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Iruka’s heart hammered in his chest. He was insane to even try this. There was no way he was going to make it past his ANBU guard, let alone past all the guards on the gate. That didn’t stop him from trying.

Kurenai smiled at him as he dropped off Manami for the day. They chatted briefly about the repairs to the Hatake compound. He told her about the old furniture he’d found and his plan to work on refinishing some of it today. He kept a small smile on his face as he walked towards the compound. His hands were buried in his pockets, fingers curled around the smoke bombs concealed there. He waited until he reached the busiest part of the market before letting the balls scatter.

Smoke filled the street. People shouted. They started shoving. He could sense the ANBU that had been trailing him closing in. His fingers flashed through seals and he dodged quickly to the side. The smoke from two simultaneous transformations was lost in the covering smoke. He watched from the side of a nearby building as the two ANBU snatched his clone from the chaos. The clone would go to the Hatake compound in his place and work on furniture for a few hours before disappearing at sundown. He’d hopefully be long gone by then, assuming the second part of his plan went as well as the first.

He hated dumping Manami on Kurenai but he had to find out what was going on.

Iruka waited until the smoke had cleared before stepping back into the crowd, this time heading in the opposite direction. People ignored Iruka as he passed. He’d transformed to look like a nondescript chuunin. The guards at the gate gave him a cursory glance but didn’t try to stop him.

It was almost too easy.

He waited until he was a good mile beyond the village before dropping his disguise. He ran as fast as he could, jumping from branch to branch at a breakneck pace. The latest rumors had mentioned the ghost being spotted a day’s travel to the north. He had provisions stored in a scroll to last him a week and enough money hidden on his person for another two weeks beyond that.

None of it would be necessary.

He realized he was being followed seconds before the tree he’d just jumped from exploded. Iruka kicked off from the next tree, changing his route seconds before that branch exploded as well. He twisted midair and flung a spray of senbon towards the vague location he sensed his attacker. The senbon clattered to the forest floor as they hit something metallic. Someone laughed. Their voice was deep, like the booming of a landslide.

“Umino Iruka.”

He dropped to the ground in a fighting stance and spun a full circle. The woods seemed empty. “Show yourself, coward.”

Another laugh. Iruka spun to his right. The ground shook as a giant hulk of a man stepped out from the trees. He wore metal patchwork armor, barely more than a scattering of small metal plates sewn over strategic points in his clothing. “You were Hatake Kakashi’s lover?”

Iruka nodded slowly. He reached for a kunai.

“I wonder how tough his lover is. Him? Not so tough.”

Fear prickled along Iruka’s spine. He wanted to run but he knew it wouldn’t do any good. It would only delay the inevitable, and tire him out in the process. “You killed him.”

The man smiled. “Was easy. Like I said, not so tough.”

Iruka’s vision went red. He screamed, a wordless, inarticulate scream of pure rage. Leaves shook on the trees. He could feel his chakra welling up like a geyser erupting. His skin itched from the raw power pooling beneath his skin. His fingers moved on their own. The man laughed as he batted aside a kunai aimed for his head, then stopped laughing as the second kunai exploded against his arm. All trace of humor disappeared from the man’s face as he narrowly dodged a barrage of a dozen spear-like branches that filled the spot he’d been standing in like a wooden pincushion. The man roared as he tore up a branch and swung at Iruka’s chest.

He didn’t even try to dodge. Iruka wrapped his arms around the branch and slid with the impact. His chakra flowed through the branch and it shattered, splinters burying themselves in the enemy nin. The man howled. Iruka leapt out of the way of a wild swing. He ran partway up a tree, turned, and bellowed, sending a plume of fire at his foe. The man slammed his fists together, creating a torrent of wind that blew the fire back towards Iruka.

He spun and dodged a circle around the man, evading the majority of his attacks. Iruka’s chest was numb. He spit out blood. The rage-fueled energy inside of him was rapidly being used up. He could feel his reserves draining. As soon as the circle was complete, he jumped clear. A deafening explosion rocked the forest, loud enough that anyone in Konoha would hear. He didn’t stop. He hit the ground and dropped, slamming his palms against the dirt. Two slabs of rock rose up and leveled the area. Dust filled the air. Iruka stayed frozen in place, waiting. His vision swam but he forced himself to stay awake.

The rubble moved. A few pebbles scattered and then larger chunks of rock were thrown off as the man stood. He was dirty, singed, bruised, and bloody. He was also quite pissed off. He glared at Iruka with a look of pure murder.

Iruka was going to die.

He swayed as he tried to stand, stumbled, and fell back to his knees.

Wind blew across Iruka as two masked ANBU landed in between Iruka and his attacker. The man took a step forward and then stopped. A strange look crossed his face. The man looked down. Iruka followed his gaze. There was a glowing hole in the center of the man’s chest. The smell of burnt flesh filled the air. The man toppled, revealing a thinner man with spikey white hair standing behind him on top of the rubble.

Kakashi waved. “Yo.”

Iruka pushed off of the ground. He brushed off the ANBU’s hands as they tried to steady him and marched past them. He stepped over the enemy nin’s corpse and punched Kakashi square in the jaw. His fist connected with solid flesh. Kakashi looked surprised.

Then, Iruka passed out.

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