Masked-Writer-In-Disguise: Hello, readers. This story was rude enough to bite me in the butt. It started out as a need to write a story where the characters were completely in character and developed into an odd romance thingy. I jumped from fandom to fandom but none of the characters that I chose would get my brain pumping, but then I was talking with my friends about Naruto and my friend, Ko, mentioned Kakashi's Thousand Years' of Pain Jutsu. Suddenly, the plot bunny that had been forming in my head grew ten times it original size and gave me a massive headache. Incidentally, this is the story that was born.

I think that this will be the first story in which I have not inserted my OC or my friends' OC's. That is just a personal note, so if you really don't care then you really don't need to.

Btw, this story's title came from Stumble by Natasha Bedingfield.

Summary: Kakashi is depressed, lonely, cynical, questioning his importance to Konohagakure, and multiple other things that go with being the village's perverted sociopath. Tsunade finds out about it and tries to find a good person to help him get out of his depression, so she sets him up with Iruka and things go from there. -Set in Shippuden and Sasuke has been brought back-

Disclaimer: Alright, y'all know the drill. I don't own Naruto, the songs that the chapter titles came from, or anything else that may make an appearance or be hinted at in this story, yada, yada, yada. Y'all know how it goes. ON WITH THE STORY!!! -points dramatically-

Inspiration for Chapter: Snow White Queen-Evanescence

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Stumble-Chapter 1:

Snow White Queen

By: Masked-Writer-In-Disguise

The man stumbled through the halls, his chin to his chest and his clothes torn and covered in blood and dirt. He passed no one in the building. After all, it was 4:00 am and the only people who would be out were the jonins just getting off guard duty. The man's hair caught the dim lighting of the building and, despite being matted with blood and dirt, it gave off a silver glint. His feet came to a stop in front of a plain, brown door and one of his hands shakily came to rest on the cheap brass doorknob.

The door opened and the man tripped over the threshold and into the black, shabby apartment. The door closed behind him and he tried to lift his shirt over his head. He hissed. Blood had dried onto the shirt, connecting the dirty cloth to the wounds beneath it. When trying pull the offending garment off failed, the man pulled a kunai out of his weapons' pouch and began to cut the shirt off. Next came the pants. He continued his attempt at walking toward the small bathroom across the room, leaving a trail of bloody rags behind him.

When he arrived at the bathroom door, he had divested himself of all clothing and was barely standing. The door gave way before him. Soon the man was standing at the shower testing the water with a First Aid kit in his hand. The First Aid kit having been set onto the counter, he let out a hiss as he stepped under the water, the heated liquid burned the raw edges of the wounds. Pink water swirled down the drain and disappeared; mud followed. The man tilted his head back, letting the water run through his hair, slowly revealing its silver color. The hot water relaxed his muscles even as it burned his wounds, most of which were deep and probably infected. He went through all the motions of cleaning himself without really paying attention to what it was he was doing. His body was moving on autopilot.

He got out of the shower to see a dog sitting near the partially open door.

"Kakashi, if I can sneak up on you that easily you are either exhausted or working yourself too hard. Although, in this case, it seems to be both," the dog rumbled, managing to sound somewhat concerned for the silver-haired nin's health.

"I really don't care at this point, Pakkun," Kakashi rasped. "I could die for all I care and nobody would miss me. I'd have less pain to deal with."

"I'm just saying that you need rest; your chakra level is almost non-existent, your blood left a trail from your door to the bathroom, sheer force of will is keeping you standing and you didn't reset the traps you had removed when you came in. You're a sitting duck."

"Go away, Pakkun, unless you have suddenly grown opposable thumbs and can help me bandage myself up."

The pug sighed and turned around to leave. "Kakashi," it said over it's shoulder, " we're here, by we I mean the other dogs and me, and we're not going anywhere until you're back at your usual strength. You will have very little bed space tonight."

Kakashi's lips curved into a bitter sort of a smile and he began to gather the materials needed for cleaning and bandaging his wounds from his First Aid kit. Time soon found him sitting at his dining room table struggling to wrap the bandages around his torso. Things were not going well. Kakashi was tired, sore and rapidly losing patience with the world. He was about ready to give up on life and summon a clone to do it for him. His instinct to live eventually won, and the tired Sharingan user finally finished the crappy patch job on himself. The bandages weren't perfect, but they would hold through the night or until he could find the strength to make it to the hospital for proper healing.

Kakashi stood on wobbly legs and made his way slowly over to the door that hid his bedroom from the sight of one entering through the front door. The Seven Nin-Ken followed automatically, the largest of them all, Bull, moving forward to assist the master should he fall. They walked into the room, Kakashi and Bull coming first the others second, and soon found themselves fighting for space on the queen sized bed that took up most of the room. Kakashi had a very small apartment. Kakashi was out before his head hit he pillow, so the Nin-Ken continued their squabbling as quietly as they could. Pakkun simply claimed the spot to the left of Kakashi's head and Bull substituted a blanket, as Kakashi hadn't had a chance to pull one up before he fell asleep. Anyone looking at the sight would never guess that this was the Sharingan Kakashi, but as no one was looking, the thought never crossed anyone's mind, effectively leaving Kakashi as an invincible man in the eye of Konohagakure.

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"…Kakashi," a female voice called out as a hand that probably belonged to the person who was talking touched his shoulder and shook him. "Kakashi wake up. Honestly, what the hell were you thinking not going to the hospital right away. Your blood is still all over the building. I've got some people cleaning it up, but there's so much blood. You do realize that you could have bled to death before you ever made it back to your apartment?"

Kakashi groaned. He really didn't give a damn, and he was about to say so when he realized that he really didn't have the energy to talk. He opted for ignoring the voice to the best of his ability. It didn't work because the lady gave him a rather hard shake and continued to prattle on about anything that came to mind.

The silver haired man finally opened his eyes only to glare at the annoying voice at his bedside. He discovered that it was none other that Tsunade herself.

"What're ya doin'ere?" he slurred out. It was honestly the best he could do without about 12 dozen cups of coffee, but seeing as his coffee pot had died before he left on the mission, he really could do nothing about his current predicament.

"The guards told me you came back at about 3:45 this morning and that you were covered in blood and didn't look like you were going to make it. You refused medical aid and went home, so I came over to make sure that you were still alive. You are such an idiot. Now sit up, brat, and let me have a look at you," the Hokage explained gruffly. She was in a bad mood, so Kakashi thought it wise to just sit up and let her do her thing.

Kakashi gathered all the strength he possessed and pushed himself up. As he lifted his body he realized that he was very much naked, as he hadn't taken the time to put on something as trivial as clothes on the night before. He also hadn't expected anyone to come looking for him…especially not the Hokage. Sitting up took time and Tsunade did little to help, but soon he was sitting with his back turned to the woman. He could feel her fingers poking at the bandages.

"Well, it ain't pretty, but you did a good job of making sure they'd hold," Tsunade murmured.

The man didn't know weather or not to be insulted. Once again, he opted for the middle road and allowed the woman to poke and prod at his wounds and their dressings and heal what she could. She healed almost everything except for the deepest gash in his back, which she did mostly heal, and told him to get rest as his chakra level was non-existent at this point in time. Kakashi heard a snort to his left, turned his head and saw Pakkun sitting at the forefront of the pack. Kakashi glared. The dog was looking entirely too smug and the man being forced to suffer through Tsunade's painful check-up was ready to kill the small animal.

"…Oh, and, Kakashi, don't you dare die on us. Sasuke came out of his coma this morning, around 5 am, and he'll need you around. He doesn't trust us very much, but you've saved his life countless times, so it's only natural," Tsunade gathered up her gear and left the room quietly, leaving Kakashi to his thoughts.

"Well, boss, you heard her. Get some sleep," Pakkun lead the dogs back to the bed and they reclaimed their places. "If you don't, I'll go get that snake woman downstairs to knock you out."

Kakashi glared at the pug. "You wouldn't… I think the point of getting me to sleep is to heal me, not to cause more injury."

The dog shrugged to the best of his ability. "Then go to sleep."

Kakashi reluctantly did as he was told; Anko was famous for her left hook. Despite how fast his mind was working, sleep came easily and he found himself in a deep sleep. It was the kind of sleep that steals up on little children, kender, animals and rocks; deep and undisturbed.

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The sun was shining brightly into the window without any drapes, and in its happy mood, it failed to realize that the occupant of the room that bore the window without drapes desperately wished that it would disappear for another day or so. The sun continued to shine it's light through the window and the occupant groaned and rolled over, trying to block the light from his eyes. It didn't work because now he was awake and nothing in the world would be able to get him back to sleep until the sun went to bed and the moon took her turn in the sky. So, the silver haired man opened his eyes and stared at the wall for a good ten minutes before he realized that he was indeed staring at the wall, which was unfortunately winning the unfair staring contest, and that his body was screaming for sustenance.

After about ten more minutes he found it in him to pull himself out of bed and go and raid the tiny kitchenette for anything remotely resembling food. At this point Kakashi really didn't care weather the food was actually food or if it were something that had once been food and was now in such a state of moldiness that most people wouldn't consider touching it. Unfortunately, most of the food in his tiny excuse of a kitchen was of the second variety and he was forced to eat ramen and some frozen fruits that he had found in his freezer. The fruit would honestly have tasted better if it were fresh, and the ramen would have tasted better if it were not of the shrimp variety, but food was food.

Kakashi raided the cabinets for anything caffeinated as his coffeepot was broken. He found about half a dozen cartons of black tea, three cartons of orange tea, two and a half cartons of green tea, one carton of chai and half a carton of vanilla. Seeing as he had such an assortment of teas of various flavors, he decided he'd try them all at least once. Kakashi couldn't remember buying any of this stuff, but, well, someone did and he wasn't complaining.

It was only after the man had brewed a mug of the weakly caffeinated liquid that he remembered why he was a coffee person. Tea was disgusting and watery and not a good drink for someone that likes his coffee so strong that it tastes like shit. Kakashi sighed and decided to go look for his book, which was probably in his room. Once he had found it he returned to the kitchen/living room/dining room/entranceway area of his apartment and took his usual place on the old, worn, ugly, napping couch that took up most of the small living space that the Copy Nin owned. Total cosmic power; itty-bitty living space.* The book in his hand was falling apart, but he really didn't care, nor did he have enough money to go off and buy himself a new one. His students would kill him if he did anyway. They were always on him about his reading material. Hell, everybody was.

The small pug known as Pakkun came and settled itself on Kakashi's stomach and effectively got Kakashi's attention.

"Kakashi," the small dog began, "When are you actually going to listen to the advice of the medics? You need rest if you're going to be of any use to your students and the village."

"My students will be fine without me. They were before they met me," Kakashi replied before taking a sip of the watery tea.

The pug sighed. "Kakashi, the one with the hair that looks like a duck's butt is going to need you very soon. You're the only one besides himself with his clan's kekkei genkai. Not only that, but you were friends with the boys uncle."

Now Kakashi sighed. "If you really want me to get some sleep tell the dogs to get off of my bed. They haven't listened to me concerning my bed space since they were pups."

"Fine."

Soon the dogs were off of the bed and Kakashi was laying in it, staring at the ceiling, which was cheating just as much as the wall had been that morning. Silence permeated the air and the sun continued to shine through the window without any drapes. Kakashi turned his head and stared out the window at the sun shining brightly, happily, obliviously, and he just wished it would rain. He wished that for once the weather would reflect just how he was feeling inside. He wished that people would stop expecting so much from him; he was only human. He wished his sensei and his teammates were here with him, like they would have been had they been alive. He wished that his father hadn't committed suicide and that his mother was still alive running their family teashop. He wished for a lot of things, but he never got any of them, so instead of wishing further on stars that didn't hear him and asking the help of gods that had decided that they hated him, he resigned himself to lay in bed, in the silence staring at the ceiling that cheated in an unfair staring contest with the sun shining brightly through the window with no drapes while people throughout the village went on with their lives, oblivious to the depression of Konoha's greatest shinobi.

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Masked-Writer-In-Disguise: Well, there's the first chapter of Stumble for you. I really hope that you like it. I'm rather proud of it myself. It has taken a lot of work and trying to find ways to fit certain things in. Anyway, I would love to hear your ideas, suggestions, criticisms, etc., so if you wouldn't mind pressing the big button that says REVIEW, that'd be great. Thanks for reading!

* I got this line from Genie in the movie Aladdin. I love Genie and this seemed to fit in well with the story, so I threw it in.