Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Shinnen ❯ Kuro ( Chapter 7 )

Kakashi lead the way to a small ramen restaurant on the edge of town. Iruka hadn't heard of it but Kakashi seemed to frequent the place often, by the way he talked about it. It took a while to walk there and Iruka and Kakashi talked the whole way. Well, mostly Iruka talked while Kakashi nodded and listened. It was rather nice, Iruka thought as they opened the door to the ramen restaurant and stepped inside, but I still don't seem to know anything about him. When they opened the door a small bell rang somewhere in the back of the restaurant and a kindly looking woman appeared out of a back room, her hands full with trays of steaming ramen. She grinned broadly when she saw Kakashi and walked over to greet him.

"Kakashi, it's been a long time! For a while there, I thought you had ditched us for a fancier ramen restaurant." She chided lightly.

Kakashi laughed and said "You'd probably break my arms off if you caught me going to one of your "rivals". I keep coming here to keep my good health."

The waitress smiled. "You're lucky my arms are full or I'd give you a good whack upside the head." She nodded to the customers seated around the restaurant. "I've got to get back to work so you just run along to your usual spot and I'll be back there in a bit."

Kakashi nodded and the waitress walked away but not before Kakashi gave her a pert slap on her behind, causing the woman to turn around briefly and flash him a death glare. Kakashi chuckled and glanced back at Iruka. "Just follow me; I've got my own place to eat here."

Iruka, rather amused at the Jounin's banter and antics, nodded. "Lead the way." He said, gesturing grandly.

Kakashi walked towards the back of the restaurant and Iruka dutifully followed. He noticed with surprise, while glancing around the restaurant, that some of the customers were throwing him strange glances. Not all of them, but a few were wearing looks of mistrust and curiosity. He hadn't really looked around the restaurant yet and did so now, noting how full the tables were and how good the food smelled. The whole place was rather small, but it had a cozy feeling. There was a lot of talking, that dull roar that always seems to exists in popular restaurants. But… there was also a nagging feeling. They look strange he caught himself thinking. They look…angry? He thought, confused. That's not right, most of them seem rather happy. But the feeling of… some kind of deception lingered. A light was flickering overhead and he stared at it as he walked by and tried to pick up some snatches of conversation. Some of it was hard to make out, for they were spoken in guarded whispers, but portions of conversation reached his ears. And they all seemed to be directed at himself and the silver haired Jounin he stood behind.

"Look at this one…"

"Is he really taking someone back there…?"

"He never takes anyone…"

"Is he going to show him his face…?"

"Could he have found someone…?"

"I heard he does lean that way…"

"Yeah, no one ever goes back there…"

"Just Kakashi, I think the room was built for him…"

"Heard he had to pull a few strings…"

"I wonder…"

Endless comments that didn't seem to make any real sense. Well, some of it was obvious, but Iruka was not going to jump to conclusions over dinner gossip. Iruka was an intelligent man and prided himself in his ability to piece things together, to pick the truth out of the lies. And he had honed this ability to perfection while teaching Naruto. It was amazing how many excuses that kid came up with. Particularly that one incident where he had apparently put something in the city plumbing that caused an alarmingly large number of toilets to blow up, including the Hokage's. It wasn't difficult to catch Naruto in the act; he had fallen asleep next to the unscrewed pipe he had used to put whatever it was into the plumbing system. His excuse for it? Iruka-sensei, I dropped one of my shuriken into my toilet at home and I was hoping to catch it before it made its way into the sewers. Or something like that, it was hard to remember all the pranks that kid pulled. Those were good times Iruka thought. A pain in the ass to fix, but they still managed to make me laugh.

Using his Naruto-Honed Cut Through The Bullshit technique, he guessed that Kakashi probably came here because it suited him, if his greeting with the waitress was any indication. But bringing a guest with him seemed a rarity. Not surprising, Iruka mused, But you'd think he'd bring someone like Gai with him a few times.

Kakashi lead Iruka to a small door at the very back of the restaurant. It was a rather nondescript door with the word 'Private' on a small plaque nailed into the wood. Kakashi opened the door and gestured Iruka inside. The room was rather small and it had a single mahogany table and a set of chairs. Only one chair was pulled up to the table, however. The other was pushed carelessly into a corner, covered in a fine layer of dust. Iruka cast one last look at the whispering crowd as he stepped through the door. An aura of deep orange looked backed at him. Orange… that was strange. But as soon as he glimpsed the color, it was gone and Kakashi shut the door.

"Welcome to my humble abode." Kakashi said, waving his hand at the room. Not that there was much to wave at. Besides the table and chairs, there was a single window with the drapes pulled closed. The whole thing felt dreary. Or secretive, like they were in some secret chamber where the bad things after dark were planned.

Iruka gave the room a cursory glance. "Cozy. Could use some color though." He said.

"I'm not much of a decorator." Kakashi grinned. "Though I did consider putting some flowers on the table." Iruka looked down and noticed that the table was covered with a simple white tablecloth and nothing else. "But I thought it would give off too much of a sissy little girl vibe. Don't want people thinking I like to pick flowers or something."

"Guess so…" Iruka murmured. He fell silent.

Suddenly a nagging feeling tugged at the back of his mind. It… felt kind of like an itch, but it didn't actually itch. The room seemed to go fuzzy for a moment and a thought drifted through his mind, something like 'This can't be happening…', then the feeling that something was happening seemed to imbed itself in his consciousness. He felt his whole body tense. His fingers twitched nervously and he clenched them in a fist. Somewhere… somewhere… someone was…

Kakashi cocked his head to the side and peered at Iruka. "Is something wrong? Usually you'd say something more sarcastic than 'guess so'."

Iruka gave his head a slight shake and shrugged, aware of a dull buzzing sound in the background, as if his hearing were getting fuzzy as well.

"I don't know… it's like--" He paused, realizing that he didn't know what was wrong, let alone understand what he was thinking. But Kakashi was giving him a weird look so he tried to explain. "It.... seems like somewhere there's… there's something… there's something wrong." He finished lamely. He scratched the back of his head and noticed he was developing a small head ache.

"Something wrong?"

Iruka rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand for a minute, white spots dancing across the inside of his eyelids. He was rubbing too hard. When he pulled his hand away, he had to blink several times to clear his vision enough to see. Kakashi stared at him and didn't comment.

"I don't know. I think I'm just tired." He admitted. But that's not right he thought silently. I'm not tired, I'm… weak he realized with some surprise.That's what it is. I feel weak, like my arms are getting heavier and my legs won't move and there's some heavy weight pressing down on me, suffocating me…

"Maybe you're just hungry." Kakashi offered. Iruka focused on him. "Ella should be here in a few minutes with our ramen." He added.

Iruka hesitated, then nodded. "Yeah, I'm probably just hungry."

There it was again! Except this time… someone was laughing. Laughing? They were having a good time. A good time, but there was a violent shadow lurking… lurking… no, it was hunting. Hunting for warmth. It wanted him… wanted… no… For a wild moment he though he was the shadow and for a moment it even looked like it. He was tall and dark and bloody, there, right there! Blood dripping from his hands. And what was that in the background? There were… voices. Voices and bodies. Horrible bodies, twisted and scarred. Had he done this? Part of him screamed Yes! Yes, this was me! But no, suddenly it wasn't. It was someone else, someone… he didn't know who. And there it was. The man who had done this. But he looks… like a shadow. No, that's not a shadow. That's his color someone whispered, someone who sounded like himself but horribly cold and emotionless. It was a horrible black, inky and greasy and dripping. It made a puddle on the floor beneath his feat and he shied away from it.

And for an instant the vision disappeared and he was standing in the little room again with the table and two chairs and the closed window. Kakashi was in front of him, his hands on Iruka's shoulders.

"Iruka?" he was saying. "You alright? You just suddenly spaced out and got really pale. Is something wrong? You had this horrible look on your face."

Iruka opened his mouth to answer but the words never left his mouth. A horrible weakness fell over his body and he felt his knees giving way. He was dimly aware of falling to his knees and suddenly the room disappeared, the floor melting away in a swirl of brown and black along with the table and two chairs and the window was melting, dripping down the wall. Kakashi drifted away into the distance, leaving only a dim cry of 'Iruka?!' in his wake. And suddenly he was in darkness.

I updated. A miracle indeed. I typed this chapter in the car while I was on vacation in Maine. Had to use a laptop and it was bouncing sooo bad and it was hard to type, but hey! Who's complaining? A heartfelt thanks to all of you who reviewed, you guys are inspirational! Not to mention helpful, like… *flips thru reviews* Cat, Avatar of the DCG who seems to actually KNOW who Eddie Izzard is, so that's like a bajillion cool points, and Darkblade who (apparently) knows more Japanese than I do and was nice enough to correct me (very very helpful), and Ians_Koibito who… well I dunno, I just really liked the review lol, and… everyone else! XD aghhh I luv u guys!

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