It was the middle of the night when Iruka was coming home from somewhere. It might have been a bit unusual for him to be out and about in such hour, but it seemed he had a lot to take care of, making him come back this late. In this moment he was walking through some alleyway when suddenly four men cornered him.

"Oh, what do we have here?"

"What's a pretty boy like you doing so late? You don't seem the type to be wondering around at such hour."

"Did you get lost or something?"

"We can show you the way, but in return you'll have to do something for us"

The four men started to pester the poor brunette.

"Thank you for your offer, but I'm fine. I can get back on my own." Iruka tried to be polite giving the men an awkward smile and not seem threatened even though he did feel quite uncomfortable about the situation.

However, his refusal just managed to make the men angry. "Hey! Has no one told you that it's not polite to turn down an offer?!"

"You'll going to pay for being so insolent!"

All of the men grab Iruka and start pushing him around between them while trying to rip off the brown haired males clothing and touching him weirdly in unpleasant way as he is struggling to fight back. That's when suddenly all of the men are flinged backwards on the ground as a taller male with a mask and white hair glares at them.

"Hey, what the hell!"

"Who are you?! How dare you do that!"

The men crew start to get angry at the newcomer who interrupted them so rudely. However, before they could do anything about it, the white haired male was already behind one of them pressing a kunai knife at his throat while continuing to give off an evil glare. Seeing this, the other guys just stopped in their tracks as they started to sweat from fear soon after running away like cowards.

Kakashi realizes that he should probably go after them and not let them escape this easily, however, he notices that Iruka seems to be really shaken so, he let's go of the man he was still holding in place with his knife and let's him run away thinking that he'll just take care of them later.

In the corner of the alleyway, Iruka is shivering immensely and crying as Kakashi tries to carefully approach him.

"Hey, it's okay now. These men can't hurt you anymore. I took care of them. You don't need to worry about that anymore."

However, as the white haired male is getting closer, Iruka snaps back at him as his eyes are still clouded with fear.

"Stay away from me! Don't get any closer!"

"Iruka, everything is okay now. Don't worry, I won't hurt you. It's just me, Kakashi. You know I wouldn't harm you."

"K-kashi?.." Iruka finally snaps out of it as he recognizes the white haired male.

That's when Kakashi finally gets close enough to the brown haired male as Iruka suddenly clings to him continuing to cry even more into his chest.

"I-it was so awful! Th-these men were awful!"

"I know, I know.." Kakashi rubs the shivering chūnins back trying to calm him down. "I'm so sorry I wasn't here on time... I could have protected you sooner..."

After a bit more of Iruka's crying, Kakashi offers to take him back to his place as it is the closest at the moment, so both of them head to the jōnins home. Soon after they arrive at their destination.

"Iruka, do you want to take a shower? It might help you clear your mind and wash off the unpleasantness. I'll give you some spare clothing and a towel."

"No.. Thanks, but.. I don't feel like it.. All I want to do is just go to sleep and forget all of it.."

"I see. Then you can go ahead and take my bed."

"Thank you.."

Iruka gets into Kakashi's bed with all of his clothing while the white haired jōnin prepares his own sleeping area, which is the floor next to the bed. Some time passes as Irkua keeps on turning around in bed without being able to sleep.

"Iruka, can you not fall asleep?" Kakashi, who is also not sleeping yet, as he was thinking over things and kind of watching over the brown haired chūnin just in case, asks with concern.

"Yes..."

"Are you still sure you don't want to take a shower? It might help you to feel better and fall asleep easier."

"You may be right.. I guess I should."

"Okay. Then let me get all the things ready for you."

Once Kakashi prepared everything giving Iruka a towel and some spare clothing for the night, the brown haired male went to take the shower. After a bit he finally returned and soon after was finally able to fall asleep. However, his sleep didn't last for long since after few hours, the male bolted up awake as the cold sweat ran through his back from the nightmare he just had. Therefore, he sat up in bed trembling and again feeling disgusting as the nightmare was related to the recent thing he just went through.

Kakashi, who wasn't in a deep sleep yet, hearing the rustle of the bed and slight shivering, opens his eyes noticing a frightened Iruka.

"Iruka, is something wrong?" The white haired male climbs into the bed sitting right besides his friend.

That's when Iruka starts to sob. "No.. I-I'm not.. I.. I had a nightmare about what happened... I hate it!.. All of it.. What they did to me.. was really awful.."

"I know.. It's okay now. Everything will be okay. You're safe here. No one will harm you." While speaking, Kakashi pulled Iruka into his embrace wrapping his arms around him while gently patting his back.

Iruka continued to sob into Kakashi's chest.

"I'm so sorry.. So very sorry that I wasn't there for you on time.. I promise that this won't happen again. I won't let that happen. Next time I'll protect you on time. I promise. However, you should promise to me not to go alone so late again or at least contact me if you do, okay?"

"Mhm.. Okay.."

They stayed like that for a bit until Iruka slightly calmed down and stopped sobbing.

"You should try getting some more sleep now, Iruka. I'll just go back to my bed then."

Kakashi let go of the brown haired chūnin as he was about to return to his makeshift bed on the floor. However, that's when Iruka grabbed his arm.

"D-don't go.. Don't leave me alone.."

"You want me to stay in this bed?"

"Mhm.." Iruka shook his head.

"Okay. I'll stay then. Come on now, let's try to sleep."

They both lay down while Kakashi wraps his arm around Iruka pressing him closer to himself so he would feel safer. However, the brown haired males hand is still slightly shaking so, Kakashi puts his hand on top of Iruka's cupping the smaller males hand into his. This action of the white haired jōnins calms Iruka down completely as a small fuzzy feeling starts to build up inside his chest while a small blush appears on his face allowing him to peacefully fall asleep.