Homecoming

by Nezuko, Prince of Rats

This is a work of derivative fiction based on "Naruto" by Kishimoto Masashi. The characters and the world in which they live are the property of Kishimoto-sensei.

ooo ooo ooo

"What? Where do you think we are, Genma?" Iruka tried to keep his voice neutral. He swiped a hand across Genma's sweaty brow, finding it disconcertingly hot.

Kakashi groaned, and Iruka jumped, swiveling on his knees.

"Kakashi? You OK?" He looked at Genma for permission to move, receiving a nod in reply, and crawled quickly to the silver-haired man, still lying huddled on his side.

"Come on Kakashi. Can you sit up a little if I hold you? I think you'll be able to breathe better if there's less pressure on your chest."

Iruka pulled Kakashi back against him, wrapping his arms beneath his lover's, lifting as gently as he could. Kakashi's head lolled against Iruka's throat. Genma watched with a look of sick horror in his eyes.

"Kakashi, you bastard, don't you fucking die on me," Genma hissed.

Iruka looked up, surprised at the vehemence in the jounin's voice.

Kakashi opened his eyes a slit, glancing out of the corners at Genma, then raised a hand and flipped his friend off.

Genma pulled himself a little closer, leaning in, letting his head rest close to Iruka's against the wall.

"I already watched him die once," Genma said, as if that explained it all to Iruka, then grunted and shut his eyes.

END Chapter 7

Chapter 8: Reinforcements

Pandemonium continued to reign in the hallway outside room 2203. With the door closed and the curtains shut, the medics and staff clustered there were straining their ears to find out what was happening inside the room, where the foolish but brave chuunin sensei faced down two delirious and hostile jounin. Some of the cleverer ninjutsu users cast various eavesdropping aids, although hospital privacy rules forbade this practice. Those who chose to disobey reasoned that this was an emergency, after all.

Even those not aided by jutsu strained to hear what was taking place behind that closed door. They half-expected the sounds of battle – the anguished cries of the scarred teacher being taken out. When instead the pained noises seemed to be coming from the patients, the assembled medics found themselves breathing a strange sigh of relief. It was almost never a good thing to hear the groans of your patients getting worse, but it was better than having a third one to add to the list.

Tsunade and Ibiki arrived to find the injured medics being cared for by their colleagues. Only Migaki, the one who had been burned by Kakashi's fire jutsu, was conscious. Tsunade pushed the woman tending his wounds out of the way with an impatient curse and inspected them herself.

"Arm, torso, face – you're lucky, it looks like it's mostly second degree," the hokage said, and motioned for the waiting medic to resume her treatment. "So what happened, Migaki?"

"I- Tsunade-sama, I..." Migaki glanced nervously at Ibiki's looming form where he leaned against wall observing the chaos, then back at the dangerously flashing eyes of his leader.

"Spit it out!" she snapped, "What the fuck happened? I hear Shiranui and Hatake are both in there, and they attacked you. Is that what happened?"

"Yes, ma'am. I..." The burned medic licked his lips nervously. "I don't know why Shiranui-san would be out of bed, I wasn't managing his care, but as far as I know he was immobilized up on the ortho floor. On six." Migaki broke off, wincing as the medic attending him applied some unguent to his burned shoulder. After a moment he continued.

"We – Matsui, Itoh and I – we were in the conference room going over patient charts when we heard raised voices and a crash from down the hall, and at the nursing station we could see Hatake-san's monitors were all going crazy – BP and heart-rate elevated, you know? So we ran down there to see what was going on..."

Tsunade nodded impatiently, her mouth a grim line.

"We went in to see what was wrong, and almost as soon as we entered they both attacked. Shiranui-san was in front of the bed, and I think I saw him cast something, then he used an IV pole to vault backward. Hatake-san was crouched in the bed – I didn't have time to see if he cast a second jutsu, but I'm pretty sure he did." Migaki glanced down at his charred clothing and burned skin and gave a rueful little laugh. "Then there was this huge electric jutsu – lightening cascade type – which caught Itoh. I tried to grab him and I got hit with the fire. When I could see again, Matsui was on the ground, bleeding from the head."

"Did they say anything?" Ibiki asked, startling the working medic and her patient, who seemed, surprisingly, to have forgotten he was there.

"Just, uh, just- I think Hatake-san said 'Get down,' or 'Get behind me.' Something like that." The injured medic hesitated.

"What?" Ibiki asked. "Even if it seems trivial, it may be relevant." His voice was deep-pitched and serious, but not unkind.

"It isn't anything, really," the medic answered, "It's just- Hatake-san sounded like a commander on a battlefield, you know? That- that tone. Like he was facing down an enemy and organizing subordinates." Migaki raised his unburned hand and pushed frizzled hair off his forehead.

Tsunade glanced at Ibiki, but her expression was unreadable. "Could mean anything," she said. "The man has a fucking skull-fracture. It's not surprising he's altered."

"Both of them? In the same delusion?" Ibiki replied. "Seems unlikely."

"They were definitely acting in concert?" Tsunade looked at the injured man again.

"Yes. Coordinated attack." Migaki hissed and flinched again as the medic attending him removed the burned garment from his body, pulling charred flesh with the blackened cloth. "F-f-f-fuck!" He groaned, the unburned side of his face growing whiter by the second.

"Lie him down and take him over to the burn center." Tsunade addressed the medic, pushing Migaki down onto the gurney as she spoke. "You'll be alright, Shinobi. It's a good sign it hurts. Nerves aren't destroyed."

"I know that." Migaki gritted through clenched teeth. "Fuck me if I'm ever unsympathetic to a burn patient..."

Tsunade didn't hear his last remark, though. She had moved on to the woman in charge of the unit, who was standing outside the closed door to Kakashi's room along with a crowd of medics, nurses, orderlies, security personnel, and a few curious patients and visitors.

"Clear these idiots out of here!" the hokage barked, kicking a stray wheelchair so that it collided with the legs of one of the mobile patients, who sat down in it with a startled gasp.

While the onlookers were being sorted out, Tsunade got the supervisor's analysis of the incident, including a summary of the injuries to her medical personnel.

Ibiki, meanwhile, filtered through the crowd at the edge of the wall, conducting his own investigation. He noted which ninja in the hallway had cast eavesdropping jutsu on the room, and pulled two of them aside to give him a rundown on what had taken place inside so far.

"I understand Iruka-sensei's in there with them now?" He directed at one of his informants, a delicate-looking young man wearing glasses and a surgeon's hood, by the name of Kusushi.

"He went in about fifteen minutes ago. I tried to stop him."

"What's happened since then?" Ibiki asked.

"He- he shut the curtain, Morino-sa-"

"Cut the crap, Medic. I know you cast Tachigiki, and I'm not going to get on your case about it. Now tell me what's happening in there." Ibiki spoke quietly, but his words carried an unmistakable threat. "You too." The tall, scarred man cast a glance at the second eavesdropping medic he had pulled aside. "And I know she's still got it cast." Ibiki gestured to a woman in standard chuunin's uniform who stood a little apart from them, staring at the shut door.

Kusushi swallowed and looked up at his forbidding interrogator. "It- it sounds like Iruka-sensei's alright. They- they're treating him as an ally. But it also sounds like both patients are doing poorly."

"Meaning?" Ibiki uncrossed and re-crossed his arms, leaning back against the wall and looking down at Kusushi and his compatriot.

"Shiranui-san was retching – probably vomiting." The other man put in. "And Hatake-san sounds like he's in pain and struggling to breathe. I heard Shiranui-san tell him not to die."

"Iruka-sensei's trying to take care of them both," Kusushi added, "And Shiranui-san was trying to get him to go for help. Said the enemy had them trapped, or something like that."

"No that was Hatake-san who said that," The other man contradicted.

"Doesn't matter." Ibiki held up a hand. "They both said something like that, right? Something to the effect that they believed they were under hostile attack, and that Iruka was an ally, right?"

"Yes." Both men nodded, waiting for Ibiki's next question.

"Come with me." Ibiki led them over to the woman who was still monitoring the room. "What's happening in there now?"

"Ibiki-san?" The woman, a security guard and a member of Ibiki's staff looked up.

"You've been listening since it started, Asano?"

"Yes sir. They're clearly both under some sort of delusion – something that has them both believing they are under attack and not in Konoha." Asano replied.

"What's their condition?"

"Poor, sir. Both are in significant distress. It appears that Iruka-sensei is attempting to keep them stable, but I believe they need immediate medical attention."

"Can you get us in there?" Kusushi broke in. "I'm on the team taking care of Shiranui-san. He's not in good enough shape to be out of bed. Not at all. He's going to start going downhill fast if we don't get him back on his IV and in traction. And I don't know about Hatake-san, but..."

"He's in bad shape, too," The second medic broke in, "He's not getting any of his meds if he's disconnected, which I think he must be, since his monitor lines are all flat now. And one of them in there said he was having trouble breathing..."

A commotion at the far end of the hall drew their attention, as a flush-faced pair of young girls in cleaning uniforms were bustled into the ward by a pair of guards.

"He- he- he said not to tell or he- he'd..." One of the girls sobbed as she was pushed towards Ibiki.

"Hush," one of her escorts said, pulling up in front of his commander. "Found them in Shiranui's bed. He coerced them into helping him get free of the traction apparatus, then knocked them out and put 'em in the bed under blankets."

"I- I- I didn't tell..." wailed Giri, beside a white-lipped and sobbing Yukio.

"You didn't have to. It was obvious what happened," the second guard soothed. "No one's gonna let anything bad happen to you."

If Genma had seemed an imposing giant to these girls, Ibiki was a demon. Taller yet, and more massive, with a forbiddingly scarred face set in a concerned frown. His gloved hands and low-tied bandanna hiding an obviously bald head were even more unsettling, though neither Giri nor Yukio could have explained why that was. The stared up at the jounin and would have burst into fresh tears, but Ibiki did something that surprised them: The tall man knelt on the floor, putting himself just below eye level with the girls, and his face relaxed into a disarmingly gentle smile.

"Sounds like you've had a rough night," he said.

The transformation was astonishing, and it wasn't only the two targets of Ibiki's interest that were confused and fascinated by it. Before the eyes of the girls, the guards, and the medics alike, the terrifying demon sadist interrogator had utterly disappeared, replaced by a kind and protective older brother. Someone who would look out for you and dry your tears. Someone you could utterly TRUST for now and forever.

Giri and Yukio stared at Ibiki with slack-jawed wonder. He reached out one of those intimidating, gloved hands, and patted Giri's arm. The gesture was full of comfort – compassion even.

"Tell me what happened," he prompted. "You both work here, right?"

Giri and Yukio both nodded, but neither made a sound.

"You're... Yuki-chan, right?" Ibiki looked at the short-haired and slightly taller of the two girls, "Yamashiro Yukio? Aoba's niece?"

"You know my uncle?" Yukio looked stunned.

"Of course I do. I work with him." Ibiki smiled

"I... he... I... How did you know..." Yukio stammered, forgetting her fear.

"I recognized your name," He gently tapped her name tag when she looked bewildered. "And I remembered hearing Aoba-san talk about you. You look like him, did you know that?" Ibiki still smiled, seeming to have all the time in the world. "Now, can you tell me what happened?"

"We- we were cleaning his room," Yukio answered, in a shaky voice. "The jounin with the broken leg." She took a breath, then started to pick up speed, "And Giri said not to get too close, but then she cleaned under his bed and he grabbed her and I was gonna scream but he threw a dart at me..."

"It was a hypodermic syringe," one of the guards interrupted, "Found it embedded in the wall."

"Giri-chan, is that what happened? Is that what you remember?" Ibiki turned to the still silent girl with long brown hair that resembled her attacker's.

"Un huh," she nodded, her voice a meek whisper. "I should have been more careful..."

"That's alright. No-one's blaming you." Ibiki shifted, leaning in slightly, as if he were about to confide in the girls. "The man who did this to you was very badly hurt on a mission for Konoha. We need to try to understand why he attacked you, because I know him, and he would never do something like this unless there was something very strange going on."

Ibiki paused and looked solemnly at each girl in turn. "So this is really important, alright? Did Shiranui-san say anything to you about why he attacked you? Did he ask you for anything besides help getting out of bed?"

"He- he said he knew we weren't involved in it. I didn't know what he meant, but he said to be quiet and he- he was..." Giri stumbled.

"He was choking her! He said he'd cut our tongues out if we talked. Oh god!" Yukio started to tremble and cry, clapping her hands over her mouth.

"You're under my protection, so no-one will hurt you, Yuki-chan." Ibiki looked up at one of his Anbu staffers. "Send a message to get Yamashiro Aoba over here if he's available. Don't tell him what's been happening here, let me do it."

The chosen chuunin nodded smartly, tugged a bird-like mask over his face, and vanished.

"Now," Ibiki glanced up at one of the guards who had brought the girls, then back. "Was he really choking you, Giri-chan?"

"N- no. He had his hand around my throat," Giri brought her own hand up to rub at her neck, "But he wasn't pressing."

"Neither girl had any marks on them that we were able to detect, Ibiki-san," The guard reported, confirming Giri's statement.

'OK," Ibiki nodded. "And he said he knew you weren't involved in something..."

"He said we probably weren't part of it," Giri corrected, remembering Genma's words more clearly.

"Good. And what else? Did he say anything else?" Ibiki prompted, his voice still low and gentle. Only those who knew him closest would have been able to detect the underlying urgency there.

"He wanted to know where Hatake-sama was. He- he made us help him get his leg free, and then he wanted to know if we were really talking about him and..."

"You were talking about Hatake Kakashi? Why was that?"

Giri blushed and looked at the floor. When Ibiki looked up questioningly at Yukio, he saw that her face, too, was flushed pink, and her eyes were averted.

"I really need you to be honest with me. It's okay that you were talking about him, if you were. Did you mention Hatake-san's name first?" Ibiki's legendary powers of interrogation notwithstanding, getting two embarrassed and traumatized twelve year old girls to fess up to gossiping is a difficult task.

"Well, Yun-chan was..."

"Don't tell! I mean, it wasn't important!" Yukio squealed.

"It is important. It's very important..." Ibiki considered his subjects. Loyalty to the village only went so far as a motivator, since neither of these girls were nins or even academy dropouts. He didn't want to force them to explain, but on the other hand, there was a crisis underway and time to coax the information out of the adolescents was preciously limited.

The long-haired girl, Giri, seemed like she would be willing to talk, like she wanted to talk, and she appeared to have decent observational skills. If Ibiki had had to lay odds on it, it was she, and not Yukio whom he would have bet was the relative of a highly-skilled shinobi. Fortunately, Aoba and the Anbu chuunin who had gone to fetch him appeared at that moment, giving Ibiki a chance to separate the girls.

"Ibiki-san, you sent for me? Something's happened to my niece?" Aoba, despite his reputation for boisterousness, was low-voiced and serious. His wraparound sunglasses were stowed in a vest pocket, exposing deep-set eyes so dark they appeared pupil-less. The obvious chaos in the hospital, the buzz in the air of names of jounin he knew well, and knew to be hospitalized with critical, mission-related injuries, and above all having been summoned by a masked Anbu to meet with the head of Torture and Interrogation, with no details as to why forthcoming, was more than enough to set him firmly in mission-mode.

"Yuki-chan is shaken up, but she's not hurt." Ibiki stood up to face Aoba. He put a hand protectively on Giri's shoulder, while at the same time gently patting Yukio's, urging her to take a step closer to her uncle.

"I'll fill you in on the details later," Ibiki continued, "but the short version is that she and Giri-chan here were cleaning Genma's room, and he coerced them into helping him find Kakashi. He left the girls up in his room, came down here, and apparently he and Kakashi together attacked some of the staff, believing they were in combat or perhaps in enemy hands. Umino Iruka's in there with them now, and I'm trying to sort out what the hell is going on with those two."

"My god." Aoba dropped to his knees next to his niece. "Are you really alright, Yuki-chan? He didn't hurt you?"

"Aoba-ojichan!" Yukio wailed and hurled herself into her uncle's arms.

The jounin quickly felt his niece over, ascertaining that indeed, while frightened, she was unhurt. He stood, lifting the sobbing girl into his arms as if she were half her age, and looked at Ibiki, who clearly had instructions for him.

"Take her down to the cafeteria or somewhere nearby and see if you can get her to tell you what happened to her. The whole story. You can take her home after that, but I want you to come back here and let me know what you find out." Ibiki gave Aoba a brief nod of a bow in thanks for his help.

Aoba returned the polite head bob and set off with Yukio still in his arms. She was already working her way up to a dramatic telling of her tale of horror at the hands of her uncle's terrifying colleagues. No way was he as scary as those other guys, was he?

Ibiki immediately turned his attention back to Giri. "Are you thirsty? How about a soda or a can of tea? I'm having tea," he offered, flipping two coins to the bird-masked chuunin who had accompanied Aoba.

"I- I- I-" Giri stammered, feeling exposed with Yukio gone.

"What do you like more, green or oolong? Or do you prefer something sweet? I liked apple juice best when I was your age." Ibiki continued, as if Giri were simply hesitating because she wanted to be polite.

"I like oolong," she answered at last, in a small voice.

"What a coincidence, that's just what I was going to have. How about two cans of oolong?" Ibiki smiled easily, and led Giri towards a bench along the hallway that was hastily vacated when the current occupants saw the scarred interrogator and his masked attendant approaching. The Anbu operative veered away to procure the tea, leaving Ibiki and Giri in an island of calm in the still chaotic hospital hallway.

"There's a lot going on here, isn't there," Ibiki remarked, as if he too were merely a spectator to the goings on.

"Uh huh." Giri nodded meekly, still intimidated. She glanced up at Ibiki, seated beside her, then away.

"Do you want to ask me something?" Ibiki said.

"Does- Is- Is that guy really just- Is he really-" She couldn't get her question out, didn't know what to ask really.

"Genma-san is a very good shinobi, and he's a good man. I know he wouldn't have frightened you like that unless he thought he had no other choice." Ibiki looked up to see his subordinate had returned with the tea. He took both cans, popped the tops, and handed one to Giri. "He's very ill, and we need your help to figure out what's wrong. He was on a mission with Hatake-san when they both got hurt. That's why it's important for you to tell me what you and Yukio were talking about."

Giri nodded and took a sip of her tea. "Yun-chan, she was- she was talking about Iruka-sensei. She- I don't think she really knows who he or Hatake-sama are, and she was... She asked me if I'd seen them. The white-haired jounin and his boyfriend, with the scar on his face."

"Why was that?" Ibiki encouraged her.

"Be- because she said he was cute – Iruka-sensei – and she thought maybe if- if Hatake-sama..." Giri stopped again, appalled at the idea that Yukio had proposed, now that she had to recount it.

"It's alright, I think I understand. So she said Hatake-san's name, and that's when Genma-san reacted?"

"No, I said his name. I told her she was out of her mind, and that was Hatake Kakashi she was talking about – you know, Sharingan Kakashi and everything – and of course he was gonna get well..." Giri glanced up at Ibiki and swallowed. "And he didn't um... he didn't do anything right away. He grabbed me when I was right next to the bed. I thought he was asleep."

"Then what did he do?"

"He made us unhook his leg, and he made us tell him where Hatake-sama was. And then I don't remember. He said all shinobi are dangerous..." Giri's eyes widened again, as she stared at the bustling hallway full of ninja. The commonplace of life in Konoha had taken on new meaning.

"OK, that's good. That's very good," Ibiki patted Giri's arm again. "All shinobi are dangerous, Giri-chan, but we're all here to protect the citizens of our villages. You don't have to be afraid." Ibiki rubbed a hand over his bandanna-covered skull, and took a deep breath. "Alright, let's get you home. Do you think you'd let Tori-san here accompany you?" He indicated the bird-masked Anbu guard.

"Does - does he have to wear that?" Giri touched her own face to indicate the mask.

Ibiki looked up at the guard. "No, he can take his mask off."

The Anbu soldier quickly pulled the bird-mask off, revealing a young, serious face marked with acne scars. He held a hand out to Giri. "Come on, I'll buy you a dango on the way, if you'd like."

Ibiki stood, and watched the girl and her escort leave. Then he plunged back into the crowd to find Tsunade.

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Author's Notes

Thank you for all the encouragement and patience. I will not abandon this or any story, I've just had a difficult summer/fall. Not to worry.

Please review/comment at your leisure. I have plans for this story. There is more to come. Really.

Extra Special Thanks to Kiki, Momo, Bite, Telos, Eloquence, and Winter

Special Thanks to all my reviewers:

To all of you who have supported and encouraged my writing, I am deeply indebted and profoundly grateful. Please continue to grace me with your feedback.

Yours,

Nezuko, Prince of Rats

The Timeline

Mid-April, three years after Sasuke left for Sound.

Saturday night/Sunday morning (Chapter 1, Chapter 3) Sunday (first half Chapter 2, Chapter 4) Monday (no chapter) Tuesday (second half Chapter 2) Wednesday (Chapter 5) Wednesday Evening (Chapters 6 ,7, & 8)

4/12 - Monday morning - Genma and Kakashi leave on their mission.

(intervening time to be described in later chapters)

4/17 - Saturday evening - Ibiki finishes his interrogation and sets out to return to Konoha.

4/18 - Sunday 2:00 am - Ibiki decides to rest for a little while, still 10 km or so outside of Konoha.

2:21 am - Kakashi wakes Iruka up returning home

4:00 - Ibiki finds Genma

5:30 - Ibiki and Genma arrive in Konoha

5:45 - Iruka's alarm goes off; Ibiki tries to calm Genma at the hospital

5:50 - Tsunade arrives at hospital, begins to treat Genma

6:15 - Iruka notices blood on the floor

6:25 - Naruto arrives at Iruka's

6:50 - Naruto arrives at hospital and interracts with Sakura, Ibiki and Tsunade

7:20 - Medics enter Iruka's house, attacked by Kakashi

7:22 - Tsunade and Ibiki enter Iruka's house

7:45 - Kakashi arrives at hospital

9:45 - Ibiki tells Iruka and Naruto about Genma; Genma and Kakashi both in surgery

12:45 pm - Iruka has lunch with Sakura and Naruto; Genma out of surgery but unconscious; Kakashi still in surgery

9:00 pm - Naruto goes home; Kakashi still undergoing intensive treatment

11:45 pm - Tsunade brings Kakashi to his room, talks to Iruka and Ibiki

4/19 - Monday 12:30 am - Iruka says goodnight to Ibiki, goes to sleep in lounger.

Monday throughout the day - Kakashi occasionally makes intelligible cries; Genma slightly less out-of-it but not speaking

4/20 - Tuesday 4:30 am - Kakashi finally wakes up, has first conversation with Iruka (but promptly forgets it.)

Tuesday throughout the day - Genma wakes up enough to start plotting, paranoid of medics but too weak to fight them off; Kakashi sleeps a lot, but when awake repeats the "what happened" conversation with Iruka, then forgets it, has paranoid reactions to medics, will only take medicine from Iruka.

4/21 - Wednesday - Genma able to stay awake more but feigns sleep; Kakashi able to stay awake more, but still having abnormal thinking, short-term memory loss, paranoid reactions to medics, etc.

4:40 pm - Kakashi has major reaction to Sakura in medic uniform, sedated by Iruka

7:00 pm - Iruka leaves Kakashi sleeping, steps out to look for Tsunade; Genma overhears girls, takes hostages, maneuvers his way towards Kakashi

7:30 - Genma and Kakashi's reunion

7:45 - Genma and Kakashi attack medics; Ibiki and Tsunade in conference

8:00 - Ward clerk gets Iruka; Medic gets Tsunade and Ibiki

8:10 - Iruka tries to deal with Genma and Kakashi

8:20 - Tsunade and Ibiki arrive