I decided to write something for the iPod Shuffle Challenge. Ten songs, played at random on your iPod, and you can only write for the duration of the song. Of course, I have not used my iPod in YEARS, so the majority of the songs were depressing and teeanger-y. Sorry about that :) Also, if you can't tell by this- dribbles are absolutely not my forte. This was a way to force myself to get better at them. Well… here we go! I hope you enjoy…
Drabble warnings: Character death in 6, Mpreg in 8, manga spoilers in 10
1. River Flows in You- by Yiruma, Lindsey Stirling version
Iruka never realized one person could be so beautiful.
Maybe he was biased- in fact, he probably was. But he knew for a fact that he would never in his life see something that looked more beautiful than Kakashi did right now.
His silver haired lover was bleeding and mask less, long gashes torn through his uniform and windswept hair coated with dirt and grime and plastered to his dirty skin. He was collapsed on his knees, too weak to stand on his own, Sharingan spinning wildly and shining with adoration and happiness.
While Iruka stared, his heart in his throat, Kakashi reached up and handed the struggling child in his arms to Iruka. "Here," he gasped, handing Naruto up to him. The ones that had tried to kidnap him, long dead, and Iruka stared at his reunited family before sinking to his knees and enveloping them in his arms.
2. When You're Gone- Avril Lavigne
Iruka shushed as Naruto struggled in his arms, whining and crying and reaching out. "Wan Daddy," he sniffled, and Iruka just sighed miserably and nodded.
He tightened his arms around him and bit his lip. "I know, Naruto. I want him, too."
Kakashi surely didn't know how much Naruto missed him when he went on those missions, else he would probably never leave. The man hated to show it, but he had his soft side, and Naruto was a master at worming in and stretching his heart and making Kakashi try his very hardest to earn a smile. If Kakashi knew how much Naruto cried when he left, then he would never be able to go.
Kakashi probably didn't know how much Iruka worried when he left, either, how much he gnawed his lip in anxiety and missed him and stared out at the night sky and hoped that his lover wasn't somewhere hurt or dying. He tried not to let Kakashi see how much he worried. It was Kakashi's duty; there was no use in him making it any harder on him.
"I know, Naruto," he murmured again, rocking the two year old back and forth as they stared out at the moon together. Somewhere out there, Kakashi saw the same moon. Somewhere out there, Kakashi saw the same moon and had to be safe- he just had to be.
3. Some piano song (not named in my iPod, really sorry!)
Kakashi sprinted silently through the trees. He moved as quietly as a ghost, dancing across shadows, not even disturbing the quiet animals asleep in the night around him as he ran for his lover.
Ambushed, the Hokage had said, pre-mission intel wrong, twice as much of the enemy as there should have been. Twenty jounins instead of ten genins, men who brought death every day were with his Iruka- and he wouldn't allow it. He would kill anyone who dared to touch his Iruka, slaughter them without a second thought.
He sniffed, found blood, and ran faster. He was getting closer now. There was Iruka's blood, yes, but there was the scent of others as well, and he heard the sounds of a fight continuing. Iruka's party had not been crushed yet, and if they could just hold out a little while longer, they wouldn't be yet.
Kakashi hurtled through the final leaves baring him from his lover and landed on the ground with a thud and a spray of blood in front of Iruka.
4. Twilight- Vanessa Carlton
Iruka used to hate Hatake Kakashi.
He used to hate that infuriating jounin. The way he treated his students, the way he turned in shabby excuses for reports with a smile- that was another thing, his absolutely annoying way to smile with just an eye- how he walked around unabashedly reading those filthy books of his-
He used to hate him.
Then he went on a mission with Team Seven.
He saw how Kakashi interacted with those three, his Naruto in particular, and couldn't help but smile. He saw how they seemed almost like a family when they stopped at night, he saw how Naruto had matured into a worthy ninja in combat, he saw how Naruto no longer rushed in to prove his own abilities but instead fought to protect others and help his friends. Iruka found himself smiling in amazement at his improvement. Kakashi had taken the green boy who'd just barely graduated and turned him into something that made his chest fill with pride.
He also saw how Kakashi wasn't just all talk- he really would do anything for his comrades. He took more than one kunai that was meant for his students, he took so many blows that had been directed in others directions'- and Iruka felt just the slightest bit guilty for his earlier hatred.
Kakashi wasn't all too bad, really. He protected Naruto, and, well- perhaps his good traits outweighed his just plain annoying bad ones.
5. A Thousand Miles- Vanessa Carlton
Kakashi would do anything to see his old team again.
That wasn't really a surprise, not to Gai, not to Iruka, not to anyone who really knew him and his past. Which was almost no one.
But it was still true. Death didn't scare him- that was well known, too- but for a number of reasons, and not just because he had grown so familiar with it over the years. He knew that when he died, he would finally have suffered enough for all his crimes and he'd see them again. Gods, he wanted that. He could hear Obito's laughter, feel Rin's hugs, see his Sensei's smiling face- all gone too soon, all much more worthy of this life than he was. Suicide wasn't an option- not after his father, never after that. But anything else… to see them again, he was willing to do anything.
With a world weary wave, Kakashi turned his back on the memorial stone and took to the trees for another mission. Perhaps not today, and perhaps not tomorrow, but he would seem them again.
6. If I Die Young- the Band Perry
Shinobi died young. Everyone knew that.
Iruka knew that. From the day that he was eight and a faceless ANBU had to drag him screaming back from his parents' mutilated bodies, he knew that.
He knew that Kakashi was going to die someday. Kakashi knew that, too. The elite Copy Ninja couldn't keep evading it forever- his luck had to run out sometime.
And run out, it did.
Kakashi's teammate risked everything to bring his body back and eventually had collapsed at the gates to Konoha, limp captain rolling out of his shaking grip to thump into the dust. He had long stopped screaming. He had long stopped bleeding. He had long stopped breathing.
Iruka did all that for him, now. He screamed inside his head, he beat his fists against the floor until they bled, he breathed in panting gasps and refused to believe it. Not Kakashi. Not now. He was too young to die- it wasn't fair, damn it, he was too young to die!
He attend the funeral silently, he weathered all the failed attempts at sympathy from others, he stood stoically as they passed him with pats on the shoulder and sorrowful looks and muttered 'it's a pity' and 'wish he'd lived longer'.
7. Helpless When She (He) Smiles- Backstreet Boys
Kakashi handed Iruka his mission's report with a beaming eye smile. "Here you are, Iruka-sensei."
Iruka accepted it with a smile of his own. "Thank you, Kakashi-sensei. Did Naruto do well?" He unrolled the scroll and scanned it for mistakes, sighing when he found a plethora.
"As well as always. He's improving everyday. No doubt thanks to his first wonderful teacher."
Iruka blinked in surprise and glanced back up at the enigma of a jounin that stood in front of him. "You don't often hand out praise, Kakashi-sensei."
Kakashi shrugged and stared harder at him, making Iruka shift uncomfortably. "Now, Iruka-sensei, I'm just being honest."
"Oh." Iruka scratched his scar and smiled again, willing himself not to blush. "I, uh… thanks, Kakashi-sensei."
"…"
Iruka's smile faltered slightly. "Is there something else, Kakashi-sensei?"
Kakashi stared at him for a long moment, then his shoulder drooped and he sighed. "Nope. Nothing else. Ja ne, Iruka."
Iruka stared as the jounin disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Outside, Kakashi sighed and shook his head. Yamato was right. Iruka's smile was better than his.
8. Moonrise- Brian Crain
"He's beautiful, isn't he?"
Kakashi nodded silently, his head resting on Iruka's shoulders as they both peered over the edge of hospital crib. "I know it's impossible," the jounin murmured, "but he looks just like you."
Iruka rolled his eyes and chuckled weakly. "He has your hair."
Long, pale arms snuck around his ribcage and Kakashi hugged Iruka closer to him, still without looking away from their son. "Never would'v thought I would be thankful for being struck by an enemy jutsu, but I think I am."
"I never would've though an enemy would come up with such a weird jutsu as one that would get a man pregnant."
Kakashi smiled his crooked grin, then he stood, bringing Iruka with him. "I think I already love him more than I love you."
"Don't make me jealous, now- else I'll leave and take him with me."
9. Kiss the Rain- Yiruma
"I love the rain," Kakashi said one day, walking him home from school. Another droplet fell down and splashed on his nose. "Don't you?"
Iruka stuck his bundle of papers more firmly under his shirt. "No," he grumbled. "It's cold and wet and ruins all my papers and makes my clothes damp for hours. For heaven's sake, why is it even raining now? It's the middle of summer!"
"Don't be like that, Iruka," Kakashi chided gently, still looking up at the roiling grey clouds above. "You'll make the sky sad."
The teacher rolled his eyes. "Honestly… why do you like it so much, anyway?"
Kakashi glanced over at him and grinned. "…A number of reasons," he said at length, reaching over to brush a raindrop off his tanned cheek. "Reason one: you pout when it rains. It makes your scar scrunch up like this." He pinched his cheeks, laughing when Iruka jerked his head back. "Reason two: nobody's ever around when it rains. So, that means I can do this." He yanked down his mask and gave him a long kiss, then stepped back- mask still down.
Iruka stared, bewildered and taken by surprise, as the jounin just kept on walking. "See?" he called back. "Plenty of reasons to love the rain."
10. My Immortal- Evanescence
It was three years after the war.
Iruka knew, by now, it would never get any better.
Kakashi had death with Obito's death the first time around- perhaps not well, perhaps not well at all, but he had dealt with it. The same was not true the second time around.
Iruka had been there, been close enough to see Kakashi return to this dimension splattered in blood with a new scar, this one over his right eye. In his hands, he held the tattered remains of Obito's cloak, and he'd collapsed then, collapsed right into his sensei's arms. His vision was almost destroyed in his right eye; Iruka knew all he could really see were blurry shapes and faded colors. The Sharingan, untouched and perfect as ever, still afforded him amazingly clear and shockingly perfect vision that Kakashi hated. Kakashi would rather be blind than use the Sharingan, not now, when every time the red eye was uncovered, he remembered killing his first friend.
Iruka tried his best to help, but he didn't know how.
So, when he held Kakashi through another nightmare, reassuring him that he was still there with him even though Kakashi could no longer see him, he cried tears Kakashi would never see and knew that this would never, never end.
It was three years after the war. Sometimes, Iruka felt as if Kakashi had died with Obito.