Walking Shadows

“Naruto,” Iruka repeated for the third time that night. “It’s time for bed.” He was on the edge of pleading, exhausted after a long day of field training under the hot sun. The day’s lesson had been on forest camouflage, so at least they’d been mostly shaded in. However, keeping track of twenty-seven kids was stress inducing in the best of times, let alone when they were actively trying to hide. At least he hadn’t lost any of them.

“But wait! Hang on, just one more episode!” Naruto protested from his position curled up on the futon in front of the TV. He was watching some sort of samurai fighting show that Iruka hadn’t been paying attention to, trying to work on his lesson plan for the next week.

“That’s what you said last episode,” Iruka pointed out. “Just because it’s not a school night, doesn’t mean you don’t have a bed time. It’s been a long week; you have to get some sleep.” It was already nearing midnight, almost two hours past what he usually would have allowed.

“But—!”

“No buts, go brush your teeth.”

Naruto whined, letting his body go limp and rolling himself onto the floor, glaring up at his teacher.

“Naruto,” Iruka warned.

The boy gave an exaggerated pout, probably to cover up the genuine anxiety Iruka suspected was bubbling to the surface. After a moment he turned onto his stomach and started crawling down the hall toward the bathroom.

“If I don’t hear brushing in five minutes, I’m coming after you,” Iruka called to the squirming child. Naruto’s only response was an unhappy grumble as he continued his crawl.

This struggle over bedtime was becoming an increasingly common part of Iruka’s life. After his first late night appearance, Naruto began showing up often at Iruka’s apartment, though never more than three or four times a week. Typically, he appeared in the middle of the night. So, Iruka had reconfigured his wards to send a signal through his electrical system to flip on his bedroom light when Naruto activated the door. In part he wanted to confirm for that paranoid fog in his brain that it was Naruto coming in, but he also wanted to make sure the blond was okay. He always seemed frightened when he showed up, though at least now he arrived with a backpack full of a change of clothes and his school things.

Iruka’s apartment was not especially large but what he could humbly call his living room was rapidly transforming into Naruto’s space. He had a few extra sets of clothes shoved into the drawer of the television stand and Iruka was—with increasing frequency—picking up random new additions to his stack of Naruto possessions.

If he was lucky, Iruka sometimes managed to wrangled Naruto into coming over for dinner, rather than having him turn up in the night. On those days, Iruka would offer to let him stay the night. He always looked relived to be allowed to stay but then came the trouble of actually getting him to go to bed. Naruto would do anything in his power to prolong the night. It was actually the easiest way to get him to do his homework. And it was suddenly very clear that Naruto fell asleep in class so often because he was seemingly trying his best to make himself nocturnal.

Iruka had tried everything he could think of to settle him into a nighttime routine but it was hard when he didn’t know what the source of the issue was and Naruto refused to talk about it. It didn’t seem like he wanted to stay up, he just seemed afraid of falling asleep. Iruka sometimes caught him starting to doze off, completely beat after a long day, before jerking himself awake, scrubbing at his eyes and anxiously glancing around the room, looking for something that apparently wasn’t there. Anytime the subject of why he wasn’t sleeping was broached, he immediately and abruptly changed the subject. Not a hint of subtlety. He very clearly did not want to talk about it.

It was a few stays before Iruka began noticing things that were… strange.

Naruto always wanted the lights kept on. Sure, it wasn’t unusual for kids to be scared of the dark but it seemed weird given Naruto’s apparent propensity to sleep outside in total darkness. Then there was his tendency to not stay in bed. Iruka often found himself sleeping lightly when Naruto was staying over, probably out of some combination of shinobi paranoia, general teacherly worry for letting kids out of sight, and specific worry about whatever was causing Naruto distress. When the chunin would surface from his sleep, he sent out a burst of chakra through the apartment to check on Naruto’s location.

He panicked the first time he didn’t find Naruto where he was supposed to be. His bedroom light hadn’t come back on, indicating that the door hadn’t been touched and Naruto should still be in the apartment, so where was he? Steadying himself, Iruka sent out another pulse of chakra and found that Naruto was laying in the hall, pressed against Iruka’s door. Gently as he could, Iruka eased his way into the hall and carried the boy back to his futon. Naruto did not stir but Iruka lingered, brushing a hand through Naruto’s hair, trying to impress upon him a sense of safety. Obviously, he wanted closeness, protection from whatever was driving him into sleeplessness. So, why was he refusing to talk about it? Naruto was usually extremely vocal with his complaints.

Sometime later he returned to bed. When he asked about it in the morning, Naruto pretended not to know what he was talking about. It wasn’t a onetime event. He always put Naruto back to bed when he caught him in the hall but he wondered on the night that he didn’t wake, if Naruto stayed on the futon. He never found Naruto sleeping out of bed in the morning.

Then there were the unsettling things. The things he could not explain at a more fundamental level. He’d once woken in the night to use the bathroom and as he crossed the hall, he was so certain that he’d seen someone moving into the living room, he’d drawn a kunai, but checking for chakra signatures, there was no one in the apartment but Naruto. A few weeks before, he would have been quick to dismiss the incident, but he was becoming increasingly aware of shadows that moved in the night. It was bizarre. The clear indication of movement when there should have been stillness. But then, he was also getting a lot less sleep than usual and he could feel it stretching his mind thin.

As he grew increasingly unnerved, he could see a shift in Naruto’s behavior as well. On the nights when he didn’t stay over, Iruka wondered if he slept at all. When he’d first started staying over, Naruto seemed more attentive and less prone to sleeping in class. Now it seemed he could hardly keep his eyes open.

Iruka was on the verge of taking him to the clinic to look into some sort of sleep disorder when things came dramatically to a head.

The frantic clattering of feet somewhere outside his bedroom, that’s the first thing Iruka was aware of. Instantly awake, he was sitting up by the time Naruto burst through the door, scrambling to Iruka's bedside.

"What's wrong?" Iruka asked the frightened child as he flipped on his bedroom light, flinching at the sudden brightness.

"They won't leave me alone!" the blond cried, more alarmed than Iruka had ever seen him. His hands were twisted into Iruka’s bedding, his face downturned and his eyes screwed tightly shut.

“They who? Did you have a nightmare?” Throwing his legs over the side of his bed, he pulled Naruto close, hoping to create some distance between him and whatever was haunting him.

As he moved there was the flicker of something… Out of the corner of his eye.

Something moving through the doorway.

When his eyes traced back over the place the movement had occurred, there was nothing. But it didn’t feel like nothing. It felt like a threat. His hair was standing on end and blood rushed in his ears as Naruto clung to him. There was something very very not right about the way the air hung in the room. It was suddenly stifling. Thick, suffocating, and still. He felt buried under ground.

“Not a nightmare,” Naruto sobbed, drawing Iruka’s attention away from the door. “They won’t let me sleep!”

“Shh,” the chunin soothed, running a hand up and down Naruto’s back. He tried to keep his voice steady, though his alarm had not abated. “You’re okay, I won’t let anyone hurt you. Just breathe, okay? Remember what we talked about in class about staying calm in emergencies? We take a few nice slow breaths and then we evaluate the problem. Can you do that for me? Take a slow breath,” Iruka instructed, only half aware of what he was saying. Fortunately, Naruto was hanging on his every word, his erratic lungfuls of air easing out as his hiccupping sobs gradually diminished into soft sniffling.

When it seemed he had calmed enough to take next steps, Iruka picked Naruto up—ignoring his lingering unease—and carried him into the bathroom, setting him on the rim of the bathtub and wetting a washcloth with warm water. Behind them the hall seemed filled with eyes, watching their movements, gaze heavy. He closed the door and turned his attention to Naruto.  

“Ready to tell me what’s going on?” Iruka asked, wiping the tears from Naruto’s face.

"They come out at night,” he groaned, rubbing at his tired face. “They used to stay away when I was here but they keep coming back."

Iruka’s hand stilled. “What are they?”

“Ghosts,” Naruto shuddered. “I don’t know why they’re so mad at me. I didn’t do anything!”

Ghosts. That was… Iruka was not an active believer in ghosts. If ghosts were real, surely the village would be saturated with them. There would be some indication of their existence, there would be a detailed plan of how to deal with them on missions. There would be evidence. But then, there were rumors. Sightings of lost loved ones. Strange, unexplained encounters. With Naruto’s history, was it so unbelievable that angry spirits might attach to him? Maybe not.

In any event, ghosts or not, Iruka was feeling the same strange energy as Naruto and something obviously was very wrong. “Do they not come after you if you sleep outside?” he asked, trying to make sense of his new information.

“They do if I find a spot that’s too nice or if I use the same one for too long.”

“Too nice?”

“Like places easy to relax.”

Which was why he was actively seeking out unsafe places to sleep. Iruka’s heart clenched. “How long has this been happening?”

Naruto shrugged. “Always, I guess. They kicked me out of the orphanage early because no one wanted to share a room with me.”

“Have they ever hurt you?”

“No, but they touch me sometimes.” He shuddered. “You believe me, right?”

His looked so desperate… agonized it was almost painful to maintain eye contact. “Of course,” Iruka assured, “Would it help if you slept in my room?”

“But I don’t want you to kick me out too,” Naruto whispered, hands twisted anxiously at the bottom of his shirt.

“Naruto,” Iruka grasped Naruto’s hands, giving them a small squeeze. “I swear I’m not going to kick you out. Do you want to move the futon into my room?”

The boy gave a stilted nod, his eyes squeezed shut against another tide of tears.

“Okay,” Iruka breathed, wiping away the new tears. “Let’s go.” He stood, holding out his hand to the pre-genin. After a moment’s hesitation, Naruto took the offered hand and they moved together into the living room. The creeping shadows seemed to have calmed down a bit, though the tension of a threat had not faded.

Iruka grabbed futon by the frame, Naruto grabbed the bedding and in no time at all they had maneuvered the bed into Iruka’s bedroom.

“Do you think you’ll be able to sleep?” Iruka ask when Naruto had settled.

The jinchuriki shrugged, shoving his face into his pillow. “If I try to sleep they’ll just come back.”

“If they come back, I’ll be right here, okay? Wake me up if you need me.”

Naruto gave a nod into his pillow, looking more like he was bracing for impact than trying to fall asleep.

The chunin could understand the feeling. Leaving the light on, he closed his eyes pleading directionlessly that Naruto was wrong and that he would sleep soundly the rest of the night. But there was still something off about the atmosphere in the room. A threatening edge. And a nearly tangible dread, so strong and irrational that it seemed to be coming from somewhere external. But it was harder to place what was real and what was imagined as Iruka started to skim the surface of sleep, time and experience distorting strangely around him. Gradually, he became aware of something more real than his mind could summon.

A foreign sound. Across the room.

Flowing oscillations, heavy breathing choaked by a guttural drag. A death rattle.

His first thought was of Naruto. Blindly panicked, Iruka was at his side before he could even register moving. The blond had buried himself in blankets, despite the heat of the apartment, pillow jammed over his head. He pulled Naruto from the mattress and up onto the bed, folding him in close to his chest as he searched for the origin of the sound. But it was not coming from the boy, Naruto’s breathing was elevated but stable. Normal. Iruka couldn’t quite feel the relief that should have come because that didn’t make sense, Naruto was the only other person in the room.

His eyes swept across the floor and over the walls, desperate to find something. Anything to latch to. There was nothing, just the steady flat lighting of his bedroom.

Giving up on his sense of sight, and concentrating on the sound, he closed his eyes. Trying to feel out the distance of the noise. His attention fixed on the far left corner of the room. That had to be the source but, that was impossible, there was nothing to see. No distortion, no shadow. Nothing. He sent a wave of chakra toward the sound and again nothing.

Peeling his eyes away from the corner of the room, he glanced down at Naruto who had his hands pressed firmly over his ears. Iruka longed to do the same. Instead, he pulled a kunai from below his pillow and launched it toward the sound. It landed with a dull thunk, meeting no resistance save the solid matter of the wall. The breathing did not falter, croaking and irregular.

It was not an unfamiliar sound.

Iruka had not had nearly the amount of mission experience as others within the village but he’d seen more than his fare share of death. Hearing the rough gurgling of a death rattle was always viscerally unsettling but had never caused him such a high level of blind panic. The sensation more akin to a poison symptom he’d once experienced as a genin. Impending doom. A panic so profound it netted around his muscles, burrowed into his bones. Relentless. He was paralyzed.

He wasn’t sure how long he sat there—holding Naruto like the breathing thing in the corner would reach out and take him away—before it moved.

It started with a small stutter in the sound and then it was not as distant as it had been a moment before. There were no footsteps, no visual indication of a presence nearing them, just an elevating of sound as it narrowed the space between itself and the bed. Naruto gave a strangled scream against his chest as the thing seem to loom over them. Heavy puffs of too hot air wafted down over Iruka’s upturned face. If it had a body, he imagined it’s face would be inches from his own. He almost wanted to close his eyes. Pretend the thing was physical. Then this might at least make sense.

After what must have been at least two eternities, Iruka felt something touch his arm, a hand around his left wrist. It was wet—or maybe it was just cold—the texture was ragged like half denigrating paper and gave way with less resistance than living flesh should have, tearing open to ooze over Iruka’s arm. He wanted to gag as the unseen fluid leaked over his skin. He wanted to scream. But his body was far away and he couldn’t seem to move. He had to move

Naruto let out a sound shrill enough to jar him from whatever paralytic trance he’d been trapped in. He flung himself forward, feeling nothing as he passed through the place where something should be, and lifting Naruto with him. He fled from the room as quickly as he could manage but his legs refused to run, his movements resisting control like he was wading through a mud choaked river and not rushing into his own living room.

The breathing grew distant behind them but the surrounding shadows rippled unnaturally. A thin film of awareness brushed Iruka’s body like a dozen invisible spider webs. When another hand skimmed Iruka’s back he hoisted Naruto a little higher in his arms and preformed a Body Flicker.

One extremely disorienting moment later, he was almost startled to see he’d brought them to his academy classroom. He pulled his hand away from the light switch, apparently having already turned the lights on.

He felt wild and unsteady. Adrenaline rapidly abating and gasping like he’d been holding his breath. The touch of that disembodied hand lingered like a slimy residue. He wanted to peel it from his body. Scrape off the top layer of skin. He staggered against the wall, allowing Naruto to slide from his arms into a standing position.

“Iruka-sensei?” Naruto asked softly.

“Yes,” Iruka asked through a shuttering breath. Before him, Naruto was blurring strangely. He brought a hand to his own cheek and was distantly surprised to find that he was crying.

“Are you going to kick me out now?”

For a moment Iruka couldn’t speak, something dark and caustic bubbled up in his chest, constricting his throat.

“It’s okay.” Naruto forced a smile, rubbing at his glassy eyes before the tears could fall. “I know how it is.”

Iruka knelt so fast it felt more like he’d collapsed. His knees hit the ground hard enough to jar his entire body but he didn’t feel it. He wrapped his arms around the child in front of him, pulling him into what must have been a bone crushing hug. “I’m so sorry, Naruto,” he wheezed, tucking his chin over Naruto’s shoulder.

“It’s okay! I already said it’s okay,” Naruto whimpered, hands digging into Iruka’s shirt. “I don’t have to stay over anymore. I’m sorry. I—”

Iruka pulled back. “That’s not what I— Naruto look at me.” He sniffed, scrubbing a hand over his eyes and waited for Naruto’s gaze to meet his own. “I’m not kicking you out. I don’t want you going back to your apartment and I don’t want you sleeping outside. I said you’re stuck with me, didn’t I? I’m not going anywhere,” he said with a wet laugh, wiping Naruto’s tears away with his thumbs.

“Really?”

“Really. I swear it on my Will of Fire.”

“But then why are you sorry?” Naruto managed in half a wail, rubbing his face.

“Because that was so scary,” Iruka’s voice cracked, too saturated with emotion. “You must have been so scared by yourself. You’re so brave, Naruto. I’m so sorry you have to go through this. And I’m so proud of you for reaching out for help. I’m going to do everything I can to make this better, okay?”

Naruto flung his hands around his neck and hugged him almost hard enough to choak. His body shook in loud sobs.

He cried for a very long time.

Iruka leaned back against the wall, Naruto’s head lying in his lap, the boy clinging to the fabric of his pant leg. He gently brushed Naruto’s hair, as he cried himself to sleep.

Awake long after the blond had dropped off, Iruka worried for a return of the apparent ghosts. But besides a few shadowy flickers that may just have been figments of his imagination, they did not appear.

He was startled awake by a tap on his chest. His eyes flew open to find Mizuki looming over him.

“What’s going on here?” Mizuki raised an eyebrow. “You look awful.”

“Long night.” Iruka rubbed a hand over his face. His eyelashes were still sticky with salt. “What time is it?”

“Not early. You’re lucky it’s not a school day.”

“Mm.”

“And that I was here to wake you up before someone else wandered by.”

“Yeah, I owe you one.” Iruka snorted.

Mizuki leaned back on his heals, scrutinizing him. “You’ve really decided to look after him, huh?” He nodded to the sleeping Naruto. “Aren’t you worried?”

“About what?”

Mizuki made an incredulous face. “About what the village will think! If they see him hanging around you like this. The parents might get upset, start pulling their kids from your class, you’ve seen how much they hate him. The teachers have already noticed how much he clings to you, it’s only a matter of time before everyone else catches on. You’ve only been teaching a few years, it’s not like you have a big reputation that would force them to keep you.”

“I’m not going to abandon him because everyone else can’t see sense. He’s just a kid, he needs someone to look out for him.”

“He’s more than just a kid,” Mizuki warned.

“No, shut up, he is just a kid. He’s an orphan just like you were, just like I was. And if you don’t—"

Mizuki cut him off. “Alright, alright! Don’t bite my head off. I’m just trying to look out for you, Iruka, I don’t want you tossed out onto the streets or anything. If you get kicked out of the academy, you’ll have to start taking serious missions again and we both know how well that went down.”

Iruka slumped back against the desk, arms crossed. “That’s not going to happen.”

“Yeah? Why’s that? The Hokage can’t protect you if the whole village turns on you.”

“I don’t need the Hokage’s protection. It’s not going to happen because I won’t let it.”

“Yeah, well, unfortunately the universe doesn’t bend to your will,” the white-haired man grumbled. “Anyway, you never really answered my question. What are you doing here sleeping on the floor?”

“Don’t worry about it I—” he paused. "Hey, Mizuki, do you believe in ghosts?"

"Ghosts?"

"Yeah,” Iruka shrugged, “have you ever run into a ghost on a mission?"

"Are you serious?” he laughed, “Did a ghost chase you here last night? Maybe you should go back to taking missions. I think becoming a teacher’s made you soft.”

Iruka rolled his eyes. “I take it that’s a no then?”

“No, but I've heard about people being haunted by the number of innocents they’ve killed,” he said in a mockingly hushed voice, leaning a little too far into Iruka’s personal space.

Iruka leaned away as casually as he could. "Do you really think that happens?"

"Maybe. Why not ask? I bet someone like Friend Killer Kakashi could fill you in on what it’s like to creep around with ghosts."

“Shut up.” Iruka gave him a playful shove. “You’re no help at all.”

“Hey, I gave you a lead, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Iruka huffed. “Well, I’m sure you’re here so early for a reason and I should get home.”

“Think about what I said, Iruka,” Mizuki shook his head as he stood to go. “I don’t want to see you hurt.”

“I’ll be fine.”

Mizuki gave him one last doubtful look before leaving the room.

Iruka tipped his head back against the wall before gathering Naruto in his arms and performing a Body Flicker to bring them home. Naruto hardly stirred as Iruka laid him down on the futon, he was clearly exhausted.

Walking to the window, Iruka pulled open the curtain to stare down at the waking village, wondering what he should do. Going to the Hokage would incite the most immediate action, he was sure that malicious apparitions appearing around the Konoha jinchuriki would be of pretty high interest. But he also knew that the easiest path to figuring out Naruto’s problem was a session with the intelligence folks in Torture and Intelligence and they didn’t hold back when dealing with children.

It would be helpful if he knew someone who’d dealt with something like this so they could eliminate the information gathering faze.

Naruto slept until around noon, groggy and subdued. Iruka plonked him down in front of the TV, into a nest of blankets and pillows as he pretended to grade papers, head too foggy from worry and lack of sleep to actually concentrate.

“Is it always as bad as it was last night?” Iruka asked when Naruto got bored of watching TV and started trying to distract him from his ‘work’.

Naruto shook his head. “It’s never been that bad. Usually, they just sort of hover around and make it hard to sleep. I think they were mad at you.”

“I wonder why,” Iruka hummed.

“Probably because you tried to protect me.”

“Do you think they would be less angry if you were staying by yourself?’

“But you said I could stay here!” Naruto protested, face scrunching anxiously.

“Of course, you can stay here,” Iruka soothed, “I’m just trying to figure out how this works so we can try to make it stop. When do you notice it getting bad?”

“I think… they want me to feel not safe. So, if I stay in a safe place, it gets worse. And it’s always bad around my birthday no matter what. Does that help?”

“Yes, that helps. Thank you.” There’s no way it couldn’t be related to the Kyuubi attack. Then were the spirits of its victims really haunting the Jinchuriiki? Iruka didn’t want to believe that was true. That people like his parents would inflict such pain onto an already suffering child, but then the living villagers felt free to do the same.

Ay, what to do, what to do?

Iruka glanced out the window to the afternoon light with a sigh. “Well, we’ll put this on pause for now. I need to get groceries for dinner, do you want to come with me?”

“Iruka-nii,” Naruto whined, “Can’t we go to Ickiraku, I’ve been through an ordeal!”

Iruka startled at the change in honorific but could not suppress a smile, not that he would let Naruto’s attempt at manipulation succeed. “No, you’re a growing boy, you need a nutritious dinner!” And he didn’t think he’d be able to handle that level of socialization at the moment.

Naruto gave another long groan.

“Do you want to come or not?”

“Fine!”

There was a gentle bustle about the market. Fortunately, they hadn’t come a busy time, but Iruka was stopped every so often by a parent or friend. He kept the conversation short, half his mind on other things as Naruto weaved in and out of his orbit. He ran ahead and every so often looked back, checking to be sure Iruka was still around. It was as endearing as it was sad.

When his shopping was finished, the teacher was about to call Naruto back to his side when his attention was drawn to a loud voice across the street. Maito Gai appeared to be trying to goad his ‘eternal rival’ into some sort of challenge. Kakashi (said eternal rival) had his face buried in one of those terrible Icha-Icha books, seemingly unperturbed by Gai’s shouting. The surrounding villagers were giving the two of them a wide birth, whether this was from experience of getting in between one of their epic challenges or due to Kakashi’s alarming reputation was anyone’s guess.

Iruka wasn't aware his feet were moving until he was standing before them. "Kakashi-san. Could I have a word?" he asked in what was surely a moment of sleep deprived madness. His words cut through whatever Gai had been saying, probably quite rudely. The two jounin stared at him for a moment before Kakashi gave him a close eyed smile, lowering his book.

"Ah, tough luck, Gai,” he turned to his jumpsuit wearing companion. “It appears I'm needed elsewhere. We'll have to have our rematch some other time."

"Very well, rival!” Gai all but shouted, “Please do all you can for Iruka-sensei, he is one of our most hip and youthful teachers!"

“Uh, thanks?” Iruka managed.

Kakashi made a shooing motion at Gai as he turned, ushering Iruka down the street, one hand at his back. "That’s twice you've saved me from an awkward situation, sensei,” he mused as they left Gai behind. “What can I do for you?"

"Ah well," Iruka rubbed at his scar, suddenly realizing the awkwardness of what he wanted to ask. "Maybe we should go somewhere else, it's a bit-" He was interrupted by a loud crash. He spun to see Naruto sprinting toward him. The blond grabbed him by the edge of his vest, rotating so that Iruka was suddenly between him and whatever he was running from.

"Naruto, what-?" He set his shopping bags on the ground, hands rising to check for injury. That was all he could manage before a man came storming over. He was a jounin Iruka recognized from the mission room but did not know by name.

"Get back here you brat!" He reached out an arm, intending to drag Naruto out from behind Iruka when the chunin stopped him, navigating Naruto out of his range.

"What's the problem?" Iruka demanded.

"The problem is that thing was wandering around the shops." The jounin jabbed a finger at Naruto.

"That thing is a seven-year-old child and his name is Naruto,” Iruka spat. “And it’s not a crime for kids to wander around the shops. So, if that's all, then we’ll be on our way."

The man grabbed him by the front of his shirt, preventing him from moving away.

"If you’re with him, then you better pay for the damages," his voice lowered menacingly.

"The damages?" Iruka asked with deadly calm, placing a hand on the jounin's wrist, blood rushing in his ears.

"Three broken pots."

"I didn't break anything!” Naruto shouted, pulling at Iruka’s vest. “That old man threw them at me! You've gotta believe me!"

The jounin's hold tightened, pulling Iruka’s collar uncomfortably tight. The school teacher looked from Naruto, who was staring pleadingly up at him to the angry jounin. Mind made up, he sent an icy bolt of chakra through the jounin's arm. With his other hand, he yanked the man forward, headbutting him in the nose before turning to scoop up Naruto and dashing away. He didn't stop until he'd reached the river bank several blocks up the road.

He set Naruto down on the sidewalk. The blond was staring up at him in awe.

"Are you alright?" Iruka asked as he caught his breath.

Naruto ignored the question. "That was so cool!"

Iruka rubbed at his scar. "Uh, well you shouldn't use violence to settle disputes but, in this case, I didn't think talking was going to get us anywhere."

"Does this mean we can go to Ichiraku for dinner?"

"Eh?"

"You forgot the groceries." Naruto pointed out with a grin.

Iruka slammed a hand to his forehead. He'd also entirely forgotten about Kakashi… Losing his cool in front of a superior, how embarrassing.

"Don't worried, I've got you covered." Kakashi appeared beside them, shopping bags in hand. "Remind me not to get on your bad side, sensei, I think you broke his nose."

"Ah, well,” Iruka shrugged, accepting the bags. “I can’t say I’m sorry."

"Eh? Who's this guy?" Naruto asked suspiciously.

"No one," Kakashi waved him off lazily, "Iruka-sensei and I just need to have a little chat."

"Naruto, why don't you go play by the water for a bit," Iruka suggested.

"Are you gonna beat him up too?” Naruto grinned. “Cause, if you are, I wanna watch!"

"No, you brat! Go!"

Naruto just laughed as he ran off toward the docks.

"You're very good with him." Kakashi observed.

Iruka considered him for a moment. Kakashi had been a student of the Fourth Hokage, perhaps in another world he and Naruto might have been like siblings. Kakashi seemed at least neutral toward Naruto, which was more than he could say for everyone else. "He's a good kid, he just needs attention."

"Then I'm glad he’s in your care. What did you want to talk with me about?"

"Well, I’m not sure how to say this without sounding crazy, so I might as well just say it." Iruka took a deep breath. "Have you ever- Do you believe in ghosts?"

"Ghosts?" Kakashi asked, clearly whatever he’d expected hadn’t been this.

"Do you think a person can be haunted?" Iruka tried again. He wished he hadn’t, that somehow sounded worse.

"Are you seeing ghosts, sensei?"

"Answer the question, please."

"I've heard rumors of shinobi who have gone mad claiming to be haunted. And I've heard people say that ghosts follow me around. Is that why you're asking me?"

"Your name was brought up when I was being laughed at by a friend," he confessed with an awkward shrug. "You also have one of the most extensive mission records in the village, so I figured you might have seen something strange either way."

"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint but I've never seen a ghost. I think guilt is a very powerful thing and for some it becomes too much. I suppose you could call that a haunting but I don't think that's what you're talking about."

Iruka gave a heavy sigh. "No, it's not."

"Just out of curiosity, what are you talking about?"

He gave Kakashi a long look. "Naruto has been staying with me recently and some very strange things have been happening."

"Strange how?"

"Strange enough that I decided to accost a jounin I barely know to ask him about ghosts, like a lunatic," He huffed. "He says it only happens when he starts to feel safe. Mostly at night when he's trying to sleep. It’s like there’s someone else in the room but there’s no one there and a lot of moving shadows. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s terrifying."

"Have they ever hurt anyone?"

"No, they just seem to terrorize him. Keep him from sleeping. He never wants to go to bed."

Kakashi tilted his head. "I haven't heard of anything like that. It would be helpful if I could see it myself. I might be able to pick something up with my Sharingan"

"You believe me?"

"Clearly something is happening if you're willing to approach me about this."

"Ah.” Iruka grimaced. “I’m sorry again!"

"Don't worry about it. How do you suppose we do this?"

"Well, if they do only come out when he feels safe, I don't know how comfortable he'd be with you hovering around us all night. You can come over for dinner and I’ll add you to my wards temporarily. Then after you leave, we can have a normal night and I'll keep my curtains open when we go to bed. I'll signal when something weird happens. I mean, if you don’t mind spending a sleepless night hanging around outside my window."

“I can think of worse ways to spend my time.” Kakashi smiled. “When do you want to do this?”

“Do you have time tonight? I don’t mean to rush this— Or, I guess maybe I do because it’s extremely unpleasant. So, as soon as possible would be best.”

"Your wish is my command, sensei."

"Excellent. Thank you, I mean it. And if you could not mention this to anyone, I want to keep Naruto away from an interrogation from T&I."

"No problem."

“Alright, let’s go get Naruto then.”

As they walked down the slope to the docks where there was more shouting and splashing than Iruka would have hoped for. As they neared, Naruto was sitting up to his neck in the shallow murky water, looking more like he’d fallen than sat down intentionally. Sasuke stood a few feet away, the water only up to his knees, glaring down at the blond.

“Of course you can’t catch anything, moron, you scare all the fish away with your flailing,” Sasuke scoffed before flinging something silvery at the blond. The object bounced with a slap off of Naruto’s head and plopped into the water.

“Why you—!” Naruto got to his feet, more than ready to tackle the Uchiha into the water.

“Naruto!” Iruka called, “What are you doing?”

“Iruka-nii! Sasuke threw a fish at me!” He jabbed a finger at the other boy.

“I saw,” Iruka sighed. “Sasuke, don’t throw things at people.”

“Hn.” Sasuke crossed his arms, still glaring at Naruto.

Iruka shook his head, kneeling down at the edge of the water. “Naruto, I’m going to head back home. Are you coming too or do you want to stay out here a while longer?”

“Why would I want to stay out here with this jerk?” Naruto grumbled as he pulled himself from the water and onto the dock. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Hang on. Sasuke, do you want to come over for dinner?” It didn’t sit right to just leave Sasuke to whatever he’d been doing without at least offering to let him come as well. He knew how it felt to watch other kids get called home by their guardians,

Sasuke was startled by the question but quickly his expression closed off. “No. I have food at home.”

“It wouldn’t be any trouble. Kakashi-san is staying for dinner as well.” He waved a hand to the Jounin standing further on up the hill.

“Eh?!” Naruto exclaimed, “Why is he coming over?"

Iruka placed a hand on his head but did not answer his question, waiting for Sasuke’s response.

“No… I’m fine.” Sasuke repeated.

“You’re sure I can’t convince you?”

“I’m sure.”

“Well, alright… Don’t stay out too late, okay?”

“Hn.” Sasuke nodded, glaring down into the water.