Escape

Chapter 6

Blood on the Floor and An Ending

The knights of the fortress had worked out a schedule amongst themselves allowing for their voluntary and harsh patrols. The men guarded and watched while waiting for more information. The countryside had been alerted to the possible dangers and many were aware of which side would allow them to live in peace, and which would have them burning on their homesteads.

Kakashi was coming home late after going out personally to speak to a friendly farmer. His lands ended in a ridge that overlooked the merchant path between the northern fortress and Lord Sarutobi's castle. It would be a key spot for a hidden lookout unknown from the easily seen towers. Those had been attacked regularly for the last month. The farmer had proven a loyal fellow and even offered to house and feed whichever soldier and horse was placed with him.

He calmly rode through the main gate, still open as colorful twilight began its descent. People were entering and exiting all around forcing Horse to step carefully. Kakashi recognized the young goose girl with her loud flock, and nodded to the chandler with his pack full of wares. He also apologized loudly to a small goat girl carrying a baby on her back. The girl didn't notice, but kept pulling her balking herd of two along. Kakashi dismounted as soon as there was free space and led Horse to the stables before entering the hall to be intercepted by one of his squad members; Sarutobi needed his report.

It was full dark before his first chance to eat with the rest of the men in the main hall was interrupted by a scream from the upper gallery. Lady Isshin came running alarming the entire hall with the blood-covered blanket she carried in her hand. "He's gone," she cried loudly to the soldiers below. "Minato is gone! Someone has murdered the baby!"

The rest of the night was filled with guttering torches and men searching everywhere within the castle and its surrounding land for the culprit, but a frantic week later nothing had been found; there was not a trace left of the child other than the blood splattered on the carefully embroidered blankets and dribbled across the floor of the nursery. The castle mourned the loss of the fair-haired toddler who had lightened so many hearts in his short time with them.

Kakashi didn't properly see his bed that entire first week as he'd been in and out of his room only for clothes before leaving to scour the countryside. He had returned after the initial search and morbidly studied the odd pools and patterns the dried liquid of life had made as it settled into dark brown stains. Several of them refused to make sense in his mind until he was eating dinner with Sarutobi and Raidou rushed in, fresh from his own week long search.

"My squire, Iruka is gone," he cried. "Izumo and Kotetsu haven't seen him in a week. They thought I had taken him with us because of his personal concern for the child. No one has seen hide nor hair of him since Minato disappeared."

Kakashi stood and swore loudly, the patterns now making sense, but how and why had they carried both a squire and a baby out of the room with no one seeing them? He voiced his concern and the entire room quieted.

"He was concerned for the child," Raidou mentioned sadly. "I had spoken to him, told him the truth of things. He probably placed himself there in the nursery as a guard only to…"

Kakashi nodded shortly and left the private dining room for the nursery, still under guard to protect any evidence. He found lady Tsunade leaning against the wall nearby holding her arms across her stomach while staring into the distance with a sickly expression on her face.

"Some information has surfaced," he informed her quietly. "The squire Iruka is missing. He has not been seen since the evening of the incident."

"The incident," she spat out. "Is that what we're calling it now; our failure to protect a single child? He was not even an important child and some are saying it does not matter in the grand scheme, but still it is our failure." She turned and faced Kakashi's worn expression. "And the squire Iruka also you say? He was your friend, Kakashi, and you coldly call what most certainly included his death just an incident? We both know how much blood was on that floor," she screamed. "Young Iruka is just as dead as that little child is, and neither of them deserved it, neither of them!"

She was only hushed from her ranting when Jiraiya ran up and held her tight, allowing her screams to dissolve into sobs. Kakashi left them unable to do anything more than stare at the floor of the nursery once more, the place where he now knew his friend, that brave young boy with the warm smile had defended the child he'd voluntarily accepted as a little brother to the death. It was near an hour later when he exited the room, his face dry of both emotion and tears. He would sleep, and then they would plan.

Not a single man in the garrison stayed in his path as he woodenly walked to his room and finally lay down fully clothed on the tightly made bed. His tired eyes couldn't help but shut, and he went to the only place he would ever see Iruka again, into his dreams where the brown haired boy would now be forever beside all the other people Kakashi had been too late and too weak to protect. It was only there in that mental fortress that the strong knight could finally mourn.

The next morning found him still exhausted, but willing to be refreshed. He called for a bath and clean clothes; he took wild advantage of the two familiar yet morose squires he found scowling in a corner and had them check his tack and horse to keep them busy. Sarutobi was already in his study poring over a map detailed with the latest information on troop movements. They were joined by the other squad leaders during the day, only breaking for dinner and eventually sleep.

When Kakashi returned to his rooms that night, the maids were just finishing their straightening up. One of the ladies curtsied apologetically. "We were scrubbing out the nursery, sir," she explained their tardiness of duty. "Lady Tsunade had us strip the entire room."

"She is understandably angry," he excused her with a nod. "And will most likely remain so for some time."

The maid agreed and sighed heavily with her own sadness before jumping back into her efficient role. "We've laundered your doublets and ordered some new leathers for you, sir. The master of the wardrobe said he'd noticed you growing again, so there are new braies and chausses waiting, but you need to be measured for any new hose you might be needing, and maybe a few doublets, also."

He was nodding absently while looking over his room noticing they'd even cleaned into the corners. He moved close to his bed and noticed an out of place piece of white on the small table beside it. The maid noticed him grabbing at it and explained.

"We found this sealed missive for you when we stripped the sheets from your mattress." She watched him stare at it and shrugged. "Will you be needing anything else, sir knight?"

"No," he said without thought, his eyes still trained on the unfamiliar markings cut into the wax seal. He didn't notice the woman leave, but carefully slipped his finger under an edge and pried the letter open leaving as much of the wax closure intact as he could. He nearly cried aloud when he read the shortly written contents scribed in a familiar hand.

He stayed awake another hour thinking and listening to the sounds of the garrison settling into their beds as his small lamp sputtered and finally died. He then sat in the dark still mulling over the few words he held in his hand and their reason for being. It wasn't until the gate guards were loudly chiming dawn that he finally stood, sure in his knowledge that Sarutobi would hold this information dear and use it wisely.

The old man was already awake when Kakashi entered his ready room, or maybe he too had stayed awake the whole night pondering the world and its recent disagreeable events. Dutifully, if a little late, Kakashi handed the note over without a word said between them. He watched those tired eyes read the one line and then read it again.

Lord Sarutobi sighed heavily, his anguish still bone deep. He stood to leave after handing the missive back to Kakashi and giving him one simple order; burn it.

The silver haired knight immediately took it over to the low flames of the fireplace. He wanted to keep it, run his fingers over those scrapes of ink and never let it go, but he did as ordered watching the edges curl and sear around the layers of meaning in those five simple yet beautiful words.

His name is now Naruto.

~fin~

Author's Final Note: I want to first profusely thank you all, whether you have stayed with this story form the beginning or just found recently. To all of my readers and reviewers, you are the light of my author life :D when I finally got the gumption up to finish this a few months ago I noticed the anniversary coming up, two years… two years ago I first posted this fic, and now it's finally done. I can remember writing it still, I was in what I commonly think of as a stereotypical writing haze! I heard the music, saw the story in my head and got out of bed to go write it. I loved it immediately, and I hope everyone who reads it loves it just as much.

I've always loved medieval smut novels, they're what I sank my teeth into as a young reader. I really wanted to see our boys in the setting. Now, if somehow I could have mixed time travel into the mix, that would have been perfect XD

So that's it, story done, no more. This is only the second Naruto chapter fic I've finished. I'm hoping to add more to that count eventually. Keep your weather eye out, cause it's gonna happen.

*loves* Vesca