AN: So, here it is, chapter three! Sorry for the wait!
Black and White Masquerade
By: Karasu Kyra
Izumo blinked in surprise at the sound of his mother's voice.
"Nairi, I was just telling the children how much I love them. Yours as my own, as I'm sure you feel about Kotetsu."
"Of course." Nairi said, smiling. She sauntered into the living room and sat on the arm of the armchair Kyn sat at.
"Mother?" Izumo questioned.
"Izumo, don't look so surprised."
Kyn turned to her friend. "You'll never guess what the two have gotten themselves into now."
"Oh my. What happened?"
"USOP." Kyn replied simply.
Nairi's head snapped towards her son and his lover. She stared a moment before relenting and sighing. "I guess you were destined for it really; the both of you. Both Kyn and I passed our immunities on to you, and I can tell you right now, what Ko isn't immune to, you Zu, are. Also, you may not have realized, but we've been training you for this from birth, subconsciously anyway. Another thing is, you'd both do anything your village asks of you, as would Kyn and I."
"Nairi, you aren't possibly condoling this behavior?" Kyn asked desperately.
"I know you want me to tell them not to, but I doubt we could shake a jonin level nin from his duties."
Kyn sighed, giving up. "You're right."
"I'm sorry." Kotetsu hung his head, ashamed. He felt Izumo's hand tighten around his own.
"Mother, Kyn, you don't know what Kotetsu and I have been through. We know what we're doing and we accepted all the consequences that came with that decision. Which brings me to another thing. We'll be gone for a while. A long while, for years, perhaps."
Nairi's eyes widened marginally, and Kyn went as white as a sheet. Kyn stumbled to the two boys – no, men, she corrected – sitting rigidly on the couch, hands fiercely entwined. "My sons…Before you leave, take these." She walked over to the sealed vault behind the bookshelf again. She pulled out two rings from it, walking back over to the two on the couch.
"These were each of your father's." She placed a silver ring in Izumo's palm and a gold one in Kotetsu's.
"Mom!" and "Mother!" sounded simultaneously as shocked expressions adorned Izumo and Kotetsu's face.
"Don't worry. We're sure." Kyn and Nairi smiled.
"Well, I think we'd best be going. We have much to do." Izumo rambled of being subconsciously polite.
Izumo silently led Kotetsu out under the saddened gazes of their parents.
0o0o0
Back in their apartment the brown haired man and black haired man sat on their shared bed in a state of shock. It was as if what had happened in the past hours just hit them. The weight of what they have just taken on pressing against them.
"Shit." Izumo said. He then proceeded to giggle lightly.
Kotetsu laughed looking to Izumo. Kotetsu started giggling too. That led to the two bursting out laughing. Kotetsu recovered first. "We're in some deep shit, huh?"
"Yup." Izumo agreed.
Kotetsu sat silent a moment, pondering. He suddenly brightened. He jumped up quickly, standing in front of a startled Izumo. He held his hand out, gazing at his lover. "What do you say we go out tonight, hmm?"
Izumo took Kotetsu's hand, stood, and smiled softly. "I'd say that's a great idea. Anywhere particular in mind?"
"Actually, yeah. Get dressed nice."
Izumo looked surprised before complying, pulling his and his black haired boyfriends' suits out. He threw it to him and the two got dressed quickly. Kotetsu led him to a fine restaurant on the edge of town. They were seated swiftly and soon had meals in front of them.
Kotetsu's hands fell to his lap where he toyed with the ring on his finger looking thoughtfully towards Izumo, who, in his opinion looked astonishing, illuminated by the soft lights of the fine restaurant.
"Is something wrong, dearheart?" Izumo asked.
"Umm, no." Kotetsu fell silent dropping his gaze to his food, which he had hardly touched.
"If you say so." Izumo watched warily.
Kotetsu growled suddenly. At himself, Izumo assumed. The spiky haired young man stood and walked over to Izumo's side of the table. He dropped to one knee before the brown haired man.
Izumo gasped in surprise.
"Izumo Kamizuki, I love you with all my soul. I've known you since always and you've always been there for me. We've been to hell and back, far to many times to count. Izumo, my beloved, will you marry me?" Kotetsu held the golden band that was his father's out to Izumo.
Izumo smiled softly. "Only if you'll take me Kotetsu Hagane."
"Of course." Kotetsu smiled, sliding the cold, golden ring onto Izumo's left ring finger, which, surprisingly fit perfectly.
Izumo pulled Kotetsu into a deep kiss. Kotetsu, not paying attention, leaned forwards and rested his arm on the table, spilling a glass of water. Izumo jumped back in surprise. Both broke into a fit of laughter, turning quite a few heads in the quiet restaurant.
That was when the food came, the waiter telling them to be quiet or they would be forced to leave. Kotetsu looked at the small bit of food he had been served, raising an eyebrow and grinning. "Did I mention I've never been here before?"
Izumo smirked back. "Nope, you didn't."
"Ditch?" Kotetsu asked.
Izumo nodded. "Ditch."
Izumo, above stealing, placed a few bills down. Kotetsu knew and expected Izumo would do that, just waited a moment before grabbing Izumo's hand and dashing out of there.
They went back to their apartment and ordered pizza, spending the night on the couch, laughing at cheesy movies, curled together in the dark.
0o0o0
0o0o0
Then next day found the two lovers tangled in the white sheets of their bed, naked. Suddenly, a brush of chakra woke the two. They jumped out of their bed, grabbing at the kunai that were not there.
An ANBU stood before them. He chuckled lightly, uncharacteristic of a high level shinobi. "I'm sorry. I hadn't realized you two were actually lovers."
The ANBU exited the room. The two USOP members uniformed themselves quickly. They walked out to their living room. The ANBU spoke again, removing his mask and clipping it to his belt, smiling. "I'm sorry for the intrusion. I assumed you weren't actually lovers."
"Ah, as Tsunade assumes you and that blonde aren't lovers?" Kotetsu smirked.
The ANBU smiled again. "Much like that."
"So, what brings you here?"
"Well, a couple things. One, I finished memorizing my profile and writing the second report. I brought you a copy. Two, Tsunade has summoned you. As she would normally do it through your tattoos, she hasn't actually activated it yet, hence why she needs you."
"Okay. We've finished ours. Could you give a copy to the blonde?" Izumo asked, taking the offered folder and handing another back.
"I'm sure I could." The ANBU nodded.
"Thanks."
"My pleasure." The ANBU man exited the room.
"That was a rude awakening." Izumo sighed.
"A little bit." Kotetsu agreed with a lopsided smile.
"What do you say we get to Tsunade's?" Izumo sighed again after a moment of silence, resolving himself to work for the rest of the day.
"I guess."
0o0o0
At Tsunade's office the two were sitting across from her. Tsunade was rifling through a few papers on her desk, glancing over information and relaying it to the two USOP members. Finally she voiced what originally brought them to her. "I need to activate your tattoos."
"What does that entail?" Izumo asked.
"Not much. Just a slight bit of seal work."
Tsunade walked to Izumo and focused her chakra to her finger before laying it over the tattoo sliding her finger downwards, slowly building a summoning seal in reverse so that they are the ones summoned.
Once that was finished she split her finger open and built the seal in blood unto the paper. She repeated the process with Kotetsu, but with a different seal.
Once finished, she leaned against the corner of her desk, crossing her arms over her chest. "Sakura Haruno will be your teacher as she has the basics down and we haven't anyone else to spare. That doesn't mean she doesn't know what she's doing though. I'd trust her with my life."
The two nodded.
"She's just outside the door, and already knows the situation. You'll want to keep your masks on though."
They nodded, leaving at the Godaime's dismissal. They walked out and were greeted by the pink-haired kunoichi in question. Izumo nodded. "Haruno-san."
"Hawk-san, Hound-san, it's a pleasure meeting you. Tsunade-sama informed me that you will be needing the basics of Med-training."
Kotetsu, also known as Hound, nodded. "Yes."
"Alright. Come on." Sakura gestured a hand to follow her and began walking out of the building.
The two USOP members followed the pink-haired girl to a small sand-pit outside of the twenty-eighth training ground. She stood just before it, turning to face her two students. "You've both learned to walk on top of water, I hope. Well, this is basically the same thing. I'll let you try on your own at first, and then I'll start giving you hints. Hawk, why don't you go first, and then Hound."
Izumo nodded, not really seeing how this could be difficult. He pushed chakra to his feet just as he would for water and took his first step onto the sand. Half the sand under his foot quickly dispersed itself, flying in several directions. His foot sank into the ground, the sand on the other half of his foot closing around it in the crevice. Only his training saved him from an abrupt fall that would have only wounded his pride. Instead he fell to one knee, still a blow to his pride, but much less worse than it could have been.
Izumo shook his head mentally, before stepping behind the quietly snickering Kotetsu and glaring at him. At Sakura's command he stepped forward into the sand, only to sink down as he would have if he had normally walked across it. He frowned.
"Okay, do you have any ideas as to what you might be doing wrong, either of you?"
"Well, Hawk put to much chakra into his step-" Kotetsu said, talking of Izumo before getting cut off by said man.
"And Hound put to little." Izumo said.
"Well, you're both half correct. Try focusing on every little grain of sand." Sakura suggested.
Izumo stepped up again. He stepped forward, trying to focus on every grain of sand, but not being able to his chakra and the push of the sand, this time, did make him lose his balance completely, falling on his bottom in the sand. He scowled at the outright laughing Kotetsu, Sakura breaking into a knowing smile.
"Not so easy is it?" The kunoichi asked, almost smug as she herself walked out, the sand flattening itself under her feet perfectly. "This is called good chakra control. You two are pretty average for a jonin when it comes to chakra control, but for a med-nin you'll have to have even better."
The two nodded, ready to go out and try it again.
0o0o0o0
A few hours later and Kotetsu had himself a good seven feet across the thirty foot wide circle of sand. Sakura had gone back to the Hokage, leaving the two to there training. He scowled at his boyfriends' back. Izumo was a few feet ahead of him before he took a wrong step.
Izumo turned his masked gaze on Kotetsu and the spiky-haired jonin knew the exact mocking look that Izumo was giving him. Kotetsu raised an eyebrow. "Challenge, hmm?"
Izumo chuckled. "You know me well, lover."
The two lined up on the same side of the circle. They set off at the same time at Izumo's mark, since both knew Kotetsu cheated and took off before he said start. They were both moving as fast as they could without messing up, which was an average walking pace.
When Izumo messed up first, he went back to the edge of the circle, starting over. It was just like when their sensei first taught them to climb trees. The first to the opposite end wins.
Then Kotetsu messed up and Izumo had the lead. It went on for hours, Izumo getting the farthest by the time they decided to take a break, getting just before half way.
The two leaned against opposite tree, their masks off as they knew no one was around. Izumo snorted suddenly. "This is hard."
"Really, how'd you figure that one out?" Kotetsu asked sarcastically.
"Smartass." Izumo replied good-naturedly.
"Know it all." Kotetsu replied in the same tone.
"Shit for brains."
"Bookworm."
"Cock sucker."
Kotetsu laughed at that, grinning. "Guilty as charged, flirt."
"Tease."
"Nympho."
Izumo laughed. "Dog face."
"Cat lover."
"Your lover."
"My fiancé." Kotetsu corrected with a smirk.
The two broke completely into laughter. They gasped as they fought to catch their breath. A few minutes later, Izumo shook his head, standing and offering a hand to Kotetsu. "We should probably get back to it."
Kotetsu agreed. "I'm always ready to kick your ass."
"Kick my ass? Funny, that's not what you were doing with it last night." Izumo and Kotetsu replaced their masks, returning to the edge of the sand-pit.
0o0o0o0