Title: iPod Madness – part I
Warnings: Fluff, angst and utter madness. Involves other characters than just Kakashi and Iruka from Naruto
Rating: T
A/N: I decided to let my iPod run on rampage and wrote these lovely little ficlets couple of months ago. The second part is still WIP, the process slow but steady. Oh, and the situation in ficlet/song 6, it really happened. My friend had just randomly decided to compete, which car has better speakers, hers or the flashy one. Apparently the guy's face was rather priceless, when he lost.

- Nokkonen

1) Turning Tables – Adele

They were just ahead of him but didn't notice him in the bustling crowd.

Iruka swallowed as he saw Mizuki lean closer to whisper something to his companion, her long black hair shimmering in the street lights. He knew Tsubaki, they had shared few missions in the past and now the beautiful kunoichi was holding hands with the man Iruka had thought to be his boyfriend.

It seems I thought too much into it, Iruka thought dryly and tried to ignore twinge of pain in his heart, when Tsubaki laughed at Mizuki, who flashed her that brilliant smile of his that sent butterflies in Iruka's stomach.

Maybe this was better. He and Mizuki had little to do together; their playful banters were these days more like bickers with Mizuki usually leaving their shared apartment in the middle of the argument, leaving Iruka to wallow in his dark thoughts alone, to wonder if the other would come back anymore. Sometimes Mizuki was gone for half an hour, sometimes two days and it pained Iruka not to know where he was at those times.

The riddle had suddenly become unsolved, it seemed.

The pair slipped inside an apartment building and Iruka saw Mizuki kiss her, his arms holding her petite form tightly against his chest. He looked very happy, Iruka thought briefly before the door closed behind them. Happier than he ever looked with him.

As Iruka turned around and walked in to the masses of people, he decided never to be toyed with again.

2)Raise Your Glass - Pink

The bar was filled with smoke, dim lights and all kinds of smells from sweet scent of alcohol to sour stench of sweat. Anko was stretched out against the worn-out booth, rows of beer and sake bottles filling the grimy table in front of her and the little candle the waitress had lit up several hours ago had melted in to a small mass of wax.

She hadn't drunk all of them herself, nope. There had been some help. And this said help of hers was busy sucking the living daylights out of a certain jounin in one shadowy corner. Anko smirked when the pair tried to mold in to each other, humping and sliding so fervently that it almost made the jounin lose his sunglasses and – wait. Sunglasses?

Ooops, wrong corner, Anko thought gleefully, leaving Aoba to be ravished in peace and focused her gaze in the right shadowy corner this time.

Iruka had all but pinned the not-so-hapless Kakashi against the poster-covered wall, effectively preventing anyone seeing the face he was so eagerly kissing with his long hair that was mussed for the evening with help of at least two jars of hair-gel. The Hatake bastard seemed quite pleased with the situation if the way he desperately clung in to Iruka's mesh shirt indicated, his skinny legs entwined around that leather-clad ass.

Anko smirked smugly, when someone slid next to her, the large body shifting the ratty padding of the booth. "Told you," she sing-songed, sending a mock-coy look at Ibiki, who was staring at the snake-summoner with mild amusement, "all you need is some right stimuli."

"I never knew you could use this – " The black eyes slid over the empty bottles, meaningful. " – as stimuli. At least not for Iruka-sensei."

She leant closer and grinned, all teeth. "Then you should be educated better," Anko purred and raised her beer when Iruka started to push Kakashi towards the toilets, flashing a predatory grin at her.

Ibiki cracked a rare smile at the sight. "Indeed."

3) Refuse Resist - Apocalyptica

The pursuit had lasted for several hours and his chakra was waning fast. Iruka panted as he shot through the forest, leaves scattering on his wake. The scroll weighted his backpack, the several feet of old paper filled with secrets stolen from a local lord by rogue-nins, hired by another lord.

It was a simple mission, Iruka and two other chuunins ordered to invade the castle and steal back the scroll.

The break-in had been easy; the traps had been easy as a child's play and there had been almost no guards. Maybe that should have set the alarms off.

Now, hours later and separated from his comrades, Iruka was slowly but steadily cursing through his whole list of swears, picked from his years of playing pranks and teaching. He was coming to an end, which was bad, because it was a long list.

A flash from the corner of his eye forced Iruka to duck down and miss his step. The tan chuunin plunged down towards the forest floor disturbingly high speed. Pulling some of his chakra, Iruka threw a kunai with a string of chakra wire attached to the hollow pommel. The blade sunk in to the tree he bypassed seconds ago and Iruka hold on to it tight, arms jerking when the fall came to abrupt stop.

"My my, what a stubborn Leaf we have here," a low voice commented, the S sound more like a hiss, and a tall rogue-nin stepped insight, the green snake-like lit with amusement.

Iruka sent a barrack of shuriken towards the man, who disappeared with a woosh! and was suddenly right before him, crouching upside down on the branch, his long brown hair flowing down.

"If you stop your struggle, we'll might let you live," the rogue nin said, like he was making a great offer Iruka should not resist taking.

Brown eyes sparked and Iruka all but snarled. "I refuse", he ground the words out and had the pleasure to see the rogue-nin's eyes widen when he pulled out several explosive tags.

4) Nightquest - Nightwish

They were called the wanderers of the night, beings that were more shadow and illusions than flesh and bone. The stories spun around them told sometimes about hidden treasures and adventures, sometimes bravery and love and sometimes blood and death. They were the heroes of every little boy, the secret dreams of young maidens and young men and the cursed demons for the elderly.

They were ninja.

The last of the beautiful melodies died as the fingers stilled on the strings, the spell of the song still engulfing the audience so that only the cracks of burning log from the fireplace broke the awestruck silence. The minstrel, clothed in dark and battered attire, straightened his back and stared at the people gathered around him in the small inn, his gaze very grave.

Then, he smiled, a wide and open smile that immediately broke the atmosphere, people starting to chatter and compliments pouring along glasses of wine and ale that were pushed towards him to "ease that parched throat of his that he must have been suffering from singing such long time". The inn-keeper himself came with an air of importance and told the minstrel he could spent the night, the oooh's and aah's of the patrons making sure his hospitality was going to become well-known – and attract more money for the inn-keeper.

"Mister minstrel, mister minstrel," a clear voice called and there was an insistent pulling on his sleeve.

The man looked down and felt his heart freeze in his chest as he was met with a pair of bottomless black eyes. "Y-yes?" he swallowed, holding back shiver when the boy smiled, suddenly very shy at having the man's attention on him.

"Um, what – what happened to the ninja?" the boy asked, fiddling with the hem of his blue shirt, the hue of color another thing that was so achingly familiar along the raven-colored hair.

"Well, they went away, just like the songs say," the minstrel murmured, kneeling in front of the child, "the ninja finally came to realize just how useless and old their way of living had become, while the world around them had moved forward."

"But they are still here, right? In the shadows, right? That's also said in the songs."

The earnest spark in the little one's eyes was frightening, since it reminded him of another boy, from many generations ago. How much time it had passed from that day? How long, since they had been summoned in front of their Hokage and told to become shadows, real shadows, to leave the world of the living and fade away.

"Yes, they are still here," he found himself saying, chuckling as the child's eyes grew wide, "but do you know what the ninja got in exchange for becoming illusions?" The minstrel leant closer, whispering like he was telling a secret – and he was – as the lights of the inn caught the silver hair and a pair of black and red eyes.

"Immortality."

5) Breathing - Sonata Arctica

The cemetery was mostly deserted at this early in the morning with the exception of Matsuko-san, the old widow who came to pay respect to his dead husband every Friday. The gray of her hair shone in red and orange in the sunrise as she murmured soft words to the tombstone, telling how much their little granddaughter Rie had grown. There was no sadness in her thin voice, just fondness, even though it had been more than fifteen years since her husband had died in a battle.

Kakashi watched the old woman from the corner of his eye, feeling a bit envious to her. The stone he came to visit had become more weathered in the last six months and the jounin crouched to clean some of the dirt.

Hatake Sakumo.

That was the name on the stone. Kakashi came here twice a year, not really following any particular dates. But it seemed that he came there always at the same time with Matsuko-san, keeping more eye of her than the tombstone of his father. Sakumo's name had not been carved in to Memorial Stone, since he had not been killed in action. Instead Kakashi had found him on the bloodied tatami, the tanto buried deep in his gut.

At that time there had been mixed emotions, after all Kakashi had been a child. Anger, relief, grief and distress, all of those too much for a young boy, despite the fact he had been killing people for years already. Now, now Kakashi was older, wiser and he recognized just how isolation and the guilt had chipped away all that was Hatake Sakumo, leaving only a broken man.

Naruto was lying on the ground, severely wounded and unconscious. The lone hitai-ate with a scratch over the Konoha's Leaf insignia had fell just in the boy's reach and the owner of the headband was gone, maybe forever.

Yeah, at this moment Kakashi truly understood how his father had felt, being slowly killed inside out.

6) BONAMANA - Super Junior

The music was rather catchy, Iruka had to admit, even if he didn't understand any of the lyrics, and damn! Those guys knew how to dance. Pushing wayward strands behind his ear, Iruka stared rather intently at the – what? – thirteen young men dancing in an amazing sync at his computer screen, snickering at the dramatically swinging lamp that highlighted every single member one at a time.

Out of curiosity Iruka downloaded the song on his iPod plucked it in to the player. He upped the bass into maximum and turned up the volume – only to be blown away. Almost immediately Ebisu, the stuck-up prick from next door started to bang the wall, shouting something like "the landlord is going to know about this" and "shut up" as Iruka lay on the floor, grinning wickedly as the bass made the floor tremble.

This was something they SO had to play next time he and Kakashi went driving around. His boyfriend's car might look cheap and have more rust than paint on it but it had one hell of a sound system, making even the richest brat cry for their daddy once Kakashi decided to be evil.

Besides the ever pain in the ass Danzo still had one ear that worked. Maybe this would make that old asshole deaf for once and all.

7) The Islander - Nightwish

Jiraiya knew his reputation and shamelessly used it for his advantage. He was one of the legendary Sannin, the Gama Sennin of Mount Myōboku and there were several other names that had been bestowed upon him – some of them not so flattering like the one Naruto had given him.

The large man chuckled fondly, the smoke of his pipe drifting in the night air as he sat on the balcony in his room. The wind was cool and the stars bright and there were some unmistakable sounds coming from the room next, the high pitched moans and series of thumps of the eager couple being heard now and then.

Really, the place was the perfect setting for one of his novels, but tonight Jiraiya found himself feeling remorseful. There would be another time to write down the heated moments between beautiful heroines and their handsome heroes. Tonight Jiraiya felt tired and lonely as he watched the glittering stars, the true companions on his wanderings.

For a moment the old man regretted ever leaving the village, regretted going after his once good friend Orochimaru and, most of all, he regretted how things had turned out with Tsunade.

The pipe's smoke danced in the night wind and Jiraiya fancied it taking the form of his old teammate, the long blonde hair free from the usual pig-tails and that harsh expression of hers melting in to a gentle smile, one Tsunade had been giving to Dan all those years ago. Not to Jiraiya, never to him.

And, like always, Jiraiya watched the ghostly form of his one-sided love drift away from his grasp and into the skies, becoming one with the stars. That's how the beautiful Tsunade-hime really was in his eyes, always there and yet always just out of his reach.

8) Alejandro - Lady GaGa

"Iruka, you've got to see this. Oi, Iruka!"

"What?" the long-haired man asked, his head poking from the small kitchenette.

He saw Kakashi, his boyfriend, lying on his back on the green rug Iruka had bought from the flea market, legs dangling on the bed – it was one of Kakashi's favorite positions to relax and usually there was a pillow underneath his head as the pale man read one of his novels or listened music. Kakashi wasn't wearing any shirt since they had been making out just moments ago, until Iruka had become ravenously hungry. So it wasn't that much of a surprise the silver-haired man had dropped down on the floor and snatched Iruka's laptop, placing it on his naked chest.

"She ripped Gai off!" Kakashi said, sounding somewhere between astonished and crossed, "oh God, I'm never going to here an end of this! Do you even realize how this is going to affect on him? Badly!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Iruka asked, leaving the sandwich he had been making for the time being, "who ripped Gai off?"

"Look for yourself!" Kakashi wailed and pushed the laptop to the other.

Iruka stared, flabbergasted, how a group of men in very odd underwear danced and wore… Black high heels? Then he recognized the song, having heard it from the radio few weeks ago.

"Gai wears high heels?" Iruka asked faintly, sure that his brain broke at that mental thought.

"What? NO!" Kakashi grimaced, staring up into Iruka from the floor, "where did you get that idea?"

"But you said –"

"The hair! Look at their hair!" the silver-haired man urged, like it was the most obvious thing.

Iruka frowned, biting back a sharp retort before concentrating back on the screen. His eyes widened and Iruka was pretty sure his jaw was now at the floor. "No way…," he whispered, stunned, "No. Freaking. Way."

"Yes freaking way. Lady GaGa just stole Gai's hairstyle."

A/N2: Seesh, the only BAD thing about my iPod is that being a Nightwish & Sonata Arctica & Apocalyptica-fan almost every other song is from them. ;P