Hey everyone! We're getting toward the end now, so get excited!
This chapter is once again betad by chibinecco, and since I haven't mentioned it for a few chapters, this fic is written in response to a challenge issued by IcySapphire15. I didn't know this would turn out so long when I started it...maybe I should stick to one-shots when it comes to challenges. Nah! I enjoy writing, and I enjoy reading your reviews and seeing how much everyone else gets in to my stories.
The Curse
Chapter 13
The feudal lord that Kakashi had been guarding was feeling confused and disoriented, and with good reason. He'd woken up that morning planning on having a diplomatic afternoon entertaining foreign envoys and impressing them with the high level shinobi he hired and the fine foods he was serving. Instead, halfway through the caviar, the poor lord found a kunai hurtling toward his face, his shinobi bodyguard leaping on him under cover of smoke, and then…he suddenly wasn't where he'd been a moment before.
As the man looked around, he vaguely recognized his surroundings as the office of Konoha's Hokage, where he'd stood yesterday as he placed his request for a high class body guard. The Hokage was no where in sight, unless she was somehow hiding behind the huge stack of papers on her desk. Considering her disposition, he doubted that.
"Tsunade-Saaaaama!" A shrill voice screeched in the hallway outside the office. "Tsunade-sama, you must finish these papers today!"
The feudal lord heard a set of footsteps, and soon a second voice joined the first.
"Shizune-san, I've been looking for you."
"Iruka-sensei, good afternoon. You haven't seen Tsunade-sama anywhere today, have you? It's imperative these papers get signed today."
"No, I'm afraid not. I need to borrow Tonton, if it wouldn't be too much trouble."
"No trouble. Why do you need her?"
"So I can track down Kakashi and kick his ass." The feudal lord shuddered at the demonic tone the young man's voice adopted.
"That's a wonderful idea, Iruka-sensei!" The woman gasped. "I can hunt down Tsunade-sama and lock her in her office with no food or drink until she finishes her work!" The feudal lord had always thought of the Hokage's quiet assistant as sweet and innocent, but oh, how wrong it seemed he had been! The woman had just cackled.
He backed away from the door, the attack at the banquet completely forgotten. So focused was he on staying quiet and out of the sight of the two evil voices outside the room that he jumped when something stirred under the paper-laden desk.
"Tonton! Oh Tooooonton! Come to Aunty Shizune!" The terrifying voice crooned.
"Pui pui." The shadowy shape under the desk whimpered. A little pig dressed in a vest and a beaded necklace emerged and hid itself behind the feudal lord.
"Did you here that, Shizune-san?"
"It came from the office!"
The footsteps neared the room, and both pig and feudal lord shivered. The swine nudged against the man's leg, trying to bury itself inside for safety. The door slid open.
The two ninja froze as they spotted the man in the room.
"Daimyo-sama, what are you doing here?" Shizune asked.
Oh, right. There was a reason he was here.
"My banquet was attacked! The silver-haired shinobi protecting me sent me here. I think if we're going to capture any of them for interrogation, you'll need to send backup. Some of the ones attacking me were high le-"
"Silver-haired? Kakashi? Was the man protecting you Hatake Kakashi?" The male ninja interrupted him in a panic.
"Yes, I believe so. The Copy Ninja, he said he was." The feudal lord answered. These Konoha Ninja needed to learn their places. Terrifying voices or not, interrupting the daimyo was just not acceptable!
"Shit! He's in no condition to be fighting. Shizune, we have to help him!" The man shouted, already halfway out of the room.
The assistant nodded and turned to the flustered feudal lord. "You stay here, Daimyo-sama. You'll be safe until we return." She bowed, and then, surprisingly enough, turned to the pig behind him.
"Tonton, find Tsunade-sama, and bring her to where we are. Ok? It's very important." The pig grunted and pattered off on its stubby little legs. The assistant left the office without another word. The feudal lord paced around the room a couple of times, wondering if things were always this hectic in the life of a ninja.
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Kakashi didn't try to go about his life with a pessimistic attitude or anything, but he couldn't help but think, as he was battling for his life while lying face-up on the floor of the banquet hall, that the feudal lord wasn't going to send him any of the reinforcements he'd been counting on. He had already lost enough blood to make his vision swim at the most inconvenient times, and he'd only managed to kill two of the six ninja attacking him. Hatake Kakashi's situation didn't look good.
The bastards had noticed that no help seemed to be on its way and were playing it safe with him. They attacked him head to head only when he tried to stand up; otherwise, they hung back and bombarded him with projectiles.
The jounin swore as three shuriken dug into his leg. Immediately assessing the damage, he dismissed two as 'vaguely concerning'. The third, however, was near his ankle, and from the vast amount of blood he felt flowing from the wound, he could guess the last throwing star had struck an artery without even looking down at his foot.
Not good. In his ears was the high-pitch ringing that harbingers fainting.
'You can't faint, Hatake!' Kakashi's befuddled mind protested. 'Think of what Iruka would say if he found out you fainted in the middle of a mission!'
Kakashi blocked the next round of missiles on autopilot, thinking of the teasing the chuunin would have if the infamous Copy Nin were to be brought down by so simple a thing as blood loss.
"Kakashi, you bastard! If you die on me, I'll kill you!" He heard Iruka's voice shout.
'No, that's not what he'd say…' Kakashi thought to himself.
"DAMN YOU, Hatake, listen to me when I'm speaking to you!" Iruka's yelled again. Kakashi looked up, and Iruka's blurry face floated in and out of focus.
"Iruka?" He asked, bewildered. "Is it time for our date already?"
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Umino Iruka might have only been a chuunin schoolteacher named after a friendly marine mammal, but one wouldn't believe it if one were present in the banquet hall.
That old saying, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned"…it's in need of replacement. Hell hath a fury like that. From that day forth, the saying was changed to "Hell hath no fury like an Iruka enraged".
The chuunin descended upon the enemy nin with speed and strength never witnessed before or since. His wrath paused only to berate his nearly unconscious lover every few minutes, threatening him with pain, dismemberment, and Shania Twain concerts should the unfortunate man die without Iruka's permission.
Shizune had rushed after Iruka in order to help him deal with the threat, but she could easily see she wasn't needed. She left the fighting to whatever tailed demon had possessed Iruka and hurried over to the injured jounin on the floor.
"Isn't he great?" Kakashi seemed to be trying to follow Iruka with his eye but gave up and looked up at her dizzily. "I think I've figured it out." He muttered wearily, before his head fell back and his eye snapped shut.
"This isn't good." She mumbled to herself as she looked the former ANBU over. She whispered her assessment as she began to bandage the man, a force of habit from the days spent training under Tsunade.
"Severe chakra depletion, severe blood loss, puncture wounds to the shoulder, ankle, back and left side, chance of concussion. What are we going to do with you, Kakashi?" Shizune molded up her chakra and knit the severed artery in Kakashi's foot back together. She melded the skin in his shoulder back in place, before moving on to the other kunai and shuriken wounds.
"You're going to need a blood transfusion, and fast. But first, I need to stop you from loosing any more blood." She healed the worst of his wounds with chakra, and bandaged the innumerable scratches that covered his body, conserving her remaining chakra to bolster Kakashi's own. He still wasn't out of the danger zone. As a medical ninja, Shizune had seen lesser shinobi die from the amount of chakra depletion Kakashi had now. Adding the exhausted chakra to the life-threatening wounds he had just obtained, Hatake Kakashi could still easily die at any moment.
Shizune laid both her palms flat against Kakashi's chest, where his chakra center rested beneath and began to pour her energy into him. It felt like she was emptying herself into a sieve. No matter how much chakra she gave him, he seemed as devoid as when she'd first arrived.
"Tsunade-sama, please hurry." She begged.
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Tsunade hadn't meant to sneak away from her duties, but the opportunity had presented itself, and she wasn't one to pass up an opportunity. Genma had mentioned an underground poker game right as Shizune had stepped out of the building to find more manila folders for filing. If that wasn't an invitation, Tsunade wasn't the Fourth Hokage; and she was, damn it! She even had the ugly triangle hat to prove it.
Miracles had begun to happen around the poker table on the third hand. Somehow, Tsunade had ended up with a winning hand. Then, she'd been dealt a second. And a third. Now, on the fourth hand, the majority of the poker chips were in her possession, and she was ready to bet it all on hand number five. Yes, she could have walked away with her winnings, grabbed a quick cup of sake, and headed back to the office before Shizune exploded (hell, she'd managed to cancel out most of her debt; the younger woman would be ecstatic!), but that would have been quitting.
All she needed to do was concentrate. If she focused all of her energy while the cards were being dealt, she was sure she could turn up a full house or a flush. Now, right now was the critical moment…
"Pui pui! Pui!" A piggish voice interrupted her focus.
"Not now, Tonton!" Tsunade scolded, trying to keep her mind on getting the right cards.
"Pui pui!" Tonton insisted.
Tsunade ignored the pig and looked at her cards. A whole lot of nothing.
Tonton grabbed the edge of her green jacket in her little pink snout and gave it a tug. Tsunade threw down her cards in frustration.
"What?"
The pig continued oinking. The rest of the poker table glanced at one another, wondering how the Hokage could decipher the animal's message. They shrugged, decided it was one of those things a Hokage could do, and began helping themselves to Tsunade's lost poker chips.
Tsunade listened to her pet and swore. "That damned brat! Can't he keep himself alive for one day? I just finished putting him back together from last time!" She stood up so quickly her chair tipped over, which she thought made her exit look much more dramatic, and followed the pig out of the room.
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"And you! You think you can just beat up other people's boyfriends, huh? Is that it, bastard?" Iruka asked the sobbing ninja who was currently on the receiving end of his fist. The enemy shinobi cringed and tried to ward off a blow, but Iruka's anger was far from spent, and the chuunin landed another punch on his stomach.
"Answer me!" He ordered.
"I-I…I'm sorry." The enemy cried.
"Damn right you are! Only I can lay a hand on him, understood?" Iruka growled. He threw the ninja to the ground. His foe made the wise choice to lie still and pretend to be unconscious. Iruka looked around for another opponent to be his punching bag.
The room was littered with the unconscious forms of shinobi, but there were no able-bodied people around other than Shizune, and she was otherwise occupied.
As Iruka watched the Hokage's assistant, she swayed dangerously and had to steady herself on a wall. Iruka was by her side in a flash.
The medical nin still knelt by Kakashi, who was disturbingly pale and still. Shizune's dark eyes were filled with tears, and the blood was drained from her face.
"I don't have enough chakra." She whispered. "I've given him all I can, but it doesn't help."
Iruka quickly knelt down on the other side of his lover, across from Shizune, and placed his hands on Kakashi's chakra center in mimicry of the kunoichi.
"I have some left. Teach me what to do." The sensei said.
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Tsunade followed Tonton through the streets of Konoha, wondering why exactly none of the villagers she passed seemed to find it strange to see their Hokage being led around by a pig. When she passed by ninja that didn't look busy enough, she drafted them. Knowing Hatake Kakashi, there would be a big mess to clean up wherever they were going, and she was going to have her hands full.
The banquet hall looked peaceful enough from the outside, but the scent of blood and smoke wafted out as she slid the door open. Tsunade sent the other ninja to secure the enemy with a wave of her hand. There was no battle inside, but she could only count that a small blessing, because two of her most dependable ninja were kneeling beside what looked like a corpse, swaying with exhaustion.
When she got close enough, she realized that her two most dependable ninja were also the two stupidest-they were pushing themselves past chakra depletion, and were still pouring their energy into the body between them. There would be no reasoning with them, so the Hokage pressed a chakra point on the back of the neck of one, then the other. Shizune and Iruka slumped over on the floor. The sannin turned her attention to the silver-haired jounin.
"Brat." She mumbled as she gathered him into her arms, bridal style. A transportation jutsu carried both of them to the hospital. Medics swarmed around them.
"Quickly, I need someone to find out Hatake Kakashi's blood type. He needs a transfusion, now!"
"Hatake Kakashi, blood type O." A nurse responded. She scurried away to fetch the blood.
Tsunade let the medics prepare the transfusion as she lay her patient down in the first hospital cot she could find. One of her medics rolled up Kakashi's sleeves and wiped the skin above his vein with rubbing alcohol. They took care of the blood transfusion quickly and efficiently. Tsunade was proud of them. Once the IV was in place and all the preparation was complete, Tsunade ordered the doctors and nurses out of the room.
With his system circulating with donated blood and his wounds healed by Shizune, the only thing Kakashi needed now was chakra. Despite the energy given to him by Shizune and Iruka, his body was still too weak to heal itself. If something wasn't done to stop it, his system would simply shut down. Tsunade freed the chakra stored up in the seal on her forehead and gently probed Kakashi with it. The Copy Nin had damaged his chakra paths by using too much when they were already weak, and they were leaking now. It wouldn't be enough just to pout chakra in. The energy would just drain away. She'd have to reconstruct them, much like she'd done with Rock Lee.
Tsunade swore to kick Kakashi's ass if there was anything left of him after Iruka had his way. The amount of chakra this little healing job was going to take wouldn't leave enough to keep her looking young. She was going to look like an old hag for a couple of days at least. She rolled up her sleeves and started rebuilding chakra paths. At least Jiraiya wasn't around to make fun of her…
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Kakashi woke up feeling like a bus had run over him…then backed up and run over him again. Five times. There wasn't a piece of him that didn't feel like it had been drained by some energy-sucking leech. His head throbbed with that headache he associated with being too tired to move, yet not being able to fall asleep.
Wondering why he felt that way, the jounin reasoned to himself sleepily that it must be a Monday. There were some Mondays where one just didn't feel like the rewards outweighed the consequences of getting out of bed. Kakashi decided he would feel much better about life if he just slept through this Monday and tried again on Tuesday.
The slight rustling of papers on his left side was the first clue that Kakashi's Monday theory might be slightly off the mark. His second clue came in the form of his mind shouting, "It's a Wednesday, damn it!" at him.
The Copy Ninja cracked an eye open hesitantly, and was greeted with the cheerless sight of a sterile white ceiling. The harsh light attacked his eye, so he decided that single effort was enough, and settled back down to sleep.
"Kakashi, you've got to wake up." A voice whispered beside him. His eye cracked open again, turned to the side, and found the much more cheerful sight of Iruka, who was looking down at a paper in his hands. He looked disheveled. Kakashi wondered why, and who he needed to beat up. If Iruka was going to be looking disheveled, it should be because Kakashi disheveled him, and nobody else!
"Don't think you can take the easy way out and die on me, damn it! I'll use forbidden jutsu if I have to." Iruka threatened quietly. Kakashi was vaguely touched that his lover would go to such lengths. What did he mean by 'the easy way out', though?
Kakashi ventured a third look around the room and eventually focused on the paper that Iruka held crumpled in his hands. It looked suspiciously like a Mission Report. Hmmm. 'Hatake Kakashi, Rank: Jounin'…that looked like his name…
Oh. Oh shit. Iruka was going to kick his ass. How could he have forgotten that, nine times out of ten, it was Iruka who ended up filing his paperwork? At least he was already hospitalized. Iruka wouldn't hit someone who was already injured, right?
Ahhh…at least there were plenty of doctors around, so after Iruka finished beating him up, he might have a slim chance of survival. Reassured by this marginal sliver of hope, Kakashi prepared himself for the inevitable.
"You know…I heard that kisses work pretty well for waking up sleeping hotties." He croaked, wishing his voice sounded a little more sexy and a little less like a dying toad.
Kakashi opened his eye and kept it open this time. Iruka was looking straight into it and seemed caught between anger and joy.
"I think it works for sleeping beauties, which definitely isn't you right now. You look like shit." The chuunin told him. Kakashi was sure he heard relief in his voice. That was a good sign at least.
"How convenient. I feel like shit too."
The jounin's throat felt dry and scratchy, and he fell into a coughing fit that made his esophagus rasp painfully. Iruka produced a glass of water and held it to his lips after gently lowering his mask. Kakashi took baby sips. The water was lukewarm and tasted heavily of minerals, but it soothed his throat nonetheless and left him feeling refreshed.
"Thanks." He smiled up at Iruka. Iruka didn't smile back.
"Mind telling me what you thought you were doing going on a mission in your condition?" The sensei asked, deceptively calm.
"Umm…I was…bored?" Kakashi ventured.
"And when, pray tell, did you decide it was acceptable to lie about your mission and tell me you were fine when you nearly died?" Iruka's grip on his calm deteriorated just a little, and Kakashi heard his voice raise an octave.
"I think that was when I found you hyperventilating in a closet, Iruka. I just didn't want you to worry about me." Kakashi tried to explain.
"I was worried about you for a reason, Kakashi! You almost DIED! Twice!" Iruka yelled.
"I'm sorry, 'Ruka. It won't happen again."
"You're right. It won't." Iruka's voice sounded strange, strained. Something was wrong.
Iruka stood from the chair he was seated in, moved Kakashi's water glass near the edge of the table so Kakashi could reach it on his own, brushed his hand against Kakashi's cheek once, then turned to leave.
"Iruka…where are you going?" Kakashi was almost afraid to ask.
"Out of your life."
Kakashi's breath quickened. "What?" He gasped. "Out…? You mean until I've healed, right? Until I get better, so you can kick my ass and everything can go back-"
"No." Iruka interrupted. "Out for good. I shouldn't have messed with the curse. We're lucky this ended where it did." Iruka opened the door, which made a pitiful squeak as if to protest. "Goodbye, Kakashi." He said without turning.
"No, you can't go." Kakashi whispered with a failing voice. He swallowed and tried again. "Iruka, wait! You can't go." Iruka didn't respond. That damned curse…
The curse?
"Iruka, don't leave! I've figured it out! I know how to stop the curse!" He shouted, hoping he was loud enough. He couldn't hear Iruka's footsteps anymore, but he wasn't sure if it was because he was too far away, or because he'd stopped moving.
Kakashi squeezed his eye shut. When he opened it again, Iruka was standing at the door, looking straight at him.
"What did you say?" the brunet asked slowly.
"I know what the curse is." Kakashi repeated.
"Tell me." Iruka ordered.
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Iruka waited as Kakashi took a sip of water, cleared his throat, and opened his mouth.
"The curse…" he trailed off.
"Yes?" Iruka asked eagerly.
"…doesn't exist!" He finished happily. Iruka wondered what the hospital policies were on killing patients.
"Kakashi, you and I both know that there's a curse! Everyone who I ever touched has marks to show for it!"
"You're not cursed, Iruka! Don't you understand? You're just too sexy for your own good!" Kakashi shouted at him.
Iruka groaned with frustration. "You mean to tell me that's your theory? You must have gotten a concussion. Goodbye." Iruka turned to leave again, wondering why he had even bothered coming back. He was so stupid to let himself build up hope.
"The reason I almost got killed on my mission the other day, it was because I was thinking about you." Kakashi called after him. Iruka froze. "I was thinking of ways to ask you to go see the Icha Icha movie with me, and I forgot to concentrate on my mission. Even when I had ninja chasing after me and throwing kunai, all I could think about was you."
Iruka turned back toward his lover. He needed to look into Kakashi's eye, to see if he was lying. What he was saying sounded so stupid.
"I think that might have been what happened to the others, at least part of it. I'd need to talk to Raido to be sure."
Iruka shook his head in disbelief. "You…you honestly believe that's all there is to it? That everyone gets hurt because I'm sexy?"
"Have you ever seen yourself when you go into sensei-mode, Iruka? You're captivating. Your smile, your eyes, everything about you, you just takes over peoples' minds. Even when we try to think of something else, you're always there." Kakashi gestured, trying futilely to explain.
"What about Masaru? He didn't die because he wasn't paying attention." Kakashi looked like he was going to protest, but instead took a breath and cleared away any rash emotions.
"He died because Mizuki killed him, Iruka. The man admitted it freely. He may or may not have had anything to do with any of the others, but I'm sure he was the one who pushed that cart on Masaru."
Iruka took a shaky breath. Masaru…was it true? Mizuki certainly said he hated Masaru when he ranted about him, but Iruka had never even imagined…
"Anko." He said, desperate to escape his train of thought. "How do you explain that?"
"She was apprenticed to Orochimaru. Orochimaru, you know, missing nin, former Akatsuki, disturbingly fascinated by small boys? He was a bomb waiting to go off. You kissed Anko because she was going on the mission, right? A big mission, just the two of them, far from Konoha…it was bound to happen." Iruka admitted that Kakashi might be right, at least about Anko.
"So, suppose you're right, Kakashi? It still doesn't change anything. You'll still get hurt if I stick around." Iruka made his third attempt to leave the hospital.
"Iruka! Leaving won't help! You'll only make it worse!" Kakashi shouted after him.
Iruka's eyes teared up, despite his best efforts. "What should I do, then, huh? How can I fix this? How can I keep you from getting killed?" He cried.
"If you leave, I'll still think about you. There's only one option." Kakashi explained. He tried to sit up in his cot, but he barely got his head off the pillow before he slumped back down.
"What? What can I do?" Iruka asked, leaning forward in anticipation.
"We have to have sex. Lots of sex." Kakashi stated matter-of-factly. Iruka fell to the ground in surprise.
"What? You bastard! Feeding me some half-assed theory just so you could get into my pants!" Iruka's face burned with embarrassment at letting himself be fooled.
"But I'm not joking, Iruka. I need to build up a tolerance to you." Kakashi said bluntly.
Iruka looked into Kakashi's single eye. It was ringed with dark lines, and a drooping eyelid obscured part of it. Still, Iruka couldn't find any trace of dishonesty in it.
"You're serious?" He asked.
"Yes. I think, once I've had a chance to be with you more, and everything stops feeling so…new, it'll be easier to focus when I need to. Right now, I have too many unfulfilled Iruka-fantasies floating around in my head to get any thinking done. I keep focusing on them because I'm afraid that I won't get a chance to act on any of them. Once I know that you're not going to disappear, I won't have to worry so much."
"So, let me get this straight." Iruka said. "People around me die because I'm too sexy and make them have fantasies while on missions. To counteract this, you want to have sex? It's not logical." This is what he got for dating a guy with a one-track mind…
"Yes, it is. I need more exposure to you, so I can build up an immunity to your deadly sexiness factor. I think my jounin ninja skills will keep me alive on missions long enough, if we don't waste too much time getting started." Kakashi said, smirking.
"If I have sex with you, fulfill these 'Iruka fantasies' of yours, you won't die?" Iruka asked again.
"Yes." Kakashi replied with confidence.
"You're sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
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Kakashi finished reassuring Iruka of his theory.
"Promise." He said, hoping that Iruka understood he was promising that he was sure, not that he wouldn't die. Everyone died eventually.
The Copy Ninja gasped when Iruka suddenly pounced on him, and settled on top of him, straddling the jounin's hips.
"Iruka, what are you doing?" Kakashi gasped, hoping that his voice didn't sound as high and panicky to Iruka as it did to his own ears.
"Getting started." Iruka explained as he planted a kiss on Kakashi's lips.
"Ahh, Iruka, I…I appreciate sex as much as the next guy, but I'm injured right now." Kakashi gasped. Iruka's hand snuck underneath his hospital gown and started doing wicked things.
"Iruka…we can't. Give me time to recover and I'm all yours, but…AHH…I can't right now." Kakashi pleaded.
"Looks like you can." Iruka commented as Kakashi hardened against his hand. "I don't care if you are injured; I care that I need to keep you alive." Iruka started shedding his clothes.
If Kakashi hadn't been so weak he couldn't move, he would have found this new, forceful Iruka incredibly sexy. Scratch that, he was so weak he couldn't move and he still thought it was the sexiest thing he'd ever seen. If he possessed even an ounce of chakra, he would've been on top of Iruka in a heartbeat.
"Iruka, I…can't right now." He said more quietly this time.
"Don't worry. You don't need to do anything." Iruka told him gently. Then he smirked. "Just lay back and enjoy the ride."
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Iruka sat in the chair beside Kakashi's hospital cot, watching his exhausted lover sleep. Their fuck hadn't been anything spectacular, but it had been pleasant, and Iruka was glad that Kakashi had managed to stay awake for all of it. True, he'd fallen asleep as soon as it was over, leaving Iruka to clean up the evidence of their dalliance or risk an embarrassing conversation with the nurses later.
Little drops of sweat covered Kakashi's brow, so Iruka wiped them away and brushed the damp tendrils of hair away from his lover's face. The chuunin wasn't sure if he really believed Kakashi's explanation of the curse, but he was sure of one thing- he wasn't going to run away any more. Kakashi could die any day on a mission, curse or no curse, and Iruka wanted to be in his life until he did.
Besides, if Kakashi had made it this far, maybe he really could beat the curse. If the jounin wasn't going to give up after all that had happened in the last few days, Iruka certainly wasn't. Especially since Kakashi hadn't found his tickle-spot yet…
In the end, life just boils down to risks, and which ones you choose to take. Looking down at his pale, sweating, chakra-exhausted boyfriend, Iruka got the overwhelming feeling that this risk was one worth taking.
All in all, the sensei thought his future looked pretty bright. Yes, he'd have to deal with angry parents wondering why their children wanted to get laid, and gossipy co-workers asking why he hadn't left Kakashi's hospital room since he'd been brought there, but there was a lot to look forward to, as well. Mainly, kicking Kakashi's ass for lying to him, then working more extensively on this 'immunity' business.
Iruka smiled to himself as he watched Kakashi's chest rise and fall, feeling glad that he was able to do so. It occurred to him suddenly, almost shockingly, that here was a man willing to risk death to be with him. The thought was overwhelming, and it made Iruka's chest tighten.
'I guess I'll have to make sure it's worth it for him.' He thought. Kakashi smiled in his sleep, and Iruka thought it made him look beautiful. He pulled Kakashi's mask up so the nurses wouldn't see the zealously guarded face and left the room quickly. He'd have to hurry so he could be back before Kakashi woke, but there was an important errand to be done. If he was going to make it worth it to Kakashi, there were some tickets he needed to buy.
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The end! Except, not quite. There's still an epilogue, and a side-story about the Icha Icha movie premier. I'm not sure which will come first, so they will come in the order I feel like writing them.
And as for what comes next, I still haven't decided. I might write a fic with Pakkun; I'd forgotten that idea before, but as I was going back over this story to see what needs to be wrapped up, I mentioned something about that, so I might have to write that one. Whatever. I'll figure that out as it comes. I still have final exams to worry over before I start another story.
Thanks for all of your reviews!