One month, ten days and one hour
One month, nine days and twenty one hours
He sighed.
His strong arms holding a cushion into his chest as he laid out on the couch. His Itcha Itcha book lay open against the wall where it had been flung three weeks ago.
He closed his eye assumed to be eyes, but that is not certain bringing the cushion tighter into his chest.
His hitai-ate lay loosely over his Sharingan eye, his silver hair framing his face in an unruly manner.
If you looked closely enough you would be able to see his foot prints in the thin layer of dust that now rested on the wooden floor.
A tear slipped from his visible eye. He normally wouldn't show any weakness in front of another shinobi but it was only the one ANBU outside, who he knew to be Uchiha Sasuke.
It had taken him three years to finally let the brown-haired Chuunin into his life. The same Chuunin waited for another two years before he was given access to the silver-haired nin's heart entirely.
He slowly rolled off the couch and headed to the bedroom. He curled up on his side of the bed, arms still clutching the cushion to his body.
If he had just let his heart out sooner, they would have been together for longer. The Chuunin had taken a long time to build up the courage to talk to him and he himself refused to open up for a long time out of the fear of loosing his 'Ruka, for the fear that he would be taken just like everyone else he had loved.
He had been right to be reserved, and now he wished that he had locked his heart away deeper where Iruka could not have found it, just to keep him safe, even if it meant that the scarred-nosed nin would move on.
He turned to face the blank wall; his had moving momentarily to pick up the dolphin plushie off the floor before crushing it into the cushion and his body.
His love had gone on a mission over a month ago One month, nine days and twenty seven hours ago to be exact on a mission that should have taken a week and a bit, just over two max, so when that time almost double the shinobi began to worry.
Sasuke sighed as he watched his former sensei curl up on the half empty bed.
He knew it had been a long time before his fellow shinobi had let another nin into his heart because of the urge to protect. He knew that they completed each other and needed each other. He also knew what it was like to wait for a lover to come back from a mission, though he had never had to wait as long as this, especially as they had found Iruka's tags but not his body or other members of his team.
He shook his head; the sad expression covered by his porcelain mask, Hokage Naruto would need to know that it was another sleepless night for on of his best.
Kakashi was no longer teaching, having failed his second Genin class faster than the time it took to learn the names of Team 7, and he only took the most dangerous missions he could on his own, maybe just hoping that it was his last, who was to know?
He sighed again, looking up at the stars, wishing that Kakashi would see that the sacrifice unknown how big Iruka made was not to be wasted like this and he needed to keep Iruka's and his beliefs alive and protect their village.