Important note: you already know that there is no japanese links; but also, I wouldn't mind if people sent me some comments on any improvements; since this is already typed up, I can easily add to it. don't be scared; I don't bite, and you can leave it without a username if you wowuld like.

Disclaimer: Not mine.


Laughing and singing echoed around the candle-lit dinner hall, loud lute and flute music played in the background loud and cheerful to enlighten the heavy feast. Iruka winced at every high note; his sensitive ears ringing for long moments afterwards. The prince looked upon the food displayed; food was usually entrusted to the squires of the kitchen and was chosen, purchased and paid for by these. He watched as these squires and servants brought out the weighty plates of rich food and some he had never seen before. The table he sat at was on a dais; reserved for himself, the king and his knights. He sat on the end of the table; Anko left them to sit with the other nobles on lesser raised tables towards the door. The king's great doctors and nurses sat on these tables; he glanced upon some he knew when they had started training to be medics; although most were not there due to the need for doctors on the battlefield. The king often chose not to sacrifice his own medics but needs were become more desperate.

He saw Kabuto; a sound medic whom Orochimaru favoured over all else, he had silver hair beyond his years and wore high collared robes and golden lined glasses. Other women and men he had never seen sat at the table; he guessed they came with the knights. The eating-hall had a golden aura around it from the candle light and the windows were dark, it was late in the evening and the summer sun had finally set. As he glanced upon the medic's table he saw a flash of pink and gasped out loud; attracting attention from the king of Konoha's sister village in japan, Naruto.

"Have you seen Sakura?"

The prince furrowed his brows and turned to the king, wandering if the girl with pink hair was this "Sakura". He looked over the table as he turned to the prince; seeing all of the knights surrounding it. One chair remained empty in front of him and he made a mental note to ask Naruto who was meant to sit there. He saw the white haired man with red painted face at the further end of the long table; discussing memories with Orochimaru and the busty woman –he wandered why he had not been seated with the adults- and Asuma and Kurenai near them. He then saw the youngest Uchiha running has hand over the back of the blonde king's neck and visibly shuddering at the mention of the pink-haired girl's name.

They sat next to one another, Naruto on his right and Sasuke on Naruto's right, the elder Uchiha opposite the younger. A boy with similar hair to the prince lay between the empty chair and Itachi holding his head on his folded arms as he appeared to take a nap.
The elder Uchiha smirked at his younger brother; teasing with a glint of mischief in his onyx eyes.
Iruka looked upon the brothers and could see the resemblance. They both had raven locks with a blue tint he had never encountered, although the youngest had short hair that was spiked at the back, another feature the prince was new to, and long bangs as the front. The elder had long mid-length hair, almost as long as the white-eyed boy's locks. They both had pale skin, unmarred and flawless except for the elder who had two lines descending from the corner of his eyes to his cheeks.

"Sakura?"

"Yeah, she's one of my medics!" The blonde boy beamed, blue eyes narrowing slightly due to the intensity of the grin. The younger Uchiha shuddered again and the king snorted when he felt it from the hand on his neck. "She's Sasuke's best friend!" he laughed, infectious apparently as Shikamaru snorted against his crossed arms; he obviously didn't like the food on offer and his plate remained empty under his hands. The fine china had been supplied by the Japanese guests and had an intricate design of a Sakura blossom across them.

"Shut up Dobe, he doesn't need to know about that, you'll scare him."

The prince furrowed his brows at the word "Dobe," he had never come across it before. His curiosity got the best of him, "what is 'Dobe'?"

Sasuke smirked and squeezed his lover's neck one last time before straitening his features, removing his hand to gracefully cross like his brothers on the table, and linking eyes with the prince; "It means dead-last in Japanese."

The prince's mouth hung open. The king allowed himself to be referred to as dead-last? The king shook his head in a mocking gesture. "Hahaha-" he laughed sarcastically "-Don't worry, the teme knows that I'm not a dobe, I'm king! Beat his sorry-ass rank!" He said, flashing the infectious smile again. The prince was shocked to say the least, "what's a teme-"

"It means bastard." The youngest Uchiha offered seemingly unaffected by the insult. The prince made a confused face, what kind of a relationship is built on insults? Especially towards a king from a knight. But then, he supposed, he felt a jealous tinge in himself that these young boys had each other and were so comfortable with each other that they can throw insults freely; and their kingdoms respected their rather unorthodox relationship.

A large bowl was placed in an empty space on the table. Naruto's eyes brightened considerably and he dragged the large bowl towards himself. Iruka had never seen the food in the bowl, it looked like worms! Naruto started eating the substance with two sticks Iruka recognised as chopsticks, not even stopping to breathe.

"What is that?" he asked, and watched as Sasuke laughed and Naruto nearly choked on the long strips of noodle hanging from his mouth.

"ITS RAMEN!" he screamed, holding the bowl like a child and smiling to himself, Sasuke gave a small genuine smile as he watched his love cradle the noodles, before straitening his face and addressing the prince. "There an unhealthy form of noodles that Naruto loves more than me."

The king laughed "That's not always true teme," Naruto spoke in a soft voice before kissing the ravens cheek and leaving a dribble of noodle broth on a pearly white skin. The Uchiha wiped the liquid from his cheek and scowled at the king, who seemed not to care at all and went back to his noodles.

"Why don't you offer the prince some ramen, Naruto? He has yet to eat something," the elder Uchiha asked. Iruka hadn't even noticed he had not been eating; he was far too busy observing the guests.

"Oh yeah! Iruka should try some!" the boy shoved the large bowl towards the prince, smiling and searching the table for a set of chopsticks. The prince held up his own chopsticks and made sure the kings saw them before he placed them in his hand. He had training as a boy to hold any form of cutlery in case of over sea visitors.

He collected a selection of the food in the bowl, looking at it for a moment as the liquid around the noodles dripped back into the bowl. The two Uchiha's made a strange strangled gagging sound and Iruka managed to decode them as sounds of repulse and distaste.

"SHUT UP TEME!"

He spun the noodles around the chopsticks so that the larger pieces wouldn't get stuck around his mouth and watched as some shorter noodles fell back into the bowl. The two teens continued to bicker as he took his first bite of the ramen.

He loved it. He could defiantly see why Naruto enjoyed the noodles so much he almost wished he could through caution to the wind and eat the noodles in the same shambolic fashion the blonde king did, but he would get a scolding from his own king if he were to do so. He politely took several small chopstick helpings of the noodles onto his plate –making sure not to deprive the blue-eyed boy of what was obviously his favourite food- and handed the bowl back to the king.

He watched in slight awe as the boy inhaled his noodles and proceeded to order another large bowl from a passing waiter; the bowls were a good 30 centimetres in diameter and equally as deep, Iruka had never seen such an appetite! He wondered if the food was rare in japan for the boy to eat so much; surely eating it regularly would make him sick of the food?

-000-

"So tell me, Orochimaru, who the hell is the brunette at the end of the table?" Tsunade asked; one hand clutching a silver old-English-tankard (1) filled with sake the Japanese had provided. She often drank it so she asked Naruto via-letter to bring several crates since the sake from her own realm often tasted cheap.

"We know you definitely haven't had any kids!" Jiraiya shouted loudly, attracting the attention of Asuma and Kurenai who sat talking idly to themselves at the very end of the table.

"Well, my dear teammates, he is just a simple orphan I picked up; he was quite intelligent when I met him and played a rather viscous trick on one of my maids,"

Tsunade nodded and Jiraiya looked upon the brunette seated at the end of the table. He sat quietly; arms on his lap and plate half clear- timid, she decided. She guessed Orochimaru had been brutal in raising him; since the boy he described having picked up was nothing like the man who sat uncomfortably at the end of the table. Tsunade pondered for a second (contrary to popular belief, she was actually very smart). She decided not to ask Orochimaru of the real reason he had taken in Iruka, and so took a swig of her sake.

"Do you remember when Orochimaru thought he could beat Tsunade at a drinking contest?" Tsume spoke next to Kiba and Hinata opposite him. Hana didn't sit with them because she wasn't considered noble enough as a simple vet. Not that Hinata or Kiba knew though, they just thought she would prefer to sit in her room.

-000-

Iruka watched in awe as Naruto finished his fifth bowl of ramen and collapsed back onto Sasuke; smiling to himself and stroking his stomach.

"Ha! Knew I could do it… in your face teme…" he said, too worn out to shout. Sasuke and Itachi looked at him with a strange look; almost like sympathy and annoyance mixed into one.

"Naruto, you should have saved some for me!" a deep, masculine voice called, velvety and syrupy. Iruka looked up to see the owner of the voice, he saw a confused looking announcer who had obviously been expecting the owner of the voice to announce himself, not complain about the kings eating habits. He also saw, by far, the most attractive man he had ever seen in his entire life.

The man's hair was spiked wildly; leaning to one side in a gravity-defying show of silver, His face was covered by a mask that started from his shoulders and worked its way to his nose; it was black and made from a material that wasn't especially exciting; nor rags. It made him seem mysterious; but Iruka could see through the mask that the man had sharp, chiselled features because the material was pulled tight; he man clearly had a sharp, long and masculine jawline.
He met with mismatched eyes; something he had never encountered. One eye was a lazy grey colour; not vibrant or striking like Naruto's, but it told stories and poems to Iruka and the prince felt himself swoon. The other eye was a striking red; a scar ran across it from his forehead to his cheek; Iruka suspected it was a war injury and had changed colour when it was slashed. The man wore simple clothing, a pair of baggy trousers unlike most the prince had seen and a black long sleeve t-shirt, sleeves protruding from a baggy dark-green vest with a large red swirl painted on the back, and Iruka noticed how he held himself; lazily, his shoulders slumping slightly as he walked over to the table at a leisurely pace.

"This is Kakashi Hatake, who has arrived at his own pace after inspecting our castle." The announcer said with a hint of sarcasm and annoyance in his tone.

The man, Kakashi, walked over to the chair opposite Iruka; eye contact remaining as the prince nervously fumbled with the chopsticks in his hand. He had women and men look at him before, he was a prince; it happens, but they always seemed to look though him at the king.
He had never had a woman or a man before; he found he was too submissive with both sexes, and could never find a man who would dominate him because they were scared he would leave them if they were too overbearing, and they would lose their place in the castle. Women who were dominant over him spent too long away in shops or with makeup, spending away the kings and country's money. He did meet one shy girl once, but found he was too nervous to make moves; and she was too, so nothing ever amounted. He had never seen someone like this; Kakashi seemed to have the perfect balance of being dominant and laid-back. A perfect balance. Perfect.

The man sat, moving around in the chair before he felt comfortable; and then leaning back and observing the company.

"You're a few hours late, Kakashi, as always." The young Uchiha stated and Naruto let out a snort of laughter and lay over completely on his chair; head on Sasuke's lap and feet braced against the side of Iruka's chair.

"Yes, it appears so doesn't it Sasuke?" Iruka blushed profusely for reasons he didn't understand, the man was late, so what? How could he be blushing from such a statement? It was probably the man's voice. Deep and almost like molten chocolate. He could feel the words wrapping around him and rooting him to the chair; even though he would like nothing more than to run to his room and hide under his hideous bed sheets. They were like ribbons; he decided, ribbons that tied him up like a present he would happily give to this beautiful man in front of him. Whose eyes still were firmly locked onto the prince as he spoke to Naruto.

"Get lost on the road of life again?" Naruto observed form his place under the table; Iruka broke eye contact without thinking to observe the blonde, Sasuke stroking the bright hair idly as the king spoke.

"No, I stopped to smell the roses, and the lilacs, and the sunflowers, and the-"Iruka let out a chuckle as he tried not to fully laugh at the man's excuse. Kakashi paused and waited patiently for the prince to calm himself. So he could observe the man's chocolate eyes once more.

Iruka silently kicked himself as he felt gold eyes observing him; he had actually humoured a late guest and Orochimaru was watching. He turned bright red and looked down into his lap.

He had never really been a giddy person, anyway, he told himself.

-000-

Iruka didn't register much for the next half an hour; he knew that his cup was filled with wine and his king had asked for it to be changed to water for him, and then Sasuke had to fight the cup from Naruto and had complained about how the blonde acted when he was drunk. He also knew Sasuke had done something to Naruto under the table that made the boy's legs flail around and kick the elder Uchiha by accident, he knew that one of the dogs Kiba and his mother had brought clambered on the table when a joint of game was laid on it and proceeded to eat the entire thing before the shy white-eyed girl offered him her hand and he nuzzled it as she led him away, but everything else was a blur except for Kakashi. Oh, he also remembers lee and guy shouting and projecting messages of "youth" and "love" throughout the night from their place near Tsunade they had taken after going for a "most youthful tour of the castle!"

He and Kakashi didn't talk nearly as much as he had wished they would. The man infuriated him actually, often teasing him.

"Iruka child," Orochimaru called from his place on the table; holding his hand in the air in an expectant form. No one could notice, but his hands shook with the effort and weight of holding up his frail limb. Iruka looked up and gave a small nod.

"Yes your majesty,"

"You should not just eat the noodles, have some rabbit,"

Iruka tried to conceal the looks of distaste on his face at the idea of eating the rabbit; they were cute animals and Orochimaru often asked for their heads to be kept on when they were cooked. Despite this look, the king moved the rabbit toward the young Uchiha. Iruka noticed the tensing of the boy's body as his hand was brushed against by the kings.

The rabbit was placed next to him; looking at him. The conversation continued on the table as the rabbit stared its dead and bloody eyes at him.

The worst part was golden eyes looked at him too, waiting for him to try the rabbit.

"Want me to cut it?" the silver haired knight asked; picking up the meat cleaver on the same plate as the rabbit before the prince could stop him, "N-No!" the prince shouted before the sound of metal hitting metal resounded around the hall.

"Who wants the head?"

-000-

He picked up a lot of the knights habits from the man in front of him as he read an unnamed book however. He knew that the man would absently play with the page before he turned it; read the first line of the new page and turn back to re-read the last line of the previous page—to check, he presumed.

He learned that the man didn't take down his mask to do anything and even avoided eating, so that he may keep the mask on. Iruka did ponder for a moment about what was under it, but decided he wouldn't want people asking questions about his face and so left the subjects alone.

Kiba and Hinata observed the couple form their place along the table, "I think Kakashi likes him a little," Kiba whispered to his wife, off course having no concept of volume (much like Naruto) the snake-like king heard this and his ears strained to listen the dog-boy.

"W-what makes you say that, Kiba?" the stuttering, white-eyed girl asked. Neji listened too since he had heard the man's loud whisper.

"He's looking at him over his book! And he cut off the rabbits head," he said slightly louder.

Shikamaru, sat next to Kakashi, had noticed this also. He saw how the man looked over his book at the blushing and timid prince and how he had folded the bottom of his books page so that he could turn pages without reading them, and still hold his place in the book.

But Shikamaru was a genius, so it wasn't hard for him to notice these things.

"W-why would him cutting off the rabbits h-head mean he liked prince Iruka?" the shy, white-eyed girl asked.

"Because Kakashi's socially challenged; that's basically him flirting," Kiba said in a know-it-all kind of way, but he wasn't wrong.

Orochimaru smirked and decided to play a game called "How red can we make the prince of Konoha," since these knights had so happily provided him his playing cards.

-000-

During the night, the silver-haired man didn't speak, until he was prompted by Orochimaru after the king decided on his tactic of gameplay; which took Iruka out of his dream like state. "Kakashi, may I ask what you were doing around my castle for 2 hours?" he enquired, his tone challenging. Iruka guessed that the silver-haired man would happily accept the challenge, and was happily proven right.

"It was just such a pretty building; I wanted to check it out, your royal highness," he mock bowed; flailing his arm with the book around slightly and the prince- although he would deny it when the king asked him later- stifled a laugh.

"Hmm, and I was going to allow the prince to show you around since you seemed to have such an interest in him when you entered."

Shika's eyebrows flicked; he guessed he wasn't the only one to notice as he usually was. Kiba and Hinata stopped their speech also to observe the conversation.

Iruka was mortified. His king was deliberately embarrassing him! He felt his face heat up and go through a thousand shades of red and he resisted the urge to hide his face, instead looking to the silver-haired knight for help.

The entire table went quiet as they observed the argument; Tsume Inuzuka looked very happy to have some form of fight taking place, and had her tongue happily hanging from her mouth like her dogs. Their dogs were occupied with food but he were intrigued non-the-less.

"Surely it is his choice if he wishes to show me around? Maybe I will have that tour; I have yet to see the gardens, since I was busy admiring the curtains, very…urr-" he deliberately paused so that it looked like he was thinking of a word to describe the drapes around the castle, making sure to anger the king with the time he was taking. Iruka knew why he was struggling; the curtains were a frightful brown with snakes sewn in with green thread; hardly attractive, in his own opinion, and Kakashi's too apparently. "Unique... your royal highness." Another mock bow followed in the same fashion as the old one; Iruka was going to die at this rate.


The evening carried on as normal, before people became too drunk and began to try and fight each other. The evening ended abruptly for Iruka as he lay in his bed; feeling the sheets again and wishing death upon every strand of silk in them. Kakashi hadn't spoken the rest of the night, he simply carried on reading (although, Shika, Kiba, Orochimaru, Neji and Hinata had figured out it wasn't really reading) and sure enough left without a word, not even looking back as he walked away with a slightly tipsy Naruto slung around his shoulders, a grumbling Uchiha following.

He would have liked a hand shake, or even just a nod since the man had caused him so much embarrassment.

He started getting frustrated and tried to grip his sheets to release the anger; but found they slipped through his fingers. What was wrong with him? He didn't even know the man and he was already wishing for things. The knight was worming into his mind and he didn't even know! He couldn't deny staring at the man when he wasn't speaking with Naruto, and that made him even angrier because the silver-haired knight hardly spared him a glance over that darn book!

Why was he even bothered; he was a prince! He must marry a woman and make babies! Not worry over some knight!

He felt overwhelmed with emotion as he stood from his bed and began tearing his sheets from the mattress; taking the pillowcases one by one and wandering why he wasn't just aloud one pillow for one person, extinguishing his candle in his haste to remove the sheets.

After an agonizing fight with his bed he finally held every-single-last puce silk sheet and he made his way towards his balcony.

He should have looked out of the window before he gruffly charged through the white-wood doors and threw his disgusting sheets over the balcony and down onto the gardens below; almost cackling as he watched the sheets land in a heap on the dirty ground. His arms shot up in a sign of victory that Guy and his young assistant would have been proud off.
He really should have checked for an audience as he stormed his way back into his –arms falling to his side as his fatigue caught up with him- bedroom and slammed his doors closed, closing the equally purple curtains-which were defiantly next- panting and gritting his teeth before falling in a mass of angered and red limbs onto his now silk-free bed.

It felt fantastic to remain in the same place and not slip around the bed, and for once he felt as though he could almost stand this place.

-000-

Kakashi looked in awe at the balcony from one of the trees in the garden. He sat here to get some fresh air; he had seen the tree from one of the windows on his self-guided tour around the castle and he felt like it would be a good place to sit and read one of his books, or sleep. The summer nights were long and warm; and he didn't like the silk sheets that were in his room, they were a sickly brown colour and he was convinced they were blue before a maid went into his room, obviously the king was offended by the curtain comment and had decided to make the knights room themed on the horrible fabric.

He could never have wished for a better place to sit; he could see the prince from here! The tree was tall enough that he could jump from it unharmed, yet still have a fantastic view of the prince's room.

He leered to himself as he watched the caramel beauty walk around his room, holding his hands nervously. He wandered how the man could be nervous while walking around his own room; surely it would bring comfort. The man went into a small room the knight presumed was a bathroom and came back wearing a long night shirt and no bottoms. The knight couldn't help but wish he could burn the sight of the princes long brown legs into his memory forever; the sight of the man with his brown hair down as he brushed it in slow strokes and long, lean legs out really did make it hard to sit still. His book hung in his limp hands on his lap; he couldn't even be bothered to pretend to read.

The man disappeared and Kakashi felt himself sigh that he could no longer watch, he considered sneaking up onto the balcony, it's not like the king would hear him, but he knew if he was somehow caught he would have no excuse.

He waited a few minutes to check the man wasn't coming back.

He saw the candlelight from the room disappear and knew the man was going to sleep. He wandered why he didn't draw his curtains but then saw the man returning with what looked like a blanket in his arms, he watched the man stumble on some of the loose sheets and considered helping the man before he saw something that truly puzzled him.

Why was the prince of Konoha throwing his bed-sheets over his balcony?

He resisted laughing as he watched the man literally chuck his purple bed sheets from the balcony; he actually fell off his branch when he saw the man throw his arms in the air with victory.

He laughed all the way back to his room; scaring a lot of the maids.

The prince had clearly had enough of the silk too.


(1) A silver cup that people in the Middle Ages use, you can Google-image "oldEnglish tankards" and you will see.

Next Time: The consequences of iruka's actions.