Work Text:
Kakashi staggers as they emerge from Kamui, keeping Obito standing even as he lags. The Rinnegan is taken and only his will is keeping him alive and moving now that the Juubi has been removed. He can see Madara ahead, ranting and raving, but he ignores his words, ignores the current problem of the mad Uchiha about to unleash his plan again. He needs to regroup with the others, come up with a plan.
He can see Minato and Kushina further ahead, crouched down, can see Naruto rushing up, blazing with power, strange new white lines scrawled across his form as he rushes towards his parents. He looks for the second blaze, looks for Iruka who is never far from his other half.
There’s no sign and dread curls in his gut as they get closer to Minato and Kushina. Naruto collapses beside them, grabbing something with a cry of rage and grief, and Kakashi sees what has happened. There’s no light in Iruka’s eyes that stare ahead, no mischievous smile or trace of good humor…just the blank expression of death.
The others are gathering as well, but Kakashi doesn’t really notice other than peripherally. Already he can feel him shifting things around mentally, adding another person to mourn to his already long list. He starts throwing up walls, can’t do anything else with the war currently going on around him.
“Bakashi,” Obito wheezes out and it draws Kakashi from his head. “We’re here,” he says softly and Kakashi sees Minato and Kushina staring at him.
“Yeah,” he whispers hoarsely. For how long, whispers traitorously in his head.
~*~
The unending greyness is new to him, though extremely boring. There’s nothing to distract him as he just floats. He knows he should be concerned, but it doesn’t seem important. Everything just feels…distant. There’s no point getting worked up over…whatever it was that was happening before. What was happening before?
He knows he should know. That he should be concerned that he doesn’t know, but he isn’t.
The silence is deafening in its lack of sound. It’s almost like a pressure against his skin. It feels almost sacrilegious to break the silence, so he doesn’t, simply stays floating as his mind wanders. He reaches out for…something, but whatever it was, it’s not there and it has him frowning. He knows there should be something there. He can’t remember what it was though, can’t recall why it not being there is wrong.
Those thoughts keep rebounding until a new one surfaces: why is it gone? Another follows: where is he? That last one seems to resonate the most, sparking something in his mind. What happened to get him to wherever here is?
With more effort than it should possibly take, Iruka forces himself to look around. The greyness stretches everywhere he looks. With a grunt of effort, he forces himself to sit up and suddenly he’s not floating anymore, a solid surface under him, which is a little disconcerting.
His hand instinctively rests on his naval and he frowns. That’s important. Why is that important? Something is missing, but his thoughts are like water flowing from his hand as he grasps at them. Shakily, he stands, swaying and trying to find his footing on a body that feels incomplete somehow. Why isn’t he complete?
With no idea what is going on, where he is, or what has happened, Iruka just…starts to walk. Maybe he’ll find something that can answer his questions. So he walks, and walks, and walks. Nothing changes, there’s no sound, even his movement completely silent. What is he supposed to do now?
He’d really like answers, honestly. Someone to tell him what is going on.
Something shifts in the greyness around him. Not visibly, but all the same he knows something has changed. He looks around, trying to find what changed and as he turns, he sees a distant glow behind him. It’s new and different, and he doesn’t care what it is if it can help him figure out what is going on.
He walks and walks, the glow slowly crawling closer. He doesn’t know how long he walks, or how far. He doesn’t grow tired and he feels like he should have. Still, he walks and slowly, the glow coalesces into a person, their back to him as they peer down at something.
As he finally gets close enough, he realizes the person is actually floating, long, layered robes floating around them, a shakujo in one hand while small dark balls slowly gravitate around them. He’s not sure who this is, but he goes to say something when the figure turns and Iruka starts, staring at the ringed eyes of the Rinnegan.
The aged and weathered face tilts slightly, staring at Iruka and then he reaches out before Iruka can react, one long finger tapping him on the forehead, between his brows. Like someone struck a bell in his head, sound suddenly comes back in a burst. Iruka can suddenly hear his own breath, hears his heart beating, feels what has been muffled and shrouded.
Memories suddenly crash through his mind in one long, unending stream and his knees give out, Iruka catching himself on his hands as he rides out the waves of emotions as he relives through so many memories until finally, it ends…with Kurama being taken and him dying.
“Good, you’ve regained your faculties,” a deep, gravelly voice murmurs from above him as Iruka pants and tries to catch his breath, tears drying on his cheeks. Breath ragged, he looks up at this person warily. “I’m sorry to have rushed things, but it would have taken you far too long to regain your memories the normal way so I accelerated the process, but in doing so it can be a bit…traumatic.”
“I’m dead,” Iruka says slowly, testing the words out and finds he’s not as angry or sad about it as he thought. He might be in shock, but can you be in shock while dead?
“You are,” the man says with a grave nod.
“Where am I?” he asks, leaning back onto his heels, not trusting his legs to support himself just yet.
“This realm has no name. You would call it is the transition place between life and death, yet it is that and it isn’t. It is a realm outside of time, of life and death. It is all possibility and no possibility. It simply is,” he finally finishes.
“And who are you?” Iruka asks, deciding to ignore the last few sentences. They’ll only make his head hurt worse than it already does.
“I once went by the name Hagoromo, you might know be by another name: the Sage of the Six Paths,” Hagoromo says with a solemn nod.
Iruka’s mind stalls for a moment as he recalls where he heard that name from and that means he’s talking to an ancient spirit.
“Why are you here?” Iruka asks, deciding to settle on that than go into a side tangent of why the Sage of the Six Paths is still around after all these centuries.
“As I neared my end, I was gifted a premonition of the future to come by a wise sage. I realized that my efforts, while noble, would not be enough to sway human hearts, not with the dredges of Kaguya still lingering in the world shaping it in her image. So, I made a choice and bound myself to this place to wait and watch over the growing world in case I was needed,” the Sage say simply.
“Who is Kaguya?” he asks, even more confused, but his mind does go back to the toads and the premonition he was told about Naruto. It’s the reason he crafted that last seal…just in case.
“Ah, yes…things had not progressed far enough for you to know,” he murmurs and waves the hand holding the Shakujo over the ground between them, causing rippled and inky darkness to spread across the surface.
As he watches, images start to appear: a beautiful, pale woman, a towering familiar tree, a war, two men…brothers standing against her, their final solution to stopping her, one staying to guard her prison, the other taking in the Juubi and his eventual creation of the nine tailed beasts.
“Kaguya is my mother. She came from…elsewhere though I know not where or how. However, she came to this world for one thing: the chakra that suffuses this world. With it, she ruled over everything, a benevolent and tyrannical goddess to people who had no way of standing against her,” Hagoromo says somberly. “She had my brother and me, and when we were finally old enough and strong enough to stand against her, we did. It was a war the likes of which had never been seen before. It shaped the landscape that is still felt to this day. In the end we couldn’t…or perhaps wouldn’t is a better word, end our mother. Instead, we separated her from her power and sealed her away so she could never rule over anyone again,” Hagoromo finishes.
“What does this have to do with Obito…and Madara? Is Zetsu connected to her?” Iruka asks.
Hagoromo sighs softly, a look of regret crossing his face briefly. “In my life time, I had two sons and from them, the Senju and the Uchiha are descended. I could only choose one to be my successor and I chose my youngest, Asura thinking he would be the better of my two to lead. Indra did not take it well. Little did I know a piece of Kaguya escaped our sealing and poisoned his mind, driving a wedge between him, myself and his brother. Eventually, this animosity would be passed down to the two eventual clans of the Senju and Uchiha,” he explains.
The floor shifts to show Zetsu appearing beside Madara. “This creature currently uses Indra’s descendent to manipulate him into releasing my mother. He has no idea what is coming and unfortunately, there is nothing I can do to stop him,” Hagoromo explains.
“So this whole time, the Moon’s Eye Plan wasn’t a mass genjutsu, but an attempt to release a centuries old goddess who plans on wiping us out,” Iruka says and Hagoromo nods.
“The genjutsu is real,” he adds. “It will pacify the shinobi population so she can extract the chakra from them. She sees all chakra as hers and no one else may use it,” he explains.
Iruka sits there for a moment, digesting what was said and what it means, the implications of how their whole lives have been affected by this one event. It’s hard to wrap his head around honestly, but manly, he keeps coming back to the same thing. “Why am I here?” he finally asks the question that has been nagging at him. He should be on his way to the pure lands or wherever it is you go when you die. This place is not that which means something has gone wrong.
“Because I brought you here,” Hagoromo says simply.
Iruka stares up at him, mind blanking as he takes in what this man, this ancient being, has said. “What?” he croaks out, mouth having trouble making words as the air freezes in his lungs in shock.
“I felt it was prudent to the current state of things,” Hagoromo says bluntly.
Abruptly, Iruka stands and starts to pace. “I can understand you wanting to help Naruto, I mean, you had a whole prediction about him fucking…centuries ago. What do I matter? I’m the spare. I…I wasn’t supposed to exist…was I?” Iruka asks softly, turning to look at Hagoromo as the dots finally click. The premonition only mentioned Naruto. If he was included with Naruto, it would have made some mention of him, but there was nothing.
Hagoromo frowns faintly before nodding. “You were…an aberration from the expected pattern. That night, the Yondaime was supposed to seal half the Kyuubi inside himself and the other half in Naruto. You should not have been there,” he admits.
“So did I fuck everything up?” Iruka asks, heart beating heavily in his chest as dread starts to curl in his gut. Did he doom Naruto and everyone else by being in the wrong place at the wrong time? By taking something he never should have taken.
Hagoromo frowns again before shaking his head. “Not in the way you mean,” he admits softly and Iruka waits for him to elaborate. “Nothing has truly changed, these events that happened would have happened with or without you. You however, were like a pebble tossed into a pond. At first, the ripples started out small, but with each second, the ripples got bigger. You changed things for the better, helped in ways no one expected. You have done much for this timeline in shaping it for the better,” he explains and Iruka stares at him before he gestures to the floor.
He sees Naruto, alone in a tiny apartment eating cup ramen, staring forlornly out a window, no one around. It shifts to the Uchiha Compound, devoid of any life and the small, angry figure of Sasuke staring at it, hands fisted by his side. It shows Tenzo still shrouded in the shadows of ANBU with little actual human interaction besides the missions he takes, Shisui gone, Kakashi still alone, Itachi forced out into a dangerous mission to save his brother…Jiraiya dead…so many small and big things that he changed.
“That doesn’t explain why I’m here?” Iruka croaks out, throat tight with tears.
“That, unfortunately, depends on three children and whether they can stop Madara or my mother,” Hagoromo explains and the images shift to show the battlefield he was just on. It shows Naruto standing guard over Sakura as she frantically tries to heal Sasuke, the teen pinned by a blade through his chest. They all look exhausted, Naruto looking how he normally does, Kurama probably in the middle of kneading more chakra for them to use.
Sakura reaches out, carefully pulling the blade from Sasuke’s chest as her hand glows brighter to heal the damage before she chucks the freed blade away and focuses back on Sasuke. Hagoromo reaches out with his staff to touch the image again and ripples break across the surface before he looks up to see the three standing around them, though they look through them, frantic and confused by where they are.
“I will speak with the two successors of my sons, but I think there is one who needs your words now more than mine,” Hagoromo murmurs and motions towards Sakura who is frantically looking for her teammates.
“What?” Iruka starts to ask, but Hagoromo is gone, along with Naruto and Sasuke and he’s left alone with Sakura. “Don’t think we’re not going to discuss this later,” Iruka mutters before he straightens and steps closer.
He has no idea how to…interact with Sakura here. Hell, he has no idea how Hagoromo does anything here, then again he’s had centuries to learn so he might as well try something. Taking in a slow breath, he reaches out and touches her shoulder to try and get her attention.
“What?” Sakura shouts in alarm, whirling with fists raised before her eyes go wide as she sees him. “I…Iruka-sensei,” she whispers.
“Hey Sakura-chan,” he murmurs with a small smile. He’s never had issues talking with Sakura, the girl smart, quick and compassionate, a combo he encouraged in her. But here and now…he’s dead and she knows he’s dead. What do you say in the face of that knowledge?
“How…how are you here? Where is here? Wait…am I dead?” she asks in quick succession, mind churning out ideas.
“No, no, you’re not dead. I think…I think you were brought here for a reason, all of you,” he explains. He assumes Hagoromo had a reason to bring them. He failed to inform him why they were brought here.
“But you’re dead,” she says softly, never one to shy away from the truth, no matter how horrible.
Iruka smiles crookedly, but nods. “I am.” He lets out a sigh and sits down, crossing his legs and motions for Sakura to join him. “I’m sure you have questions,” he says and she nods, sitting across from him.
“Where are Naruto and Sasuke?” she asks.
“Talking with someone else…someone who has something important to say to them,” he admits. He sees it briefly, the way her shoulders drop ever so slightly at the mention of the two being singled out again.
He’d started to notice it here recently over the last few years, especially the three years Naruto was gone getting one on one training from Jiraiya, for his safety, but still, and Sasuke has a plethora of teachers from his clan and Hayate and Kakashi. Yes, Sakura has Tsunade, but she’s Hokage and her time is limited and often Sakura had been left on her own studying, or working under someone else.
He’d tried to include her when he could, offered some training with her here and there, but between studying seals and taking his own ANBU missions, along with team seven taking their own missions and training, their schedules never quite meshed up enough to do more than a few meet ups and sparse training.
“Yeah, I guess talking with me would be boring,” he jokes with a grin and Sakura flushes.
“What, no, it’s not that,” Sakura says quickly, waving her hands.
“It’s fine, Sakura-chan. I get it,” he says, pressing his meaning to her and she stills. “It’s okay to fell left behind,” he murmurs sadly.
“I’m not,” she insists.
“You know, after I took on Kurama that night, I graduated from the academy quicker than they expected me to. I became a genin, and then I held myself back,” he admits and Sakura stares at him in surprise. “I know, who in their right mind would want to stay a genin?” he jokes and she smiles shyly. “But you see, Naruto was a baby, I had no family left, I felt it would be better to stay held back and raise him until he was older before trying for Chuunin. Even still, I had to watch all my friends, my team, charging on ahead leaving me behind. It’s not a nice feeling, especially since none of them ever really looked back. And then afterwards, when I did make Chuunin and word got out about what Naruto and I are, well, I was left all alone again,” he admits.
“I’m sorry,” Sakura says with damp eyes.
“Don’t be. In the end, it was all worth it. I found my place, found my family, found my team, and I’ve done so much more than I ever expected I would do or was capable of. You’re capable of so much, Sakura-chan. It’s time you stopped holding yourself back. Sasuke and Naruto, they’re unique and strong and so capable, but they can’t do this without you. You are the mind, heart and strength of this team. Don’t ever forget it and don’t let them forget that you can punch them into their own graves if they’re not careful,” he says with a fox grin and she grins back.
“Thanks, Iruka-sensei. I think I needed that,” she admits, wiping at her eyes.
“Sometimes, we just need one person to see us,” he says, reaching out to pull her into a hug and she hugs him back.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t save you,” she whispers.
“Don’t be, I’ve known for a while that this day was coming. I made my peace with it and I hope you all will one day too,” okay,” he murmurs and she nods against his shoulder.
He pulls back and lets her compose herself. “We probably don’t have much time, so I’ll tell you what little I’ve been told: Madara’s being used. He’s a puppet for Zetsu who is trying to resurrect a goddess from centuries ago. If he completes the Moon’s Eye Plan, you’re going to have a rough time trying to stop her. Naruto and Sasuke are probably being told more, but work with them to find a way. I know you three can do it. You’re the best of us, got it,” he says evenly and she nods.
“Of course, Iruka-sensei,” she says with a determined look.
“And when this is all done, tell them I’m proud of them, okay?” he asks and she nods. “I’m proud of you, Sakura. Don’t let the world bury you in their shadows. Shine bright, like the star here,” he says and reaches forward, an idea coming to him and he taps her on the Byakugō and pushes what knowledge he can to her, the few seals he thinks will help them in this fight and she blinks, a soft gasp coming out of her mouth in her surprise.
“Thank you,” she whispers.
“Don’t mention it,” he says and then she’s gone. Iruka blinks before he looks behind him to see Hagoromo is back and the boys are gone as well. “Well?”
“I have given them the means of sealing my mother away once more. Now it is up to the three of them and their allies to stop her,” he admits with a frown.
“No pressure,” Iruka mutters and sits forward where the floor is showing the three teens stirring once more, renewed looks of determination in their eyes as they set about planning.
~*~
Kakashi steps back as the resurrected Kage who brought them back surround them, explaining what the Sage had done to bring them all home along with the bijuu. Now that the adrenalin is wearing off and the urgency is gone, his walls are starting to crumble under too much.
For a moment there, he thought he’d seen Rin and now Obito is gone, for good this time. It’s too much on the already aching loss, his eyes trailing to the side where he can see a small glowing barrier around the single unmoving body, courtesy of Kushina.
He tunes back into the conversation, putting aside his own hurts for now. “…will be going shortly,” Hagoromo is saying. “Now that my mother is sealed away, hopefully for good this time, I feel I am not needed,” he admits.
“Oh,” Naruto says, shocked that the ancient spirit is leaving.
“There is however one last matter I must settle before I do depart and take the resurrected souls with me,” he admits and Kakashi frowns, wondering what more needs to be done. Their world has already been shattered by this war. Isn’t it done?
“What is it?” Sakura asks.
Hagoromo turns to Kurama, the half not in Naruto. “It can only be accomplished with your consent,” he murmurs up to the huge fox as it crouches to come closer to him, tails curled around his paws. “I won’t force you and I’m sure they would understand if you said no,” he adds.
“What are you talking about?” Sasuke demands at the man’s cryptic speak.
Kurama stares at Hagoromo, eyes widening as he seems to get what none of them are understanding. “You could?” he demands lowly. “How?” he asks.
“I have my ways,” he says with a small smile. “I still need your answer, Kurama,” he murmurs.
Kurama pauses, looking between the gathered Shinobi, his father and the rest of the bijuu before his gaze looks further afield and Kakashi’s breath catches in his throat, an inkling starting to form, but he refuses to believe in case he’s wrong.
“Yes,” Kurama says evenly, expression unwavering as he stares at the Sage.
Hagoromo looks to Kushina, “Uzumaki-san, the barrier please,” he murmurs as there’s a ripple between him and Kurama. Kushina’s eyes widen and she nods, hands flying through seals before the barrier around the body drops. Kurama shifts forward until his nose barely touches the rippling between them and for a brief moment, they see a familiar silhouette before Kurama’s chakra engulfs it and the great creature bounds over to the body.
He bends down, pressing his snout to it and is gone in a flash of red light. There’s a moment of quiet before a low cough echoes to them and they all bound over to see Iruka’s eyes opening, burning red with Kurama’s chakra before that fades and his own dark eyes stare back at them.
“Why does everything hurt?” he croaks out and Naruto springs forward with a cry, sobbing into his chest even as Iruka grunts in pain before he weakly tries to wrap the teen in a hug, the others quickly following.
Kakashi looks up, wanting to thank Hagoromo, but he’s gone, surrounded by the other bijuu still without containers, speaking with the man and the kage resurrected. He turns back and sees Iruka staring at him. A hand reaches out awkwardly from the pile of teens on him and Kakashi steps closer, sitting down beside him and just taking his hand, relief sweeping through that he didn’t lose everything this time.
~*~
It takes two weeks to heal enough to not be confined to a hospital bed. Apparently having a bijuu ripped out of you and then dying does a lot of damage to the body. Iruka feels a strange juxtaposition of weak and strong. He can feel Kurama’s chakra once more in his body, ready to use, but his body is just so weak right now. He’s not sure how long it will take to return to normal. The Sage was unfortunately unable to tell him how long it would take. Apparently this was the first time he actually did something like this.
The only reason it was even possible was Kurama, the fox willingly sealing itself into him to allow him to come back. He’d tried to thank him, once he was conscious enough to understand what happened, but the fox just snorted at him and flicked its tail to knock him down while calling him a fool. So…same as usual.
Kakashi has been hanging around unobtrusively, seen, but not staying long in the room. He’s going to have to nip that in the bud here eventually, once he’s strong enough to do something about it. Naruto, on the other hand, has to be ordered to leave, if only to shower and eat.
The others from their team trickle in, Itachi coming often, but Tenzo and Shisui also follow, giving bits and pieces of the war and the fight, how everyone fared, the losses they sustained. The others he knew from ANBU, working the Mission Desk and even from teaching all visit at one point or another, but there are a lot of faces that are missing, lost in the war.
When he is finally released, he doesn’t really have anywhere to go, though a lot of people are like that. He and Naruto end up in a tent while the village slowly starts to repair itself. The roots that had emerged across the village from the great tree are cut away and burned, no one willing to use it for anything in case it causes something worse to happen.
Eventually, it’s Tenzo who tells him where Kakashi is hiding now that he’s out of the hospital, the man tired of his senpai brooding. There’s no Memorial Stone to stand and brood in front of like he used to, destroyed when Akatsuki attacked the village and the Hatake Compound is suspiciously quiet when he checks there, just in case.
Tenzo’s info proves true though and he finds him on top of the monument, staring out over the village. Iruka won’t admits it, but he’s a little more than winded by the time he gets to the top and has to pause to catch his breath. He hates feeling this weak. Kakashi doesn’t look surprised to see him, no doubt saw him coming, Iruka not trying to hide from him.
“You’re avoiding me,” Iruka says evenly to Kakashi’s back, the man not looking at him, though his shoulders are one tense line, like he’s expecting Iruka to stab him in the back.
“I figured you had enough people crowding you in the hospital room and didn’t want to overcrowd you,” he says easily.
“And after I left?” Iruka asks a little sharper than intended. “It’s been three days and I’ve not seen you at all.”
“I was helping with clearing some rubble in the village,” he lies easily.
“You’re a horrible liar when you’re trying to hide your feelings,” Iruka huffs out, stomping up to him. He grabs a handful of silver hair and pulls his head back, not hard, Kakashi could easily resist him, but he doesn’t and he looks down into two grey eyes and isn’t that strange after so long with one covered up. “Wanna tell me what’s really going through that head of yours?” he asks softly, scratching lightly at his scalp.
Kakashi closes his eyes quickly and he swears he sees tears, but they don’t fall. “I…I can’t keep doing this,” he admits softly and Iruka’s heart squeezes, going to the worst conclusion, but Kakashi keeps talking. “I can’t keep losing people,” he whispers from a tight throat.
Iruka sits down behind Kakashi, pulling the jounin into the V of his legs and hugs him, hard. “I’m still here,” he tries to reassure.
“But you weren’t,” Kakashi reminds him. “You shouldn’t even be here. If it wasn’t for the Sage…,” Kakashi trails off.
Iruka sighs, pressing his forehead into Kakashi’s shoulder. “I’m well aware, Kakashi. I expected to die that day. Hell, I planned on it. I expected to go on and wait for you to finally join me one day, but not too soon. To meet my parents and yours, and so many others who were lost. Instead, I had an ancient spirit yank me into some weird in-between place, used me as a tool to help spur three teens into saving the whole damn world and then shoved me back in my body. Believe me, I am aware that things are shit right now…but it’s better when you’re there,” he admits.
A warm hand grabs his and squeezes. He’s felt cold since he woke up. Hopefully, that will eventually fade. Still, he soaks up Kakashi’s warmth. “I…I don’t think I’ll be an active shinobi for a while…if ever,” he admits and Kakashi looks back at him slightly. “Even if I fully heal…I won’t go back to the way things were. My body’s not going to be able to handle that anymore,” he huffs out, shifting until he’s resting his chin on Kakashi’s shoulder. “I think I might go back to teaching,” he confesses.
“You don’t have to,” Kakashi says softly.
“I know. I doubt Tsunade would care what I do. She’s already told me to basically do what I want without question. That Naruto and I will always have a home here,” he admits with a huff. “This time…I’m making the choice to go into teaching. I always enjoyed it. We lost a lot of people in this war. It’s time we helped the next generation prepare for the future.”
“I guess,” Kakashi admits.
“What I’m trying to say is, unless someone tracks me down in village, gets passed all of the village defenses and passed everyone else, I think I can say I’ll be reasonably safe. I can’t say how safe I’ll be from pre-genin with sharp pointy objects, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make,” he says rather pointedly.
Kakashi doesn’t look at him, but he lets out a deep rattling sigh, hand squeezing Iruka’s harder. “Tsunade’s trying to make me Hokage,” he admits.
“So I heard. She tried to get me to convince you,” he admits. “I believe her exact words were to ‘wrangle that lazy idiot into doing something other than reading badly written porn.’ She then went on to smack Jiraiya who protested the slander to said porn and stormed away to find Shizune for something. I think I heard her mention sake.”
He feels Kakashi’s shoulder shudder a little with a chuckle. “So, what do you say? Retirement from one crazy line of work into another? At least with Naruto gunning for the hat still, you won’t have to hold out too long before you can hand him that hat,” he points out.
“I can still read porn while I’m Hokage,” he points out.
“Whatever floats your boat, just warn me when you do it near her or Sakura so I can get out of the way before they punch you over the roof,” he says with a grin.
“Deal,” Kakashi says with a sigh, but turns his head, mask sliding down and kisses the grin off his face. It’s not a long kiss and by the end they’re more breathing in each other’s air than anything else.
“You should probably let Tsunade know your answer,” he admits ruefully.
“If I must,” he huffs out. “Need help down from here?” he asks.
Iruka sighs mournfully at his weakened state. “Please. I think I over did it coming up here,” he admits ruefully. Standing on shaky knees, he holds on as Kakashi shunshins them down near the Administration Building, people coming and going as they work to restore the village.
“I assume you know where our tent is at,” Iruka says and he nods.
“Yeah. We’ll get you two moved to the Compound tomorrow,” he promises and Iruka nods. They pull apart reluctantly and eventually, Kakashi turns to head into the Administration Building to head to Tsunade’s office.
Iruka turns himself and heads for the Academy to let them know his own decision. They’ll meet up eventually, now that he knows Kakashi is done running away. His gut warms slightly and Iruka chuckles. “Yeah, yeah, I know. We’re both fools. At least I’m not the one who chose to stay with a fool,” he needles and Kurama huffs, but doesn’t deny it. “We’ll have to find Naruto and the rest of team seven to let them know the news,” he adds, adding it to his list of things to do.
‘The brat’s going to flip when he hears about the mutt,’ Kurama points out and Iruka laughs out loud.
“Oh, I’m counting on it,” he says and heads into the Academy.
~*~
The rest of their team is already in the Hatake Compound as he and Team Seven all come in carrying his and Naruto’s things from the tent. They help them set up in the Compound. Most of the destroyed main building has been removed into two piles of salvageable and unsalvageable. He can already see signs of Tenzo at work building a new building for Kakashi, the shape of it lined boards following the original floor plan.
“I still can’t believe she’s making Kakashi-sensei Hokage. I’m right here,” Naruto is still complaining that night. His team looks a few more sentences away from pummeling him into unconsciousness to get some peace and quiet.
“Naruto,” Iruka calls out and he finally stops. “Tsunade-sama didn’t make the choice lightly. Please respect her decision. Besides, you’re still technically a chuunin, maybe a jounin if she approves the field promotion, but you’re still a new one at that. You need a few more years under your belt before anyone starts to consider you for that kind of position, got it,” he reminds him.
“I guess,” Naruto mutters and finally lets the topic lie for the moment.
“How long do you think that will last?” Shisui mutters as he passes by him on his way to Itachi and Tenzo, the two seated by one of the fires they built.
Iruka stands himself and goes to sit with the three, leaving Kakashi to his team’s tender mercies for the moment. “How’re you feeling?” he asks all three. He’d heard a little about what happened with Tenzo from the Shisui and from the man himself, but he’s still look pale and drawn. Itachi and Shisui have both been taken from the active duty roster permanently. They helped turn the battle where it counted, but the strain on their eyes had been too much, both with vision to bad to fight by, Itachi completely blind in one eye. They could still see with glasses, but they were limited now.
“We’re fine, mother hen,” Shisui huffs out, punching his shoulder lightly. “I’ve been working with Jiraiya to help train new Intel people to his standards. I might not be able to see well anymore, but I can still think like a shinobi. He’s also been teaching me some sealing. Apparently all the time around you rubbed off and I’ve got a bit of a knack for it.” Iruka grins at him and nods.
“I’ve been helping where I can,” Tenzo admits with a shrug, looking tense. His control of his Mokuton is still iffy so they haven’t been using him with the construction crews.
“It’s fine, Tenzo. You’re allowed to take a break,” Iruka reminds him, though he knows they’re all workaholics who aren’t comfortable without something to do.
“I know,” he says.
“I’ve actually applied to the Academy,” Itachi admits and Iruka blinks in surprise at him. “Since I’m no longer fit for active duty…I thought I’d try my hand at teaching. They mentioned sending me your way once everything cleared,” Itachi admits softly.
Iruka smiles while remembering a conversation so many years ago. When they first really met and Itachi brushed aside even the idea of teaching because he was only useful as a weapon for the village and his clan. “I think you’ll make a wonderful teacher,” he says and Itachi smiles faintly.
“Iruka-nii!” Naruto calls out, bounding over to their group. “Sakura-chan says there’s a jounin exam that I have to take if I don’t get a field promotion. Will you help me study for it?” he asks excitedly, half falling on him as he hugs him from behind.
Iruka grunts at the impact. “We’ll see, Naruto. Even if you do have to take the exam, it’ll be a while before they set up for the next one. Let’s just get the village back up and running before we start making any decisions like that,” Iruka reminds him.
“I guess,” he huffs before he hugs Iruka again and bounds back to his friends.
“He’s going to be a menace until he gets that hat,” Shisui huffs out and Iruka snorts, but doesn’t deny it.
~*~
Iruka stands near the back of the crowd as Tsunade passes the hat to Kakashi. It’s a huge celebration, the first big one since the war ended. The village is for the most part repaired, only small things left to do. With everything handled, Tsunade felt comfortable enough to pass on the hat to Kakashi, warning him to not fuck it up.
Eventually, Kakashi is able to break free from the crowd and meanders over to Iruka. It’s still strange to see both eyes, but he’s glad all the same. It’s nice to look into both eyes. “See, not so hard, Hokage-sama,” Iruka says with a laugh as Kakashi pouts at him using his title.
“Please don’t,” he huffs out, pressing his face into Iruka’s neck to hide for a moment, Iruka having to shift to not be poked by the hat.
“You can’t hide forever, you know. You’ve got at least one more speech to give before they let you go,” he reminds him, though he scratches lightly at his scalp and doesn’t try and force him to move.
“What are you thinking for dinner tonight?” Iruka asks in the lulling silence.
“If I say Ichiraku, will you let me skip out early?” he asks, one eye peeking up at Iruka.
“I think that can be arranged,” he agrees and laughs before kissing his cheek and pushing him back towards the crowd. “That still means you have a few more things to do before then,” he points out and Kakashi pouts again, but straightness the hat and resignedly allows the crowd to swallow him back up again while Iruka laughs. Naruto, like the ramen bloodhound he is, finds him shortly and asks if they’re getting ramen for dinner and Iruka says they are. The teen cheers and Iruka hugs him around the shoulders, feeling lighter than he has in so long.
He’s not sure what to make of this second chance he was given, or this life he has lived. He’s an anomaly, something that shouldn’t have happened, but did. He’s a pebble in the pond of life and he hopes whatever ripples he makes will keep improving his life.
End.