Chapter Text
The memorial stone was a place where nobody truly wanted to remember. To remember their comrades falling before their eyes, the failed missions, the horrors of the shinobi world. Iruka didn’t want to remember that night– the Kyuubi attack– yet he went anyways, tracing the tips of his fingers along the grooves of his parents’ names. Though relatively fresh, the stone was already worn in places, most noticeably on two names: those of the fourth Hokage and his wife. Iruka pushed down a wave of bitterness. How could even the Hokage not stop a threat to the village? How could anyone let this happen? Tears welling up in his eyes, Iruka turned to walk away. Of course he wasn’t too old to miss his parents. But his newly-appointed genin status had instilled some sort of macho pride within him and practically every other boy his age. He sniffled as he sat on a bench partially obscured by bushes, hand stifling his sobs.
As his tears began to subside, he looked up to see another boy sitting at the memorial stone. Rigidly he sat, face covered by a mask and his visible expression stoic. Iruka felt a pang of jealousy poking at his chest. The boy couldn’t have been more than a few years older than him, yet Iruka felt like an academy first-year compared to the stolid figure. His back was so straight Iruka was afraid he was actually a scarecrow, keeping pests away from the memorial. Iruka rose to leave, bushes rustling as he clumsily stood. The other boy turned, eyes widened ever-so-slightly, at Iruka’s presence, and before Iruka himself could leave, disappeared.
Iruka continued to visit his parents whenever he could. Mostly alone, sometimes with friends, the third Hokage, or with a fresh bouquet of flowers. He would see that mysterious boy, lurking around. But the second he noticed Iruka, he would vanish. Iruka wondered about him from time to time. Who was he visiting? Was he disappearing to cry just as Iruka did? Was he a shinobi? He seemed like a shinobi. But he was so young. Was Iruka even a shinobi? He tried to not think so hard.