Iruka hiked the mountain terrain as steadily and carefully as he could. He was heavily laden, carrying his knapsack and Shida's weapons on his front and side, and bearing Kakashi, who wore his own backpack and katana, on his back. Kakashi and he were nearly the same size, though the jounin was a couple of centimeters taller; with equipment and weapons, Iruka was carrying close to one and a half times his weight as he labored up the difficult path.

The terrain was rough and the path not well marked. This latter was deliberate, since the leaf shinobi who had made the trail some thirty-odd years ago or longer had wanted it to be discernible only to others of their kind, and it had been little-used of late. Still, the signs were there for one such as Iruka, who knew how to see.

"Look for flat stones with leaf sigils..." Kakashi had instructed as they entered the dense trees at the edge of the clearing. "Also residual chakra flags."

"I can't see chakra the way you can, Kashi," Iruka replied. "But I can pick out the trail, I think. I see one of the markers up there under the roots of that pine."

"Yeah..." Kakashi coughed wetly, and Iruka felt his body tense.

"Don't talk unless you see me wandering off the path, OK? I'll get us there."

Kakashi nodded his head against Iruka's neck in acknowledgment. He focused on keeping his weight as centered as possible, trying to minimize any sway that would off-balance Iruka or jar his own damaged body. The mayaku no senbon he'd had Iruka place continued to exert its strange effect. Its jutsu was subtle and complex, rerouting chakra away from the damaged pathways below it's major nexus of entry, and supplementing the jounin's depleted lifeforce with an alien and obviously false, but nonetheless necessary energy. Its greatest benefit, by far, was benumbing the pain of the 25 centimeter gash that opened his abdomen from navel to right hip above the groin.

The poison from Shida's blade, however, continued it's nefarious assault on Kakashi's nervous system. His vision was blurred almost to the point that he wanted to lift his hitai-ate and use his Sharingan despite the drain on chakra the red eye would demand. And while the previously incapacitating nausea and blinding headache had receded, new and more worrisome symptoms were manifesting. Kakashi's nerves and muscles thrummed with a quivering, subdued violence that threatened to erupt into twitching spasms. His hands, feet, lips and tongue were growing numb, and maintaining his grip was becoming an effort.

If only the damn numbness could extend to his pierced side, he thought, the entry point for the poison, but that wound burned like a fiery brand. Deep breaths were impossible - even his panting, shallow ones hurt - and despite the internal bleeding jutsu he and Iruka had woven together, Kakashi's stabbed left lung was soggy and inflamed, no longer doing its job of extracting oxygen from the air.

The continuous physical contact of carrying Kakashi on his back let Iruka feel keenly the chakra flares in his partner's body. Every jolt or sway caused a little flood of the strange mingled chakra - Kakashi's familiar energy mixed with the senbon's alien one - to burst forth briefly, letting Iruka know that while the jutsu might be masking the pain from the injured shinobi's conscious perception, it was still taking its toll on his body.

After an hour of steady progress, Iruka paused to wipe his sweating brow and take his bearings. That, and he wanted to see Kakashi's face, verify that he was holding up. That the bleeding had not resumed. That he was not suffering too much.

"I think we should rest a minute," he said, dropping to his knees. "Can you get down OK?"

"Yeah." Kakashi tried to get his feet under him, to ease off Iruka's back, but his legs refused to obey him, and instead of sliding into a controlled crouch, he lurched awkwardly backwards, falling with a grunted cry.

"Kashi!" Iruka spun around, "Are you OK?"

"Aunh," came Kakashi's inarticulate reply. He didn't even try to right himself from the twisted heap he had collapsed into, but lay tight-faced and shivering, trying to master the pain the fall had reawakened in his body.

Iruka dropped his pack and quickly gathered Kakashi into his arms, sitting behind him and carefully easing the jounin into what he hoped was a more comfortable position. He was dismayed to find his lover's exposed skin was ice cold, though his face was sheened with sweat. His complexion was ghastly, greenish white, making the bruised cheek and old scars stand out lividly; his lips were parted and bloodstained.

"How are you holding out? Is that... the senbon... is it still working?" Iruka looked searchingly into Kakashi's face, pushing sweaty silver locks off his too-cold forehead.

"I'm OK." Kakashi struggled to push himself upright against Iruka's chest, then leaned back into the warmth of his love's arms and shut his eye, letting his head fall back against the chuunin's shoulder. In another context it would have been a sweet embrace.

Iruka let him rest like that a moment, glad when he felt the shivering subside. He gently lifted the edge of the heavy uniform sweater and scanned Kakashi's body, relieved that the bloodstains on the bandages did not seem any larger.

"You know what we... called this path, Ruka?" Kakashi asked at length.

"Mmm?"

"The Trail of Pain."

"What? Why?"

"This was the retreat path... to the medics..." Kakashi broke off, coughing, arms hugged tightly against his side and belly.

"Hush, don't talk so much," Iruka scolded, wrapping his own arms around Kakashi's.

"That fucker, Akumaru, he knew it," the jounin continued, ignoring Iruka's admonishment. "Knew I was there... here... before... when they..." His words diminished almost to a whisper before he stopped, leaving his sentence unfinished.

Iruka was riveted by the choked tension in his friend's voice, a tension that had nothing to do with his physical injuries. The last battles in this area would have been when Kakashi was in his teens, already a jounin commander. Of course he had fought in the Cloud Wars, he realized, of course he had been here. But did he mean - was this the location of the infamous Mountain Pass Massacre? Had Kakashi been part of that horror?

Iruka pulled the silver-haired man closer, wanting to protect his beloved from his painful memories as much as from his current wounds. "Kashi... Ka-chan... are you... were you...?"

"Thirsty," Kakashi cut in gruffly. He was not going to think about the slaughter he had witnessed here 17 years ago. He would not let Shida sap his will to live from the grave like a soul-eating zombie.

"I, uh, ordinarily with a belly wound I'd say no water," Iruka said, "but I think maybe you should have some anyway, because of the bleeding." Iruka opened a canteen and took a drink himself before holding it in front of Kakashi.

The jounin looked up at his companion with a dull, hooded eye, then lifted an arm, reaching for the bottle. He felt it hit his palm, but when he tried to wrap his fingers around it, they clenched claw-like, his whole arm quivering with spasms, and the canteen dropped to the ground.

"Damn!" Kakashi's voice was thick sounding and slurred.

"Here, I'll help." Iruka retrieved the dropped canister, wiped it's neck and held it to the jounin's mouth, tipping a trickle of water between the parted lips.

Kakashi swallowed a mouthful, then pushed the bottle and Iruka's hand away. His head spun dizzily, and his pounding heart felt like it was shaking his whole frame. His body struggled to supply his cells with the oxygen and glucose they desperately needed, but his blood volume was depleted and his lung capacity halved. It was going to be a losing battle unless he did something.

"Iruka, in my med kit..." He stopped to rest, mid-sentence.

"What? What about your kit?" Iruka was alarmed.

"Kinketsueki - blood chakra pills." Kakashi's numb tongue blundered through the words.

"You have those? Thank heavens! Why didn't you say something sooner?" Iruka immediately began to rummage in Kakashi's knapsack, which was still on the jounin's shoulders. He pulled out a small zippered case and opened it, revealing bandages, packets, and a row of vials containing various pills and powders. "I didn't think anyone but medics had access to those."

"They don't, usually."

"And you do because..." Iruka stopped himself. "I shouldn't ask."

"Tell you later, 'K Ruru?" Kakashi's eye had closed again.

"Which ones? These?" Iruka held one of the bottles in front of Kakashi's face, but got no response. He shook the jounin. "Don't sleep, Kakashi. Stay awake! Which ones?"

Kakashi forced himself to focus, drawing on the senbon's strange energy, and willed his eye open, his head up. "Yeah, those." He reached for the vial, but again his hand clawed and shook.

"I'll do it." Iruka opened the bottle and shook the tablets into his hands. "There are three here. How many?"

"One now, one in a few hours," Kakashi answered, his words slurred.

"You need a lot of water with these, don't you?"

"Best to. I'll try."

Iruka slipped the pill into Kakashi's mouth, then brought the canteen to his lips.

It dissolved almost at once, the bitter metallic flavor of the tablet coating Kakashi's tongue and throat, and he had to struggle to keep from retching. He swallowed hard, gulping down as much water as he could tolerate.

When he sensed Kakashi had stopped drinking, Iruka pulled the bottle away. "How are you? Is it... Are you OK?"

"OK," Kakashi agreed. He lay back against Iruka's warm body again, his head pillowed on the chuunin's puffy vest.

The pill was another patch. It wouldn't replace the lost blood, but it would help what remained to function better. The water was necessary to try to make up for the volume depletion. Kakashi's insides burned as the substance migrated through his mucous membranes and stomach lining and into his bloodstream.

"More water?" Iruka held the canteen out again.

"Aaa." Kakashi reached out a shaking hand.

"Quit it! Just let me hold it. Don't waste your energy like that."

Kakashi grunted and dropped his hand into his lap. It continued to shake there, his fingers twitching.

"It's the poison that's doing that, isn't it?" Iruka asked quietly, when the jounin had finished drinking.

"Yeah."

"Do you know what it is? Do you have any idea? Any antidote?"

"Could be a lot of things," Kakashi answered slowly. 'None of them good,' he added to himself. He could tell it was a nerve agent of some sort - Iruka probably could too. One designed to torment its victim. But the nerve toxins he knew of all demanded different treatments, and it was still too soon to tell what this one was, beyond relatively slow acting. 'I've got a few good tricks in my med kit,' he thought, 'but nothing that will neutralize this sort of thing. No point in alarming Ruka, though. If I'm lucky, I didn't get enough of a dose to kill me.'

"You're sitting there thinking you don't want to tell me how bad this really is." Iruka's words stunned Kakashi.

"It's a torture agent, isn't it? And it's gonna get worse."

Kakashi didn't answer.

"Isn't it?" Iruka persisted. "Your not denying it is as good as a confirmation. This slow acting, it's gotta be designed for torture."

"Aaa. It's some kind of... slow nerve toxin. Yeah."

"That bastard. That fucking bastard!" Iruka's voice choked with rage. "I'm so sorry, Kashi..."

"It's OK. Not that bad." Kakashi reached a trembling hand up to his lover's face, brushing his tingling and unresponsive fingers along the chuunin's clenched jaw. "Shhh, Ruru. It's OK."

Iruka took a long, slow breath, his sigh ruffling Kakashi's hair. "I... I'm sorry. I just... He followed me! You're hurt because..."

"No, I'm not! Not your fault." Kakashi cut him off. He tried to think of some way to distract Iruka. "How much do you... know about torture agents?" He paused for air, coughing and wincing at the motion. "Ibiki teach you?"

"Ano - how did you know?" Iruka looked surprised. "Did he tell you?"

"Anyone wants to know... about torture poisons... Ibiki's the one to ask." Kakashi forced a small laugh, grimacing.

"Don't laugh, I can see it hurts you. Here, drink a little more." Iruka held the bottle to Kakashi's lips again, angling it so Kakashi could control the trickle of water as it flowed into his mouth, then continued, "I took a field medic course a few years ago. Ibiki-san covered the section on the effects of torture. He mentioned several toxins that could be used to..." Iruka paused, mouth going dry, "maximize suffering... before they kill..." He shuddered and his hand holding the canteen shook, sloshing water down Kakashi's chin.

"Sorry, I'm sorry..." Iruka wiped the spilled water from his lover's face.

'Great,' Kakashi groaned to himself, 'I was trying to get him to think of something other than death.'

"Gotta... keep going, Ruka," he tried another tactic, "You following the trail OK?"

Iruka looked up, forcing himself to focus on the present, on the task at hand. "Yeah, it ah... it looks like we head down into this valley, then back up the other side into that next stand of woods."

Both men regarded the rock-strewn, steep, grassy hillsides between the patch of forest they were leaving and the next one they were heading for. The previously warming sunlight was now obscured by mountain shadows, and a chill wind blew heavy moisture over the crests of the tallest peaks, sending ominous black clouds roiling over the edges like a rice pot left too long on the stove.

"On the other side," Kakashi said, voice still ragged and slightly slurred "the trail's a little easier. Less steep." He paused for breath, then continued, "The med station's sealed. You know Akehirogeru?"

"The open-hidden jutsu? Yeah. It's a little unusual, isn't it?"

"We're still not in... Fire Country's borders."

"Oh." That was sobering news.

"When you unseal it... should alert a healer-nin to come." Kakashi continued, wheezing. "You know the forms?"

"They're old, but yeah, I know them. Don't worry. I teach this stuff, remember?"

Yeah. Sorry."

"Healer-nin will have an antidote, right?"

"Yeah. It's gonna be alright." Kakashi grabbed Iruka's warm hand in his icy one and squeezed. "Think we can go on?"

"I uh, before we get back on the trail, I've gotta piss. You don't need to?" Iruka asked, scratching his nose and looking just slightly embarrassed.

"No. Too much blood-loss," Kakashi replied. "You go ahead. I'll watch." He tried to grin, but on his pallid face the lechery looked ghoulish.

"You really are unregenerate, you know?" Iruka kissed the top of Kakashi's head, before easing him to the ground and getting to his feet. "You, you better... just hang in there, OK?"

"Mm, I will."

ooo

Getting back onto Iruka's back to resume their journey was difficult. The kinketsueki pill was working its magic, making Kakashi's struggle for oxygen less acute, keeping his blood pressure from falling too low. But despite the medicines and jutsus, the jounin was weakening, and there was a certain amount of pain beyond the spells' reach. Kakashi made a masterful effort at hiding his distress from Iruka, though given how extreme his injuries were, it was a vain attempt. While they had rested, the poison had continued to erode his muscular control, so that holding himself upright in a squat was impossible. He braced himself against a tree, but Iruka had to do most of the work to lift the ailing jounin, and the painful wrench tore a curse from Kakashi's lips before he could stop it.

At first it seemed that it was just the change in positions that was hard on Kakashi, that once settled on Iruka's back, he was stable. But after another 45 minutes of travel, Iruka was really beginning to worry. The trail seemed unending, the sun was setting, and the air was chill and damp. Kakashi was now shivering frequently, and responding only in grunted monosyllables. Struggling up a steep and uneven slope in the gloomy forest shade, Iruka himself was beginning to tire. He put a foot wrong, stumbling slightly over an exposed tree root, and though he recovered his balance, the resulting lurch jerked the man on his back, who quickly stifled a moan, then coughed, choking and wet, and groaned again.

Iruka stopped, alarmed to feel a warm, wet trickle against the back of his neck.

"Kakashi, are you OK?"

"Unh... Keep... going."

He could feel it wear away, the precious support the jutsued senbon had lent. The tiny needle wasn't metal, but some substance that dissolved in the body as it was used. Its two hours were up, and the spell was almost gone. The poison was now making his larger muscles twitch and quiver uncontrollably, and moment by moment the pain in his side and abdomen was growing to engulf him. Kakashi bit his lip, letting his head loll against Iruka's neck. He just had to hang on a little longer, he told himself. He recognized the landscape, even in the dusk through hazy eyes. It couldn't be too much further.

What he didn't know - what neither of them did - was that the mayaku no senbon, while it indeed probably saved Kakashi's life, was also interfering with his body's clotting mechanism. The blocked and chaotic chakra engendered by the sword wound swirled above his solar plexus, entering his damaged lung and breaking away the fragile repairs the cells had begun to make. It couldn't completely undo the healing - the jutsu for internal bleeding Kakashi had learned from Rin and performed on himself using Iruka's raw chakra was too strong for that - but the edges of the healed areas were breaking down, beginning to bleed again, filling the spongy tissue of his lung with liquid crimson.

Iruka could hear the gurgle in Kakashi's breath, and felt him sag as the injured man drifted in and out of consciousness. When they had set out, Kakashi had said it was about ten kilometers to the medical refuge, but between the steep terrain, the physical effort of carrying his companion, and the strain of frantic worry the chuunin labored under, it seemed twice that distance. He was on the point of stopping and asking Kakashi if they were still on the right path, when a shimmering disturbance in the air caught his attention. The woods around them were fragrant with the oil of the cryptomeria trees towering over them, and a hazy mist filtered through their branches, but there was something else there.

"You said it was camoflaged, right?" Iruka asked.

Kakashi heard him as if from far away. He was cold. So cold. He leaned into the warmth radiating from his bearer's back, trying to wake up enough to make sense of Iruka's question.

"Is it genjutsu?" Iruka went on, "Should I try to break it?"

'Kai,' Kakashi thought, wanting to tell Iruka to use the illusion dispersing jutsu, but the word didn't make it to his mouth.

Even had he heard his instruction, Iruka couldn't form the seal without letting go of Kakashi's legs. He considered it, but didn't want to release his hold until he was sure the jounin was conscious. He peered into the gloom, desperately trying to see.

Kakashi pulled himself awake, remembering dimly another way to break the spell. He tried to take a deep breath, shuddered and coughed, blood rising thickly in his windpipe. He turned his head, summoned incredible will to lean away from Iruka, and let the hot, slimy liquid drip from his mouth onto the ground.

To Iruka's surprised eyes, the trees abruptly thinned, revealing a dark clearing with a decrepit-looking wooden structure at its center. Because they were in the penumbra of the Konoha field station, Kakashi's blood touching the soil had deactivated the illusion. An emergency measure left in place for situations just such as this - a Leaf-nin, too injured to break the illusion with chakra, need only bleed upon the ground to reveal the presence of the sanctuary.

End Chapter 9

ooo ooo ooo

Japanese words:

mayaku no senbon - narcotic or illegal drug senbon

Author's Note:

Another chapter full of pathos and suffering. I hope you will all leave me at least a quick review - I love to hear what you think.

Thanks to all who have reviewed so far. Your encouragement and feedback are priceless to me.

Extra special thanks to:

L-lamb and Hey-Diddle-Diddle for early reads and feedback.

Hey-Diddle-Diddle for the name of the mayaku no senbon.

Carcinya, HikaruxYuki, and RadicalEdward for late night encouragement and conversation.

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