Iruka's car pulled up to a diner somewhere to the east of Kanoha's main street and he climbed out. Unfolding his tall lean muscled frame as he pulled a map out of his back pocket and waited for the complaints he knew he would hear in a second from Kankuro and Gaara, both of whom had fallen into a peculiar silence as he had drove them over three thousand miles to find their former comrade in arms.
He had been standing there for about a minute and a half when three more vehicles pulled up on the opposite side of the road. Behind the wheel of one was Tsunade and the white haired guy she had wrapped around her little finger, Jiraiya.
Behind the wheel of another he could see Anko, Ino, and Sakura; all three of Kakashi's ex's. Why could'nt the woman have been kind to the poor man and left them all in Texas? Iruka thought irritably as everyone got out of their cars and started streaching.
Tsunade waved at him as soon as she spotted him, and he sighed and waved back. Silently wondering what the pushy, bully of a woman was doing way out here. It was stupid to wonder, he knew that, but could'nt help praying that she was here for an entirely different reason. "Iruka Umino, well I'll be. I have'nt seen you in forever. How you been?" The busty woman asked with a freindly smile, that reminded Iruka of a shark about to swallow him whole.
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Kakashi walked up the stairs to check on Shay. She had been asleep for the past hour or so, trying to recharge her bateries after fighting the small barn fire that he was starting to think was anything but an accident due to the empty cans strewn around the barn.
He would bet anything that someone from the town had set fire to the barn just to frighten Shay. And it had worked like a bloody charm. She had nearly been hysterical after they had put the fire out and checked on the horses.
He pushed open the door to her room and saw her laying on her bed on top of the covers, her skirt bunched up around her hips, and her shirt hiked up a bit to show her stomach. He bit back a grin and shook his head. He had never seen anyone with such bad sleeping habits before in his whole life. I'm going to have to break her of this habit once we're together. He thought as he walked silently across the room and reached out and tugged her skirt and shirt hem's down, back into place.
Her fingers twitched and she moaned in her sleep and rolled over onto her back and sighed his name before curling up and burying her face against the blanket. He reached out and brushed her hair back from her face and leaned over and kissed her before leaving the room again.
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The group all sat down inside the diner to eat something and catch up, each table sitting four to five people.
Iruka sat with Tsunade, Jiraiya, Gaara, and Sakura. "So...what brings you two to this part of the country?" Iruka asked Jiraiya and Tsunade curiously, while still holding out hope that they were'nt really there for Kakashi.
"Well we came for some of the same reasons that your here for. We came to see Kakashi, and our old adoptive father lives just outside of town. We have'nt heard from him in a while and thought that we would drop in and visit him while we're out this way. Besides, I have something that I'm sure Kakashi would like to have back." Tsunade said as she pulled something out of her jacket pocket, a small red velvet box that she flipped open to reviel two white gold and diamond bands.
One with a lovely deep blue sapphire in the middle of the diamond cluster. Iruka's eyes widened in suprise.
"Those are his parent's wedding bands!" Iruka said almost accusingly. He had thought that the damn things had been auctioned off! Tsunade smirked at him. She was'nt about to tell the man that she had bought the rings off of some guy after they had been auctioned off, when the government had mistakenly thought that Kakashi was dead.
The mistake had been fixed in the past three years, meaning that the man could now return home and restart his life if he wanted too. But for some reason that Tsunade could'nt figure out she didn't think that would be the case.
Kakashi had said that he had met a girl to settle down with, and frankly she was more than a little curious about the girl that Kakashi had chosen to stay with. "She got them from some guy at the auction-" Jiraiya said with a grin. Iruka looked at him like he was deranged and then looked away.
The waitress walked up and looked at them, a preditory smile curving her lips. "Well hello boys. Where you hotties been all my life?"
"We're gay." Gaara said as he leaned his head onto Iruka's shoulder. The woman gave them an odd look and shook her head as she took their orders. She was about to walk away when Tsunade pulled a picture of Kakashi in his navy uniform and asked the woman if she had seen him, and if she knew where he was staying. The woman looked at the picture and paled and practically ran away from their table.
What the hell was that about? Iruka wondered as someone came out of the kitchen and spoke to the waitress and looked at them, a dirty look on the big man's face. There was something strange going on, and for the thousandth time in so many days Iruka started to wonder just what Kakashi had gotten himself into.