It was harder than Iruka had expected to take Kakashi back to the scene of his battle. Not carrying him. That seemed almost normal now, and the copy nin had regained enough strength to help balance himself at least. What was hard was letting Kakashi see the brutal and ruthless way he had cut down his enemies. Although they both knew that he had only done what needed to be done, somehow he just didn't want his lover to look at him as a cold-blooded killer in the way he knew Kakashi viewed himself.

Iruka stopped just before they got to the first corpse, the woman. Kakashi was whispering in his ear. "I don't need to see the bodies. It's not as if we have to work out what killed them. Leave me here and bring me anything that looks out of place or interesting." It was almost as if he knew what he was thinking, or did he feel that way too? He set him down on the blanket and went to his grisly task.

Her pockets yielded standard rations, weapons, a picture of another woman. (Her sister? Lover?) Little else. But she did have a carafe of water. That would be useful! He mentally kicked himself for not checking for that at least.

He handed the picture to Kakashi and made his way over to the man. His head was lying a few feet from the body, staring up. A handsome young face, dark and angular, still with a look of shocked surprise. Iruka stepped over it. The blood in the sand, and there was a lot of it, had hardened to the consistency of tar gluing the man to the ground. Again he found nothing worthwhile. The entire search of both bodies had taken no more than a few minutes but Iruka felt as if it had taken years off his life.

He took the man's water and made his way back to where Kakashi was lying, stopping to pick up some of his scattered shuriken along the way. He dropped the weapons on the blanket then propped the other man into a sitting position before uncapping the carafe and handing it to him.

"Drink it, you aren't drinking enough. You haven't taken a piss all day."

Kakashi chuckled hoarsely. "So you noticed."

Iruka gave him a dark look. Yeah, it's a teacher thing. Spend a few days shut up in a room with a bunch of twelve year olds and you get sensitive to how often they leave to take a piss."

The copy nin drank deeply while the teacher stared at him disapprovingly. He handed the carafe back and lay down, grimacing and pulling a shuriken from where it was sticking into his ribs.

"Yours?" He asked holding it out. Iruka nodded.

"Where are their's?"

"They didn't throw any, guess they thought they didn't need to, against a chuunin."

Kakashi paused to consider for a moment. "Unlikely. Get me their weapons."

Iruka went back to pry the man's dagger from the bloody sand. Then retrieved the woman's spear. He held them out for Kakashi to see.

He took the dagger and looked at it closely. "These aren't ninja weapons. This was set up to look like a bandit attack.

Iruka was stunned. "Bandits! Why?"

"That's what we need to find out. That ambush yesterday, what did they use then?"

"The kid pulled a kunai on me, I remember, I thought it was the last thing I would ever see."

"Right, a kid. He slipped up and used the weapon he was most comfortable with. What about the others?"

Iruka was silent, there was nothing to say. The weapons were sharp, lethal, pointed at him. And he was outnumbered four to one. He hadn't paid close attention, but he now knew Kakashi would have.

"The woman was the leader right?" Kakashi pulled the slightly crumpled photograph from his pocket and looked it over, shaking his head. "Hand me her weapon."

Taking the offered spear he held it lightly, feeling its balance. Then holding it in one hand, propped at the elbow, he used the other hand to lift his headband.

"No!" Iruka yelled, using both hands to cover the exposed sharigan. "You mustn't do that. Not yet."

Kakashi pushed his hands away roughly. Then, gripping the spear in both hands, pulled sharply in opposite directions. Although there had been no visible join, the spear broke in two and a small tightly wound scroll slipped out of it and fell onto the blanket.

Iruka was chastened and subdued. He picked up the scroll and handed it to Kakashi, who re-covered his eye then unwound the scroll and looked it over.

"Intelligence. With a Leaf Anbu seal. Say's that Gaara's in a plot against Konoha, with Uchiha Itachi. To help him stage a coup. A document like this could break the alliance."

If anything Iruka felt relieved. "Feh, that's pretty far fetched. It's obvious to anyone that it's a forgery."

The tone of Kakashi's voice made him reconsider as much as his words. "Is it? It's not so different to what he did with Sound a few years back, lots of people still don't trust him, even in his own village. If it was found on one of our messengers and written by one of our spies it would have to be taken seriously. And a chuunin messenger is more likely to get taken down by bandits."

"But Gaara and Itachi?"

"That's the really scary part. Do you know why I was sent out here in the first place?"

Iruka shook his head.

"Rumours. Of a new cult leader, out in these marshes. Gathering all kinds of riffraff by offering them power and wealth."

Iruka was shaken but still trying hard not to be convinced. "So, you get powerful missing nins doing that kind of thing all the time. Remember Zabuza of Hidden Mist out in the wave country?"

"Yeah, but the rumours say this one has red whirling eyes."

He paused, giving it time to sink in before he continued. "This is more important than just you and me Iruka. There's something going on here, something big. Stone will keep coming after you every inch of the way until they kill you. And that bird of their's knows where we are. We have to find another way back, through the marshes, under the trees."

"But you were almost killed in those marshes. If Itachi really is there…"

The copy nin's voice was as soft as velvet but the intent behind it was pure steel. "Iruka, we… you, have to get that scroll back to Konoha. If you fail Hidden Stone will plant another one like it on the body of the next chuunin runner Tsunade sends out here on his own." He smiled in an attempt to further soften the effect. "Now let's see if we can find your little oasis before it gets dark."

Nightfall came quickly in the desert, but by the time it did Iruka had already marked the position of the scraggly palms and desert oaks of the mineral pool. They reached it just as the moon, a waxing gibbous, was rising. He spread the blanket under an oak that was growing beside the deceptively inviting water. He lay Kakashi on it and they shared the food and water that he had carefully rationed between them.

"Go to sleep, you still need it." He said once they had finished. "I'm going to take a bath and see if I can wash some of the blood out of my clothes. We can't drink the stuff but it is still water."

Kakashi wished he could join him. That would be fun. "Good idea, but before you do I need you to stand me up."

"Why is there a problem?"

"Yeah, I need to take a piss, your fault for giving me all that water."

Iruka grinned then propped him into a sitting position before crouching behind him and pulling him upright. Compared to carrying him it was surprisingly awkward. They shuffled a few yards then Iruka stopped and reached a hand around to fumble for Kakashi's fly. He was glad that the other man couldn't see his flushed face but he knew he could feel his hot breath on the back of his neck.

Kakashi could feel much more than that. He leaned back, not just for support, but to enjoy the growing tension in the body behind him. He vibrated with the pounding heartbeats, matching them quickly with his own, and relished the tremor in the groping hand as it released him from the surrounding cloth."

"It's just a piss, don't get carried away." He said teasingly but maybe just slightly breathlessly too.

Once he was done Iruka dragged him back to the blanket and rezipped his pants in silence. Then he waded into the water, fully clothed, and started scubbing at the crusted blood on his uniform. He was almost painfully aroused, had been for most of the day, although the past few minutes had encouraged it to become particularly… intense. Once he felt his clothes were as clean as possible he took them off under water, swirled them to rinse and lay them on some scrubby bushes at the side of the pond.

The mineral water was relaxing and it felt good to wash the grit and filth off his skin and out of his hair. But it did sting his eyes uncomfortably. And it was failing miserably to relax another part of him. He couldn't sleep next to Kakashi naked, not like this. He reached for his wet boxers and waded out of the pool.

"Don't bother putting them on."

Kakashi was looking at him. One eyed, open lipped. Rolling the tip of his tongue around the inner edge of his mouth as he watched shining water slide from smooth brown skin. Little rivulets draining from loose dark hair, trickling over the taught muscles of Iruka's back, finding the easier paths along the hollows next to his spine. Then disappearing into the glorious furrow between his tight buttocks. Even the scars were beautiful, pale against the dark skin. Contrasting streaks like the lines of grain in a perfect marble statue. Kakashi was suddenly thirstier than he had been out in the desert. Longing to lap at that water, however bitter the minerals, it would be so sweet.

"What do you mean? Why not?" Iruka could see the other man's lust, he knew it well. Reveled in it. But now? He could barely move!

"Because I want you to fuck me."

"Kakashi! What…?"

"Look Iruka, you're as horny as hell. You think I don't know what fighting like that does to you? I know what it does to me. You should too by now."

Iruka turned away, blushing fiercely. Remembering the many times Kakashi had come home bloodstained and exhausted, but instead of collapsing on the bed had pressed him against the nearest wall.

Kakashi smirked as he continued. "And you've had me right up against you most of the day. I'd love to take care of it for you, but frankly I just don't have it in me right now. But I think it would feel pretty damn good to have you in me."

Iruka's eyes led him back to the other man's face, becoming strangely liquid. Chocolate eyes, Kakashi noted. Dark sweet chocolate, not bittersweet. There was no bitterness in this man, just infinite sweetness.

The look caused his blush to spread over his entire body setting it on fire with desire. "But Kakashi, you don't have energy to waste."

The copy nin's voice was rough and breathless. "It won't take much, you'll have to do all the work. And it will be worth it. If we die tomorrow it will be a better memory to take to our graves than just lying under this fucking tree all night."

Iruka nodded. He took Kakashi's sandals off first, setting them neatly aside, then undid his leg bindings, rolling them round his hands and putting the neat bundles inside his sandals. His weapon holster was set beside them, then the teacher moved his trembling hands to his lover's waist and started to unfasten his pants. He was pleased to see that Kakashi was surprisingly firm, given his weakened state. He held it in his hand, squeezed it and kissed it once before pulling the pants the rest of the way off and folding them up.

Kakashi smiled up at him. "Don't stop there, take everything off. I want you to take me naked."

He obediently took of the jacket, the shirt and finally the mask that was pooled around Kakashi's white throat. He folded them and added them to the pile. Then came back, eased him onto his stomach and knelt between his legs.

Iruka looked at the pale body, stretched out on the blanket in front of him like a resting baby. Arms stretched out and bent at the elbows so that his hands were level with his head and his fingers splayed onto the blanket. His head rested on one side and his eyes, or at least the visible one, closed. His hair was straight and limp in the dry air, but thickened and coarsened by dust. It spread out on the dark blanket glistening white in the moonlight, pale and exotic like the man himself. God he was beautiful. Iruka didn't look at his lover this way often. Of course he knew what he looked like naked, but it was from brief glances and sideways looks when they shared a shower, even those made him blush. But now, for the first time, he looked at Kakashi the way Kakashi always looked at him.

He ran the back of his middle fingernail along the curved instep of a white foot, making Kakashi's body convulse in little twitches, continuing the path up over the curve of his calf and to the dimple behind his knee. Using both hands now, he ran his thumbs along the hollow cut in the firm white muscles on his inner thighs. Long lean thighs. Slowly creeping higher until they met, leaving him with the prize, the treasure, cupped in his hands. He released it and rested his hands on the ground just under the other's armpits, leaning his weight into them, making their bodies barely touch. It sent shivers through both of them.

"Oh god, you just seem so helpless, I feel as if I'm raping you."

Kakashi's laugh was far too breathless. "Ha, not a bad image. The fierce warrior and his helpless prisoner of war. Want to tie me up?"

It broke the tension, making Iruka laugh too. "No you pervert! But I'll need something, you know to prepare…"

"In my jacket, top pocket."

The teacher flashed red with jealousy. "What the hell do you need to take it on a mission with you for?"

Kakashi grinned into the blanket. "I don't, I stopped off in your classroom at lunchtime before I left remember."

Iruka did remember. And he remembered Hyuga Hanabi asking if the shiny smear left on her desk after lunch was honey, as he'd hurriedly cleaned it with disinfectant. His cheeks burned even brighter, if possible. "Yeah, that's right, sorry."

He applied the slick ointment to both of them. Trying to focus on the things that Kakashi always did, making sure he got it right, but focussing wasn't coming easy right now.

Kakashi barked an order at him. "Iruka, enough. You're teasing me to death."

It was enough. Kakashi's whole body was completely relaxed offering no resistance, just the snugness of the perfect fit between a hand and a well made glove, accompanied by a quiver of pleasure. God it felt good. Then hard hot sex.

It didn't last long. They came together, an explosive release, with harsh guttural grunts that sounded like wild animals out there in the wilderness. They were animals, there was nothing civilised in what they were doing. It was too essential to be civilised, too basic to even be human. Just a raw response to their primal need for each other.

Iruka lay forward onto his partner's body, breathing hard onto the back of his neck. His skin prickling with salt, from the water and from within his own body, but with no sweat in the dry desert air. "That was good, you're better, but it was good."

"Yeah, we'll do it this way again. Sometimes."

Iruka rolled over onto his side and flipped the blanket over them both. "Sometimes."

They slept until morning.