Chapter Text
[Iruka]
It was 5 a.m. on a Saturday and someone was banging on the door. Iruka stumbled up and out of bed, panic growing through the sleepy confusion. The village must’ve been under attack! Or something happened to Naruto!
He pulled on a shirt, skipping over his own feet into the living room. The knocking was ceaseless. He'd just rounded the corner when it stopped for one second, and then the door flew off its hinges.
"Cha!" Sakura's foot was still in midair as the door clattered to the ground.
Slung in her arms bridal style was Kakashi, who gave a weak two finger salute.
Iruka's mouth hung open, but he was too confused to form a question.
"Iruka-sensei!" Sakura stormed in through the hole she'd kicked in his wall and placed Kakashi on Iruka's couch. She then ran back to where the door lay on the ground, bowed, and took off her shoes. "Good morning. Sorry to wake you so early. I need your help."
Iruka gaped, looking between the two. "What is happening?"
"Kakashi-sensei and I were on a mission, it's kind of a lot to explain, but he got hurt and you're the only one who can help!"
"The only one who..." Iruka repeated slowly, his brain not catching up to any of this. "What could I possibly do? Sakura, you're on track to surpass a legendary Sanin in medical ninjutsu!"
Sakura blushed, tucked her hair behind one of her ears, and looked down at the floor. "You really think so, sensei?"
"I- yes, Sakura. I'm very proud of you. B-but what on earth is going on right now!"
"Sakura," Kakashi started, recentering the room. "Agh!" As if stricken by a sudden headache, his hand flew to cover his eye. A second later, a line of blood trailed down his cheek like a tear.
"Sensei, what did I tell you!" Sakura admonished, rushing back to the couch. She unzipped a pouch on her side and pulled out a small bag of food pills.
"No, Sakura," Kakashi whined, "I'm really okay, I don't need-"
Iruka turned away abruptly when Sakura pulled his mask down to force feed him the pills. He looked back only when he heard her bag zip back up. The mask was back. Kakashi blinked slowly, and then his head fell to the side.
"Did-" Iruka peered over Sakura's shoulder. "Is he dead?"
"Is he-" Sakura repeated and then laughed. It was an unhinged sound, and she hunched over to let it out. She wiped her eyes. "Sorry, sorry. I've been awake for, oh what's it been, 30 or 40 hours now."
Iruka shook his head. "Okay, okay, seriously. Tell me what's going on!"
"Oh! Right. How about I just show you."
She took Kakashi's arm, the one hanging limply from the couch, and pulled up his sleeve. A seal was pressed to the inside of his wrist. Without thinking, Iruka took Kakashi's arm from Sakura to get a better look.
"We had to retrieve a scroll stolen by some rogue ninja. They hid it super well with all these traps and- anyway, once we got to the actual scroll itself..."
Iruka ran his fingers over the paper. The seal wasn't like any he'd seen before.
"Kakashi-sensei picked it up, and well, this seal peeled off and clung itself to him. He dropped everything."
"It just demobilizes him?"
"Mm-mm," Sakura shook her head. "It's not just that-"
Kakashi cut her off with a gasp. His eye was wide open in horror. He quickly shut his eye again and grunted in pain. Then he went slack, his head falling back to the side.
"It's giving him these terrible visions or dreams or something," Sakura explained.
Iruka hummed. He closed his eyes and hovered his hand above the seal. After a moment of focus, he pulled his hand back and gasped.
"It's loaded with chakra," Iruka said. "His chakra."
Sakura nodded, "It's connected to one of his chakra points and siphoning it out. When he exerts himself too much, his chakra surges out and fills the seal like a blister."
"And that intensifies the genjutsu," Iruka concluded. "Fascinating."
"Sensei!"
"Sorry, sorry!" Iruka shook his head, embarrassed to hear himself sound impressed while Sakura was clearly in crisis. "And you haven't tried removing it?"
"It won't release his chakra. It was like trying to pull out one of his arteries. I tried blocking the chakra point, but it still wouldn't let go."
Iruka nodded. "What about Lady Tsunade?"
"She tried everything I did. She's never seen anything like it either. So I brought him to you."
"To me?"
"Well, yeah. This is your sort of thing, right? I mean she gives you all the complex seal assignments. And you have Lord Third's whole collection of fuinjutsu texts. Most people can’t make sense of them."
"I- well, I want to help of course. But I've never seen anything like this either. It might take me a while to figure out. Is he..."
"I don't think it can kill him, but he can't use his chakra without getting debilitated. And, well-"
Iruka could tell she was trying to decide her words. "What?"
"I've- well, the strain on his chakra network... I don't think it's physically painful..." She put her head in her hands.
The weight seemed to finally be hitting her. Iruka was piecing together the hours she'd spent trying everything in her power for Kakashi. Iruka could sense her chakra levels were dangerously low, near exhaustion. No wonder she’d resorted to sleeping pills. If she wanted to help Kakashi, she couldn’t afford to burn through the little chakra she had left.
She looked up from her hands again with water pooling from both her eyes. "He's cried so much! It's just gotten so scary. He won't tell me what he's seeing or feeling, but these dreams the seal keeps making..."
"Got it." Iruka put his hand on her shoulder. "So, you’re putting him to sleep to slow his chakra flow, right? That's a smart treatment while we figure this out."
"It only slows it down. Blocking the point keeps the seal from filling up. If I just had more chakra, I'd-" Sakura was starting to shake, and choke up again, "I don't know what else to do. Whatever he's seeing must be so... I just can't watch anymore."
"You've taken good care of him," Iruka assured. "Let me see what I can do. I want you to go home and take care of yourself. If I haven't fixed our Kakashi-sensei by tomorrow, you can come back and help me out. Okay?"
Sakura wiped her eyes and pulled him into a hug. "Thank you so much Iruka-sensei."
She left a bag of sleeping pills and a mess of ‘thank you’s and ‘I'm sorry’s. She picked his door up from the floor and tried to wiggle it back in place. Eventually, she gave up and leaned it against the frame, promising to fix it when she came back.
Back on Iruka's couch, Kakashi made a weary grunt. Nothing about him looked comfortable. Iruka got a cloth from his bathroom and a pillow from his bed.
After sliding the pillow under Kakashi’s head, Iruka wiped the sweat from his brow. "What did you get me into, hm?"
[Kakashi]
Kakashi woke up with a weight on his chest vibrating softly. He wasn’t in Sakura's arms anymore, or in a hospital bed. He peeled one eye open and was face to face with a cat on his chest.
"Hm?" He didn't move yet but looked around. Where—? Right, he was at Iruka's, on the couch. He looked over to the door, busted and propped crookedly against the frame. Sakura, he laughed to himself.
Iruka came over, abandoning a pile of open books. "Oh, you’re awake again!"
Kakashi nodded and looked from the cat to Iruka. "I gained a second pair of lungs. This set purrs deeper than mine usually do."
Iruka rubbed his neck. "She seemed to help with the nightmares, so I let her stay. You're not allergic, are you?"
"No, though I am more of a dog person." That made Iruka chuckle, but the awkwardness was tangible. "Does my chest weight have a name?"
"Oh, no. She’s not really mine."
"What?"
"She's a stray that follows me home sometimes. Without the door, I guess she just decided to come right in and help us out."
"Naturally." Kakashi looked down to his wrist. The seal pinched where it was stuck. He reached over to scratch the itch.
Iruka caught his hand, "Don't pick at it!"
Kakashi watched as he dropped his hand, sighing, and pinched the bridge of his nose.
Iruka suddenly brightened. "Are you hungry? Let's see, I have ramen. Or no, that might be tricky for you to eat. Maybe just soup. I'm going to have ramen though..."
Iruka's voice faded into the kitchen and Kakashi let his head fall back to the pillow. How was it that he was always the one getting completely wiped out and hospitalized after missions. He used to be an ANBU. Is this what getting old is?
The cat on his chest exhaled as if exasperated, and Kakashi agreed with the sentiment.
One would think that with his dog summons, and the whole Hound thing, cats would hate him, but it turned out quite the opposite. He didn’t necessarily avoid them, but he never sought them out either. Maybe that's what attracted them.
"What do you see in me, huh?" He asked the cat, which blinked at him slowly.
The cat on his chest was kneading him now, her claws stabbing and retracting into the skin of his chest. For a sharp second, there was a kunai in Kakashi's hand, pressed into flesh, stabbing and retracting, body after body. The next second it was just the cat again.
Maybe they saw themselves in him as a fellow predator. He'd hunted and killed in cold blood. He kept to himself, depended on no one, and didn't particularly enjoy when people got too close. Maybe they weren't too far off.
But if that’s all it was, why do this? Why trust him and comfort him?
"Okay, here we go. Let's sit you up." After setting their food aside, Iruka shooed the cat, who jumped down and stretched like it had been her idea all along. Kakashi shouldn’t be getting embarrassed by people taking care of him by now, but he couldn't help clenching his fist at his useless body. Iruka didn’t seem to mind. "I'd offer to feed you, but I don't have Sakura's monster strength to rip your mask off."
Kakashi hummed. He would think of something clever to say if he had more energy, but Sakura would come back and beat him up if he so much as thought too hard. So instead, he imagined Iruka ripping off his mask, and whatever else he might want to.
"Okay!" Iruka was putting on his cheery smile. "You eat up there and I'll eat down here. Promise I won't peek."
He watched as Iruka dropped down by his legs, back turned away, slightly hunched over his food. Kakashi picked up the soup and spoon, but it splashed out. Drops fell back into the bowl too thick and gelatinous, suddenly a very wrong shade of burgundy. He blinked and the blood was gone.
His hand was shaking too much to eat anyway. He set the dish aside, resigning himself to watching Iruka’s loose, messy ponytail move as he ate.
Looking around the room, Kakashi noted the loose seals and piles of books sprawled across the floor. It didn't look like this when he and Sakura got here, did it?
Kakashi leaned forward, and after a considerable amount of thought, gave Iruka's ponytail a quick tug.
"Ah!" Iruka jumped but managed somehow to keep what was left of his ramen broth bowl-bound. "Hey! What was that for?!"
Kakashi pouted, "Maa, well I might need your help after all..."
"Huh?"
Kakashi brought his hand up to his mask, and the sealed arm shook enough to make his point.
"Oh." Iruka melted and carefully set his bowl down to climb up beside him. He took the sealed arm in both his hands and placed it in Kakashi's lap.
With Kakashi’s other hand, weak but functional, he pulled his mask down.
Iruka kept his eyes fixed on the bowl. Kakashi tilted his head as Iruka concentrated very hard on stirring the soup. Was he really not going to look?
Iruka cleared his throat. Still looking down, he lifted up a spoonful. His estimation of where Kakashi's mouth was… was pretty off.
He's so adorable, it's ridiculous.
Kakashi was nearing emotional exhaustion, so he deserved to have a little fun with this.
He leaned down to the spoon, and Iruka tilted his face away, really making a show of how much he was not looking. Kakashi took the whole spoon in his mouth, looking up at Iruka through his eyelashes.
If Iruka wouldn’t look at him directly, peripheral vision would have to do.
Kakashi moved with the spoon and leaned in the direction Iruka was determinedly staring. Kakashi saw him swallow and tracked it down his throat.
He pulled back and Iruka relaxed his shoulders, looking back down to the bowl and spoon. And yep, Kakashi could tell, Iruka was definitely blushing.
This time when he raised the spoon, Kakashi scooted over, nudging Iruka’s arm and splashing the soup.
"Maa Iruka," Kakashi chastised, "Watch where you put that thing."
That made Iruka blush harder. Kakashi moved closer and Iruka turned his neck even further away.
"Why won't you look, sensei?"
"I- agh- well-" Iruka was quickly becoming flustered. "Fine! I was just trying to be respectful."
Kakashi smirked, which was sure to irritate Iruka when he finally faced him.
Iruka dipped the spoon again and this time followed it with his eyes and placed it right against Kakashi's lips. Same as the first time, he locked his eyes on Iruka and took the whole spoon in his mouth.
Iruka's pupils were blown wide and lips slightly parted, but it wasn't until his eyes finally moved from Kakashi's mouth to his eyes that it really hit Kakashi. He hadn't thought this far ahead and now Iruka wasn't the only one getting flushed.
"Okay, that's enough of that," Iruka said, pulling the spoon out and blinding Kakashi by pulling his hitai-ate over both eyes. Kakashi giggled; he couldn't remember the last time he'd giggled.
The next bite came with a "hmph" from Iruka.
Lunch went much quicker after that.
Eating blind was distancing him from the whole thing, like his body was doing it without him.
Somewhere in the middle, Kakashi thought he heard thunder, but it didn't smell like rain.
Before he left to clean the dishes, Iruka pulled up Kakashi's mask but left both his eyes blindfolded.
When he left the room, Kakashi uncovered his right eye. The room was much different. It was darker and bare, and the orientation had flipped around. No, this wasn’t the same room. This was-
Lightning flashed across the walls.
Not this one.
He swallowed, thrown by the taste of soup still in his mouth. It hadn’t tasted like that then. He hadn’t had dinner yet.
His dad hadn’t shown up at the park to pick him up. He waited until he got hungry, then walked home alone. That wasn’t unusual. Sometimes his dad would get busy or forget to tell him about a late meeting or a long mission. Especially lately, he was seeing him less and less.
Thunder cracked again. Strange. He hadn’t seen the lightning.
Oh, his eyes were closed. Because he didn’t want to look down. Because he didn’t want to feel the…
nothing.
It felt like nothing, seeing the body on the ground. His dad curled in a fetal position, in the middle of the floor. When Kakashi looked down on him, he felt nothing for the longest time.
That was the first time Kakashi thought there might be something wrong with him. He should’ve cried, right? Or did he miss his chance…
Something warm was blurring into focus. A familiar scar, and voice.
“Kakashi?”
Iruka was kneeling in front of him, face etched with worry. Had Kakashi fallen asleep? He couldn’t recall.
“Are you okay? Wait.” Iruka’s hands were wrapped around his wrist and Kakashi focused on how he turned his hand over. Iruka hovered his hand over the seal and closed his eyes, “Shoot.”
And then Iruka was up and searching the room for something.
“Your chakra point must’ve opened up again.” Right. That’s why Kakashi was here. “I didn’t think it would happen so soon. Why would Lady Tsunade leave this with me?”
“This?” Kakashi asked, aiming for playful but falling flat. It sounded almost pathetic.
“This situation,” Iruka assured, “I mean, I can’t see chakra points or do anything even slightly medical. Sakura just left me those-”
Kakashi nearly gagged at the thought, “No, sensei. Please not the food pills.”
But Iruka kept rambling, “All I could possibly do is place a seal to block chakra but I can’t place a seal because a seal is already in place! That’s the whole problem!” Iruka plopped his head in his hands.
“Iruka.” He didn’t look up, but Kakashi continued. “I’m fine. Really, it’s not that bad. I’m sorry Sakura dumped me on you.”
His head shot up, “No, that’s not-”
“Look, I get chakra exhaustion all the time," Kakashi tried again. "It doesn’t hurt. Just makes me an invalid.”
Iruka was staring up at him. He almost looked angry. And not cute angry, but something else.
“Just stay here,” Iruka said, placing his hand over the seal. He set his jaw decisively. “I’m going to get a medical ninja or a Hyuga. Whoever I see first. I’ll be right back, I promise.”
He dragged the door behind him and tried to settle it into the frame on his way out. Kakashi sighed and laid back on the couch, waiting for the memories to take him again.