Savin' Me

Hi, (waves and bows humbly hoping for forgiveness)
Sorry to be late, it truly has been because of the unusual weather we are having. So many days over 100 degrees is not the norm. I had to wait for a little coolness this evening to finish this and even then I had all the fans in the house running, I wish I had air con, but… And then of course there isn’t all that much for you either. But this hot spell is due to end soon and then it’s easter and I have 4 days off, though my DBZ story needs some work on it too. We’ll see… I hope you enjoy this little part, bye

Savin’ Me continued….
By Fyrbyrd

Iruka sat in the observation room watching the picture on the screen. Kakashi was as usual lying on his side, in the jacket he didn’t have many positions he could lay in. Iruka made sure it was as comfortable for him as possible while keeping to the rules. They would not allow him to be out of the jacket at night. And Tsunade also thought it would be good for Iruka to see what went on in the night as well.

He had been there for hours, almost wanting to fall asleep himself. The monitor was there with him, but he was doing his job and was not into much conversation, in fact he just wanted to listen to his music while he watched and made notes. It was well after midnight when Kakashi came to life. Iruka watched in horror as Kakashi’s body began to lurch and jump, his face twisted in pain, his mouth open as he silently screamed. It went on for some time before he apparently exhausted himself and collapsed back on the floor.

Iruka found it hard to unclench his hands from the seat. And it took him some time to ask the monitor, “Does this happen every night?”

The man had his headphone down when he nodded. “Yeah, but that’s just the first one. He’ll have at least three a night.”

Iruka was shocked. He had no idea how violent Kakashi’s dreams really were, or how often he had them. He slowly got to his feet and left. He wandered down the corridor in a haze until he reached the room that housed Kakashi. He couldn’t look in; inside he sat down with his back to the door and ran his hands through his hair, not sure what he was going to do next.

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Naruto and Kiba wandered along the roads that lead to the farm. They stopped in villages and spoke to people, but no one saw anything. There were lots of travelers back then, they were told. Lots of people on the move. Ninja were not amongst those they saw, they would have stood out. As would men in dark cloaks.

Eventually they had to give up and head home. They headed back towards the farm on their way. Naruto wandered into the old barn that had fallen into disrepair. This was where Kakashi had been kept, tied up like a dog and treated worse than one. Kiba went to investigate the old house while Naruto sat against a beam in the center of the barn. He did not want to head home with nothing. It seemed so unfair that they had learned nothing that could help Kakashi. Perhaps too much time had passed and there would be no way to find out anything. He got up and left the building heading to the house to collect Kiba and head on home.

“Naruto, that you?” called Kiba from upstairs.

“Yeah,” he called.

“Get up here.”

Naruto was curious, the place was abandoned and looked as if it hade been used as a squat by many over the years.

He found Kiba in a room upstairs rummaging through a sack he had pulled from a closet. “I think I’ve found Kakashi’s stuff.” He was pulling out a tattered flak jacket and a leaf hitai-ite. There was a waist pouch as well. They sat looking at it while Kiba held it, as if it might have an answer to something. Kiba opened it. There was no usual Icha Icha book, there were no shuriken, there was only a slip of faded paper that was not easy to unfold. The only thing on it was a symbol, the Uchiha fan. What the hell did that mean?

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“Morning Kashi,” said Iruka coming through the door with their breakfast. He was able to walk right to him now; he did not have to take things easy. But he put everything down and got it ready before he moved to take the jacket from Kakashi. Once he had it off he sat down in front of Kakashi and handed him his bowl. Once it was taken he picked up his own and began to eat.

However, Kakashi did not immediately start to eat, he just stared at it. Iruka had eaten a few bites before he realized that he was the only one eating. “Kashi, is everything all right?”

He got not reaction; the other still stared at the food. Iruka took another bite hoping to encourage him, “Mmm, this is good; you mustn’t let it go to waste.” Still nothing. He stopped and put down his own and reached out to touch Kakashi’s hand. “Kashi?”

Only then did the eye move and look at his hand then followed up until he reached Iruka’s concerned face.

“Kashi?” Iruka let go.

Kakashi closed his uncovered eye, then moved to pick up the chopsticks, opening his eye as he began to slowly eat.

Iruka slowly picked up his own and ate with him, but he was still concerned over Kakashi’s reaction.

They finished their meal and Iruka cleaned up and as usual they leaned against the wall together, though Iruka noticed that Kakashi did not eat it all.

He wasn’t sure what to do, he felt uneasy after what he had seen during the night and the strange reaction and he could not help but flinch a little when Kakashi turned to look at him, moving to lean on a leg as he faced sideways. Kakashi lifted a hand and touched Iruka’s face, tracing along his scar with a finger. Iruka held still, very still, he was not sure what was going on, whether he should be afraid or not. The hand went back to cup his face and Kakashi leaned forward, the hand moving down to his shoulder, down his arm to where it sat on his knee, then slide off and back even as Kakashi’s face got closer to his. Then the hand glided over his groin and he knew what was happening. “Kashi, no. You don’t have to do that anymore.”

But the hand was rubbing at his groin, his eyes headed for the door, he was afraid that pretty soon guards would come storming in. He moved his hand to Kakashi’s and pulled it away. “No Kashi, you are not in that place anymore, you don’t have to do anything to please me.”

He saw the door crack open and he pushed Kakashi’s hand right away and moved to get in front of him. “No it’s okay, don’t come in,” he called to those at the door.

Kakashi moved then jumping away from Iruka and taking up a defensive stance.

Iruka leapt to his feet, “No don’t, go away. He wasn’t going to hurt me.” He was pushed aside and landed on his ass while they went at Kakashi. The four of them soon had him over powered and were quickly shoving him back into the straightjacket, while two others dragged Iruka from the room. Finally when they were all outside, Iruka pushed them away from him and he pressed his face against the observation window as he watched Kakashi fighting the jacket, his mouth opening and closer as he silently cried out in anger.

“You idiots, he wasn’t going to hurt me,” he thumped his head against the glass. “He was only groping me. Only groping me.”

“They weren’t to know that Iruka,” said Tsunade from behind him.

Iruka turned abruptly. “He was a whore for five years; he was just going back to things he knew. I gave him something he liked; he was just trying to return the favor.”

“Like I said, they weren’t to know. You know that only those that rescued him knew what he was doing where he was. Do you really think I’d let everyone here know what had happened to him?”

“But I had built up this trust with him. He was like he was with me there. Now he won’t trust me again.”

“Giving up so easily? That’s not like you Iruka. Leave him alone for the rest of the day, come back this evening and we will see what happens next.”

Iruka sighed heavily and nodded and turned to walk away. Tsunade looked though the window at the angry man inside. If Iruka gave up who else would help Kakashi?

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Iruka felt very down after returning home. He had so little control over what was happening with Kakashi. He was happy that he had gotten the man to trust him again as he had when they were at the brothel. But now he felt that he had lost all that because they were being watched too closely, because Kakashi’s strange ability to call upon his chakra without the use of hand signs. Sure it was dangerous when he was able to call up his chidori, that made the man positively lethal, but he would have to think he was in great danger to do that. The time he destroyed the brothel, and only once on his return home, where he had gotten as far as to have strings of lightning spark from his fingers, but not into a full chidori. He had been subdued by Shikamaru’s shadow manipulation, straight jacketed and locked into the padded cell and had his chakra sealed. But still they didn’t trust him.

Maybe they had no knowledge of what Kakashi had gone through in the past six years or what he had been used to do, that sex had become a large part of his life, but Iruka felt that Kakashi was not going to hurt him. Just wanted to please him, as he had been pleased by what Iruka was doing for him.

What could he do now? How would Kakashi trust him again after what they had done? He wanted to scream himself; he patted his head, trying to solve the situation. Tsunade knew he was the one that could help Kakashi, but she was also being protective of her village and its people, which included him.

He lay on his bed staring at the ceiling. He had not felt this bad since learning that Kakashi was alive, no more than that. He felt like he had betrayed his friend, the man he loved. And he did not know how to fix it.

He was disturbed from his rest when there was a knock at his door. He did not want to get up and see who it was, but if he didn’t they would continue knocking until he did.

He opened the door to be greeted by the grinning face of Naruto. “Hey Iruka.”

“You’re back?” said Iruka surprised to see him.

“Yes, we just got back. I was told you were here instead of at the hospital. Is everything okay with Kakashi?”

“Yes… No… I mean… I don’t know.” He ushered Naruto inside and they sat down together.

“He didn’t try to hurt you did he?”

“No, of course not, and that’s the problem. Everyone seems to think that’s all he’ll do,” his frustration boiling over.

“So what happened?”

“He tried to grope me and they overreacted.”

Naruto wanted to laugh, but he knew that he couldn’t. “We found the farmer,” he said changing the subject. “He had sold up the farm and moved to a village where he bought a store and became fat on the profits. He’s dead now. We didn’t kill him, but I think we helped scare him to death.”

Iruka sat up straight. “Did you learn anything from him?”

“Not much. He found Kakashi wandering. He’d already lost his memory and was easily taken in by the farmer. We tried other places along the way, but there was too much happening back then that the trail was too cold. Kiba and I went back to the farm one last time… We found some of Kakashi’s things, but all we gained was a piece of paper with the Uchiha fan on it.”

“The Uchiha fan?”

“That was it. We weren’t sure what it meant, still don’t.”

“He must have had a run in with Itachi, but we will never know for certain. Not without getting inside Kakashi’s head and there’s no one that can do that.”

“What are you going to do about him?” asked Naruto.

Iruka slumped back again, putting his hands over his eyes and rubbing them, “I don’t know. He was so angry when I saw him last. They jumped him and put that jacket back on him and kicked me out. He might not trust me again after that. And I was doing so well. If he was trying to pleasure me he must have felt some of his own.”

“Seems to me you should get him out of there and take him somewhere where you can be alone.”

“What?” shouted Iruka.

“Well it makes sense doesn’t it? You’re not getting anywhere with all those idiots looking over your shoulder all the time, they aren’t helping, they’re hindering.”

“Well… yeah.”

“So get him out of there and take him somewhere so you two can work together. He wouldn’t hurt you would he?”

“I didn’t believe he would.”

“Then the only way you are going to get anywhere with him is to take him away from here.”

“How the hell could I do that!” shouted Iruka. “He’s under guard in the mental ward of the hospital, more than that his cell is under constant video surveillance, I know because I watched him the other night. He has constant nightmares.”

“They haven’t fixed his throat so he’s still mute, right?”

“Yeah, but Naruto—“

“All we need to do is find somewhere quiet for you to go where you won’t be bothered by anyone and you can work on getting him better.”

“Are you insane?”

“No, but he is. If you can’t bring him around, what will happen to him? He’ll spend the rest of his life in that damn jacket locked in that cell till he dies. Do you think he would want that?”

“No of course not, but Naruto, that would also be against the rules. I could wind up… missing Nin.”

Naruto laughed, “Yeah right, you missing Nin?”

“It’s not funny,” said Iruka getting a little angry again.

“So if you didn’t go along with my plan what will you do? Try to win his trust back again. He gropes you; they rush in to save you and you’re back to square one all over again.”

“Naruto, you haven’t seen the nightmares he has at night. He’s reliving some much pain, more pain than I have ever seen anyone in. It was horrible to see.”

“You saw him whipped and raped and humiliated at the brothel. You cleaned him up and cared for him when they would have left him to slowly die. Weren’t you told that he was dying just before he went completely mad?”

Iruka slumped again, “Yes.”

“Do you see him surviving long in there too?” Naruto said softly.

“No.”

Naruto sat down close to him. “Neither do I. I know this is against the rules and all, but I know how much you love Kakashi. You know how much I love him too. We have to take him somewhere else so he can heal. I thought he’d be better off at home, but I was wrong. We have got to get him away from here. I saw some places when I was traveling with Jiraiya, let me get all that set up for you Iruka, then we can figure out how to get him out of there. Though we might need someone really good at genjutsu to help us.”

“Leave that to me.”

Naruto grinned widely; it seemed he had gotten Iruka around to his kind of thinking. He nodded, “Okay, I’m starving.”

“Then let me treat you to some ramen… for old time’s sake.”

Naruto laughed delightedly and was quickly out the door, Iruka following slowly behind him.

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Iruka was right. Kakashi went back to his old self and ignored him when he tried to offer him food. He left the cell despondent watching as they entered to knock Kakashi out to get him cleaned up. He was told to return on the morning to try again, but he knew that he would continue to have problems reaching Kakashi now.

There was one person he knew that could do the type of genjutsu they would need and he wondered if he could convince her to help him.

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