It's been two months since he last saw his love. His heart couldn't stop yearning to see his love, be home and in his arms. How had he missed his lover's touch, the soothing and gentle voice calling out his name, the genuine concern he could always seek comfort from and the warmth radiating from the soul of his very love.

The thought of being deprived from it for the last two months was unbearable. It was suffocating to the extent where he had wanted to end his mission as soon as possible just to get back to his lover. But to finish a mission in haste constituted a high risk in jeopardizing it. He cannot allow that. In fact, he would never allow that. His years of training as an elite shinobi had taught him well. To put a mission at risk also meant putting his village in danger.

The mission was classified as an 'A' rank. To him, it was not a difficult one. 'Locate his target and extract the necessary information,' that was his order. Tracking was easy with his ninkens. The harder part was the target taking his bait and breaking him. He had used a week to track his target, 3 weeks to set up traps and lure his target in, and another 3 weeks to force the vital information out, eliminate his target before erasing his tracks of him ever being there and 1 more week for him to go home. Still, he managed to complete the mission well before the given 3 months time frame. The mission was a success. All was well and now he was back in Konoha. What was left to do was to hand over his mission report and he could go find his dolphin.

Nevertheless to say, he knew where to find him. At this time, he would still be at the academy. He just had to hurry up a bit before the dismissal of today lesson. His thought kept wondering back to his lover as he gracefully leaped from roof to roof, not able to keep his chuckling behind his mask as he was sure the tanned chūnin would be surprise at his early return.

As he landed on the top of a building near the academy, he heard the bell chime, marking the end of school. Within seconds, he saw the academy's door violently swung out wards, followed by the pre-genins rushing out, laughing and chattering with their friends, oblivious to the harsh future that awaited them.

The silver-haired jōnin waited for the students to clear the area before leaping down from the roof and settled himself against the pillar facing the academy's door, as his hand went deftly into his pouch to fish for latest installment of his favorite orange book, flipping to where he had last stopped. Ah, the plot was nearing its climax as he was expecting his own where the brown haired chūnin will be out at any moment to lock the academy doors, his register of surprise, the warm smile and maybe, a hug before heading back to their home together for one of their favourite past-time. Technically, it is his lover's home. They had stayed together for the past half year so that his love would know when he would be back from his missions and for the silver-haired jōnin, it would also meant that he had a home to return to.

He frowned after waiting for several minutes. He really couldn't wait. 'Is there detention class today? I remembered seeing Konohamaru among the students rushing out from the academy, since he was the one always creating troubles and getting detention, then why isn't he out yet?'

He could still feel his lover's chakra in his classroom but there was someone else there too. It did not feel like one of the students, but more like another chūnin, perhaps another sensei?

'Maybe I should go in and get him myself. To let him know that I really missed him very much and needed him now after being away for two months. But what if he was in the middle of discussing something important about his students to another sensei?' He knew how passionate he could be when it comes to his students. He was always helping out with any difficulty they faced, showing concern when needed, being protective over them, and readily giving up his life when necessary, for Naruto's case.

'Guess I will just have to go in and check out myself. If it is nothing important, I can just whisk him away' he concluded.

Silently, he crept into the academy and made his way up to the classroom where his dolphin would be. He did not want his presence to be known, fearing to upset his lover if he was indeed in the middle of discussing any crucial issue with another sensei.

As he was nearing to the classroom, he instantly realized the owner of the chakra signature of the chūnin. It was Izumo, best friend of his lover ever since the incident of Mizuki. He did not know much of Izumo, beside hearing stories from his lover; Izumo and Iruka have known each other since the genin days and had completed several missions together. They were friends but not close, until Izumo pulled him out of the misery made necessary by Mizuki's betrayal, where their friendship blossomed.

The eye-patached jōnin was grateful for Izumo being there, since his lover would never disclose his distress to anyone. Izumo deserved the credit for the ability to detect the source early and reached out to him before it was too late. From what he knew, Izumo was also the one who built up his lover's confidence and encouraged his lover to confess his feelings for him, to which he was eternally grateful and glad.

Ever since they were officially together, he had always been to express his gratitude to Izumo. Yet, the window of opportunity was always not there. He seen him a couple of times in the mission room but he did not want to do it in front of people. The famous Copy Nin expressing his gratitude to a Chūnin? It didn't seem appropriate. Nor was it sincere. He could visit him but he did not know where he lives, though it would be easy to find out. He could tag along to their chūnin gathering but how should he converse with Izumo? He had no idea since he was not someone who knows how to strike a conversation at ease. His sweet little dolphin was the one who was very good at it, not him. Within his own group of friends; Asuma, Kurenai, Guy, Genma, Raidou and Anko, they always know what to say to him not what he would say to them. So, he dropped that idea.

Still, an appreciative gesture would be nice to let Izumo know he did treasure the relationship with the brown haired chūnin. Maybe now was the right moment. Since there wasn't anyone here apart from his lover and Izumo. He was sure this would make his dolphin happy too, knowing the appreciation and acknowledgment he gave to his best friend.

The silver-haired jōnin masked his chakra and listened tentatively before deciding if he should make his presence known. He closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to pick up any noise within his earshot. There was the sound of heavy breathing, the rhythmic scraping of soft fibers against wood from the table and nothing else. It was not what he expected. 'Wait, something wasn't right.' Before his mind could come up with the answer, he heard a moan.

It was a moan filled with pure pleasure. He froze. Did he hear it correctly? 'Wasn't the sound made by... ? No, it isn't possible. I must be delusion-ing things,' He calmed himself. Maybe his mind was playing tricks on him after an exhausted mission. He refused to let his mind wandered into the direction of what might be happening inside the classroom and tried to reason that it was probably nothing. Right on cue, he heard the second moan, louder than before. It was too unmistakable: the moan was made by his lover. His mind whirled in confusion, trying to reason what he heard and finding a sensible answer to it when he heard voices coming from the classroom.

"Iruka, do you want anyone walking past the classroom to hear that?" Izumo teased.

"I can't help it, you know that. It's your fault for wanting to do it in the classroom. What if one of the students walks in on us? It will be embarrassing!" Iruka blushed, touching the scar over his nose.

"Yes, I know. That's precisely why we did it here. To control the sounds you make. The last few times we did over at my place, you did a good job in making everyone staying at my block knows about us. I even received a couple of complaints, asking me to keep your voice down or letting them know in advance the next time I bring you over. I even have to resort in using the mute jutsu so that they can't hear it." Izumo mused, recalling how he had apologize to almost everyone from his block, just because his best friend cannot keep his voice down in times of full pleasure.

"There's the option of doing over at my place, you know…" Iruka suggested meekly, knowing very well what Izumo's response would be.

"... Your place? That isn't an option at all! Don't tell me it is alright to do it at your place when you are officially living under the same roof with the great copy nin!" he retorted. "Remember that only time we did it? As soon as Kakashi found out that I was over at your place when he was away on a mission, the next time I saw him at the mission room, he was glaring at me when he handed his mission report to me! Giving me the death stare and unspoken warning from his look that I had trespassed his territory. In that instant, everybody in the room cleared out, even Kotetsu. No one in the right mind will want to mess with the legendary shinobi. So tell me, which part of it was my fault that we had to do it here?" Izumo countered, looking deep into Iruka's eyes, he challenged.

There was a moment of silence, "You are right. I'm sorry..." Iruka sighed in defeat. "But you know the reason," he perked up. "You did far better than Kakashi, and I just can't get enough of it." He justified, darkening the pinkish glow on his face with a deeper blush. It was only when the words were spoken out, Iruka realised it sounded wrong.

Turning away from Izumo, he whsipered, "if you don't feel comfortable with it, we could stop." The last sentence was so soft that it was almost as if Iruka didn't want it spoken out loud.

He knew he could never reject the tanned partner, "You know that I don't mind. But shouldn't you at least talk to Kakashi? I'm sure he will understand and do something about it. If he finds out about this and what you intend to do, I'm not sure if he would ever let me live. I could tell he treasure you very much to the extent that he wanted you to be his and him only. To have another man touching you, even if that person is your best friend, I don't think he will take it down lightly." he cringed at the thought of being hunted down by the ex-ANBU.

"I won't let that happened, not to you! Kakashi knows better than to hurt my best friend."

"Still, talk to him 'Ruka. Let him know what's on your mind. You can't make a relationship sail if you are keeping things to yourself. If it doesn't works out, you still have me and you know that. I will never, ever leave you," reminded Izumo.

"Hai... Thanks Izu."

"Anytime. Shall we continue where we left off?" He grinned to Iruka.

Upon hearing that, the tension in the air broke, "Yes, please." he purred and at once, the pleasure he felt earlier was back on him again.

Kakashi was plastered to the sidewall outside the classroom. He was too shock to respond to the exchange of the conversations. Slowly, he mustered all his strength to move away from the classroom to prevent himself from hearing more of the uncontrollable self-indulged sounds made by Iruka, the what-should-have-been his only beloved lover. The sounds, which he thought was entitled and projected to him solely, were not his to begin with.

Once outside the academy, he gazed upon the sky. Clear as it was, his mind wasn't, his heart just sank to the bottom of a pit hole. He needed a place to straighten out his thinking and analyze the information he had just gathered.

'Yes, information, not facts.'