Chapter 5

Ibiki and Inoichi were both in Ibiki's office when Iruka finally stumbled in, bleeding all over the floor. "Enemy. Records room." The dizziness hit him then, and now that the adrenaline was wearing off, he realized he must have hit his head harder than he'd thought. Iruka sucked in a breath and grabbed at the door frame. "He has Kakashi-san somewhere. I think Kimura-san's." The room spun again and Iruka closed his eyes.

A moment later he was swept up and being carried down the hall. He cracked his eyes opened, unsurprised to find that it was Ibiki carrying him.

"It's not Kimura-san?" Ibiki's question was flat, and he didn't even pause in his stride.

"Kurosawa. Kimura-san is dead." Iruka supplied the name, too tired to offer more.

"Taiki Kurosawa?" There was a definite note of surprise.

Iruka nodded and then regretted it. He curled himself tighter and clung to Ibiki's coat, feeling like a small child in his friend's massive arms. "We need to find Kakashi."

"Inoichi's already on his way," Ibiki assured him. "I'll get what we need from Kurosawa and relay it to him. Then I'm getting you to the hospital."

There was a good long moment of silence while they made their way down the halls to the records room. Iruka started to drift in and out of sleep until Ibiki set him down beside the door. "Tell me what you know and don't fall asleep again. You have a concussion, Umino."

Iruka explained that there were files and went over the details he'd pieced together then briefly explained the fight that had followed.

"Maybe I should have you go over my files," Ibiki chuckled. He disappeared inside, was gone for several minutes, and then he was back, scooping Iruka off the floor. "I have men on the way and Inoichi is going to need some help, but he's located Hatake and Hamasaki-san."

Iruka smiled, relieved.

~*~*~

"That wasn't me, it doesn't count." Kakashi's tone was an out right sulk.

Iruka laughed and shrugged. "He had your fighting style down really well, it might as well have been." Okay, so that was a lie, but Iruka was having fun teasing Kakashi.

Kakashi was silent for a moment. "Yeah well he doesn't have my intelligence," he stated finally.

Iruka snickered. "No, you're right. He was smarter." He smirked. "After all he did take you out. I definitely think that makes him smarter... I mean you knew something was up and yet you fell for it."

"I was injured!"

"Well only an idiot would take the infamous Copy-nin on head-on," Iruka countered, still smiling and quite proud of himself.

Kakashi on the other hand looked incredibly disgruntled. "I was running on no sleep and no chakra."

That remark only made him smile wider, his cheeks hurt from the breadth of it. "Well maybe that means you shouldn't run yourself so ragged, Genius. There's a lesson in this for you."
Kakashi muttered something unintelligible and looked away.

"Several actually, you should stop running yourself so ragged, I don't need you to protect me, and I could kick your ass in a fight." Chuckling, Iruka leaned back in his hospital bed, yawned, and closed his eyes. He was still plenty tired from the fight. "You really should listen to me sometimes, Kakashi-san."

There was a long silence from Kakashi's side of the room.

Iruka looked over, curious if Kakashi had fallen asleep. He couldn't see Kakashi's face however so he still wasn't sure.

"Everyone needs protecting sometimes and it's our job to protect those precious to us." The words were quiet. The tone serious. "Thank you for saving me, Iruka. I never doubted that you would."

Iruka was taken aback for a moment, by the words and the implication. With Kakashi, sometimes it was like fumbling around in the dark to figure out what he was saying, so the rather obvious statement about his feelings was unexpected. The added level of trust he'd had in Iruka only made them that much stronger and it took him a moment to regain his own composure. "Like you said... it's my job."

FIN