Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Hope ❯ Part 4 ( Chapter 4 )

HOPE 4

Naruto found himself in the arms of the Hokage, his screams of terror upon seeing his teacher muffled by her robes. Tsunade understood the boy's feelings. It must have been complete horror to see the person you look so up to in such a state.

"It's all right Naruto." Tsunade said, patting the boy's messy mass of blonde hair. "Let it out. It' okay to cry."

"Who - Who would do this to him?" Naruto sobbed. The boy was only thirteen and even if he was a chuunin, he couldn't seem to digest the idea of death just yet. At least not completely.

"They're taken care off." Tsunade said, eyes darkening with raw anger. Burning wasn't even enough punishment for them, according to her. Then again, the jounins had killed the two men. Genma who was one of them, came home looking rather pale. He was the one supposed to hand in the report to her personally, but he had asked a messenger to the job instead. The messenger said that Genma wasn't feeling well at the moment and was occupying one of the men's lavatory.

Tsunade did not even want to know how Iruka looked like when they found him and Genma had a strong stomach. For crying out loud, the man saw things worst than that! But if the sight of Iruka's body made the honey-haired man enough to heave for about fifteen minutes in the toilet, then it must have been real bad.

Naruto had stopped crying five minutes later, and just slowly turned his head to see the face of the sleeping teacher. He sniffed and carefully made his way to the bed, sitting on the cushioned chair and staring at his teacher sadly.

"Lee said he was looking for me." He mumbled sadly, looking at the ugly blue-violet bruise on Iruka's cheek. The man's lips were darker in color and had two cuts, both upper and lower lip. "I was so mad at him." Naruto said, eyes watering again. Tsunade stood behind the boy, waiting for him to continue speaking. "He wasn't there the day I graduated to become a chuunin. He promised he'd be there and when he wasn't, I got really sad. Then he didn't even try to greet me for three days and when I confronted him, he said he was so busy." Naruto bit his lower lip. "I know I was being selfish and that it wasn't his fault. But then when Lee told me he was looking for me and then - then this!" Naruto shut his eyes tightly, tears streaming down his already rosy cheeks. "It's my fault! I shouldn't have acted so selfishly!"

Tsunade patted his head, and then placed her hands on his shoulder. "It's not your fault Naruto. It's not your fault."

As days went by, Naruto tried his best to think positive, but much to his chagrin, Iruka still remained asleep.

*

Kakashi was handing in his report during mid-afternoon when he bumped in to his former students Sakura and Sasuke, along with Shikamaru. They were taking missions from the one of the chuunins, both looking quite disturbed.

Kakashi greeted them, smiling under his mask. "How have you been?"

"Fine, Kakashi-sensei." Sakura answered, flashing him a smile. Sasuke merely nodded in agreement. "What about you?"

"Ah, you know me!" Kakashi said, rubbing the back of his head. "Helping damsels in the distress, saving poor kittens on trees and little puppies -"

"Liar!" Sakura said, a visible twitch on her features. Shikamaru merely sighed in a bored manner while Sasuke's lips quirked in what could have been a smile. Old ways do die hard.

"Ah, don't say that." Kakashi said, eye curved up happily. "Where's dobe?"

"Eh. Troublesome." Shikamaru mumbled, shoving his hands in to his pockets.

"He didn't want to come with us today." Sasuke answered, expression a bit troubled. "He said that he was not in the mood. He's been giving us that excuse for the past two weeks."

"And it's a B class mission. So he convinced Shikamaru to take his place." Sakura said, flicking a glance at the bored-looking boy beside her.

Kakashi frowned a bit. "That's unlike him to decline such a high ranked mission." Both Sasuke and Sakura nodded. "Ah, well. Sometimes moods change, right? Good luck with the mission!"

"See you around, Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura said, waving.

Kakashi merely nodded and left the room. He had nothing to do on that day and his mind was occupied by thoughts of a certain blonde boy. He took a detour towards the boy's house just to check on him when he caught sight of him walking towards the hospital. Kakashi raised an eyebrow, as Naruto disappeared through the glass doors. He made movement to quickly follow the boy.

He found it surprising that even if he was only ten feet behind the boy, he still did not notice his presence. What he found also puzzling is that why Naruto would enter a hospital in the first place. He was one of the first few people to see the boy's amazing healing ability. He remembered the first so-called C ranked mission they got and how Naruto had stabbed his hand with a kunai to stop the poison. The cut would have required stitches but the wound closed immediately and he saw it happened. Up to the present day, he still found the nine-tails' chakra amazing. He was even more amazed after the Orochimaru incident.

So exactly what is Naruto doing in a hospital?

He followed the boy who took a right and slid behind swinging doors towards the secluded ward. Kakashi frowned. Again he asked himself what business did Naruto have in being in such a place. He watched the boy enter one of the last rooms, and did not come out for another ten minutes. Kakashi shrugged to himself and entered the room, taking notice of how Naruto sat next to the bed, his hand gently holding the one on the bed.

"Naruto, who is -" He stopped dead in his sentence. His single eye visibly widened as he gaped at the sight his eyes greeted him. He heard of the saying `curiosity killed the cat' and now he knew how it felt. He cursed inwardly, loudly and in a very foul manner.

"Kakashi-sensei." Naruto whispered, seeing the wide-eye look on the jounin's face. He then turned his sky-blue eyes towards the sleeping man again, lightly drawing circles on his hands. "They said it's not a coma."

Kakashi did not know whether he should be glad that the teacher was not in a coma or sad. How come he never heard of this? "When did this happen?"

"Two weeks ago." Naruto answered in a low broken voice.

"And he's been asleep ever since?" He asked, surprised. Naruto nodded as a reply. Two weeks and it's not a coma? Then what the hell was it? Beauty sleep? "What happened to him?" Kakashi asked and Naruto merely swallowed.

"He's been beaten up badly and was already ill before such a beating." Naruto pulled the covers up higher; making sure that the sleeping man was warm. "He was also -" Naruto swallowed.

"What?" Kakashi asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Used." Naruto's fists clenched and clear drops landed on the white knuckles. "They say he was used after they beat him to unconsciousness."

Kakashi saw red. He felt raw and white-hot anger cloud his senses. Such acts were definitely and totally unforgivable. Iruka was already ill before they beat him? No wonder the man couldn't put up a fight. But the idea of being used as an object of release after being pounded to unconsciousness - Kakashi gritted his teeth.

"Who did this?" He asked, voice cold and filled with killing intent. Naruto shrugged in answer. "Where are they? Do you know?"

"Baa-san said they're taken care of."

Kakashi closed his eyes, trying to calm down. Tsunade can be vicious and so whatever she did with those who did this to Iruka, Kakashi reminded himself to go thank her one-day.

The sudden rise of the brain waves and respiration rates on the monitor made both of them snap up from whatever thoughts they had drowned themselves in. Naruto suddenly turned his head towards Iruka's hand, watching the fingers move slowly against the white sheet.

"I-Iruka-sensei?" He asked, turning his eyes to the sleeping man's face.

Kakashi placed a hand on Naruto. "Go get the doctors. Better yet, go get the Hokage."

Naruto did not even argue. He rushed out of the room and went to alert Tsunade and the doctors. Kakashi took Naruto's place and the sudden urge to just hold Iruka's pale and bruised hand filled him. He took the pale hand in his gloved one and watched as the sleeping man fought his way to the world of the living. He watched as the eyelids fluttered slowly and dark eyes focused and adjusted to the room.

"Iruka?" He whispered.

Iruka slowly turned his head slowly towards Kakashi.

TBC

Mwaha! Cliffhanger! Sorry, guys, I just couldn't resist! ~evil laugh~

Tune in next time!