Note: I planned to write this part as a one-shot, the discussion between Iruka and Raidou, but it wound up becoming the prologue for the sequel instead. Yes, this is planned to be the last long fic in the "Hiding" universe (though there will probably be lots of one-shot smut I write later at various points along the way), and yes, I'm evil.

Oh yeah, no I don't own Naruto.

Simply End: Prologue

Two shinobi sat across a kitchen table playing cards, each staring intently at the other and glancing only briefly at the cards as they played. They were both in their thirties, one a few years older than the other, and they had the look of men who had been friends for a long time. Both faces featured prominent scars, one a vivid slash that went across the nose and onto both cheeks, the other a mass of scar tissue that went across a cheek and disappeared into his shirt. The older of the two paused, peered intently at the cards on the table, and then snarled in frustration, while the younger shinobi laughed and said glibly, "I win."

"You've won five games in a row now," Raidou said, with what Iruka could swear was a pout.

"That's because you're distracted," Iruka replied. He turned in his chair and looked around the kitchen, which was the same one in which they had invented this game years ago. The table, however, was not the same, because the old table had been broken a couple of years ago during a party, when Sakura and Naruto had a spat in the kitchen and she slammed her fist down on it.

Raidou followed Iruka's gaze and then smiled. "How many times do you think we've played this game now, Ruka-kun, and still not named it?"

Iruka shrugged, reaching up to pull his ponytail tighter. "More times than I imagined we would when we came up with it. That was a strange day, especially looking back at it from here, with so many things having changed." He paused. "Hey, do you still have that picture?"

The older shinobi nodded, stood, and walked out of the room for a moment, to return quickly with the small piece of shiny paper. He held it out to his friend, who took it. In the picture a young man with fine light brown hair lay sleeping, a peaceful smile on lips that had a tiny depression from spending too much time pressed against a thin metal needle. "I thought you wanted this for some kind of weird blackmail or something at first," Iruka said with a grin, looking up just in time to catch a blush on his friend's face.

"I was hoping you would think that when I asked," Raidou admitted. "It's not exactly a normal thing for a friend to ask you for a picture of your lover sleeping."

The two men laughed easily, and then silence fell between them as the picture was carefully handed back over to its owner, who immediately went off to put it away again, wherever it was he stored his greatest treasures.

Raidou picked up the cards as if to deal them again, but Iruka shook his head. "You already owe me two meals, two bottles of nice sake, and a practice session with my students. Let's stop this slaughter before we have to start betting sexual favors."

That got him a small laugh, and they easily stood and wandered into the living room, where Raidou sat on the couch and Iruka sprawled in one of his favorite spots on the floor, where the light from the large window could just hit him. "You and your sunlight," his friend remarked with a grin, to which Iruka stuck out his tongue childishly. He did indeed enjoy the sunlight, but he also didn't like Genma's new leather couch, had preferred the old broken-in one that had stood in that spot for years.

Easy conversation followed, about various events coming up around town, the party Raidou's lover was planning for this weekend, the antics of Iruka's most recent batch of mini-nins. Then suddenly, Raidou said, "Genma won't replace anything around here unless it's broken."

It seemed like a random comment, and it took Iruka by surprise. He took a moment to think about it, trying to look "underneath the underneath" as his boyfriend would say. "Who broke the couch?" he asked finally.

"Anko," the other man replied. "I think you missed that party, because Kakashi had just gotten back from a mission and you were busy welcoming him home."

Iruka paused, then stood and without asking for an invitation walked down the hallway, glancing into various rooms. He noted that several things had been replaced since the last time he'd done a real close inspection of the home of his two close friends. The only rooms that seemed completely untouched were the large empty one that wouldn't have had anything to break anyways, and the one that had once been his own room, sitting just as he had left it when he moved out.

The other man didn't move from the couch, and Iruka stopped in the hallway to think before rejoining him, looking up at a picture on the wall of several of their old friends relaxing after a long afternoon of sparring and playing games. In the photo, a tired-looking young swordsman was cleaning his blade, a silver-haired figure with most of his face covered peered over the edge of a book, two mischief-makers with huge grins leaned on each other, and Raidou sat next to his bandana-wearing friend with the needle in his mouth, who reached up to catch Iruka himself as he dove into the picture after setting the timer.

The answer struck Iruka then, and he strode back into the living room and plopped to the floor just at Raidou's feet, leaning his head back to rest on the couch so he could look up at his old friend. "So, how long have you been asking people to break things for you?"

Raidou chuckled. "A couple of years now. The kitchen table was the first to go." The big man paused, and since Genma wasn't around to stop him, placed a hand over the scarred part of his face. "I don't know if you remember, but I walked in on you once fucking him on that table."

A hot blush crept up the teacher's face. "I remember," he said softly. They'd gotten in an argument that evening, in front of company an usual, and afterwards they'd been in the kitchen making up, figuring everyone would be too busy drinking and having their own fun to notice their disappearance. He'd had Genma's back pinned to the table, drilling into him with all the fervor of his still-fresh pain from the argument, when their friend had walked in on them, dropping his drink and bolting. Raidou had never spoken of it to Iruka, but Genma claimed he'd teased him for not being on top.

Raidou laughed heartily, catching the blush. "You should blush, boy," he said teasingly, even though the few years between their ages seemed nothing as adults. "What kind of freak decides to fuck their boyfriend into the kitchen table when they have company in the living room?" Then his face grew sober again. "No offense, but I kind of wanted him to get rid of some of the stuff from when you two were together. Not the pictures, or any of the personal stuff, but… just change some things around the house, to make it more my home."

Iruka suddenly felt very sad for his friend, this man who still seemed to be in some way living in his shadow. "Did you ask him?"

Raidou nodded gravely. "He can't make himself do it. He keeps saying he wants to, but when it comes down to it, he just can't." Another long paused followed, and then finally Raidou sighed and asked, "Ruka-kun, how mad would you be at me if Genma and I weren't together anymore?'

Iruka's world spun. Raidou leaving Genma? He'd worried in the beginning when they first got together that it wouldn't work out, because Genma tended to be a fuck-up and he might do something stupid, but Raidou leaving Genma, after being secretly in love with him for so many years? It seemed impossible, and he had no idea what to say. But he had to say something, because Raidou was looking down at him sadly, his hand again shyly covering the scars on his face. "I wouldn't be angry at you at all, Rai," Iruka said, sounding calmer than he felt. "I would be sad, because you waited all this time, and the two of you seemed so happy together for a while, but I wouldn't be angry at you."

Raidou just nodded, and then looked around the living room silently for a moment. Then, to Iruka's shock, he slid off the couch onto the floor and hugged the other man. This wasn't at all normal, Raidou normally not being the physically affectionate type, not since he'd gotten his scars at least. It had taken forever for Genma to get him to be affectionate with him, and even then they weren't as touchy-feely as Iruka and Genma were. Iruka gently reached an arm around Raidou and hugged back. Then they parted and sat back against the couch, shoulder to shoulder, not looking at each other. "Ruka, we have been happy together. Are happy together for the most part, which is what makes it hard. He's in love with me, it's not like he's lying about that or just playing along to make me happy or something. And he doesn't talk about you like he used to, with that longing in his voice. But he won't replace anything unless it's broken, and sometimes when I come home he's alone in the dark sitting in the room that's still got a bunch of your old stuff in it."

Iruka's voice was sad when he replied. "Technically that was my room, though I don't think I slept it in more than a dozen times in the years I lived here. I always slept in his bed but kept my things in my own space, and tried to confine Kotetsu and Izumo to my room when possible to keep him from killing them, or vice versa." It took him a moment to work up the courage to ask what he was thinking. "Hey, Raidou, why don't you hate me?"

The older man turned to look at him in surprise. "What? I never hated you, except possibly before we met a little, when Genma wouldn't shut up about you but I never saw you. I was annoyed that he was so caught up in some dumb kid, but after we met I couldn't help but see why. It's not like you conspired to keep Genma wrapped around your little finger or something, and you've been completely respectful of my relationship with him the entire time, including helping me get the courage to start it in the first place."

"You're too good for him, you know that?" Iruka finally said, shaking his head.

Raidou laughed, and then pulled Iruka's ponytail much as he would have when they were younger. "Yeah, I know. But this is all just talk… you know I couldn't really leave him, right?"

Then he stood, reaching out a hand to Iruka. "Come on, Ruka-kun, let's go play some more cards. I think I can focus now," he said, smiling a smile that seemed eerily to Iruka as if it had been borrowed from him.