Chapter 7
Iruka was wandering through a foggy forest, completely lost. It was cold, in the middle of night; and the absence of the moon put him on edge. He didn't want to be here - it wasn't safe. Suddenly he heard a branch snap behind him, and he became overwhelmed with fear, and too scared to turn around and see what was behind him. Without hesitation, he took off, running further into the forest, escaping from who knows what; and he saw a wooden cabin up ahead - one of the village safe houses. He ran in, his lungs hot and heart trying to push through his chest; and leaned against the door as he inhaled deeply, trying to catch his breath. He knew he was safe now - whatever was after him wouldn't find him here. It was a creature of the fog; and he was out of it now. Then suddenly he remembered. The scroll. Did he have the scroll?
Iruka felt around his body, searching for it, but he didn't have anything on him; no vest, no weapons, and definitely no scroll. He began to panic - why wasn't he in his proper uniform?!; and fumbled against the wall for the light switch. He flicked it on, but there was no light; and he turned it off then on again, still with the same results. Then suddenly the cabin became dimly lit with a flickering light, and he smelled something burning. He turned around, and came face to face with a grotesque man with mismatched features, darkened, sinister eyes, and a deep scar that marked an X across his face.
"Looking for this?" the man asked with a crooked grin, holding up a burning scroll.
Iruka's eyes grew wide with horror; and the man cackled manically, tossing it aside. It landed in a bush, no longer on fire; and Iruka looked at his surroundings in confusion. They weren't in the cabin anymore, but in the forest, now clear of fog. It was somewhere he recognised, somewhere near the village. But what were they doing there? Where did the cabin go?
"You know where we are. All you have to do is remember."
The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a strange paper bomb; and a malicious glint flashed across his eyes. Iruka tensed, ready to leap away, and instinctively tried to reach for a weapon; but he was frozen in place. No matter how much he tried, he just couldn't move, like he was bound in a complex trap; but there was nothing around keeping him in place. The man grinned knowingly, and threw the bomb right in front of him; and Iruka winced, expecting to feel the impact of the explosion, but none came.
Instead, a cloud of purple smoke oozed around him, smothering him with its toxic blanket. He tried to escape, but he still couldn't move as it swirled around, thickening with every second that passed; and the fumes slowly began to suffocate him, like the haze had a long, tendril hand wrapped around his throat. As he struggled to breathe, he saw the man watching in amusement, like the image was imprinted in his mind; and when he looked him in the eye, he mouthed one word.
Remember.
Iruka woke up in a sweat, suddenly sitting up in bed as he gasped for breath. His heart was pounding wildly, and his thoughts were erratic. Half of him still believed that he was trapped, and the other half was telling him otherwise, that it had just been a dream and that he was okay. But even though it had been a dream, or a nightmare of sorts, he felt like there was something real in it; like the message to remember was about something from the dream.
"Are you okay?" Kakashi asked in alarm, having been woken by his sudden activity.
Iruka nodded, still unable to talk as he caught his breath. Now, what was it he needed to remember…?
He thought back to all the elements of the story; and the three things that stood out the most was the scroll, the man, and the strange bomb - kind of like the dream was reflecting the mission he had gone on. Iruka froze. The one thing those aspects had in common was that sense of déjà vu; like they were familiar but out of reach, in the same way his missing memories were. Iruka straightened up as he figured out what he needed to remember; and he turned to Kakashi, who was studying him in concern.
"I need to see Tsunade-sama." he said. "I know something about my mission."