Chapter Four: Spoiling the Mutt
Iruka woke up and stretched, realizing sadly that he was alone in the bed. He sat up blinking and scratched at his scar. He heard a knocking around noise and then the muffled sound of Kakashi talking to someone. Iruka smiled to himself and got up, walking out into the living room. Kakashi was already dressed and talking to Pakkun, they were arguing about steak of all things.
"You promised me steak, boss." Pakkun whined.
"I'll go get it later." Kakashi said an edge to his voice. Obviously this little argument had been going back and forth for a while.
"Morning." Iruka smiled happily and upon entering his own tiny kitchen, he kissed Kakashi on the cheek and watched as the man blushed lightly. It pleased him to see the old man without his mask, to see his emotions for once. Iruka opened the freezer, pulled a steak out and put it in the microwave and set the defroster.
"Was that a steak?" Pakkun said reverently.
"Sure was. Do you like rib eye?" Iruka looked down at the pug and winked.
"I think I love you, Iruka." Pakkun said his tail wagging.
"Traitor." Kakashi muttered, and then picked up the coffee pot. "Coffee?"
"Hai." Iruka said and pulled down his favorite dolphin mug that Naruto gave him a few years ago for his birthday and added a lot of creamer and sugar to it. He drank about half of it in one long gulp then took a deep breath.
"Now I'm awake. Have you been up long?" Iruka asked.
"No, just long enough to make the coffee, really." Kakashi said looking at Iruka.
"I've got a meeting with Ibiki-san soon. You will have to come. I will have to tell him that you know some of the information. You will have to be debriefed about what you do know since you happened across some of the information innocently." Iruka said as he glanced up at the clock on the microwave, then he took the now defrosted steak out and started to season it.
"You don't have to go through all that for him, just cook it." Kakashi grumbled, trying to take the steak away. Iruka slapped at his hand.
"I'll do whatever I want to do for him." Iruka said. "Just because he's a dog doesn't mean he doesn't have taste buds. Honestly, Kakashi."
Kakashi left the kitchen wandered into the living room. "If you spoil him, you're going to just ruin him." Kakashi sat down on the couch with his arms crossed.
Pakkun came up and sat down next to Kakashi. "I think he's perfect. Can we keep him?"
"Shut up or I'll eat that steak." Kakashi said.
"You will not." Iruka said from the kitchen. "We're having lunch with Ibiki soon. Granted it's a terrible little restaurant and they have the worst tempura but it's free." Iruka was now cooking the steak on some sort of little indoor grill pan.
"Ooo…he's got good hearing. And did you see all his body? He works out. He's not all skinny and lazy like you, boss." Pakkun seemed very pleased with himself.
"I hate tempura." Kakashi said absently.
Iruka was laughing in the kitchen. Kakashi turned around and glared at him. Iruka closed his mouth and tried to keep his laughter to a minimum. He finished grilling the steak, then cut it up into nice bite size pieces and put it on a plate and placed it on the ground for Pakkun. The pug raced over and started scarfing it down immediately.
"Come on, then. Let's get dressed, Kashi. You might have to fill up on something before you go then, since you don't like tempura." Iruka glanced sideways at Kakashi with a grin.
"You know, I'm starting to think you're not the innocent sensei that everyone thinks you are, Iruka."
"I really don't know why everyone thinks that I am." Iruka laughed as they got to the bedroom and closed the door.
Later, the two shenobi slipped into the dank little bar with the sticky floors and met Ibiki about twenty minutes late. Ibiki frowned at the sight of Kakashi.
"You're late, Iruka." Ibiki said. "And what's he doing here?"
"Sorry, Ibiki." Iruka flushed, remembering why they were late.
"It's okay, I already ordered for you, though. Kakashi-san, are you hungry?" Ibiki asked.
"No, I'm fine." Kakashi said. "I'll have a glass of sake, though."
Ibiki signaled the water to bring them a round of drinks.
"Care to explain?" Ibiki raised an eyebrow expectantly. "It's not usual protocol to bring friends with you to these types of meetings, Iruka."
Iruka flushed again. "I know, Ibiki. Do you remember our last conversation? About ahh..?"
Ibiki looked from the blushing Iruka to the smiling Kakashi, then burst out laughing. "So this is your lover, Iruka? I still don't see why you brought him here."
"You told Ibiki about us?" Kakashi said, turning towards Iruka.
Iruka huffed for a moment.
"Well not really…" Iruka started to explain, taking a sip of sake.
"And you call me a pervert!" Kakashi laughed and pulled out his Icha Icha Paradise.
Iruka pulled the book out of his hands. "Don't read that book when you're in public with me, that's just rude."
Kakashi sighed and put the book away in his pocket.
"Anyways, what I was trying to say is that last night he got jealous and followed me." Iruka said tartly.
"I was not jealous. I was concerned for your well being." Kakashi said.
"That's not what Pakkun said."
"What does that mutt know?" Kakashi snorted.
"You know he is very insightful, Kakashi." Iruka said.
"He's a nin dog, Iruka, and you're spoiling him."
Ibiki watched the two of them interact silently for a few minutes, and then interrupted.
"Can we get back to the mission a stake here?" Ibiki asked.
"Yes, as I was saying, he followed me to the club where I was having my date. Takehiko asked me back to his place; however he only took me back to his jounin apartments. He wanted sex. I drugged him and he fell asleep. He did not give out any new information. I'm sorry." Iruka went on and added a few extra details that he had picked up from Takehiko's cronies, but it wasn't really much of anything useful at this point.
Ibiki sighed and glared at Kakashi. "Why did you follow Iruka?"
"I was jealous." Kakashi said, shrugging.
Iruka turned and looked at Kakashi, who was studiously looking at his sake glass.
"The jounin Takehiko is suspected of being in a ring of possible rouge nins that are trying to infiltrate Konoha and possibly ROOT. We know that he is a part of a larger group and Iruka, posing as the chuunin Kouki, has been trying to ingratiate himself into that group, to gain access to their information. Unfortunately, I'm not sure Takehiko is going to work much longer. I think you need to try working on the other jounin, Saburo. You said he showed an interest in you as well?"
Iruka shifted anxiously in his seat. "Yes, that is true."
"You would just send him there, to be used like that?" Kakashi demanded.
"Kakashi, this is a mission. You know how it is. I cannot let the squeamish feelings of a man's boyfriend get in the way. You have to understand our point of view. I'm sorry about this but Konoha comes first." Ibiki finished his lunch and took a large sip of sake. "And Iruka, it was irresponsible of you to get involved in a relationship in the middle of a mission, anyways."
Iruka didn't know what to say. He didn't even know if he was in a relationship in the first place. Kami help him, Kakashi and he hadn't even discussed it yet. But if he denied the relationship to Ibiki then it would be like telling Kakashi he didn't want a relationship and he didn't know if he did want one. Did he want a relationship with the man? He was so confused. He wanted to look over at him see Kakashi's expression, but considering they were sitting side by side in a booth, with an interrogations expert staring at them, it didn't really seem like the right time.
Iruka scratched at his scar, and then tugged at his pony tail.
Ibiki handed over another mission scroll and sighed. "You can be the worst liar about some things, Iruka. I swear. I really don't know how you do these missions."
"Have you seen him undercover, Ibiki?" Kakashi asked suddenly.
Ibiki turned to look at the copy-nin. "I have, in fact."
"He's very good. Unrecognizable, really." Kakashi said with a faraway voice, "It's the little things, too. He looks only slightly different but it's like an entirely different person. He's a very good actor."
Iruka turned to look at Kakashi with a frown.
Ibiki nodded. "That's why he's one of my best. Sadly he chose to do the academy work full time."
"Since I have been briefed on the mission, I would be willing to assist on the mission. I can henge and come along. Surely I could be a friend to Kouki?" Kakashi suggested.
There was a long pause while Ibiki took a long sip and studied the man. "Kakashi, I've know you for a long time. You have been emotionally detached for a long time. Can you be a friend to Kouki and watch him flirt with Saburo? Undercover work was never really your strong suit."
"Maa…Ibiki-san…" Kakashi said. "I've even been working on my henge."
"You will need to butch it up a little, though." Iruka added.
"Wha?" Kakashi looked at Iruka. "Have you been talking to Pakkun again? Damn mutt."