Chapter 11

He would have liked for things to go differently, for them to bring Iruka to him. Instead, he was here, in the mud, lashing kunais at tireless enemies and trying to keep sense of who was dying and who was not through too many fired jutsus.

He could still feel Gai on his left, a few meters ahead, dealing with two shinobis, as he kept trying to put down his two on his side. They were strong and resourceful, even if they clearly were not in their element; Suna shinobis in Mist country, Kakashi had a hard time understanding what was happening here.

Bending as he heard a bark, the kunai that threatened to cut the nape of his neck slashed though the wind. Kakashi did not wait and spined on his heels, extending his arm in the same motion. His kunai met clothes, and his grip felt resistance as it opened his enemy's abdomen, blood and bile spraying freely. His other hand clasped the Suna ninja's forearm, utilizing this momentum to pull his enemy toward him and push the blade through his throat.

Dark brown eyes looked at him in pure, agonizing terror, as blood made the dying sixteen year old boy choked helplessly as he desperately tried to take any ragged breath. Tremors coursed through the body one or two times, before falling limply.

Shit. From the corner of his sharingan, he knew he had no time to turn around and block the blow that was coming at his head from behind. The one he just killed was only a bait, and he had fallen for it. They were that desperate. If he twisted his body, maybe he could pull it off on his shoulder instead.

Just as he was moving as best as he could, Bull jumped over him, snapping the jaw of the one who had just thrown the earth jutsu. He had taken the blow forcefully, but still clamped at the gesticulating rag doll trying to shake him off with pressure points. The killing intent emanating from Bull's chakra was pervasive; his ninken wanted that one for himself. Brave dog.

He heard strangled sounds and whines more than he saw the man and dog cry, feeling he had to help Gai, focusing entirely on him, hands already forming seals before slamming the muddy ground with his palm. He felt the chakra make its way from his arm to the ground, his muscles hurting with violent spasms as he draw what he could to make something efficient.

His body went stiff momentarily as he could not keep himself from falling on one knee, seeing the earth wall appearing near Gai, merely slowing down the water spear. Freaking earth was not stiff in these lands, more watery clay than nothing else. And stupid earth jutsus that cost so much chakra.

But Konoha's Green Beast was not some lowly shinobi, and used the opportunity to slam his adversary with a front kick that surely shattered his sternum and rib cage, colliding with the wall, the spear tearing through his torso. As the body fell with a dull thud, convulsing on the ground forcefully for what seemed like eternity, Kakashi saw the mist nin's eye widen, weakly attempting to stop his shaking.

It was their time now.

They all moved mostly at the same time, the one fleeing for his life obviously in a better shape than them, Gai leaping from branches to branches as fast as he could in his injured state to catch up, and Kakashi trying to stand up. His tights protested vehemently as the silver haired jounin pushed himself from his position, and he knew he would not be able to pursue any further.

Resigning himself, he nipped his thumb, formed the required seals and hit the ground with his open hand again. The world spun around him, feeling suddenly very weak, nausea hitting him. Still, he could not let his body ask for rest, not now.

"Boss, what do you request?" came the quick question. Kakashi looked at a composed Akino, serious stance behind smoked glasses. Ears were flat against his head, his fast breathing showing his apprehension of the chase.

"Follow Gai's scent, and capture the Mist nin. I need him alive."

No more words were needed, and his powerful legs were already taking him on the trail of the Green Beast. Even if the mud and the spongy earth did not help, his long legs could bring him faster to the objective than the shinobi in green clad tailing him restlessly, almost grabbing him.

They were not too far, Akino knew the green guy had surely been able to pull some tricks to slow his prey down. Passing Gai, he went faster, his beating heart deafening him, his sole idea was to grab his objective.

Three strides more, one last push from his behind legs in a powerful jump, and his teeth bit the soft flesh of the left shoulder, blood seeping his tongue, alluring his senses. From the force of the impact, the bodies stumbled from one another, slipping on the ground.

If the human was confused, Akino was already on his legs and jumping on his prey. But that man had good reflexes and had move unexpectedly fast to avoid his bite. Still, he would not let him grab any weapon as he saw the right arm grasping desperately a kunai. He leapt at him with more force, pushing him on the ground, clasping his sharp teeth on his elbow, feeling the bones cracking and ligaments ruptured, his gut reeling as he heard the cry of pain.

Yet, he was not able to pin the other arm with his legs. Too bad he did not have the pack with him. They had been called two times already, the fight long enough once that the summoning had finished. He let the first arm go, and tried to bit the second one, just as Gai tried to keep the Sand nin not to swallow what he had taken.

The fool smell of acid, feces and urine filled his nose even before death reaped the life out of the dying man.

"Damn," breathed out Maito Gai, cleaning his hand of the foam by rubbing it on his pants. Not that it helped really, only putting more mud on his palm.

Standing there, waiting for his Boss' friend to finally see that the enemy was dead, felt awful. He did not understand how, if human shinobi had so little stamina, they could survive in the wilderness of life. A mystery that summons had a hard time understanding sometimes.

With a look at the now brown soaking dog who was still shaking from the fight, Maito did not need to talk that Akino already knew his next job. He started running again, his legs pushing him with renewed energy. He himself was surprised that his sheer body felt so restless.

He found Kakashi mostly at the same spot, already moving the cadavers in an attempt to hide them. And by his exhausted look, the ninken was sure that if he wanted to play dead, he would have won the challenge. His pale skin seemed even more colorless other than the bruises appearing on his face and at places where his clothes had teared up; and from time to time he had to stop to control his muscles that were trembling too much.

As he helped him pull the body in some ramification of the march, where water gained some depth, he wondered if it was kind of useful, in fact, since the fighting site reeked of feces, bile, and blood.

"It's better than nothing, Akino," said in a tired voice Kakashi.

"I said nothing, Boss." And it was true.

Kakashi sighed. "You don't even have to speak anymore, I guess." He kept silent a moment, taking his breath. Nausea was coming back at full force, and his body was starting to tell him he was abusing his resources. "If I can understand Bull without him talking like the rest of you."

Gai stopped next to them, handing the glasses to Akino. "Here, fierce companion of my eternal rival, those have fallen while you fought bravely to help our cause."

"Huh, sure thing." Akino had a hard time to keep his cool self as Gai put them back on his nose, and Kakashi would have smirked if he still felt able to do so. "Anyway, my time's running up. I wasn't able to capture the objective, and the Mist shinobi committed suicide. Good luck, Boss," and the usually red dog 'poof'ed out of existence.

Yeah, he thought grimly, so much for luck. "Let's go find someplace safe, then you can tell me what happened."

Iruka stretched his back, rising from his chair with a grunt. It never made it well to sit there for so many hours with no pause. But corrections and grading kept him from staying nervously at his window to no end at least.

The ticking of the clock was the only loud sound he could hear, and from time to time the fridge would be humming in companionship. One o'clock in the morning, reminded the old thing. He had never changed it since his parents.

Sure, he could have graded in the morning, with a rested mind and with less coffee in his system. However, instead of turning around in his bed, replaying his latest nightmares to no end, or making the vigil for hours, he could use some utility in his fretting.

Pouring himself a glass of water to help with dehydration that came from taking so much caffeine, he could not help but wonder about Hatake. It had been some months now that he had seen him. The snow that had finally settled had enough time to melt, and the hot season was slowly taking its rightful place after such a freezing winter.

He could not keep himself from thinking if it was because of his reaction at the kiss that had made his silver haired jounin to stay away that long. Himself had a hard time understanding what had happened. First he was thinking how to explain the scarf and the importance held in it, and the next he was kissing him.

The feeling that had settled in his stomach had been so strong, it had startled him. Knots that had been there for many hours disappeared, and instead he was filled with a heat he was sure he would never have felt again. Not after Hikaru. And then this is where everything went wrong in his head.

He was starting to forget her. He was not able anymore to remember her lips press onto his, the nibbling and the panting. He was not able to remember exactly what it felt to embrace her and hold her tight against him. Holding her hand, kissing her forehead, telling 'I love you' after making love tenderly. All of this to make sure they would never forget those simple things that meant so much at that moment, to never forget her if a mission was to go wrong.

He scoffed darkly, crossing his arms on his chest, taking a sip of water. He was able to remember her brown hair, her blue eyes, her delicate peach skin, but he had a hard time remembering the scent of her shampoo, of the clothes she wore. And what hurt even more was that he could not even remember what her voice sounded like.

He put the empty glass in the sink, and poured himself some more coffee. It hurt to realize that he was truly moving on. Sometimes, a little voice was still trying to pull at his darkest thoughts, but it was so faint and usually silent that he dismissed it without much of a thought.

Slowly but surely, Kakashi was there instead. The coffee morning at the memorial stones, the way he was able to take out the honest part of his being, and at the same time to irk him with almost nothing. He understood him, he understood his darkest traits and his past. They shared that connection somehow differently than with any other shinobi. Iruka liked to think it was because they both felt responsible for the death of a loved one.

Looking at a sleepy Konoha, he gazed through the night at the Hokage Monument. His apartment may be small and a little far from the academy, he could still enjoy the view from his spot. He scratched his scar before putting a strand of hair behind one of his ear. Standing there at the window made him feel that, maybe, he would see him come back safely through the streets or some rooftops.

He missed him.

Smiling sadly, he went back to his grading after a look at his old thing ticking. One thirty now. He did not want to guess sleeping, for experiencing once again the torture and hear the cracking sound of the neck of his late fiancée made him sick.

"We have nothing to bring to the Hokage," sighed Kakashi, ruffling his hair. He tried to adjust his posture, resulting only in a violent protestation from his muscles.

"Your loyal hound and I tried to stop his manly action, but to no avail," explained Gai, crouched near the entrance of the cave. "If I had been able to reach him faster, we would have gain information."

"Not your fault Gai. You did the best you could. At least we know there's something happening with Mist and Sand." He closed his eye, trying to calm his pounding headache.

Why was it that Gai seemed to fare better than him? He was sure that there was some link to make with the techniques used by the Green Beast, and the fact that he was not using chakra.

"Are we really sure? It could be that those youthful men were not what we thought they were."

They said nothing more, mulling over the facts they could not piece together. Since four years now that there was this weird activity appearing and disappearing from time to time; the Intel Department had not been able to find what it was exactly. At first, it was near Wind country, until it moved to Earth country, and now more than lately, it ended up in Mist.

While checking for a new ninja installment they heard rumors about that was taking place somewhere near Mist country, they had fallen on a six men team, composed of missing-nins, Sand nins and Mist nins. "Hmm. It's weird. We're running way too much on rumors and not enough certainty. And it's getting annoying. So much for peace..."

Gai handed him some ration bars and dry meat. "Perhaps. However, I must say that our wonderful youth of genin teams have the greatest chances to become strong shinobis, surpassing us even."

Kakashi looked at him with a bored gaze. His best friend was way too optimistic. "Perhaps. Anyway, we'll take off for Konoha in some hours. We can't risk to be found again." Gai only nodded, and fiddled to patch his minor wounds.

They had been lucky to pull it out from this fight with not much than chakra exhaustion, bruises and more or less deep cuts. It would take a long time before reaching Konoha in this state, that he knew.

She could not help but wonder how a strong willed man he was. Somehow, he had been able to pull his head above the water through hardship, and still found time to do his job to the best of his capacities. Even if at first he was not at ease with the other shinobis of the mission room, he had finally took a place between them.

No one had questioned him, and they simply accepted him. Iruka was a man that was hard not to like, even if his temper would sometime flare. He never was too boisterous – not that she had not heard of some yelling taking place before, principally against the Kyuubi brat – but reminded people that they had to be conscientious of their job. She smiled as she saw the jounin in front of her obliged to take back his report.

"Please, there are still empty cases that need to be filled, not to say that if you do have some time, the Mission Desk would gladly accept a better written report. Until you get the most important parts covered, it is impossible for us to make any payment," he explained in a modulated voice.

As she became first in line while the other jounin mumbled about pushovers and left, Umino grinned as he saw her. "Kurenai, it's been some weeks now. I hope everything went well with your mission."

"Thank you for your worries, but everything went as needed." She waited for him to check the formalities of the scroll before going on. "Do you have time later on?"

"Actually, I could use a break. Just give me a few minutes." She nodded, and sat on the couch he mentioned with his hand. She saw him simply referring the few left to others, closing his place.

Grabbing his satchel, he joined her. "So, is there someplace you prefer to go to?"

They opened the door and a rush of wind blew forcefully in. "Just about a few minutes of walk, there's this teahouse. Is it okay?"

"No problem. So, how is it to be jounin?"

She smiled. "Responsibilities, they hang over our heads even more."

He chuckled, to which she was not sure if she had heard nervousness. "Yeah, I guess. Congrats, by the way. I learned not so long ago."

"Thank you." She pushed the door open as they entered the teahouse, fruity aromas and spices filled their nose. She leaned toward him as she took a place, "What's up with your secret jounin?"

Iruka shook his head, rolling his eyes. He smiled nonetheless. "Not much."

She took a small moment to order for both of them. "So, what's the name?" Truth be told, she knew who it was. Well, silver hair gave her good intel. Still, she knew it was not easy for Iruka to simply go to another guy, and she simply tried to let him do the steps by himself.

"I, huh, prefer not to breach the subject, Kurenai." She could not keep her eyebrows from rising. "It's just that we have stuff to clear, yet."

"Huh-huh. The only thing that I don't understand in your politic secrecy here."

"I don't know. I suppose it's the mysterious stuff that makes me drawn toward him." He took a sip of his white cup. He smiled as she laughed. "And you, with your bearded guy, is it serious now?"

The glint in her eyes made him almost regret the question. Almost.

Kakashi tiredly walked to the chuunin sitting at their midway spot. He had hoped he would be there, especially since he had not been able to come sooner. He was back in town for over two weeks now, but was forced to take lots of rest.

Suspiciously, Asuma and the others made sure he would not be leaving his apartment so easily, taking time to come and talk with him. He had been surprised. He did not remember people taking care so much of him, not since his ANBU days.

Finally able to escape his home, he was happy to reach the memorial stones, extending his chakra to the lazily sitting form. "Hey, Iruka," he waved his hand in a mean of a 'hello', "it's been a while."

"Hey," he replied, rising awkwardly from his sitting position, scratching his nose. "Hum, coffee?"

He smiled. "Yes, thank you." This time, he took care of his mask and slipped it down his neck.

"I- I was afraid you wouldn't come back," Iruka tentatively said, studying how bony Hatake was since their last meeting.

"Maa, Sensei, your worries touch me. I had a good teammate to keep me alive, my skills only wouldn't be enough." Kakashi noted how the bags under the brown eyes seemed worse than ususal. "You seem tired. You shouldn't worry so much for me, you know." Iruka simply smiled, saying nothing more, looking at the ground.

The silence was awkward, and Iruka did not know what he was suppose to say. He had been thinking this over and over again, but nothing seemed to be working anymore in his mind. His friend had said that when he felt ready, he would be there, no?

"I've got hours at the mission desk now!" Way to go, Iruka. If he wanted to make his stress go away, it was certainly not like this.

A grey eyebrow rose. "I'm sure you're doing a tremendous job at it, Sensei."

"Thanks. I wasn't sure if I was ready, but it feels nice. I am a shinobi of the leaf, Kakashi. And I'm proud of it." They smiled at each other, and Kakashi simply took the bare tan hand in his gloved one. "Kiss me," Iruka whispered bluntly, staring in the lone grey eye.

Kakashi blinked, and tried to see if the teacher was truly serious. Well, he was sure that the determined look could not be that more piercing.

He slowly closed the distance between the two of them, his left hand reaching for Iruka's cheek. They could feel their breathing, and Kakashi was still looking for any indication of protest in the eyes of the man he liked, but only found certainty.

He closed his eye and reach for the sweet, hot lips with his, and was surprised by the passion that was given in return. He felt Iruka embrace him with his hole body, leaning in him, holding him tight with his arms roaming on his back. Tongues soon battled hungrily, and Kakashi could taste salt – surely from ramen. Had he not been drinking the coffee already?

Taking a sharp intake of breath, he saw that he had also embrace the chuunin just as much. He smiled, "What happened while I was away?"

Iruka's eyes narrowed playfully, and he simply backed away for a more reasonable distance. "I've thought too much for my own well being, and haven't talked enough about what I wanted in my life."

Kakashi chuckled lightly. "You're feeling alright?" he dared ask. He could see that Umino was still nervous, yet he had not run away.

Putting back a strand of hair gone loose, he nodded. "Yeah... It was great. Just that it might takes some time still for me to completely get somehow comfortable with my own feelings."

The small smile that braced the full lips was a proud one, and the grey eye was understanding. Because Kakashi knew that he was scared too. Scared that one day what would blossom from this loving relationship would have to stop because he would not come back home.