Fic: Morning Shows The Day (or) Iruka and Kakashi's Excellent Adventure -- Chapter 2

[avocado_love]

Title: Morning Shows The Day (or) Iruka and Kakashi's Excellent Adventure
Rating: PG-13
Pairing(s): Kakashi/Iruka
Summary: One moment ten-year-old Umino Iruka is pulling his most daring prank, and the next he's in the middle of a bloody battlefield. What is going on, and who is this strange masked boy with him?
Contains [warnings]: Some violence, children as soldiers, bra theft
Word Count: 4,300+ (This chapter)
Author's Notes:  Written for jofelly  on the KakaIru fest.. Special thanks to the many people who patiently listened to me whine as I figured out the plot, and others who worked to correct it. alexb49 , yukinoomoni , book_people , tucuxi  and schwarztkd . You guys are great. :D
This is a slightly edited version of the one that was put on the fest, and I broke it up for easier reading.
Chapter 1
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"I'm starving," Iruka complained an hour later, a hand clutching his belly. "I swear, when I get back home I am never complaining about my mother's cooking again."

Kakashi spared him a contemptuous glance, even though he was no less hungry – his stomach had taken to clenching painfully over the last few hours.

"Can't we stop?" Iruka wheedled, after a few moments of silence. "Just for a little while?"

Kakashi glanced around. The sun was almost directly overhead now and cast no shadows on the empty land around them; miles and miles of dry, weedy plains with no break save for the occasional up-thrust boulder. No paths. No roads, and worse… anything taller than the thigh-high grass was immediately visible.

"No."

"I could hunt," Iruka said, as if Kakashi hadn't spoken. "I know how to rig snares."

Kakashi's stomach pinched inward with a soft gurgling sound. He ignored it. "We have to keep moving." Find shelter, civilization, their mission directives… something. Anything.

… Why hadn't Sensei found them yet?

He frowned under his mask. He was a Chuunin, and had been for years. He didn't need Minato-sensei to come to rescue him. He'd gone on missions alone, before.

But that didn't change the fact that whenever he had gotten into trouble – real, life-threatening trouble, the man had always been there to back him up. Always. Even when it was annoying… especially when it was annoying. Minato-sensei had taken him in after his father had – well, after his father's death. He cared for Kakashi as if he was his own.

And he wasn't here. He could be delayed, perhaps. Or hurt. Maybe badly hurt. Maybe even –

"This is nothing like playing ninja," Iruka grumbled to his left, kicking at a clod of dirt sullenly.

Kakashi clenched his jaw in irritation, although some part of him was grateful for the distraction. "Playing," he repeated with as much contempt as he could possibly put into the word. He knew, instinctively somehow, exactly how the other boy would react.

Sure enough, Iruka's brown eyes flashed in annoyance. "Yes, playing," he repeated. "You never play?"

"I never needed to. I already know all the shinobi rules."

To his surprise, Iruka barked out a laugh. "That isn't why people play." Then he glanced at him, his smile fading slightly. "But I get the feeling that you don't know that, do you?"

Kakashi met his gaze, lingered for a moment, and then looked away. "Tell me shinobi rule number four."

"A shinobi must see underneath the underneath," Iruka repeated automatically, then grinned. "Number fourteen?"

That was easy. "A shinobi must prepare for all eventualities," he said. "Seventeen and twenty-five."

"A shinobi must keep his weapons maintained at all times. A shinobi must not show tears," Iruka repeated, as if by rote. Then he blinked, as if surprised at himself. "Huh. I guess I remembered more from the academy than I thought."

Kakashi gave him a grudging nod. "Very good."

They walked in silence for a few minutes and Kakashi could feel the weight of Iruka's hurried side glances when he thought he wouldn't notice. Finally Iruka said, "When we get back to the village, I'll introduce you to some of my friends… We could have fun?"

Something clenched in Kakashi's heart, suddenly and without warning. He reached up to rub at his chest, trying to will it away. "I don't need to have fun."

"Yes you do," Iruka replied with a nod. "I'll introduce you to Izumo and Mizuki and Anko. Um, well, if she's in the right mood." His nose scrunched up as he said the last name, as if he smelled something bad. It made the scar crinkle up a little, Kakashi noticed. Not in a bad way, either. "She's been so… so snobby since she became genin. Like she's too good for anyone but her Sannin-sensei." He paused and added almost wistfully, "It's like she doesn't even want to be friends anymore."

A number of sarcastic (and true) responses flickered through Kakashi's mind. Perhaps this Anko person was taking her duties more seriously and had no patience for children's games. But before he could give voice to any of them, Kakashi caught sight of movement – far, far out over the rolling hills of sun-dried gold and brown. Something large.

He stopped short and held up his hand, squinting to see more of it. Heedless of his command, Iruka crashed into his back.

"Oof! Why'd you stop?" Iruka demanded.

Kakashi merely pointed and Iruka followed his gaze. His brown eyes widened. "What is it?"

"I'm not sure." The moving object along the horizon seemed to be slowly resolving itself now—an indication it was getting closer—split into two distinct shapes; one bigger than the other.

"Get down!" Kakashi barked, and fell to his stomach among the high weeds.

Iruka followed a second later; wary, tense. "Is it the enemy?"

"No." He shook his head. "A trader's wagon."

The other boy stared at him for a long, long minute as if Kakashi were insane. Then, "That's it? You scared me." He pushed his arms under him, peeked up over the tall, dried grass. Kakashi grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back down.

"Shinobi rule number twenty-one," he hissed.

Iruka hesitated. "A shinobi must be vigilant in enemy territory?"

Kakashi admitted to himself, very reluctantly, that it seemed Iruka did indeed know all the rules. So why didn't he follow them? "Yes. If they are travelers, they may be friendly with the local hidden village. Or they may be ninja in disguise themselves, hoping to lure us out."

"That… seems a little far fetched."

"Care to stand up?" Kakashi asked, mildly. "Let me know if they start hurling shuriken at you."

Iruka rolled his eyes and shoved his shoulders into Kakashi's, roughly. Kakashi supposed he could have avoided it… if he wanted to. It might have caused too much of a disturbance in the grass.

"Fine." Iruka gave in with a sigh. "So what do we do now, oh wise Chuunin-sama?"

Kakashi considered it for a moment or two and then reached up to untie his forehead protector. He slipped it into one of his vest pockets. The sun was high overhead, and he didn't want to risk a glint from the shiny metal. "We gather intelligence."

He rose into an easy crouch, just high enough to see over the tall grass. The caravan was closer now; three distinct shapes, not two. They seemed to be heading in their direction, but at an angle. Kakashi lowered himself back down.

"This way. Follow me."

Together, the two boys made their slow way forward, carefully crawling on their stomachs through the tall grass. Kakashi stopped every twenty feet or so for to peek up and check their progress.

Eventually they came to simple road – no more than a cleared path in the sea of golden grass, broken by two deep wagon wheel ruts. A scraggly pair of bushes sat by the roadside, and Kakashi hunkered down behind them, gesturing for Iruka to do the same.

The other boy had weeds stuck in his hair and his white outfit had been stained brown with dust and dirt. He gave Kakashi a sour look as he took position beside him, but this close Kakashi could hear his sharp, excited breathing.

He could also feel Iruka's chakra spiking upward, like physical pinpricks of anticipation along Kakashi's skin.

"Calm down," Kakashi hissed. "Anyone with any sensitivity will be able to feel your chakra."

Iruka's eyes widened. "They can?" he squeaked, and immediately his aura's presence increased, now tinged with naked fear.

"Stop that!" Kakashi snapped. "Didn't they teach you how to mask your chakra in the academy?" But he knew it was a foolish question the moment the words were out of his mouth, and Iruka's wide eyes only confirmed it. If he had been taught, that knowledge was now gone with whatever else the memory jutsu had taken.

Kakashi was about give an order to withdraw– let the foolish genin get as far away as he possibly could while Kakashi stayed and continued scouting. But he could hear the faint jingle of harness, the creak and quiet popping sounds of wooden wagon wheels bumping along the deep track. If Iruka broke cover now, he could be spotted. They were out of time.

Without allowing himself any further thought, Kakashi reached over to lay the palm of his hand on Iruka's back. "Concentrate on me," he commanded. "Match your breathing with my own. Slow down your heart-rate, if you're able."

"You want me to slow down my heart?"

Kakashi repressed the urge to roll his eyes. "Close your eyes and concentrate," he said, simply. "Or we'll both be discovered."

Iruka shot him a desperate look, then at the empty road. He nodded once and squeezed his eyes shut.

It took a few moments, but gradually the anxious aura decreased to something less glaringly obvious as Irura's chakra naturally fell into rhythm with his own. It was easy, almost suspiciously easy, as their auras overlapped one another, locking into place like old trusted friends.

Kakashi closed his eyes as well and let his senses expand.

He could feel Iruka's presence, right next to him. The genin's chakra stores were less than what he'd hoped, and the potential to increase them substantially was not there. Yet Kakashi also felt, with a sixth sense he could not name, that Iruka already had chakra control as good as or better than Kakashi's own. Efficient rationing of his limited resources would help him overcome the lack – Iruka was a prime candidate to become a medic-nin someday. Perhaps that was the reason Minato-sensei had picked him for his team.

Concentrating, Kakashi could feel other presences as well. By his count there were three civilians on the upcoming wagon. Their undeveloped chakra systems were quite distinctive. Two adults, one child and –

"What is it?" Iruka asked, his eyes still closed.

Kakashi glanced at him and then realized, belatedly, his regular breaths had taken a sudden hitch. "A Shinobi," he whispered back. "At the front of the wagon – possibly a guard or escort. Chuunin level."

He had to give some credit to Iruka: now that he was getting the hang of basic concealment: his chakra did not spike again at the news. "What do we do?" he breathed.

"Stay hidden. If we move now, with them this close, it's certain we'll be seen."

"Oh-okay." His voice wavered only slightly.

"If we are spotted, I'll protect you."

Kakashi didn't really know what had prompted him to say that. They were on a mission – or at least, they he knew logically they had to be on a mission of some sort. The outcome was surely the top priority and if Iruka couldn't defend himself… well. The weak died on the battlefields all the time. Kakashi had seen it with his own eyes.

He also knew, with a growing sense of inner disquiet, that leaving Iruka behind for the good of the mission had somehow… become unacceptable.

Those who abandon their mission are trash, said a quiet murmur in the back of his mind, like a dream half-forgotten. Those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash.

Kakashi frowned to himself, and dismissed the errant thought with a shake of his head.

It only took a few minutes for the wagon to rattle its way over the last gentle rise and come, slowly, into sight.

It was a simple caravan, the type Kakashi had often seen carrying merchants and their wares back and forth out of Leaf Village when he was a small child – before the worst of the war. It was an unspectacular thing: a simple flat bed with raised wooden sides, covered by white canvas and pulled along by two dusty looking mules. He could see the man who must have been the merchant himself, sitting up upon the driver's seat with the reigns clutched loosely in his hands. A woman sat beside him, fingers flashing as she worked a needle into some red fabric.

The shinobi himself was stationed in front, walking at the head of the wagon. He was an unremarkable man of average height, weight and build with a scraggily half-grown beard. Mostly, he looked bored to death, with eyes half closed and staring straight ahead obviously not expecting any danger to come from the empty fields. His metal forehead protector caught the sun once or twice as they came down the gentle slope.

He wore the insignia of Hidden Rock Village.

Kakashi felt his heart plummet: for a man to be this bored in the middle of a war… he clearly thought he was safe in his place. They had to be deep within Earth country, far, far across enemy borders.

Kakashi held his breath as shinobi and wagon passed – so close he could have reached out and stabbed the Rock-nin through the foot if he had a mind to.

The wagon creaked as it passed, and the last thing Kakashi saw as it slowly rumbled off into the distance, was the little civilian girl he had sensed: she sat at the very end of the wagon, eating some sort of red fruit, kicking her bare heels into the air and singing some sort of travelling tune.

Then they were gone.

Kakashi let out a long breath and belatedly realized that he still had a hand upon Iruka's back. He pulled his hand back abruptly, as if burned.

"That was a Rock-nin," Iruka whispered.

Kakashi shot him an annoyed look. "I thought I told you to keep your eyes closed."

Iruka shrugged a shoulder in reply. "But he wasn't on alert," he continued, unrepentant. "Like this was a just a boring escort mission and he wasn't expecting any trouble." He paused and reached up to scratch his nose in thought. "We must be really far from the border for anyone to be that relaxed."

Kakashi nodded his agreement, and briefly wondered how anyone could be that ignorant in chakra use and still manage to be so observant. Iruka had drawn almost exactly the same conclusions as he.

Kakashi kept himself still and waited for a count of sixty before carefully crawling out from under the brush, back into the relative clearing of the wagon track.

"We'll follow this road," he said, indicating the way opposite to where the wagon had gone. "Once we come to a town or a village we can find out exactly where we are and where we need to go."

"Why that way?" Iruka had followed Kakashi out from the brush and reached back to remove the band from his hair. Unbound, it fell to his shoulders. He ran his fingers absently through it, untangling more bits of grass.

Kakashi caught himself staring and abruptly averted his gaze, blinking. What was wrong with him?

Perhaps it was that bit of unease that made his next words come out as they did; short and cold. "Because the shinobi went the other way. We've already had a close call, thanks to you."

Iruka froze at the words. His hands dropped from his loose hair and when Kakashi met his gaze there was an angry glint in his narrowing eyes; something that made Kakashi instantly think 'uh-oh', before Iruka turned on his heel and sprinted down the road…

… towards the departing wagon.

"What are you—" But it was too late. The other boy had already rounded the bend in the road and was gone.

Kakashi's quick mind flashed through his options: A kunai lobbed at Iruka's back would stop him… although there was no guarantee Kakashi could hit a moving target with the blunt end rather than the blade. He supposed he could flash-step and tackle him down, but even a half asleep shinobi would be able to feel the chakra sudden output from a half-mile away.

With a mental sigh, Kakashi gave up and followed.

Iruka was a quick runner, but he slowed as he approached the wagon. Kakashi did as well – darting from one scraggy patch of tall weeds to another to keep from being spotted. He kept close enough to observe and jump in if – when – the idiot got himself in trouble.

He had to admit, though, that without a forehead protector, hair loose, and dirty from slinking along the ground… Iruka looked much more like a typical civilian boy than a genin.

Kakashi watched with mixed horror and concern as the Iruka came within sight of the wagon. He broke into another jog and waved to the little girl in back, ducking his head and grinning as she stopped her song and waved back at him.

It was insane, brash and utterly stupid, but Iruka went right up to her – chakra closed around him tight and nearly hidden – with no attempt to physically conceal himself at all.

And, to Kakashi's increasing agitation, it seemed to be working. The shinobi was walking by the pack animals up at the very front of the wagon, while Iruka had come from behind.

He must have kept his voice down, or else the sound of the animal's hooves concealed his voice. Either way, Iruka walked along side the wagon for a few minutes, happily chatting with the girl. When he returned to where Kakashi was hiding, after giving a slight bow that made her giggle and try to bow back from her seated position, it was with a triumphant smile and a fresh red fruit in hand.

Kakashi met him safely out of sight of the wagon. He had to clench his fists to keep them from shaking. "What," he asked, through clenched teeth, "Did you think you were going to gain from taking a risk like that?"

Iruka only flashed him a smile and bit into the fruit. "Information," he answered, smugly, eyes still glinting with dangerous mischief. "I learned if we follow the road back about five miles, we'll come to a crossroads. From there, we turn right and a day's walk will take us to the nearest village."

Kakashi stepped up to him, barely an inch between them. "If that girl tells the shinobi what she's seen—"

"I told her I was looking for my parents." Iruka grinned, completely unconcerned by Kakashi's proximity. The expression turned up the scar across his nose. "We come from a band of horse-traders. I got lost playing and…" he trailed off significantly and then held out the fruit. "You want half?"

Kakashi glared at him. "That was a chance you did not need to take."

"You need to have more faith in people," Iruka answered, then sighed when Kakashi continued to glare coldly at him. "I'm fine. If the shinobi puts it together, we'll be far away from here… Will you just take the stupid fruit?"

Kakashi did – not because he agreed, but only because his stomach was nearly cramping with hunger. He hated the way Iruka smiled again, as if he won something.

"That was still a stupid risk," he muttered, after biting into the fruit and pulling his mask back up. "We could have found the way on our own. I am the ranking shinobi and you will run your plan by me next time."

"Maybe," Iruka answered. "But I knew I could do it… and I knew you'd be there if I got in trouble."

There was an odd quality to the other boy's voice – vague and far off, as if he was hardly aware he had spoken at all. Kakashi cut him a glance and roughly handed the fruit back. "Put up your hair," he told Iruka, roughly. "You look like a –" He stopped. "It's not appropriate for you to look like that."

Iruka put his free hand to his hair, as if he had forgotten completely. Then he reddened and quickly dug around for his hair-band.

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