White
By: Sisco
Gift to: ZheM
Disclaimers: Don't own, don't sue! Thank you!
-M-M-M-
"Eh? What are you doing up here on the roof, Iruka-koi," Naruto asked casually as he came up behind his lover and stood for a few seconds before finally deciding to take a seat beside him.
The signs of autumn had quickly settled upon the village. The nights had become cooler; the leaves had turned to their dry, vibrant colors of reds and yellows. One of them floated down from a tree towering above their apartment complex to land in front of Iruka's feet.
Iruka stared at it drearily before looking up at Naruto. "I was just thinking." He wrapped his arms around his chest and shivered to keep himself warm.
Naruto noticed the motion and slid closer to his lover, their bodies leaning tightly together. He smiled gleefully when the older man snuggled closer into his side. But that didn't excuse the unwanted feeling that Iruka had come up here to actually think about Kakashi. "You were thinking about him again, weren't you?" Naruto asked numbly, though not tersely.
The wind shifted, blowing against their backs, and caused Iruka to shudder. "I…hm." He sighed. "I'm sorry, Naruto. I'm trying to forget..."
"It's not always the best thing to do," Naruto sounded offended by the mere notion of Iruka forgetting about his first true love. "It's not easy, I agree. I still think about Sasuke. I also know, to keep a good relationship with your new partner, you have to forget about the past…"
"Then why don't you want me to forget?" Iruka turned his gaze to the blonde and immediately felt an intense emotion rile up within him. It was sorrow on the verge of jealousy. "Eh…Naruto…"
"Because…you might want to go back to him. I know how badly Kakashi wants you back. I've seen it in his face ever since the day he left the hospital. I think he likes to make me feel like the bad guy who stole his girl…er…boy." He chuckled when he saw the flush on Iruka's cheeks. "And you know the bad guy always loses."
Iruka shook his head as he pushed the blonde playfully with his shoulder. "Don't be dense, Naruto. You're not the bad guy. He's just…over possessive."
Naruto snorted to that. "Iruka…I feel like…we've done more harm than we originally attended. I can't help but feel sorry for Kakashi. Maybe you should just…"
"Naruto Uzumaki! If you even dare say that I should go back to him, you're horribly misguided," Iruka exclaimed, shooting to his feet and stumbling slightly from the rush. "I can't believe you're letting this get to you! It's Kakashi. It's not like he's wielding an iron ax ready to chop your head off!"
"I'm sorry," Naruto whispered. "I just don't want to see my two favorite people being hurt…"
Iruka clinched his fists tightly, his eyes concealed in the shadows of the taller buildings. "And what about you, Naruto? Wouldn't you be hurt as well?"
"No," Naruto started. "I would be less hurt now than in the future!" He got to his feet and stared forlornly at his former sensei. "I'm sorry…but I need to go."
"Naruto," Iruka gasped. He took a step forward but was a little too late as the blonde vanished. "Naruto…"
The next day it was a little irritating because by 3:00 in the afternoon, Naruto had yet to make it home.
Iruka grasped his coffee mug tightly, hoping and praying that nothing bad had happened to him. If judging by Naruto's behavior yesterday was any confirmation though, something probably did happen. With one last huff, he retreated to the mission report office. Maybe he'd get some info from Genma or Kotetsu.
Iruka gasped in alarm, the thought of asking Genma and Kotetsu where Naruto's whereabouts was, completely forgotten. There, wrapped loosely in paper on his desk, sat a white rose (1). He grabbed the note lying beneath the stem and hesitated for a moment before finally opening it to read what looked like forced, neat handwriting. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, but thy eternal summer shall not fade. That was it? No signature or anything? He eyed the rose suspiciously before plucking it from his desk and running his fingers over the smooth petals. Was this Naruto's doing? He smiled faintly.
"Hey, Iruka, nice rose. Did Naruto give that to you?" Genma grinned around his senbon. He leaned forward before pointing to the blossom. "I wonder why he didn't give you a red one. They're supposed to symbolize love."
Iruka uncharacteristically shrugged and plopped down into his chair with a sigh that was nowhere near meant for a love struck individual. This wasn't something Naruto would do…was it? And although Naruto was discrete when it came to their love life, not that the blonde didn't mind telling someone every now and then that they were together, he wouldn't just do this for a mere lover's spat. What's more, a white rose. Naruto must have put some thought into this, which sounded completely ridiculous in his mind.
The rest of his evening continued uneventfully. Everyone else had gone home while he was left behind to close, as usual. Unfortunately, he was still wondering if Naruto was really the one that left the rose on his desk. Further more, where the hell was that idiot?! He glanced at the rose sitting prettily in its vase, facing him as if asking if it could have a kiss, the way the petals furrowed together in his direction like lips. He smirked. That reminded him too much of… Urgh! No, he would not think of him.
And then, as if hell opened up just for him, none other than Hatake Kakashi waltzed into the office. He held a folder under one arm while the other hung loosely at his side. "Yo," he grinned, his mask creasing with his lips. "I was told to bring these in for you by Tsunade-sama herself."
Iruka took the offered file without a glance toward Kakashi's face and read through it. His eye twitched slightly to the more or less sloppy handwriting decorating the page. "Kakashi?"
"Hm," the jounin beamed.
"When are you going to try and start writing neatly?"
If it were possible Kakashi was beaming even brighter, his eye curving into a tight smile. "It's the report for the new water tower they're building in the south of Konoha," he stated as if he hadn't heard the question. "They've been delayed slightly because of the storm from a couple days ago. All the wood is wet, so they have to wait until it dries."
Iruka basically followed the sketchy writing to Kakashi's spoken words. He sighed and nodded. "Okay, thank you, Kakashi-san."
"Nice rose," Kakashi commented; his smile still gleaming from behind his mask. "It's unusual to see a white one these days for a lover. Naruto must have really put some consideration into it… He loves you a lot."
"Kakashi?"
"It stands for reverence you know," Kakashi continued, obviously not hearing the other, or he had and he just wanted to see his former lover fume. It was always amusing to him, and cute.
"Kakashi?" Iruka's tone tightened slightly with irritation.
"Or maybe he's telling you that he's worthy of you?"
"Kakashi!"
"Hm?" Kakashi looked up, his eye crinkling again.
Iruka sighed as he got up from his chair and walked around his desk to stand before Kakashi. "Nice try. I know Naruto would never do this. Not only that, but the handwriting in that card looked forcibly neat, as if someone was trying not to rush, which you normally are constantly doing. What are you up to?" He leaned back against the edge of his desk with his arms crossed over his chest.
Ah, he's doing his teacher pose! Mmm, my sexy Chuunin. I can't wait to get you back. You don't know how much I've missed that! Kakashi squealed mentally. "You're not a teacher for nothing, Iruka-sensei," Kakashi complimented happily. He sidled up to Iruka and nudged him suggestively.
Iruka didn't even budge, merely smirked. He almost started to believe that Kakashi and he had never really separated. That it had all been a bad dream. He almost wished it was. However, reality was a bitch, especially when it smacked you hard enough. "You want something, don't you?"
Kakashi leaned in until their faces were a few inches apart, his inner Kakashi growing ecstatic when Iruka didn't move away. "Can I have a kiss?"
Just like a puppy always begging for attention. Or that rose. Iruka smiled as he reached up and lowered the mask. "Just this once…" He was hastily cut off as lips pressed against his own, so warm and desperate for his touch. He wrapped his hands around Kakashi's neck to deepen the kiss and moaned. The taste of something sweet and spicy slipped into his mouth and gingerly brushed against his tongue. He let out another moan and pushed back against the intruder.
They broke away slowly, panting softly into each others' mouths.
"I've missed that so much," Kakashi whispered before pulling his mask back up. He stood there for a few more minutes, memorizing his former lover's facial features. Always perfect, he thought affectionately.
And that's when Iruka remembered those heart wrenching words. There's so much I'll miss about you. Kakashi's words still hung harshly in the back of his mind. "Kakashi…" Shit! What was that? "Have you seen Naruto around? He disappeared on me last night." Well that surely wasn't it!
Kakashi grinned. "I'm sure he's around. I wouldn't worry about him."
Iruka nodded absently, his gaze still focused on Kakashi's hidden expression. He could feel waves upon waves of love and devotion pouring off this man, trying to draw him closer. It was always said when you fell deeply in love with someone, their chakra becomes linked with your own and continues to linger that way even after separating. And whether they wanted to or not, they could feel the other's emotions through that link. As of late, Iruka had only been feeling sorrow and want, emotions that didn't belong to him. But now that he was standing so close to the man that he knew was responsible for those feelings, it was nothing but warmth and happiness. Iruka wanted it to remain that way if at all possible. "Kakashi…"
"Iruka," Kakashi interrupted. "I wanted to tell you something…about us." He was half expecting Iruka to argue about it, but he said nothing, much to Kakashi's surprise. "I'm not asking you to leave Naruto, because I know that you two are happy together…" He noted the other's flinch and couldn't help but give a small smile at that. "Iruka…I want you back." Once again he was expecting some sort of disagreement, but it still never came.
The Chuunin bowed his head, a smile gracing his features. "You don't know how much that means to me, Kakashi, because I feel the same way."
Kakashi's visible eye widened to the confession. "Iruka?"
"Don't," Iruka said sternly as he brought a hand up to his temple and rubbed at it. He could feel a headache coming on. Thoughts of how he should handle this were uneasy. "I just need to think about this."
The copy-nin blinked and started to anxiously approach the other, his arms outstretched like a little kid beckoning his puppy to come to him.
Iruka willingly fell into his embrace and buried his face into the older man's vest, into the familiar scent of dried leaves from the forest and something else that he could only distinguish as Kakashi's scent. "Why do you do this to me, Kakashi?" His voice was soft and encouraging.
"I love you," Kakashi responded easily, as if it was the simplest answer in the world. "I'll try harder to be a better lover."
Iruka squirmed slightly in Kakashi's embrace, considering it was a little too tight for his liking. "Kakashi, just promise me one thing."
The Jounin peered down at his Chuunin and smiled in acknowledgment. "Yes," He asked with a grin.
"When you go out on long missions that you'll keep in contact with me? I feel like I'm going to die from the fear of something horrible happening to you…" Iruka gasped in surprise as Kakashi cut him off with an almost bruising kiss.
"Anything!" Kakashi exclaimed sincerely. "I'm so sorry that I made you feel that way." His arms tightened further around Iruka's body as he buried his face into the chocolate strands and tried not to weep. All he was glad for was that he finally had his Chuunin back.
There's so much I'll miss about you.
…To Be Continued… Because I can't just let Naruto get away with vanishing on our cute, little Chuunin!
-3-3-3-
A/N: 1. White rose – What? Didn't you find it fitting? At least it's original. I was getting tired of red roses.
Also, give credit where it's due to ZheM for the Shakespeare quote! X3 We loves her very much!
Yay!! -huggles chapter- Awe, KakaIru is the best…. More, yes?? 3 ZheM