Title: The New Hokage
Pairing: KakaIru
Rating: PG-15 or more
A/N :
Fiuh...... I've finally passed the exam from hell after many many days with lack of sleep. My exam patient was a female child with a congestive heart failure and malnutrition, thank god she and her family was cooperative and I could examine her in peace. And of course, I really thank God and my parents that my examiners were two kinds doctor!!! Yay!! Tommorow I'd start on a new department, ObsGyn Department. Pray for me please!! –smiles-
Thank you for your answers to my questions in the previous chapter, dears! It really helps! I've got some interesting suggestions for Iruka and Kakashi's nature chakra. Hopefully I can use them in later chapters –nods- Last, hope u like this chapter – Izky
WARNING : UNBETAED as usual.
Chapter 11 (Words : 1,375 words)
"Do you mean that talk about jounin exam?" Kakashi asked back, his visible eye still stared hard at the ANBU.
Iruka nodded, eyes were still staring hard at the table before him, refusing to met the other's gaze as he tried to calm himself down at the remembrance. "You thought of me as a simple chuunin who used to teach, not to kill. And you didn't want me to apply to jounin exam. You thought I was too weak for that. I wanted to prove your wrong with that mission."
And it was too hurt to stay.....
It was so easy to turn what had been plaguing his mind for months in a few simple sentences.
"Iruka. I didn't mean-"
Iruka lifted his palm up, still refusing to look at his ex-lover. "Stop. I knew what you really mean by that. Underneath the underneath, right? Even as chuunin, I'm shinobi enough to read between the lines, Hatake."
"Iruka....."
Finally Iruka lifted his eyes, meeting up with the dark blue eye as coldness seeped into those dark brown eyes. "I had wanted to tell you that I passed ANBU exam that night. Imagine my surprise to know that my lover doubt my shinobi skill to pass the jounin exam." The sarcasm went unmissed by the other.
There was no telling which was more difficult : the Jounin exam or the ANBU one. The jounin exam was the all-rounded test, where you must excellence in ALL ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu skills. On the other part, the ANBU exam was more like infiltration test, where you must excellence in any fighting skills, especially hiding and assasination ones. Each was difficult in its own right.
Kakashi stared back unflinchingly at the brown-haired ANBU, he was too damn good in hiding his emotion. "And that's another question I want you to answer. Reading your file, I know that you're already ANBU long before that. Why do you wait for more than a month before you cared to tell me?"
Iruka raised his eyebrow, a cold smile on his face. It disappointed him a little to see how little his words affect the Hokage. But he should know, his ex-lover was as emotionless as a cardboard sometimes. "I had planned to tell you days before that fucking ANBU exam. And you know what? You're too busy in the frontline against Akatsuki and Orochimaru underlings for me to tell you. You've never been home unless passed out in chakra-depletion state or preparing things for mission which would take you days or fucking weeks to finish. Do you even remember the last time we watched TV together? The last time we ate dinner together at the table?"
He couldn't blame it on Kakashi only because the silver haired nin was too good of a shinobi to be spared from such missions. He couldn't blame Godaime because it was her duty to serve her people and Kakashi was her tool to use. If nothing, he would blame himself to be as he was, simply teaching and sending his students to their deaths every year.
He was tired of being a simple chuunin who couldn't even protect his students, hell, his own lover.
He was tired of being himself.
That's why he had been training hard after his classes, asking for favors to a few of his jounin friends to train him.
Until Ibiki found him.
But of course, he couldn't find strength in himself to tell that to his ex-lover. Not when anger, tension, and dissapointment clouded his senses and judgement, trying to find someone to blame for the unfairness of all of these things. And for a single minute, he wanted that someone to be Kakashi.
The silver haired nin didn't answer, but Iruka knew from the tightening knuckles and furrowed brow that his words had a big impact on the Hokage. Still, he hide it well behind that neutral solemn face of his.
Knowing that he had said enough, Iruka quickly stood up and put his mask on. He said what he needed to say, and that was enough for the day. "I think it's late already, Rokudaime-sama. Please take a rest and have a good night."
Get out of this place, Iruka. Get out and you can break in peace later.
He took no more than three steps toward the door's direction before he was stopped by Kakashi's words on his back.
"Why did you choose ANBU, Iruka? Why not jounin?"
Damn it, Kakashi. Can't you let it go?
The emotions he carefully kept buried inside slowly creeping out into his next words as Iruka fought to keep his neutral facade as he answered, back to the other. "Because I loved you too fucking much to choose that, you stupid jounin."
There was a silence for a few long seconds as Iruka continued his steps toward the door. He carefully mapped out the seals protecting it, preventing the others (in this case : himself) to transport themselves out of the mansion. They were more than a few of heavy and complex set of seals, but being a seal expert he was (which Ibiki discovered under his tutelage), Iruka was confident to disable them in five to ten minutes at max.
He was in the middle of disabling the third seal when suddenly a pair of warm and familiar pale arms encircled his waist from behind. It took half of his ANBU training not to jump and slash his captor's throat in reflex.
"There's a lot I need to tell you, Iruka. Don't go please." The careful yet low voice was whispered right into his ear. Iruka could't detect anything more from those words.
"You can tell me in the morning, Rokudaime-sama." Iruka was proud to keep the trembling off his tone.
The pale left arm tightened around his waist as its counterpart caught Iruka's moving right hand in it, trapping the shorter ANBU against the silver haired Hokage's chest. "I've heard some of your explanation. And now it's your turn to hear mine."
And with that, Iruka knew the night was far from over.
They were back on the couch.
But, instead of facing each other like the last time, they ended up sit next on each other on the same couch. The silver haired nin refused to let go Iruka's right hand as the ANBU tried to sit far away from the Hokage. Iruka refused to admit the warmth gripping his helped the tension off his shoulders a little.
Kakashi pulled down his mask as he began his part, dark blue eye stared at the long dark strands covering nearly half of his ex-lover's face. "First, let me tell you something, Iruka. I still love you, and I know that you still love me back."
Iruka hissed at the bluntness, pulling his right hand in reflex, but Kakashi's grip was much stronger and held his in place. "And how the hell do you know that?! You are my Hokage and I'm merely your tool to use as you wish, Hatake. There's nothing between us but that."
In response, the silver haired Hokage tightened his grip. He shook his head as he threw a small smile at the brunette. "As amazing as your neutral facade or angry acts to me, you forgot to cover one tiny detail, my dear."
Iruka could feel the slightest blush rose on his now paler cheeks at the sight of that smile. It felt like years since he last saw that lazy sexy smile. "And what is it?" He grumbled, throwing his eyes away again from the rare sight. Damn it! It's not fair!! You're forgetting him, Umino! Keep yourself together!
Kakashi's visible eye curved at the reaction he managed to envoke from the ANBU. "I will tell you after you hear my part first."
"Cheater."
"Maa...... any shinobi will use anything in his disposal to conquer what he wants, right?"
Iruka merely stared at the empty wall coldly, in attempt to distance himself from the fluttering inside his stomach at the hint of teasing on his ex-lover's words. "Then do tell me now. It's already 21.00 and I need to go home fast. You need to get up early tommorow, Rokudaime-sama."
"Alright. Let's see....."
.
.
.
Tbc.....
A/N : Okay, for some reasons, I feel the lack of emotions here..... I want to make both of them discuss their 'break-up' matters in passion, but it seems that Iruka tried hard to be as emotionless as possible, and Kakashi? Well...he IS emotionless as usual. Alright, what will Kakashi say now?
Don't forget, REVIEW please!!! ^_^
- IzKy