o0o

"This is a present for you from me and Ko," Izumo said, slamming a large box of beer down on the table in front of Iruka, who jumped.

"It's 'Ko and I' not 'me and Ko'," Iruka corrected, slightly peeved that he hadn't noticed the chūnin's presence until it had been drawn to his attention. I need to stop being so distracted or someone's going to get the jump on me. How the hell could I not notice Gai and 'Zumo? "Besides, I don't need alcohol. I have this."

He held up the large tub of butter pecan ice cream he'd retrieved from Kakashi's apartment. He'd been wary at first, figuring that Kakashi would have layers of complex and deadly traps all over his door and windows, but there'd been nothing. After he'd picked the lock the old fashioned way and looked around he understood why. Kakashi didn't seem to have anything worthy of stealing, unless a well-worn porn collection was worth anything these days.

"Don't be silly, 'Ruka, there's always a need for alcohol," Kotetsu said, dumping a second box on top of the first and ripping into it. "And besides, you need to celebrate your new freedom from being cooped up in a classroom with whiny pre-genin."

Iruka stared down into the tub of ice cream. It was more than half gone. He hadn't felt the need for it when Kakashi had been comforting him but then Kakashi had disappeared on his mission and he'd caved. The jōnin had been right. Seeing how much he'd eaten did make him feel terrible. "You guys know about that?"

"We know everything, we have to serve under Tsunade-baachan. She talks to herself when she's stressed," Kotetsu said helpfully, attempting to open his bottle with his teeth.

Izumo whacked him on the back of his head – "They're screw tops, dummy!" – before sinking down on the couch beside Iruka and putting his arm around him. "It's been a long time since you've had a vacation, you know. Maybe you should go to an onsen for a few days, relax and get away from all the nasty talk around here."

Iruka sighed and rested his head on his friend's shoulder. "I still have to find a way to pay the rent somehow, I don't have spare money to throw around on frivolous stuff like that. Besides, I don't think I'd be able to relax properly knowing that Kakashi is out on a dangerous mission."

"Well, you could come on missions with us," Kotetsu said. "It'll be just like old times, right?"

Iruka snorted. "And how often do you guys get out of the village? Only about as much as I do. And I don't think I can handle working so closely with Tsunade-sama right now."

"Forget about work and just drink with us like you used to. You know you wanna."

Izumo cracked open a beer and handed it to him. Iruka looked at it doubtfully.

"C'mon, loosen up." Kotetsu jostled him with his elbow. "You don't have to be all proper anymore 'cause you're not responsible for anyone's brats."

"Ko…" Iruka sighed. "I like being responsible for those brats."

Izumo glared at his partner. "Lets just not talk about work, shall we? We came here to get drunk and watch old movies and get all nostalgic about when we were kids, right?"

"Thanks 'Zumo." Iruka determinedly pulled himself out of his slump. It's not these guys fault I'm upset. They just want to cheer me up. "So, what movies did you bring?"

Izumo grinned, and thrust a DVD case in front of his face. " 'The Tales of a Gutsy Ninja?' " Iruka gasped. "Oh, no. No. Anything but that."

"Come on," Kotetsu wheedled. "We know you love it. You're even better at quoting it than 'Zumo is."

"No way," Iruka declared. "That is an embarrassing relic of my childhood that is best buried in the past."

"We're going to watch it," Izumo asserted, "And there's nothing you can do about it. Every time the kid says 'believe it' you gotta drink, okay?"

Iruka sighed and buried his face in his hands, drink tucked safely between his knees. "You're not going to take no for an answer, are you?"

Izumo patted him on the head consolingly and Kotetsu said, "There is no such thing as no!"

Kotetsu grabbed the case off Izumo and shoved the disc into the player, fiddling with the remote. Iruka smiled, remembering that Kakashi was absolutely useless with anything to do with technology.

"There!" Kotetsu finally managed to get the right picture, selecting play before jumping up to cuddle into the side of Iruka that wasn't monopolized by Izumo. Iruka growled and pushed him away.

Kotetsu pouted. "Am I not good enough? Is Kakashi the only one you'll let get close to you now? I feel so hurt."

"Give it a break." Iruka flushed red, remembering just how close he'd let Kakashi get to him, and shoved his spiky-haired friend again. "Go cuddle with 'Zumo."

"But tonight's for you, 'Ruki," Kotetsu purred, rubbing his head up the side of Iruka's face like a cat. "We wanna make you feel good again."

"What?" Iruka squeaked.

"Wait! Rewind that!" Izumo suddenly shouted, and the two squabbling men turned to stare at him. "I thought I just saw – rewind it a bit, okay?"

Iruka and Kotetsu stared at the screen, confused. "Uh, 'Zu? It's still the opening credits," Kotetsu said slowly.

"I saw -" Izumo sighed, grabbed the remote and rewound it himself. "That." He pointed to the words on the screen.

"Based on a novel by… Jiraiya-sama?" Iruka shook his head. "No way. No way that pervert wrote the story to the movie I watched a million times as a kid."

"Yeah, doesn't he only write porn?" Kotetsu lifted one eyebrow. "Hey 'Zumo, you didn't buy an Icha Icha movie and just hide it in the Gutsy Ninja case, did you?"

Izumo shook his head. "No, this is definitely Gutsy Ninja. I borrowed it from my mum."

Iruka scowled and folded his arms across his chest. "That stupid hentai just ruined my childhood."

"Ah, it's not that bad." Izumo rubbed his back soothingly. "Just drink up, and all your worries will float away."

Iruka sighed and lifted the bottle to his lips. It's not like I have much of a choice, is it?

o0o

Iruka woke up with numb legs and a pounding head. He groaned and hoisted himself up to survey the damage, grimacing as the movement made his head spin. He was lying on the floor, for some reason, with Izumo curled up on his calves – which explained why he couldn't feel them. Kotetsu, that twat, was stretched out across the couch snoring peacefully. He tried to shake a leg but all he managed was a mild twitch, causing Izumo to mumble in his sleep and clutch his leg tighter.

Iruka smiled. He'd complained and he felt like shit now, but last night had been great. He hadn't wanted to watch the movie, afraid that seeing it as an adult would ruin his nostalgic memories of it, but the alcohol had simply made the bad acting and cheesy lines hilarious. They'd all laughed until they had tears running down their cheeks, struggling to breathe. He'd pondered aloud that if this was what Jiraiya wrote for kids then his adult novels must be equally as uproariously bad. That led him to thinking about Kakashi and his little orange book though, so he'd quickly redirected the conversation.

He sat up properly and ruffled Izumo's hair. I have amazing friends, he thought. I wonder if Kakashi has ever done anything like this? …I don't think he has. I doubt he has any 'proper' childhood memories. He's always just been viewed as a weapon.

Very carefully he eased himself out of Izumo's grip and stood up shakily, stamping the feeling back into his legs. He eyed the sleeping chūnin at his feet for a while before sighing and bending down to pick him up. Even though it was half Izumo's fault he felt so crappy right now his conscience wouldn't let him just leave him on the floor like that. He stepped over all the bottles on the floor and carried him into the bedroom, depositing him none-too-gently on the bed. Izumo made a happy snuffling noise and buried his face in the pillow.

Iruka chuckled and patted his head before wandering off to find some aspirin. His kitchen was tidier than usual, and he realized that that was because he hadn't actually eaten yesterday, aside from the ice cream. So that's why I got drunk so quickly. First Kakashi turning off my alarm, then losing my job then – gah. I didn't even have time to think about food. No wonder my head aches so much.

He grabbed a bottle of chilled water from the fridge and felt along the shelf of the cabinet above for some pain relief pills. Kotetsu and Izumo thought it was weird that he kept his first-aid kit in the kitchen but he refused to move it because that's where his parents had always kept theirs. Kotetsu said that the bathroom was a much more practical place because of the cleansing facilities and mirror, and Iruka was forced to admit that he was unlikely to get the type of injuries that would require such treatment. If anything, the most likely way he'd get hurt would be chopping up vegetables, in which case it would be handy to have bandages and the like right there.

I should probably eat something to soak up any residual alcohol. I should really have eaten last night. A quick glance in the cupboards told him that he also should have gone shopping yesterday, because he was out of food. His stomach whined pathetically. "Can't you even manage a growl?" he muttered, then shook his head in disbelief. "Kami, how desperate am I, talking to my stomach."

He really didn't want to go outside, considering he now knew there were enough people who disliked him to get him fired and he had no idea who they were. Would people look at him differently? Ichiraku's won't be open just yet, it's too early. That's a shame, I'd like to talk to Teuchi-san and see what he thinks about all this. He rubbed his forehead and sighed. Both Kotetsu and Izumo were still out cold, and probably would be for another hour or so. He'd like to just go back to sleep himself, but once he'd started thinking about food he couldn't stop, and he was hungry. "I guess there's nothing for it then," he murmured, and shuffled back to the bedroom to find some clothes.

Izumo had curled around his pillow and was sucking on the corner of it. Iruka smiled and shook his head at the sight. "I'm going to have to wash that now," he said mock-grumpily, but not loudly enough to wake the sleeping chūnin. Turning to his closet he selected a clean uniform and pulled it out, before remembering he didn't have a job anymore. I don't have to teach, which means I can wear whatever the heck I like. And I'd rather not be a shinobi at the moment.

Tossing the uniform back in the closet he chose again, this time a pair of dark jeans and a plain black t-shirt. He glanced at Izumo to check he was still sleeping and performs the quickest change of his life. Tying his hair up the usual way made his head hurt where it pulled on his scalp so he drew it together in a low tail at the nape of his neck, huffing at the strands that escaped his tie but too hungover to really bother doing anything about them.

He checked on Kotetsu again as he walked back into the living room; the spiky-haired chūnin had rolled over, one arm dangling to the floor, but otherwise seemed okay. Should I leave them a note? Probably. I don't want them to think I've been kidnapped, or whatever. Izumo always overreacts.

Iruka scribbled a note and left it on the table beside Kotetsu's dangling hand. Hopefully they'd find it, or just not wake up until he got back.

The cool morning breeze went quite a way towards making him feel better, and he wasn't sure if the residual ache in his chest was due to his hunger or if he was just missing his class. Probably both, he decided, and strove to put it out of his mind. It's a really nice day, I should be thankful that Tsunade-sama has saved me from being inside with a bunch of rowdy pre-genin all day. He gave a laugh that was two steps away from becoming tears. Who am I kidding. Even with a hangover I'd rather be teaching.

Iruka ambled in the general direction of his usual grocery store, enjoying the sun on his skin. It had been a long time since he'd had the time to just relax and be, and although it felt nice he knew he'd get sick of it quite fast. Besides, he was too hungry at the present moment to enjoy it properly.

He'd expected people to be slightly hostile towards him, given how the talk of his relationship with Kakashi must have spread, but people seemed to be simply ignoring him. He saw a few people who would usually wave to him and say hi, parents of current and previous students, but they simply walked on past him as if they couldn't see him. It was puzzling. They weren't looking at him with disgust, they were just… indifferent to him.

Shaking his head at the weirdness of it all, he turned into his favourite store. He usually brought a list with him, compiled over the week, but this time he hadn't bothered. He'd had too much going on. I'll have to ask Kakashi what his favourite food is so I can make it for him. His cheeks heated up at the thought of cooking for his – his boyfriend, but it was almost a comforting sort of blush. He hadn't really had anyone to lavish attention on since Naruto had left, so Kakashi would just have to put up with being the new focus of his attention.

Iruka smiled to himself as he found himself wandering down the instant ramen isle out of habit, remembering that up until quite recently he'd always had to have a stockpile marked 'in case of Naruto'. He threw some into his basket. It might be painful remembering his favourite blond – does he even still remember me? His current sensei, and even Kakashi, is more powerful than me, and they both taught him so much more than I ever could – but he enjoyed taking time out of his day to just sit and remember the times he'd had with the boy he considered family. He wouldn't blame Naruto if the kid ever forgot him; he was just an academy teacher after all. Well, he wasn't even that anymore.

Iruka sighed, and put the noodles back on the shelf. On second thoughts he really didn't want reminders of how things were. He was making a new life for himself, even though he didn't have a lot of control over where his newfound feelings were taking him. The past belonged in the past, and from now on he was moving forward and not looking back. He would not torture himself with 'could have been's.

He conducted the rest of his shop on autopilot, only pausing when he got to the counter to pay. The checkout clerk, an old woman he saw every week and usually chatted to, gave him a customer generic, "Good morning!" before starting to scan his groceries.

"Good morning, Miyako-baasan," Iruka said as cheerfully as he could, slightly put out that she hadn't greeted him in her usual manner. Her husband had died many years ago and she ran the small store by herself. He had the feeling she was quite lonely, because every time he saw her he'd be bombarded with stories of how her eldest daughter is a failure but her children are so darling and did he know that little Kimi-chan just said her first word?

The old woman stopped scanning the item she was holding and blinked at him in surprise. "Iruka-chan! You look so different not in your uniform." She patted his hand, a sly smile on her face. "A beautiful man like you should have a pretty wife. How are you not married yet?"

Iruka blushed, partly at being called beautiful and partly because the word marriage had conjured up an image of Kakashi wearing a formal wedding kimono. Baka, what are you thinking? You don't want to marry him.

"It is strange to see you on a Tuesday, you should be teaching, no?" the old lady continued.

"Uh, I have the day off today," Iruka said, feeling guilty for lying but knowing he couldn't tell her the truth. If he said he'd been fired she'd want to know why, and he had the feeling she would disapprove of him being in a relationship with another man.

"Good. You should use this pretty day as a chance to find you a lovely bride," Miyako said, continuing to ring up his groceries. To his relief that seemed to be the end of her interest in him, as she happily switched to grumbling about her good-for-nothing daughter. He let the steady stream of chatter wash over him contentedly, grateful that news of his homosexuality wasn't so prominent in the civilian sector. It wasn't that he was ashamed, it was just easier if people weren't judging him straight away because of it.

He picked up his bags and was about to make the trip to the open-air markets to get his fruit and vegetable for the week before realizing that they only existed on Sundays. It's weird being here on a Tuesday. I've always only ever done my shopping in the weekend. It was a lot busier than it was when he usually came, with tradesmen pulling carts, vendors setting up roadside stalls, businessmen in a hurry to get to work, children playing in the dust – children?

Iruka crept over to where the children were poking around in the dirt with a stick, apparently drawing a map, to get a closer look. His suspicions confirmed he transferred his groceries to one hand and used the other to pick up the leading child by his scarf. "Konohamaru, why are you not at the academy?" he growled.

The other two looked about to run, so he leveled them with teacher glares. Moegi and Udon froze, the only movement the bubble of snot in the boy's nose popping.

"Eh? Iruka-sensei?" Konohamaru didn't seem at all bothered by the fact his feet were no longer touching the ground. "You look different, are you wearing a disguise?"

Iruka blinked. "No, I'm just not wearing a uniform." I really must spend too much time working if that's their reaction. I guess that's kind of sad.

"Why not?"

"Yeah, why aren't you teaching us anymore, Iruka-sensei? Shika-sensei is boring," Moegi whined. "You are coming back, right?"

"No." Iruka let go of Konohamaru and dusted the boy's back, smiling sadly. "I am not allowed to teach anymore."

"Is it because you're fucking that silver-haired faggot, Boss's sensei?" Konohamaru asked.

Iruka gaped. "Where the hell did you learn those words?"

Konohamaru shrugged. "Everybody knows 'em, Iruka-sensei. Don't you know what it means?"

"Yes, I –" Iruka ran his fingers through his hair agitatedly. "Just don't use either of those F words again, okay? They're hurtful and nasty."

Konohamaru pouted. "But all the adults are calling him a faggot, though."

Iruka crouched down, dropping his groceries, and grabbed the insolent child by the shoulders, forcing him to look him in the eye. "You do know what 'faggot' means, right? Because if you're calling Kakashi that you may as well be calling me that too."

"It's a bad word?" Udon asked, eyes huge and worried behind his glasses. "Won't Kakashi-san hurt us if he finds out we're calling him names?"

Iruka sighed heavily and rubbed his temples. "No, Kakashi won't hurt you, because he's a gentle person. But you are hurting him, and you're also hurting me. How would you feel if I called you Four-Eyes," he looked at Udon, "Carrot-Stick," he looked at Moegi, "And Irritating-Sarutobi?" He glared at Konohamaru. "It's not a nice feeling to be made fun of for something that you can't change about yourself, is it?"

The three children shook their heads guiltily. "So what does it actually mean?" Moegi asked hesitantly.

Iruka frowned. "I thought you said you knew what it meant?"

"Well," Konohamaru twisted his fingers together and stared at the ground ashamedly, "I pretended to know because I didn't want you to think I was stupid."

Iruka sighed again. "Please don't use words if you don't know what they mean. What you are saying by using that word is that Kakashi is a bad person for being attracted to men and not women."

Konohamaru pondered this. "So you and Kakashi-sensei are like boyfriend and girlfriend, right? That's what everyone is saying."

Iruka's cheeks coloured. He's picturing me as the girl, isn't he? Oh well. At least he's trying to understand. "Yes, something like that. Does it bother you?"

"No way, that makes you even cooler, Sensei!" Konohamaru's eyes were shining. "Kakashi-sensei is like, totally cool and strong and famous and stuff. That means if you're close to him you must be awesome as well!"

Iruka rocked back on his heels, surprised but flattered. "I'll make sure to tell him you said that."

"So when are you going to come back and teach us?" Moegi asked.

"I'm not," Iruka replied, dredging up a smile from kami-knows-where. Their persistent idiocy and failure to understand was starting to grate on his nerves. How many times do I have to explain this? "Your parents and many of the other students parents do not approve of my relationship with Kakashi-sensei and because of it don't want me to teach you."

"But you don't ever talk to us about Kakashi-sensei," Konohamaru complained. "It makes no sense."

"That's what I think, kiddo," Iruka said heavily, ruffling the boy's hair, "But it's not my choice. I'll see you kids when you become genin, okay?"

He waved goodbye and left quickly, barely remembering to snatch up his groceries. Kami, they're so – how can they understand when their parents just can't? At least I know they care about me. I – I didn't even scold them for not going to school! I guess that's not really my problem anymore, but still. They really shouldn't be cutting their own education short like that.

Iruka shook his head at himself and headed back to his apartment. I guess I should check on Kotetsu and Izumo, make sure they haven't died.

o0o

"Iruka-sensei seemed kinda down," Moegi said, and Udon nodded fervently. "Is he really not going to teach us anymore?"

"Shika-sensei never yells at me," Konohamaru said dejectedly. "He never yells at anyone. It's boring."

"Even when you did the sexy no jutsu in front of him he just pretended like it never happened," Moegi agreed.

"Maybe he likes guys too, if he doesn't get affected by the sexy jutsu?" Konohamaru suggested. "Naruto-niichan always said he could never get it to work on Kakashi-sensei."

Udon wiped his nose with the back of his sleeve. "I don't think Shika-sensei likes boys or girls. He's probably one of those weird people who just like themselves."

"It doesn't matter." Konohamaru slammed his fist into the palm of his other hand. "We got to work out a plan to get Iruka-sensei back."

Moegi sighed loudly. "But none of your plans ever work. We need to find someone smarter."

"My plans do too work," Konohamaru shot back, and Moegi poked her tongue out at him.

"Do not."

"Do too."

"Do not."

"Guys…" Udon shuffled from foot to foot, unsure if it was wise to butt in.

"Do too times a thousand."

"Do not times infinity."

"Maybe we should ask Hanabi-chan?" Udon put forth timidly.

Konohamaru folded his arms across his chest, jutting his chin towards the sky. "Who needs to ask a Hyūga for help? I'm the Sandaime's grandson. I'm the best."

"Hanabi's much smarter than you," Moegi pointed out. "And we need heaps of people on our side, right? Adults never listen to kids."

"Fine." Konohamaru sulked. "But I'm still the leader."

o0o

It had taken him three hours to get Kotetsu and Izumo to leave his apartment, and though he was thoroughly exasperated with them Iruka knew they were only sticking around because they cared and were worried about him. That and they wanted to find out how far he'd gone with Kakashi.

As soon as Izumo had woken up he'd started probing gently, asking seemingly innocuous questions that were slowly leading into dangerous territory. He might have succeeded had Kotetsu not awoken and immediately asked, "Did you sleep with him yet?"

By some extreme show of willpower Iruka managed not to blush and instead kicked him soundly out the door. He didn't usually hide things from his friends, but for now he'd rather keep what had happened with Kakashi between them, like some sort of delicious secret. And he'd rather not have heard Kotetsu's parting, "Kakashi-san is totally a seme."

As soon as they were gone he almost wished they'd come back. His apartment felt almost empty without them, although he refused to admit to himself that he was lonely. Deciding quickly that it would be embarrassing, not to mention boring, to sit around the house like a lonely widow, Iruka tied his hair up tighter and set a determined look on his face. He was going to clean.

Four hours later his entire apartment was spotless, the tiles in his kitchen scrubbed meticulously with a toothbrush and his windows so clear birds were flying into them. Looking around his decidedly sparkling living space Iruka put his head in his hands and wailed, "What on earth am I supposed to do with all this free time?"

o0o

Four days later saw Iruka lying facedown on his bed, flipping through the pages of Forty Days at Sea: My Pirate Adventure, his face beet red. After thirty seconds of staring in horror at the page he'd landed on he threw the book on the floor and buried his head under his pillow, hoping it'd remove everything he'd read from his brain. It almost felt like his mind had been raped. Hot, throbbing meat sword of love? Why would anyone refer to their – just why? I will never, ever steal one of Kakashi's books again.

He had seldom left his apartment since he'd gone shopping that day Izumo and Kotetsu had stayed over, not because he was afraid to, but because he just didn't want to see people. He had organized his book collection into alphabetical order by title, then reorganized it into reverse alphabetical by author surname before returning the shelves to their original order; sorted by genre.

After that he'd cleaned out his closet, gaining a nice big black sack of old clothes to donate down at the shelter, and arranged his clothes by colour. That didn't take very long because most of his clothes were simply his navy blue uniform, to his dismay. Then he'd rearranged his entire kitchen, double washing all his dishes until they sparkled.

It had gotten to the point where he was slowly going insane, which was probably why he hadn't immediately dismissed the ludicrous notion of seeing what made Icha Icha so amazing that Kakashi toted it around with him everywhere he went the moment the idea had come to him. Feeling slightly naughty and more than a little embarrassed he'd grabbed the first book he'd seen on the bookshelf that took up most of Kakashi's living room and then ran straight home with his guilty prize. Of course, he'd managed to grab a 'fake' Icha Icha – a gay romance novel encased in the famous orange cover. A gay pirate romance novel, where they referred to their penises as different types of weaponry as if they were going to use them to duel with.

I really, really hope that Kakashi doesn't get off on that type of thing. I don't think I could – Iruka shuddered at the thought of a naked Kakashi wearing a wide-brimmed feather-touting hat, brandishing a long sword. Never again. Never again. He can read whatever the hell he likes so long as he doesn't force it on me.

Someone banged on his door and he jumped, irrationally afraid it was someone come to take him away for 'indulging' in such awful porn. The person banged again, so he slithered off the bed and hurried to open the door, only to see a masked ANBU member staring back at him. Iruka blinked, confused. Last time he checked he didn't get visits from ANBU.

"Tsunade-sama wishes to see you," the masked man said in a clipped tone.

Iruka glanced down at himself, realizing he wasn't really fit to visit the Hokage in his old t-shirt and stained uniform pants. "Should I be wearing my uniform?"

"She said as soon as possible. You come as you are."

That's an order, not a request. I must be in trouble. "Ah. Alright." He moved to put on his sandals but the ANBU stopped him.

"I will transport you."

It's so important that we don't have time to run there? It must be really bad. The masked man gripped him in such a way that told Iruka he really didn't want to touch him, and let go as soon as they arrived in the Hokage's office. Iruka stumbled, unused to the method of transportation.

From the way the room reeked of sake and the conspicuous pile of bottles in the corner it was obvious something was weighing heavily on the current Hokage's mind. She tipped her current bottle – which she was currently drinking straight from – towards Iruka, golden eyes narrowed. "What do you know about B.I.B.O.E?"

"Bibbo?" Iruka frowned. "Is that some sort of small fluffy animal?"

"No, you fool, it's an organization." Tsunade took another swig from her bottle.

Iruka quickly ran through all the reasons she could be telling him this and his face paled as he arrived at the most logical solution. "It's the group Kakashi's been sent to dispatch, isn't it? Has he been captured?"

Tsunade blinked at him, her lips curling up slowly until she finally broke out into a hearty laugh. "You have no idea, do you? That's almost – Kami, Iruka, you're almost cute with your hair down like that and that bewildered expression on your face."

Iruka, in turn, looked even more bewildered. "What are you talking about?"

"B.I.B.O.E has nothing to do with the brat, Iruka-sensei. It's an organization set up by a snot-nosed bunch of little terrors called Bring Iruka-sensei Back – Or Else."

Iruka just stared at her. His knees were shaking so badly he didn't even want to breathe in case he collapsed.

"You still don't understand, do you?" Tsunade let out a long, sake-flavoured sigh. "Every single pre-genin brat from your class, as well as a large number from other classes, has put their life on standstill. They are refusing to eat, work or talk until I reinstate you as a teacher. And seeing as I have had complaints from many of the parents of said brats I have no choice but to return this to you."

She held up a form Iruka vaguely recognized as a teaching certificate, a small smile playing over her lips. "What do you say, Iruka-sensei? Would you like your classroom back?"

Iruka was over the desk in seconds, faster than even the ANBU could react. He wrapped his arms around her neck, tears blurring his vision. "Thank you," he said in a small, trembling voice, "Thank you so much."

o0o

"Maybe you should have taken the original Ino-Shika-Cho team," Kakashi joked, trying to breathe as shallowly as possible as Shikaku wrapped screeds of bandage around his chest, the red of his insides a stark contrast to his pale skin.

"It's easier to sneak two people out of a place like that than three," was the jōnin commander's only answer before he moved away to bandage his own leg. "You wouldn't get hurt like that if you didn't jump out in front of people and bear the brunt of attacks not meant for you."

Kakashi leaned back against the tree, careful not to move too quickly to save his aching chest more unnecessary pain. "Maa, it's only the same as you did for me by asking me on this mission." He coughed, his diaphragm obviously not happy with him attempting to speak so much, and wiped the blood that sprayed onto his hand off on the grass, hoping that Shikaku didn't notice. "We're in trouble, aren't we? Konoha, I mean."

He didn't ask because he didn't know the answer; he wasn't stupid. He'd seen it in the dead eyes of the shinobi they'd been pitted against, in the greed of the man who sent them and in his undeniable wealth of resources. He asked simply because to keep talking meant to distract himself from the pain, even if only momentarily.

Shikaku didn't answer because he knew he didn't have to. Instead he stood up, stretching his injured leg, and held his hand out for Kakashi to grab onto. "You ready to push on?" he asked, as if they had a choice.

Kakashi nodded.

o0o

I'm pretty sure I promised Naruto in this chapter but I spent too much time waffling over Iruka's teacher woes and I don't want to make the chapter lengths differ too much, so he'll come in next time. Until then, ja ne!