"Umino Iruka. You are a difficult man to locate."

Iruka squinted up at the guy (dark hair, blandly attractive face, pale eyes) leaning hipshot against his table, and turned his sake cup slowly between his fingers. "Do I know you?" he asked, and if the words came out a bit slur-y that was okay. It was the weekend and even hard working, under paid, passed over for promotion yet again! academy teachers deserved a chance to let their hair down every now and again.

"Probably not," the guy replied shooting a quick glance around the crowded bar before sliding into the seat opposite.

Iruka pulled his feet back, sitting straighter and, perforce, more attentively. He wasn't sure he liked that. He'd been happily chilling out in one of the few locations that came as close to being safe as anywhere in their unpredictable world, and he'd been enjoying himself, damn it. Now he was feeling put upon, intruded upon, almost hassled, and that made him one very unhappy sensei. "Can I help you?" His tone, clipped and short and so desperately polite that it almost fell over itself in earnestness, sent out the type of warning alarms that, had he been amongst friends, would have sent them scrambling for shelter.

As it was, the guy failed to take the hint. "Maybe it's more a case of me helping you?"

A pick up line? Possibly. A bar was the right place for it and Friday held an almost sacred role in Konoha as single's night, since it gave the new couple an entire two days to either fuck or fuck up. Iruka frowned, dragging his gaze up from sandalled feet to tousled head, taking in the lean lines, clear pale skin and frankly arresting yellowish eyes along the way.

More to the point, if this was a line, did he care? And if you couldn't remember the last time you got laid, wasn't it about time you tried again?

He sighed. It probably wouldn't be worth it. Knowing his luck the guy'd turn out to be some sort of lunatic with a grudge and a mean streak. Either that or the type who took one night's fun as a promise of life long commitment. No, he was better off alone. With his sake for company and his books for amusement, he wanted for naught his right hand couldn't provide!

With a decisive internal nod, Iruka set his face into an expression of polite disinterest and for some reason said, "Is that an offer or a promise?" Ah, so his body was staging a coup. It happened. Though normally only when he'd drunk so much that he'd forgotten that he shouldn't drink any more. Then his mouth had a habit of saying no even when the rest of him wanted to say yes. This time, it seemed, it was the other way around. Heh, perhaps he was that desperate to get laid, after all.

"It could be both." A hand slid across the table, fingers reaching out, and Iruka, now opening to the idea, was looking forward to that first warm touch when a shriek from an adjoining table saw both of them leaping to their feet, reaching for their weapon's pouches. When the sound resolved into nothing more threatening than laughter, Iruka slumped, exchanging a rueful grin with his companion, who shrugged as if to say, 'Shinobi reflexes. What can you do?'

That seemed to break the ice entirely. So later - how much later Iruka couldn't be sure, though if he counted it in cups of sake it was about seven cups, three fascinating conversations, and several rather nice kisses later - when Masa (rich walnut hair, amber eyes and a very nice ass) suggested they take things somewhere a bit more private, Iruka's body and brain struck up a happy alliance and agreed whole heartedly to the plan. They staggered outside, steps matched in an uneven pace, shoulders colliding with first one corner and then another as they navigated a lurching route from the bar to whatever destination came their way.

And Iruka found himself happy. Not the bone deep contentment of an exam set, sat and graded, but the type of fizzy curiosity that occurred far too rarely in his life these days. Sure, he was looking forward to getting laid, but also to finding out more about Masa (soft strands that tangled round his fingers, full sake-flavoured lips, eyes that caught the light and reflected it back with an added fiery gleam).

The back alley seemed the perfect place to get things started, a halfway house secluded from the road but not as personally revealing as homes and beds. "Here," he said, reversing into the wall and using their linked fingers to tug Masa closer. "This's perfect."

And for a moment it was. As Masa stepped forward, warm possibility burbled through Iruka's body; he felt gleeful, almost breathless. Young and carefree and wanted - desired - again. Then something changed. What, Iruka couldn't say, but the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and cold sobriety sluiced away his slightly intoxicated glow. Five seconds ago, he would have been happily anticipating a kiss when Masa leaned towards him. Now, he didn't know what to expect. In a way the sharp sting of a blade against his neck was a relief. At least it wasn't a kunai to the heart.

"Umino Iruka," Masa whispered in a voice colder than the harshest winter in the Land of Snow. "We've been watching you."