I. Am so sick of this stupid arc. I've stared at the next installment just waiting for inspiration to strike, but nothing. Zilch. Nada. I might actually go crazy. But I decided you guys deserved this what with everything being so crazy and all.
Warnings: The usual stuff that applies to the other more mildly-angsty chapters in this fic
Enjoy!
Iruka veritably snarled as she shoved her way into her parent's house; her school bag she left on the floor, and her chunin jacket and standard issue top left a trail to the dojo so that she was only in her binder, fishnet shirt, and pants by the time she attacked the training dummy. After a frustrating moment where she still felt a little claustrophobic, the tape around the bottom of her pants was flung uncaringly into a corner before she continued.
"Is everything alright?"
With a wild cry she turned and launched a kunai at the unwanted visitor - the Copy Nin, it seemed, was perched in one of the dojo's windows - who caught it and twirled it lazily around his fingers. "It's none," she fumed, "of your business."
He raised an eyebrow. "Your chakra has been spiking uncontrollably for the past 10 minutes; it's the business of any shinobi who can sense it."
Iruka's eyes narrowed dangerously, and her fists clenched by her sides, but just as she opened her mouth to scream at the infuriating jounin another voice cut her off.
"Senpai! I've been looking all over for you!" Tenzou appeared in the window right next to the Copy Nin's; his words might have been directed at the jounin, but Iruka didn't miss the way the feline ANBU's eyes appraised her discreetly. "You shouldn't bother Umino-san," Tenzou scolded. "Haven't you kept your genin waiting long enough?"
The Copy Nin sighed before flashing an eye-smile and two-fingered salute at the chunin. "Well, seems I must take my leave, Iruka-sensei. Ja ne!"
Tenzou waited a moment (to be sure his 'senpai', apparently, was gone) before he stepped lightly into the dojo, eyes full of concern. "Iruka-san? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," she bit out.
He arched an eyebrow. "Really? Because to me it seemed like you just almost started screaming at Kakashi while in a rather vulnerable position."
If her face could get any redder, it would have. "Vulnerable? What the hell -"
"Iruka, your shirt is missing."
This got her to pause and glance down at herself; the angry flush turned into a mortified blush. "Oh, shit. Kakashi-sensei just saw me in my binder, didn't he?"
Tenzou nodded, then consoled, "Well, I'm not entirely sure he noticed. I mean, he noticed - he notices everything - but he's so used to thinking you're a 'he' that it most likely didn't even register that you're a 'she'. Kakashi-senpai probably just thought that you have an interesting style."
Iruka was pretty sure she wanted to die now, please.
"But really," her friend asked gently, "senpai did make a point; are you alright?"
The shaking started in her toes and made its way up her calves and into her knees, whereupon she was forced to carefully lower herself to the floor. Angry tears stung her eyes, and a desperate sort of sob almost choked her. "I need - I need Zumo and Tetsu," she whispered. "Please."
Tenzou nodded (not that she could see it) and took off. A short time later he returned with only one of her requested friends.
"Gomen, Ru," Kotetsu apologized as he hastily shed his jacket and sandals. "Zumo just left on a mission with Choumei-san, Tou-san, and Aoba-san; they aren't scheduled to return for a week." He settled down next to her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "Hey," he soothed, "it's okay. Whatever it is, it's gonna be fine."
"They're sending me to Wave," she said, voice just hitching with suppressed cries.
"Already?" he asked in astonishment. "But your last mission only ended a month ago!"
Iruka nodded and noticed from a distant place that her cheeks were wet. Another warmth settled next to her, and she blindly reached out a hand; Tenzou's fingers found hers and held on tightly. "I know," she gasped and leaned heavily against his chest. "I know, but the s-situation is getting desperate for them, and Sandaime thinks that they'll come to us for help; he doesn't want us to be caught off guard."
"I don't understand," Tenzou voiced quietly. "Forgive me, but what does this have to do with Iruka-san?"
Her breath hitched, and she pressed her face farther into Kotetsu's shoulder. The male chunin ran a soothing hand up and down her back. He gestured to the ANBU tattoo on display through her fishnet shirt and said dryly, "I'm sure you knew about this?"
And Tenzou's face paled. "You are not being sent as Iruka," he realized.
Mole's name was legendary amongst the ANBU divisions - almost as legendary as Hound himself, and just as mysterious. Mole wasn't called on for missions very often, though sometimes they just showed up at ANBU and performed the equivalent of "odd jobs", but there was never a mission that Mole was called on that they didn't complete. Their record was impeccable (not even Hound could say that), and it hadn't been long before they were notorious for the types of mission they were called on (every now and then they needed a single backup - and shinobi, even ANBU, love to gossip): Mole went on infiltration missions only. Now, that doesn't seem too hard, but Mole specialized in infiltration; they would go out, infiltrate the threat, gather as much information as they could (which was always a surprising amount), and then, if there was no way to disband the threat, they obliterated it. By themselves.
Rumors abounded over what Mole might endure on these missions, but all anyone really knew was that, after every single mission, Mole reported directly to Ibiki and was not seen again until they popped back up for another mission or "odd job".
But Tenzou had treated Mole after the last mission, and he knew what horrible things the ANBU survived, knew that it was common. He also knew that Iruka was Bat.
Something in him hardened. "Iruka, you cannot go on that mission," he said sternly. "As your acting physician, I will be telling the Hokage that you are still unfit for duty."
"Acting physician?" Kotetsu questioned incredulously.
"It's a recent thing," Iruka replied distractedly as she rounded on the jounin. "Excuse me, 'unfit for duty'? I'm perfectly capable of doing my job, thank you very much."
"Physically, yes," Tenzou argued, "but you aren't emotionally recovered from your last mission."
"And how do you know?" she snapped.
His inky black eyes were sad and solemn. "No one would be."
And just like that he had won; Iruka shuddered almost violently as memories of her last mission assaulted her, and she snuggled back up against her teammate.
Kotetsu hugged her close and asked carefully, "I know I'm not supposed to know her ANBU identity, but are her missions really that bad? I mean, Izumo, Genma, Raidou, and I all take care of her when she comes back from her missions, but I'm the only one who knows that she goes as ANBU some of the time; everyone else just thinks she's a bullied chunin."
"It's worse," Tenzou said quietly; one of his hands came to rest right above her ankle. "Since becoming her acting physician - I know both of her identities - I have been granted access to her files by Ibiki-san and the Hokage. Iruka isn't officially registered in the ANBU books despite having the tattoo; she will not be summoned for regular ANBU things, only for events or missions specific to her. Because she is not officially registered, if she is ever caught, Konoha can deny affiliation."
Iruka felt her brother stiffen as he caught on. "That means that R&R doesn't have to be sent after her if something goes wrong."
"They can't be sent after her ANBU identity," Tenzou corrected, "because that is an official mission that leaves a paper trail that Iruka-san's ANBU identity can't afford. However, the Hokage can get around this by sending a team of elite jounin to retrieve Umino Iruka if her mission goes bad." He sighed. "But yes; no matter the loophole, it leaves our friend very vulnerable should anything happen."
Anger trembled through Kotetsu's chest, and Iruka snuggled closer. "I's okay," she slurred sleepily. "'M used to it. A slave t' th' system, 'member?"
It was Kotetsu's turn to let out a sigh, and he pressed a kiss to her head. "I can never forget," he murmured. He looked back to the jounin. "Tenzou-san, I must respectfully request on Iruka's behalf that you do not tell the Hokage that Iruka is unfit for duty. I know it's a lie," he continued before Tenzou could argue, "but… Let's just say that Iruka is the center of a very sticky political situation that renders her incapable of refusing a mission unless she's actually physically unfit for duty. If she's being given a mission so soon, then she is desperately needed, and I know that no one can do what she does. Besides that, if she refuses, then she could be put on probation, court martialed, or even temporarily removed from active duty - perhaps even turned over to T&I. And it would all be legal."
Tenzou looked disgusted. "There is no loophole in the laws of Konohagakure that allows a citizen of this village or active, loyal shinobi to be abused in such a manner."
"That's just it," Kotetsu explained tiredly; he was sick of this topic. "I won't say anything else, but technically Iruka isn't a full citizen of Konohagakure, and the Councils are always calling into question her loyalty, so they can get away with doing anything to her."
The jounin paled, and his lips pressed into a thin line of absolute anger. "I think," he ground out, "that I will be speaking to Ibiki-san."
Kotetsu sighed. "If only it was that easy."
Freak. Freakity freaking freakin' freak. I hate this arc so much. I just - I can't write it. I'm really trying, I swear, because there's a couple things that happen that are mildly important for later development. Ugh. I think I've almost hit a breakthrough, though, so. That's good, I guess?
The bad news is that I don't know when the next update will be. April-May is the last bit of classes for the semester, and I'm really, really struggling with how everything is set up now. Long story short, I have to choose between really focusing on this fic or focusing on school and work. Understandably, I've chosen the latter. At worst you won't hear from me for about month, but I will do my best to sneak some kind of update in before May 14 (last day of classes). It might not be the next chapter, just another special, but it'll be something.
On a better note, I'm finally writing another Iruka-Sasuke interaction for the next chapter! It was a spur-of-the moment thing once I realized that I really don't have enough of it in here (like, once, at the very beginning. Do you even remember that chapter? Lol, I barely do XD)
Another happy note: my ability to do digital art has drastically improved, as has the consistency of the Irukas I draw. If you guys would like to see what I've got (I'm actually very proud of them; even my mom, who's an actual painter, likes them, which is - hm. Warm fuzzies :) ) or if you'd like to see specific character/scenes, let me know so that I can have them finished after school gets out.
Oh! Speaking of specific scenes, I got a request from one of you, n1ghtdr34m3r: "can we see Iruka handling the jonin at the mission desks? Like I'm really curious how the Iruka vs. 30 jonin incident went." Rest assured that this scene is almost finished, so if I post a special, it will most likely be this little thing. Thank you for this request, 'cause it was a ton of fun imagining how this went down lol.
One more thought thing as I wrap this up. Originally this fic was supposed to be about 25 chapters. Period. I thought I could flesh out the beginning pretty quickly and move right on to the main arc of the story, a.k.a. the real reason I'm writing this at all. Yes. Believe it or not, I did not originally plan to write this much content before the main arc. Surprise! You'll probably hate me for this, but I wasn't even going to resolve the political issues within this fic after the main arc. I was just going to leave everything as-is and tie it all back in to canon at the end. I know. Boo. However, based on how things are going, how the plot is developing, and even how much and well you guys have responded to this, this fic will actually be three parts: The first part, Facade, which sets up the characters, interactions, and basics of this AU; Not Even Free*, which will focus solely on the main arc and therefore be written in a slightly different format; and a yet-to-be-named third installment that will actually resolve the issues established in Facade and then tie back into canon. Sort of. Somehow. Maybe? I'm still working it out.
*(Some of you may recognize this title from the cross-posting of this fic on AO3. You can totally read that if you want, but it isn't as plot-driven as this one is. In other words, it takes a lot longer to get anywhere because I seriously write every little thing that pops into my head. This fic sticks to the original plot I outlined and moves much quicker (you have no idea how much I've streamlined this compared to AO3, XD), so if you like this more plot-driven I would suggest sticking to this version of the story. If you don't mind my rambly sort of free-writing, then go ahead and check out this fic under my alternate pseudonym IonFusion.)
I think that's it. Shout out to every single one of you for being awesome! Stay safe, follow the laws/guidelines of your town/city/state/country (obvs I don't know where y'all live, haha), and remember that, when times get tough, I love and appreciate everything you guys have done to support me and this story so far!
Please leave as many comments as you want, because they make my day and make fighting with classes so totally worth it :)
Till next time!
