Chapter Text
Iruka huddled in on himself, trying to keep warm. It was his turn to keep watch and he still had a few hours to go.
The forest was dark and quiet. Nothing interesting had happened on their mission, but that was to be expected. They had helped escort a moderately wealthy family with the only accident that happened was when one of the wheels got stuck in mud. They’d even gotten to their destination much quicker than anticipated and were heading home early.
They only had about a day’s left of travel so the most dangerous thing lurking in the woods should be some wildlife and maybe frostbite if this weather kept up. It would be smooth sailing from here on out.
At least that’s what Iruka had been telling himself until he sensed a figure approaching.
They were incredibly skilled if the indication of how well they had hidden their chakra signature was anything to go off of. If it had been any ordinary shinobi there was a good chance they’d miss it. Heck, even Iruka could have missed it if he hadn’t been kept awake by the freezing cold.
Iruka pulled out a kunai and was about to signal danger to his squad when he heard something coming at him. He barely dodged the knife and it stuck into the tree where he’d been resting.
“Make one more move and I will kill you.”
A shiver ran up his spine at the voice.
The figure approached, stepping into the moonlight. “Tell me where the Hyuuga is and I will let you and the rest of your squad live.”
His eyes went wide as he recognized the man in front of him.
Kakashi Hatake.
Sharingun no Kakashi. The infamous Copy-nin and Cold-blooded Kakashi. The missing nin who lived mostly in legend. The Friend Killer who’d vanished one night and wasn’t seen until two years later when he was seen killing a squad of ANBU, the same people that he’d worked alongside.
Iruka took a step backwards, falling into a defensive stance.
In barely a blink Kakashi shot forward and shoved Iruka against a tree, a knife pressed against his throat. “You’ve got one chance. Where is she?”
He swallowed, mind racing. Like hell he’d sell out a fellow ninja. Feeling around his sleeve he found the seal he was looking for. “She’s-” He shoved the seal onto the missing nin and hoped it would all work.
A look of surprise hit mismatched eyes. Kakashi had barely moved backwards when the seal made contact and he flew backwards, throwing him into a large boulder. He hit with a sickening thud and collapsed to the ground.
Iruka stared for a second before his brain caught up to him. He ran forwards and found his opponent completely unconscious.
“What the fuck?”
He turned around to see Genma staring at him wide-eyed.
“Is that fucking Sharingun no Kakashi?!” Genma ran to his side. “I was just taking a piss and I heard a thud and this is what I found?”
Iruka stared down at the missing-nin. “I- I think so? He just kind of dropped in and threatened me so I used a seal, but it wasn’t supposed to send him flying?!”
“Holy shit, okay.” Genma crouched down and tied Kakashi’s hands together behind his back. “How about you work your magic seals and I’ll get some help.”
He left Iruka dazed and confused, staring down at a supposedly ruthless killer. Unconscious he really looked harmless. But as helpless he looked, he was still dangerous, so Iruka pulled out some more of his seals, more carefully checking to see what was on them this time.
In the end Kakashi had several chakra-suppressing seals on him and he was stripped of any weapons he could find. Iruka propped him up against a tree and waited for Genma to return.
-----
Their Hyūga teammate was in awe when the two came back, looking at Iruka with a new level of respect.
The rest of the night proved to be quite uneventful once they dragged the unconscious missing-nin back to their campsite. Iruka had turned in for the night, hoping to catch some sleep. They had a much bigger mission now: escorting their captive back to Konoha. He was half-asleep when a scream startled him awake.
“What-?”
He received two equal levels of confusion. “I don’t know, one second he was asleep and then-”
Kakashi.
The Copy-nin had curled up on his side, face contorted with pain. His whole body was tense and his eyes were tightly shut. Another heart wrenching cry escaped through gritted teeth.
“Byakugan.” White eyes studied the ninja. “It seems his body is fighting something off, but I can’t tell what.”
Iruka kneeled down beside him despite Genma’s warnings and placed a hand on his shoulder to try and see if he could sense what was wrong.
Mismatched eyes shot open, the Sharingun spinning wildly, but both looked glazed over. He closed his eyes for a second as another wave of pain hit before straining to open them. They rapidly blinked to try and get into focus, eventually landing on Iruka. The eyes still had a distant look to them, though they bored into Iruka’s soul. He reached out and grabbed his hand though it was weak and unthreatening. “I’m sorry.”
Before any of them could even process that words were even spoken, Kakashi’s eyes rolled back as he fell back into unconsciousness.
“What the fuck?”
“I think we should probably hurry back and notify the Hokage.”