, and that's why I can't see my friend." Kakashi seemed upset. He sagged, and his head was bowed. "Want to see Tenzou," he mumbled.

"Maybe if Tenzou leaves ANBU you can see him," Iruka suggested.

Kakashi raised his head quickly and turned around to smile at Iruka. "Let's ask Godaime to make Tenzou leave ANBU then!"

"We can try," Iruka said cautiously.

"Sandaime asked me to leave ANBU so I could teach genin," Kakashi said hopefully. "Maybe we can get Tenzou to leave ANBU if Godaime says he has to teach genin."

You were in ANBU too? Iruka just about had a heart attack. Wasn't one black ops force enough? Why did you join ANBU after MYS was disbanded? "Let's ask her. Do you want to go see her before you visit your team or after?"

"Let's visit my team first," Kakashi said. "Maybe they'll have some good ideas of how to rescue Tenzou."

So they bundled up and trekked out to the memorial stone. There were a few other ninjas there, but as soon as they saw Kakashi, they left. Iruka was uncomfortable with that, but Kakashi didn't seem to notice. Kakashi knelt and immediately started talking. "Yo! I brought Iruka-kun with me. I'm going to be doing that every time now. What? I said I could call him Ruka and you wouldn't be confused? Okay. Ruka, then." He waved a hand at Iruka.

Iruka took the hint and knelt next to Kakashi. "Hello, everyone. Yondaime-sama." He bowed his head.

"You don't have to be so formal," Kakashi said. "He's not Yondaime anymore. He died."

"Uh…right. Minato-sensei."

Kakashi smiled. "That's better." He turned back to the memorial stone. "Anyway, we want to rescue Tenzou! Obito, you remember Tenzou. I think. Rin-chan, you do, don't you? You definitely do. You've met Tenzou. Nuh-uh, he is not creepy. That's mean. You'll hurt his feelings."

Creepy? Iruka wondered what he was getting into. I don't know anything about this Tenzou. Could this be a mistake?

"Ruka and I think that if we ask Godaime to give Tenzou a genin team she will," Kakashi said. "What do you think, Sensei? You know the most about it. You knew everything that was going on." Kakashi looked disheartened, as if Minato had actually answered. "Oh. But – No, Danzo is still alive. I know, but – Well, what if I give Tenzou my team? What if I insist it has to be Tenzou? That might be playing into Danzo's hands? But I have to take that risk. Teammates before mission. Teammates before village. Teammates before country! Tenzou's in trouble, I know he is, I know he's unhappy, we were all unhappy in ANBU, we can't leave him there –" Kakashi took a deep breath and paused. "Okay, okay. I didn't mean to raise my voice at you. Yes, I understand." He paused again. "You mean it?" He faltered. "Thank you, Sensei." He bowed his head again, looking dangerously close to crying.

Iruka had questions he wanted to ask, but he held them in. "Yes, thank you." He laid a hand on Kakashi's shoulder.

Kakashi glanced at him, looking startled, and then rose.

Iruka got to his feet as well.

"I've got to go save Tenzou now," Kakashi said. "I'll be back." He made hand seals and grabbed Iruka's wrist at the last moment. The world flashed away in a whirl of leaves and they landed in the Hokage's office.

They almost landed on top of Ebisu.

Shizune steadied a stack of paperwork that threatened to topple over at the gust of wind caused by Kakashi's teleportation jutsu.

"Godaime, I need to speak to you," Kakashi said. He sounded adult.

"K-Kakashi? How dare you interrupt the Hokage's meeting with me!" Ebisu exclaimed.

Iruka inwardly cringed. Ebisu was a stickler for rules and absolutely unbending on issues of courtesy. "Good morning, Ebisu-san."

"Good morning," Ebisu replied. This interlude managed to hold him off for about thirty seconds. "Godaime-sama, this is outrageous! I scheduled this time to go over budgetary matters as it concerns –"

Tsunade none-too-subtly cut Ebisu off with a wave of her hand. "Kakashi, is this an emergency?"

"Absolutely an emergency," Kakashi said in his most serious tone.

"Ebisu. We can continue this discussion later. Please wait outside."

"But – but I –" Ebisu caught himself arguing with an authority figure and instantly backed down. He bowed deeply and stiffly. "Yes, Godaime-sama." That didn't stop him from shooting Kakashi a withering look as he left the room.

Kakashi didn't seem to notice.

"Well? What is it?" Tsunade asked.

"Aren't you going to thank him for interrupting your budgetary meeting?" Shizune asked, smiling.

"No," Tsunade retorted to her assistant.

"I want to assign a substitute leader to Team Seven," Kakashi said without preamble.

"Why?" Tsunade asked.

"I am not recovering as quickly as I had hoped. Naruto's training also must be continued at all costs."

"I agree with you, but…" Tsunade frowned. "Do you have someone in mind?"

"An ANBU operative. When I knew him, he was codenamed Tenzou."

"Shizune –"

"Getting the personnel files for ANBU," Shizune said. She exited the room.

"Why is Tenzou qualified to lead Team Seven?" Tsunade asked.

"He has skills he can teach Naruto that I can't," Kakashi said. "Also, a new leader will help them think of themselves as they are in the present instead of pining for the past. They have to move on and a new leader will help them do that. They need another teammate to complete their team. It's too dangerous to do missions always one teammate short. I suggest cross-collaboration with ANBU's ROOT division."

"You realize you are saying all of this in front of a schoolteacher," Tsunade drawled.

"Iruka has sworn to keep the secrets of this village," Kakashi said. "He also is not at risk because he does not go on missions. An enemy would have to get past all of us to get to him."

Shizune returned with a single manila file. She delivered it to Tsunade. "Yamato, former alias Tenzou."

Tsunade opened the file and scanned it. She looked up at Kakashi. "You're crazy."

Kakashi stared her down. "I'm not going to accept anyone else. Tenzou is the only other trustworthy ANBU operative I know and no one who isn't qualified for ANBU can possibly help Naruto. He's far surpassed everyone else. No one else would even know what to do with him. You know it's true."

"Yamato's past compromises –"

"Tenzou's past means he'll identify with Naruto," Kakashi said heatedly. "They both had things done to them as infants. They both grew up isolated. They both suffered from not knowing who they really were."

"He makes good points," Shizune murmured.

"If this blows up in our faces?" Tsunade asked.

"I'll take the blame and I'll return to Team Seven," Kakashi said. "But it won't." He smiled. "Tenzou will show you what he's made of. He's the perfect leader for Team Seven."

"I suppose I won't be able to get you out of my office unless I agree to take the gamble that this isn't a terrible mistake," Tsunade said.

"Yep." Kakashi gave her one of his cheerful smiles.

"Go." Tsunade flicked her hand. "I'll summon Yamato and explain the situation to him. He may not be grateful to you."

"That's okay," Kakashi said. "I don't think Tenzou knows how to be grateful yet." He took Iruka's wrist and jumped out the window. Iruka was startled by this nonchalance, and he heard Tsunade curse behind them. Kakashi ran down the side of Hokage Tower, taking Iruka with him.

They jumped across rooftops until they reached Iruka's apartment complex. Kakashi sat down on the roof and looked around. "It's a nice day, isn't it? The sun is shining."

"What was all that back there?" Iruka couldn't hold it in. "Past compromises? What –"

"Don't worry about it, Ruka-chan," Kakashi said, sounding like a child again with his inflection. "It isn't like it sounds. Tenzo's not a bad kid."

Iruka held in his doubts and promised himself he'd take Kakashi's word for it. At least until he could meet Tenzo himself. "I admire you for doing so much to save your friend."

Kakashi hugged him.