Chapter eight
A/N: Thanks so much for all the lovely reviews! I try and respond to all the signed ones, so if I forgot you, poke me! Important note at the end of this chapter. Please READ!
//Present//
Kakashi prowled restlessly around the foot of the Hokage tower, carefully keeping just enough distance so as not to provoke his ANBU watchers. Iruka and Ibiki had been talking for hours and the light in the Torture specialist's office window had yet to go out.
He knew there was a lot that Iruka wasn't saying, (not that he'd said much at all on the matter in Kakashi's hearing) but there was so much he wanted… no, needed to know. So he lingered. And lingered some more, waiting with rapidly diminishing patience for Iruka to come out.
Iruka finally left the tower as dawn was lightening the eastern sky. He carried himself wearily, his shoulders sagging as if the weight of his chuunin vest were too heavy for him. The baby in his arms slept soundly, cradled close to Iruka's chest.
The jounin trailed after him, carefully keeping some distance between them. He was surprised when Iruka slowed to a stop and turned to face where he was hidden in the shadows of the buildings. "I promise, Kakashi-sensei, I will tell you soon. But for now, I need rest. I have a class to teach in less than three hours." With that he was gone, the displaced leaves of a jutsu swirling around where he had just been standing.
Kakashi blinked at the empty space where the chuunin had been, startled by the action. Annoyed, he headed back to the tower, wondering if Ibiki was still up and about. He was. Kakashi barely had time for a yelp as he dodged the flung kunai and the volley of shuriken that followed. A gloved hand grabbed his collar and dragged him unceremoniously into Ibiki's office.
"You do remember that Tsunade-sama trusts you not to do anything stupid, right? So that begs the question, why are you still following Iruka-sensei around?"
Kakashi freed himself from Ibiki's grasp. "I haven't offered him any harm," he hissed.
Ibiki sighed and waved toward a chair. "Sit." He glanced toward the lightening sky, "I'm too damned old for this."
Kakashi remained standing and Ibiki leveled a threatening glare at him. "Sit down, Hatake, or I strap you down."
"While Anko might enjoy that sort of play, I'm not Anko." Kakashi snorted.
Ibiki's eyes narrowed dangerously. "I'm not in the mood. It's late and I'm damned tired."
"Now, don't be like that." Kakashi chuckled under his mask. "I know you and she have personally tested out every single torture device this village has. Izumo complained about the noise a couple of times."
A gloved fist slammed into the wall, mere centimeters from his head. Plaster cracked and gave way. Ibiki withdrew his hand, brushing off bits of drywall. "Listen up. Leave Iruka-sensei alone. When he wants to talk to you, he will. Until then, stay the hell away from him."
Kakashi snarled. "What's so important about one chuunin sensei that he's got both the Hokage and the head of Torture and Interrogation protecting him?"
Ibiki turned to stare at him, something strange in the expression that crossed his scarred face. "Gods, sometimes I forget that you can be so hard-headed. There are some things I can't tell you. I made a promise and I don't go back on my word."
Kakashi stared at him for a moment before sinking down into the chair he'd been offered. "So what can you tell me?"
There was a snort of laughter from the specialist jounin. "Never can leave well enough alone, can you?" Ibiki stared at Kakashi for a long moment then sighed. "There's very little I can tell you, but what I can… The baby – Shimo – you're right. He does have Hatake blood."
"So there was another Hatake!"
Ibiki shook his head. "I've said too much already."
"What? By telling me I'm not the last of my clan?!"
"No. You don't understand anything."
"Then tell me!" Kakashi started up from his chair. "Tell me the truth, damn it!"
He was too furious to flinch when Ibiki slammed a hand down on the table. "Listen to me, brat! I've already told you more than I should have. If I say more, I'll have betrayed the vow I gave Iruka-sensei and I will not do that!"
Seething, Kakashi struggled to find words, but Ibiki's tired sigh surprised him. "I know you don't want to hear this, but it would be best if you got the whole story from Iruka-sensei. Honestly."
"But he hasn't told me anything!"
"He said he would tell you." Ibiki reminded him. "So he will. He's not one to go back on his word."
Grumbling, Kakashi had to admit the truth of that. Iruka had never gone back on his word in Kakashi's experience.
Ibiki shook his head. "Now go home and get some sleep before I toss you in a cell just so I can get some rest."
"You would, wouldn't you?"
Ibiki chuckled dryly. "I don't lie, either."
He waited until classes at the academy were over before resuming his observation of Iruka-sensei. After the chunnin had shooed the last of his class of hellions out, Iruka stretched and tucked a handful of papers in a leather satchel. He looked up as a head poked in the open door. "Iruka-sensei?"
Kakashi moved closer to the window so he could hear everything instead of having to rely on his lip-reading skills.
Iruka smiled at his fellow teacher. "Hello, Noriko-sensei. What can I do for you?"
The red-haired chuunin blushed. "Just wanted to say we're all glad you're back. The academy hasn't been the same while you were away on your mission."
Iruka chuckled warmly. "In other words, you all got tired of having to put up with my lot while I was away!"
Noriko laughed. "That too. I swear you always get assigned the worst pranksters and troublemakers."
"Probably because I know how to deal with them, having been a bit of a prankster myself."
"Good point." She chuckled. "Hey, do you have mission room duty tonight? A bunch of us were going down to the bar. Like to join us? You know, a sensei's night out sort of thing?"
Iruka smiled at her but shook his head. "Thanks, but I can't. I have to pick Shimo up from Gai-sensei's place."
Noriko's eyes widened and she made a choking sound. "Gai-sensei? You're leaving Shimo with him?"
The corner of Iruka's mouth curled up in a wry grin. "More or less. Haven't you heard that Gai's been dating Shizune recently?"
The chuunin's expression relaxed. "I had heard, but I didn't think about that. So Shizune's watching Shimo?"
"Right." Iruka paused and gave her a soft smile. "Shizune's wonderful with him and Gai-sensei is an unexpected bonus."
Kakashi thought bitterly that he had a very good idea of what was going through Iruka's head at the time. "…And Gai's there to protect him just in case a certain Jounin comes poking around."
"Maybe another time, Noriko-sensei." Iruka chuckled sheepishly and rubbed the scar on his nose. "And to be honest, I'm still adjusting to being away from Shimo for a long period of time. I-I've been with him ever since he was born."
The woman laughed and patted him on the shoulder. "New parent anxiety, huh? My sister was the same way when she had her first."
They said their goodbyes and Kakashi followed Iruka as the chuunin-sensei trotted towards the jounin apartments on the north end of town.
Iruka stopped at Gai's apartment door and tapped quietly. Kakashi winced in anticipation of the boisterous greeting… that never came.
Kakashi blinked at the subdued version of Konoha's Green Beast that opened the door. Gai was dressed in well-worn sweats and looked like he hadn't slept. "Iruka-sensei!"
Iruka took in Gai's rather abused look and frowned. "Oh, Gai-sensei! Has Shimo been that much trouble?"
"Not at all, Iruka-sensei." Shizune's voice spoke from behind Gai and she appeared in the doorway. "As a matter of fact, I just got him down for a nap." She grinned up at the jounin beside her. "Poor Gai's just not used to all the attention a baby this young demands."
Iruka chuckled. "Sorry, Gai-sensei."
Gai's usual brilliant smile was only a tad dimmer than usual. "No worries, Iruka-sensei, my esteemed colleague. It was an honor to watch over your youthful progeny on this glorious day!"
Shizune reached up and bopped Gai on the back of the head. "Stop talking like a recruiting poster and go get Shimo while I get his diaper bag."
"Of course, oh most lovely – "
"What did I say?"
Iruka waited until Gai had retreated into the apartment before bursting into stifled laughter. "You have certainly tamed him."
Shizune blushed prettily before stepping aside to wave Iruka inside. "He doesn't always talk like that, just when there's an audience."
Kakashi waited patiently until Iruka emerged, holding his son and a diaper bag, and thanking Gai and Shizune profusely. As Iruka headed back toward his own apartment, the Copy-nin took the high road, leaping from rooftop to rooftop as he followed. Twice Iruka had turned to look directly at him and both times there had been a strange expression on his face, some mix of sorrow and fear and anger and more emotions than he could put name to. But rather than confronting him, the man had just turned and continued on his way.
He paused outside a food-stall for a long moment, as if debating whether or not to pick up something for dinner and then shook his head and continued on his way. Kakashi held an internal debate for all of twenty seconds before dropping down and strolling into the stall. He remembered Naruto rambling on and on about how Iruka would take him out for ramen, but he had to search hard to remember what else the brash teen had said the chuunin liked. He ordered several of the things he could recall and as soon as they were ready, hurried off after the chuunin-sensei.
Iruka had already made it home by the time the reached the small apartment and Kakashi hesitated on the rooftop where just last night he had spied on the chuunin. Iruka had set everything down but the sleeping infant and was singing softly to the baby. Kakashi could barely hear him, but managed to catch a few words in Iruka's gentle voice. "…always there to catch you when you're falling, always there to stand you up again…"
Kakashi started when the chuunin looked up, Iruka's bark-brown eyes finding him at once. He sighed and shifted Shimo's weight from one shoulder to the other, using his newly freed hand to open the window. He leaned out and spoke in a voice that sounded sad and tired. "You just won't let it be, will you, Kakashi-sensei?"
Kakashi stared at the brown-haired chuunin for a moment. "I can't.'
Iruka returned the stare for a second before laughing wryly. "I should have known better. Come in if you're coming." He stepped back from the window to give the jounin room to leap to the sill.
Kakashi held up the bag of take out, feeling somehow sheepish. "I come bearing food."
Iruka snorted air through his nose and headed for the kitchen. "I'll make some tea."
Kakashi followed the chuunin into the cozy space, setting the bag of food on the table, and watching Iruka's spare, economical movements with interest. There was something familiar in the way he moved and it had little to do with their shared background of ninja training.
Iruka glanced back at him and with a pained sigh, offered him the drowsing infant. "Here. At least you know how to hold him correctly. I thought Gai-sensei was going to drop him and run screaming in terror when Shimo started fussing." He frowned. "Don't think this means that I trust you. Don't ever think it. You make one move I don't like and I promise, jounin or not, I'll have you on the floor before you can even blink."
Kakashi folded his arms around the baby, wondering idly why Iruka's chalkdust and cinnamon scent seemed so familiar. He ignored the gruff threats, absorbed in the tiny body slumbering in his arms. He lowered his head to press his masked face against the crown of Shimo's head, burying his nose in the down thatch of pale hair. He inhaled, branding the scent of clean, warm skin into his memory.
Iruka watched him with trepidation, remembering that Kakashi, like his nin-dogs, had an incredible sense of smell. What could he learn from Shimo's scent? Shivering, he returned his attention to measuring the tea leaves into the pot.
When the tea was ready he set it on the table and motioned Kakashi to sit. The jounin obeyed and Iruka busied himself pouring tea and setting out the take-out that he was sure he would never eat. Shimo remained cradled in Kakashi's lap, now sleeping soundly. There was something possessive in the jounin's posture that unnerved Iruka and made him want to snatch his son back.
He controlled the urge by tightening his fingers on the teacup. "Do I even have to ask why you're here?"
Finally, Kakashi looked up from the infant in his lap. "No more than I have to tell you what I want to know."
Iruka laughed sadly, setting his untouched teacup down. "Yes. We both know the answers to that."
"Will you tell me?"
Rising, Iruka went to the open window and shut it firmly, staring into the dusk for a long moment before drawing the curtains. "Your senses are better than mine," he said at last. "Is there anyone close enough to hear something they shouldn't?"
Stretching out his awareness, Kakashi caught flares of chakra from the neighbors downstairs and from the young ANBU who was his constant watchdog. "No."
Iruka's hands flashed up in a series of seals, moving so quickly Kakashi didn't get more than two thirds of them. He felt the flow of chakra surrounding the apartment change and settle into a new shape, that even from the inside looked undisturbed and placidly normal. "Now we can talk. They'll only hear innocuous conversation if they get close enough to listen."
Wondering how on earth a chuunin-sensei knew a jutsu like that and if he could get Iruka to repeat it when he had his Sharingan uncovered, Kakashi looked up at the pacing teacher. "Hn?"
Iruka stopped and leaned against the wall. "So you want to know my dirty little secret then?" He sighed, but the look in his eyes was wild and more than a little feral. "I'll tell you, but I won't guarantee you'll like knowing it."
Iruka straightened up and began a series of signs, at least the first of which Kakashi knew well. Naruto had tried to surprise him with that jutsu more than once.
Smoke billowed around Iruka and when it was gone, in his place stood a young woman dressed in a plain blue yukata. Her brown hair hung around her ears and in place of a scar, she had a nose that was just slightly crooked, like it had been broken once and never reset. Bright brown eyes stared at him with a sort of wary expectation. Kakashi dropped his teacup as he vividly recalled the last time he had seen those eyes; glazed with passion in a flushed face as he thrust inside her…
Author's note: I know you all want to kill me for the ending of this chapter... again. But first I have some things to say.
I credit the idea of Shizune dating Gai-sensei to aiden_bard from her fic "Iruka's Obsession," and cause I like the idea of Shizune able to cope with his crazed personality (I had a hard time writing in GAI-SPEAK, so if I fail, please tell me, cause concrit is good for a writer) Secondly, and most important, I need all of your help for a scene in the next chapter! If you can't guess, the next chapter contains heterosexual acts. Should I post an edited version here or the uncut version? Please drop a line about this when you review! Thank you so much!
Also, any guesses on this lullaby?
