Warlord

Chapter Forty-Five

Iruka slipped into the medical tent and knelt next to Kabuto. “I talked to Shimata.” he whispered, “He’ll pick you up here tomorrow night.” He was surprised by the lack of an answer, so he grasped one shoulder and gave him a firm shake, “Kabuto, wake up . . . It’s Iruka.”, but still there was no response.

“Medic,” he called, “this man’s unconscious.” The medic moved to Kabuto’s side, checking his pulse before dropping his head to his chest.

“This man’s dead.” he finally announced, “His injuries must have been worse than they seemed.”

“Are you sure?” the scribe fretted, “I spoke with him earlier today, he seemed to be on the mend.”

“Whatever,” the medic muttered, “he’s just a whore, who cares?”

Iruka turned on his heel and headed back to Raidou’s tent, anxious to let the generals know about this new development. “Raidou . . . Asuma . . . Genma?” he called nervously, unwilling to just walk in.

“Come in Iruka.” a voice called out from inside the tent. He pushed back the flap to find the two generals lounging around the shogi board.

“Kabuto’s dead.” he stated tersely, “Now what do we do?”

The generals looked at one another, seeming to come to an unspoken agreement. “You go back to Hatake, Iruka.” Asuma said finally, “We’ll come talk to him about all this later.”

“If you think so.” the scribe replied doubtfully.

“I think Hatake’s going to wonder where you are.” Raidou replied, “We’ll see you in a little while.” he thought for a moment before continuing, “Please, please make sure you both have your clothes on this time.”

“How about you make sure you give us some warning before you walk in?” the scribe retorted nastily, “You’re the one that’s always bursting in unannounced.”

Genma had been listening from the doorway, having arrived right after Iruka but not wanting him to realize he’d been followed. “Why don’t you both calm down.” he interjected smoothly, “Iruka go home. Don’t make the commander wait.” He turned to Raidou before continuing, “You and I will have a little chat about manners . . . or, in your case, lack thereof.”

Iruka stormed back to the warlord’s tent, angry at being left out of the generals’ plans and even angrier at the memory of Raidou seeing his ‘kashi naked yet again. “I’m home.” he snarled, causing Kakashi to pull back and look at him askance, wondering what he had done to earn this reaction.

“What’s wrong ‘ruka?” he asked immediately, wanting to clear up whatever the problem was.

“Nothing’s wrong.” the scribe groused, “Why on earth would you think something was wrong?”

“Well . . .” the warlord began tentatively, “You snarled at me, and then nearly bit my head off. I’ve been good, I did exactly what the medic told me to . . . so why are you mad at me?” he ended with a sad pout.

“Oh,” the scribe gasped in surprise, “I’m not mad at you ‘kashi . . . I’m just frustrated with Raidou’s high and mighty attitude.”

“Is he bothering you?” the warlord growled, “Because I warned him in no uncertain terms . . .” he trailed off at the look on the scribe’s face “‘ruka . . . did he hurt you?”

“No, no, no.” Iruka stammered, shaking his head and waving his hands in denial, “Nothing like that, really.”

“Then what is it like?” Kakashi asked drily, “If you don’t mind my asking, that is?”

“Well . . .” the scribe began hesitantly, “I don’t think I should tell you.”

“Oh . . . you don’t . . .hmmmmmm.” the warlord hissed, “I guess I need to see what Namiashi has to say about all this. Guard.” he yelled, waiting for a head to pop through the tent flap, “Go bring me General Namiashi . . . . now.” he husked dangerously.

Iruka studied the warlord through his eyelashes. He’s really angry now, he thought triumphantly, let Raidou explain this. Minutes later the general was calling out a greeting, and waiting for a reply, before walking in.

“You wanted to see me?” he asked warily, eyeing the angry warlord and the smug scribe and trying to put the pieces together. “I swear it was Iruka’s idea.” he finally burst out, “I tried to talk him out of it, I knew you’d be mad.”

“Oh you did, did you?” the confused warlord sneered, “And yet, you did it anyway.” He fixed Raidou with an icy glare, “This time you’ve gone too far . . . I’ll not forgive you.”

“I had Genma keep an eye on him the whole time to make sure he was safe.” the general babbled, not exactly sure if that made it better.

“You WHAT!” the warlord bellowed, “That is just sick.” he spat, “I can’t believe Genma went along with you.”

“Well . . . he was pretty mad at me at first, but I convinced him.” the general replied with a triumphant smile . . . a smile which slowly melted in the face of the warlord’s all too visible rage.

“‘kashi, calm down.” the scribe urged, “You’re still recovering. Besides, all I did was take a message to Shimata from Kabuto . . . it wasn’t nearly as dangerous as everyone makes it out to be.”

“You what?” the warlord asked with a puzzled frown, “I thought . . . oh.” he trailed off in embarrassment.

“What did you think?” Iruka asked curiously, “You were really angry with the general.”

“I thought you slept with him.” the warlord mumbled, not surprised when the scribe smacked him hard on the back of the head.

“I can’t believe you thought something like that.” he hissed.

“Well . . . you were so angry, and you wouldn’t tell me why.” he muttered, quickly changing the subject, “When did you see Yakushi?” he asked sharply.

“He was in the medic’s tent when I went there this morning.” the scribe replied hesitantly, “He recognized me from before.” he said briefly, “He wanted to get a message to his friend . . . I talked to the generals about it and then I delivered it so we could see who was involved.”

The scribe took a deep breath before continuing, “When I went back with the reply Kabuto was dead.”

“Actually,” Asuma’s voice piped in from the doorway, “Kabuto is missing . . . as is the medic that was on duty. I went to see what he had died of and found them both gone. We need to talk Hatake.” he concluded, hobbling into the room and flopping into a chair.

“Asuma and I have come up with a plan.” Raidou began hesitantly, “But I don’t think you’re going to like it.”

“We think you should take a break, you need time to recover . . . and we need time to root out the conspirators in our midst.” Asuma continued smoothly. “So, Rai’s going to be in command of the troops, I’m going to run civilian affairs . . . and you’re going to relax with Iruka and advise us on what to do.”

“I don’t know . . .” the warlord said slowly, “I’ve never been anything but a soldier, I can’t imagine not staying with my troops.”

“Well, at least some of those troops don’t appear to feel the same way.” Asuma said bluntly, “We’ve been campaigning almost continuously for the last ten years . . . the men are ready to settle down even if you aren’t.”

“I’ve almost wrapped up the negotiations here.” Raidou continued tentatively, “We’ll be pulling back to the capitol in another month, just go home with Iruka and Asuma . . . we’ll know more by then.”

“Alright.” Kakashi reluctantly agreed, “But I want to be kept informed of everything that’s going on.”

“Certainly Commander.” both generals replied, happy that their plan had been accepted, however unenthusiastically. Iruka, on the other hand, was ecstatic. He was going to take the warlord home. He smiled at the thought, certain he could keep Kakashi busy enough not to fret about what was happening in his absence.