(Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews! Remember, if you're reading, please review! Warnings and disclaimers apply to all chapters.)

And the Beat goes On
Chapter 17: Restless

Konohamaru sat on the stone wall, looking down into the crystalline water in the pond. The golden-coloured koi nibbled at his feet. They were still babies, not yet big enough to be adults. He sighed heavily, being careful not disturbed his fishing line.

It was a bright sunny day, and nobody was home. He was sitting in the backyard, fishing in the pond, simply because he had nothing to do. He had yet to hook a fish. They all thought his toes were far more amusing. Technically, the water should have been freezing over, but the weather was still nice, and it hadn't.

It was Monday, and though he was supposed to have gone home last night, his mother had called around eleven, asking his uncle if he could keep him for a few more days. Of course, Iruka had agreed, and Konohamaru was stuck there for the next couple of days.

It wasn't that the eight-year old disliked his uncle, or his cousin for that matter, but that this always happened. He'd been bounced around from relative to relative, only seeing his mother for a few short days before he was landed somewhere new, for a week, for a month, for a year. He knew his other relatives more intimately than he knew his mother, which made her, in his mind, the distant relative all the others were supposed to be.

He grinned widely, kicking his feet and scaring away the fish. Iruka was a very nice person, and a very good uncle, as he'd found. He'd managed to obtain all sorts of toys and candies out of the man, even though he'd been there for a grand total of three days. He liked Naruto too, because the blond was loud, and garnered attention. He wanted some attention too.

He got up and discarded his fishing rod, wandering about the backyard in search of something to do. Iruka had already given him a very special assignment, but while his cousin was at school, he couldn't carry out his orders.

His uncle had given him permission to follow his blond cousin where ever he went, and to keep him as far away from Sasuke as he could at all times. When that wasn't possible, he was supposed to tag along with the two, never giving them any time alone. He suspected that it had something to do with the bedroom incident Saturday night, and the lecture Naruto had received.

He stretched and put his arms behind his head. Yes, it was hard work keeping those two away from each other. They wouldn't do anything more than hold hands in his presence and Konohamaru was glad. He thought all kissing was icky, and he didn't want to think about kissing girls, or kissing boys either.

He grinned and rocked on his heels. A job well done had earned him a snack, he decided, and he pandered back into the house, in search of junk food.

- - - - - - - - -

"Uzumaki!"

The addressed boy turned his head slightly, glancing toward the door, where the one doing the addressing stood, pointing his finger in Naruto's direction accusingly. The blond sighed tiredly. He did not want to deal with this right now.

"What, Inuzuka?"

Kiba came charging down the stairs, still jabbing that finger at Naruto, his face screwed up with anger and jealousy. Naruto swivelled around on the piano bench, facing the enraged teenager, looking decidedly bored. Shikamaru would have been proud.

"You!" the dark-haired one cried, the anger resounding in his voice, and he choked on his next words, the raw emotion disabling his ability to speak.

All eyes were on the spat being played out at the front of the room. It was only five to eight, so Iruka was nowhere to be seen, as of yet. Hinata covered her face in shame, blushing to see her two favourite people fighting. She could only guess why.

Kiba shoved his face into Naruto's, his dark eyes boring into the blond's. "You," he said again. "And me, right here. Right now."

A look of confusion passed across the blond's face, before he shoved the other teen away. "What the fuck's your problem?" he asked, a bitter tone residing in his voice.

He turned his back on Kiba then, intent on ignoring the confrontational boy. Kiba growled, then threw a punch, landing his fist square in Naruto's back, winding him.

The blond made a sick noise, and as soon as he'd collected himself, got up, rising to his full height, which was still less than Kiba's, and glared. "What the fuck?" he shouted, taking a swing at Kiba.

Kiba evaded the blond's attack, throwing another punch, and decking Naruto in the face. The smaller boy growled, the latched on to Kiba's neck, wrapping his hands about the older boy's throat, intent on throttling him. Kiba clawed at Naruto, pulling at his hair, raking his nails down the boy's back, biting, kicking, and swinging his arms about in an attempt to dislodge the boy.

Eventually, he managed to throw Naruto from him, and as soon as the blond was sailing through the air, launched himself after his opponent, tackling him and pinning him to the ground. He lifted his arm up, ready to unleash a deluge of blows.

Naruto brought his knee up, a very strategic move, as Kiba had been straddling his legs, keeping them pinned. Kiba howled in pain for a second, then launched himself at Naruto again and the two boys began wrestling on the floor for supremacy. Blood was being spilled by the time Iruka walked into the room.

He stared at the two boys for a split-second, watching them tussle and try to tear each other to bits, before he started yelling. "Uzumaki! Inuzuka! What the hell are you doing?"

He somehow managed to pull the two boys apart, while the rest of the band stared at the teacher, awed, because never before had Iruka uttered an obscenity in their presence. Hinata took the moment to flee, getting up so quickly that she knocked her chair over.

Some of the students turned around, watching the brunette run out of the room. They turned their attention back to the front of the room, eager to see the punishment doled out. Iruka had been berating the teens while the attention was transferred to Hinata.

"Get to the office, both of you. I'll let the principal deal with you," the brunet teacher snarled.

Naruto and Kiba shared a glare, then proceeded to walk out of the room, humiliation coming over them, each nursing their wounds. Kiba walked out of the room first, giving the blond a little sneer, and Naruto glared daggers at him all the way down the hall, hand clutched to his cheek.

Iruka sighed heavily, watching them go, then turned back to his gaping class. "Did anyone see where Hinata went?" he asked, sounding exasperated. This was not a good way to start the day.

The class gave him a blank look, and his next question about why the boys had been fighting was replied to in the same way. Iruka sighed again, deciding it was better to forget the whole incident and picked up his music, setting it on his stand. "All right then," he started, his voice drifting to monotone. "If you'll all turn to page fifty-seven. . ."

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Naruto had sat down in the chair farthest away from Kiba. He watched the other boy out of the corner of his eye, waiting for the dark-haired boy to make an obscene gesture toward him, or move closer, or anything. Kiba did nothing, sitting in his chair, staring dully ahead.

Naruto turned his glance away, turning to look instead at the secretary. She was typing away, seemingly bored beyond belief.

The seconds ticked by.

Naruto snuggled down in his chair, preparing for a long wait. At last, the door to the principal's office clicked open, and someone walked out. Naruto squinted for a moment, trying to place the appearance.

Gaara looked sulky, and didn't even smile when he saw Naruto. "Uzumaki," he murmured with a curt nod, then continued on his way out of the office.

"Hey!" the blond cried, hopping up out of his seat. "What were you-"

The door shut and Naruto angrily pulled it open, only to hear the secretary bark, "Uzumaki! Sit down!"

Sighing heavily, he sat back down, wondering what in the world the Gaara could have been in the office about. There were too many possibilities to rule anything out. It was Gaara, after all.

It wasn't too much longer before they were called in; both of them, at once. How spectacularly crappy. He didn't even know why Kiba was so pissed off. Did someone piss in his cornflakes or something? No one could ever tell and he could only wait for Kiba to spill the beans.

The two boys sat down in front of the desk and waited for the principal to start.

Jiraiya was an older man, with a shock of silver hair that tumbled down his back. He was rumoured to be somewhat of a pervert, and Naruto wondered how he kept his job.

The principal coughed and looked down, then at the two boys. "I think you two know why you're here," he said.

Both Naruto and Kiba were rolling their eyes. Here was the whole standard principal speech, in a nutshell. Jiraiya grinned widely at both of them. "So, you're both suspended for two weeks! Personally, I think fighting is the manly way to resolve things, but school regulations say I can't let you guys brawl. So, don't think of this as suspension, think of it as vacation!"

Both boys stared blankly at Jiraiya, who stopped grinning and shuffled some papers on his desk. Sheepishly, Naruto finally said, "Um, Sir? I just had most of last week off, and I can't afford to miss any more time -"

Jiraiya smiled, which was somewhat creepy. "Well then, you shouldn't have been fighting on school property."

Naruto stood up then, pointing a finger at Kiba. "It wasn't my fault! He attacked me first!"

"So?" was the principal's cool reply. "You fought back."

"It was self-defence!" Naruto cried, fighting a losing fight.

Jiraiya shrugged. Naruto groaned. Iruka was going to have his head on a silver platter! The principal waved a hand at them. "All right now, you're dismissed. Goodbye, see you in two weeks."

Both boys left the office, grumbling and cursing under their breath.

- - - - - - - - - -

Sakura slammed her locker shut, holding her English books in one arm, shutting the locker with the other hand. She was just about to walk away when someone's hand clamped down on her shoulder.

She spun around, only to come face to face with Ino. The blonde girl glared at her, eyes narrowed in anger, suspicion and even hate. Inwardly, Sakura cheered. Her little stunt had worked wonders. Outwardly, she appeared dull and disinterested. "What do you want?" she asked.

Ino hissed. "You. You backstabbing little bitch."

Sakura couldn't help the smirk that rose to her face. She turned completely around, and waggled her finger in Ino's face. "Ah-ah-ah. You were the backstabbing bitch first, dear."

Ino looked taken back. "Me? You were the one who went out with Lee-"

"And you were the one who went to the movies with Shikamaru. Alone."

Ino rolled her eyes. "Oh, grow up."

"You're the one who needs to grow up Ino! I'm not your plaything! You're going to have to commit!"

Sakura was well aware that she was raising her voice, but she didn't care. Ino gritted her teeth, but before she could say anything, Sakura continued. "You just don't get it!"

Ino grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her closer. "You're the one who doesn't get it, Sakura," she growled.

She twisted Sakura's wrist a bit, making the girl wince in pain. "You're mine," she whispered, then pressed her lips to Sakura's in a searing, yet quick kiss.

She pulled away, leaving the pink-haired girl breathless and smirked, before she walked smartly away, saying nonchalantly, "I'll see you in class."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Life was a funny thing, especially when it decided it was going to be a comedian. Uchiha Itachi knew this first hand.

Itachi had never ever given thought to the possibility of liking boys. In fact, it was often rumoured that he didn't like anyone at all, which was partially true. He was a loner by nature, and he preferred to be that way.

Unfortunately, Itachi was a genius, he was gifted in athletics, and some people seemed to find him attractive. His classmates were always willing to shrug off his cold and arrogant nature to try and make friends with him. He'd thought about murdering the lot of them many times when he was younger. He'd also come from an extremely wealthy family, so there was no doubt that some of the kids were after his money.

In the sixth grade, some of the boys in his grade had started making fun of him. He wore his hair long, and his lashes were long, and dark enough to make it look like he was wearing mascara. His skin was pale and perfectly smooth. They asked him some rude things, made insinuations about being a girl, and so on and so forth, but he ignored them. Immaturity was for losers.

In the seventh grade, the insinuations got worse. They no longer merely implied that he was a girl - he knew he looked feminine - but asked him more specifically about female parts, that he did not have.

In the eighth grade, the boys were interested in trying to knock him up, apparently, Their jokes were cruder, and more than once, he'd been felt up, at recess, in the bathroom, even in the classroom. He'd always promised himself that he'd kick the ass of the next guy to even think about trying that, but it kept happening, time and time again.

Now that he was older, and wiser, he realized it was probably because he enjoyed it, but he'd never admit that to himself. He didn't like to be touched, and denied himself anything akin to pleasure, but boys were curious at that age, and he knew he'd liked it.

The worst point had been when that bastard Momochi Zabuza had pinned him down and kissed him, really fucking kissed him, in front of everyone. The girls were disgusted, and so were most of the boys. They'd made the classic disgusted noises, and a few had giggled, and the boys had made their crude jokes.

Zabuza was in the hospital for six weeks after that. Nobody had tried to grope him after that, until their graduation party.

Some guys from high school - grade twelves likely - had shown up, with alcohol and such, and if they hadn't given it to all the stupid little eighth graders, who'd gotten themselves smashed. Nothing really bad had happened - he hadn't been raped, he was sure of that, because he hadn't been that drunk, but tipsy enough to let himself be passed around like a whore. He was almost sure he'd swapped spit with every boy in the eighth grade.

When he started ninth grade, he was glad, because he had been sure he was going to get away from the immaturity of his peers. It was also sort of a fresh start, with people he didn't know, didn't have to know and wouldn't know.

How very wrong he'd been. Nobody had really grown up over the vacation, and everyone still laughed, and the boys he'd known in grade school still made jokes. He still kicked ass. Nothing really changed, except that there were a few new faces involved.

It had been during the first month of his first semester, that he had met Orochimaru. The boy was a year and a half his senior, and downright weird. He was more mature than half of his peers, but still an idiot, and highly immature, as Itachi had thought.

Orochimaru never really talked about anything at all, he just talked, about stupid things. He had failed most of his classes last year, and it was rumoured he had no parents and lived by himself. He had a job, which was something most of his classmates didn't.

He had been in Itachi's home room class, French, or something stupid like that. Itachi didn't care, because he learned very quickly, and got nearly perfect in all of his classes. He skulked in one of the back corners, often not working, because he was done in the first five minutes, while the rest of the class slogged on.

Orochimaru sat in the other back corner, and would sit there, glancing up from his work, thinking he was sly, giving the other boy the oddest look. Then, he'd smirk, and go back to his sheet, which Itachi suspected he never really read.

To say he was intrigued was an understatement. He wanted to know why the older boy looked at him like that, why he did what he did. Half of him suspected that he was attracted by that air of seniority, and mature immaturity. What could the older boy give him?

One day, in the middle of class, the teacher had just finished handing out their worksheet. Orochimaru had actually appeared to get to work this time, grabbing the sheet out of the teacher's hand and setting his pen to the paper faster than lightning. Itachi was startled to look over and find out what that look had meant.

Orochimaru was holding up his sheet, and on the back, he'd written, in big, bold letters, "I want you."

Itachi had blinked several times at the sheet, then looked at Orochimaru, who set down the sheet and smiled slyly. Itachi had gone rather red in the face and looked back at his own paper, pretending to be indulged in his work.

He'd been so busy ignoring the older boy that he didn't even hear the bell that ended class and set them free to a fifteen minute break. He didn't notice that the class, and even the teacher was gone, until someone whispered, hot in his ear, "You're awful hard."

Itachi had frozen, until whoever it was hissed, "working," completing the sentence that was otherwise completely wrong.

He tried to force his mind out of the gutter. Slowly, he glanced up, seeing Orochimaru smirking down at him. They were almost nose to nose. He tried to back away, but found that he had nowhere to go. Orochimaru's hand was on his cheek. "You're so pretty," the older said, and Itachi found himself blushing.

Orochimaru threw a hasty glance back at the door, then at the clock. "You're lucky. We've still got fifteen minutes. The bell just rang."

Itachi could only stare in disbelief as Orochimaru stood up and fiddled with his pants, unfastening them as quickly as he could. "What are you doing?" he hissed, glaring at the older boy.

Orochimaru grinned wickedly. "What do you think I'm doing?"

Itachi glared more. "The teacher!" he hissed, well aware that if the teacher came back, he'd be at least suspended, even if he had no part in this.

"Her keys are on the desk. She can't get back in," the older boy said, pulling his pants down a bit. "So, do you want me?"

Itachi couldn't say anything. He was too stupefied. He could only watch in horror as the older boy pulled his cock out of his underwear. He glanced up at Orochimaru, then down again, feeling slightly sick.

"Well, go on. Do you want to or not?"

Hesitantly, with more than one glance at the older boy, he got down on his knees. Nervously, he did what he'd been bidden to do - what he'd agreed to do. He'd sucked for all he was worth, while Orochimaru's hands were tangled in his hair.

Orochimaru had been careful, keeping an eye on the clock, and goading the younger boy on, offering advice.

As with anything, Itachi had caught on quickly, and the only thing that threw him off was the older boy groaning his name loudly, and then, in the moment of confusion that followed, being kissed, some of the stuff that had gathered on his lips because he'd forgotten to swallow being washed away by a careful tongue.

Orochimaru had helped him back to his feet, where he stood, shakily, realization of what he'd just done setting in. Orochimaru had straightened himself, and the younger up a bit, then said with a sly smirk, "Quick learner, aren't ya?"

There had been a few words exchanged, and Itachi found himself with a slip of paper in hand that gave him the older boy's phone number and address, and an invitation that promised more for that night.

Being a curious boy, Itachi, though loathe to leave Sasuke at home by himself, but figuring that the younger could take care of himself, had taken Orochimaru up on that offer. It had been well after midnight when he'd arrived, because he'd walked, rather than taking the bus.

Orochimaru's apartment was small, dirty, and bland, but that didn't matter, because it was secluded, and empty, and they were alone. Their second session was far more intimate than their first, Itachi letting himself go, and allowing Orochimaru to educate him in human sexuality.

It wasn't slow, and it wasn't sweet like those stupid chick flicks made it out to be. It was animalistic, it was rough, and Itachi was sure he'd sported numerous bruises in the morning. The floor had been unforgiving. Orochimaru hadn't even had the decency to take a virgin on his bed, though he had woken up there in the morning.

It had satisfied his curiosity though, for a little while at least. He blamed curiosity as what drove him back to the older boy, but later, he was loathe to admit it had been infatuation. He liked the way Orochimaru looked at him, he liked the way Orochimaru made him feel.

Eventually, he'd grown bold enough to take his lover to his own bed, which had almost cost him Orochimaru entirely, because the older boy was so jealous of the splendour Itachi lived in. Itachi wasn't one to be deterred if there was something he wanted, or needed, and Orochimaru, as it turned out, ended up being both wanted and needed.

Itachi remembered Sasuke's reaction when he'd found out that his older brother had a boyfriend. At first, he'd been shocked and dumbfounded. Then, he'd started laughing. The younger Uchiha had been rolling around on the floor laughing for a good half hour, and the elder was beginning to think that calling the nuthouse might be a good idea, when Sasuke came around, sat up, and screamed.

The boy wouldn't talk to him for weeks straight, avoided unnecessary contact, and finally, accepted it. He wasn't pleased with it, that was for sure, but he never said anything about Orochimaru's presence, though it was apparent that they hated each other.

At least, that was what Itachi remembered. He honestly didn't know why he continued to try and drag them places together, as the two boys were dead set against each other. Even a task as simple as walking home, which they were doing right now, caused an uneasy tension between them.

Orochimaru was walking on the left side of Itachi, Sasuke on the right. Orochimaru looked over Itachi, and smirked at Sasuke. "Hey Short Stuff! I heard your boyfriend got suspended for fighting."

Sasuke said nothing, staring straight ahead. Itachi sighed. His boyfriend was trying to start a fight. "Can't you two get along?" he murmured, sighing heavily.

The older boy looked at him. "Hm? You want us to get along? Well, I'm sure we could do that. We can co-operate, right Sasuke?"

Sasuke glared. Orochimaru froze. "Er. . .okay, so we can't. But hey, if it means getting your brother in the sack-"

If possible, Sasuke glared more. "No," he growled icily, then walked further ahead.

Orochimaru whistled. "What a bitch," he muttered.

Itachi grumbled and continued on his way.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Naruto sighed and flopped down onto the park bench. He had nothing better to do. He'd been kicked out of school, and he really didn't want to go home. Konohamaru was waiting to ambush him there. The little runt had been extremely annoying lately, and Naruto almost thought there was some conspiracy going on.

He had his portable cd player on, and the music turned up as loud as it could go. He stretched out on the bench, looking skyward, watching the fluffy white clouds roll by. He hoped they'd get snow soon.

He'd been all around Konoha today, having nothing better to do than wander aimlessly. He hoped Sasuke wasn't too worried about him. After all, he'd never gone to class. He swung his foot around to the time of his music.

After a what seemed like a long time, he sat up a bit. He sighed. It was nearly five o'clock, and time for him to be heading home. He'd been hoping Sasuke would somehow know he was here and come get him.

Someone sat down beside him, rather suddenly, and he glanced to his left. One Hyuuga Neji was sitting beside him, staring at the ground. Naruto blinked in confusion. Neji sighed and Naruto opened his mouth to speak, but the older boy beat him to it. "Uzumaki, you haven't seen TenTen anywhere, have you?"

Naruto shook his head and Neji sighed again, looking away. "Was she at school today?" the blond asked, wondering why he was even worried about TenTen. He barely knew her. Somehow, though, he had a terrible sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, which only got worse when Neji shook his head.

"Maybe she was sick," Naruto offered, trying to help.
Neji shook his head again. "No. She wasn't home. Her parents don't know where she is either."

Naruto felt sick. "Oh," he said a little stupidly.

Neji stood up. "Thanks for your time, Uzumaki," he said, with a curt nod, and was on his way.

Naruto sighed and flung himself off the bench, deciding to get himself home. What if there was a rapist or a kidnapper around?

However, before he got home, he was accosted by one Uchiha Sasuke. Sasuke was carrying his book bag, complete with all the books. He was frowning, somewhat pissed off. "Uzumaki," he growled, "Why the hell weren't you at home?"

"Jeez, what crawled up your ass and died?" Naruto asked, grabbing the book bag from Sasuke.

The book bag found itself flung halfway across the park, as one very angry Uchiha swept Naruto into his arms in the fiercest hug the blond had ever received, and kissed the bewildered boy like there was no tomorrow.

They had toppled to the ground sometime during that kiss, and even though the first one was broken, it was followed by a hundred thousand little shards of kisses. Naruto managed to push the amorous boy away from him, breathing harshly, as Sasuke pressed them together as hard as he could.

"Jeez!" he cried. "What the hell did you have!"

"Deprivation," Sasuke murmured, attempting to lick Naruto's ear. Naruto slapped him.

"No! You're. . .horny! Did you have viagra or something?"

Sasuke looked insulted. "I don't need that, thank you. You seem quite capable of getting it up there."

Naruto tried to push the older boy away. "You. . .you're sick! Are you running a fever? You've lost it, you've gone crazy- "

"No," Sasuke murmured, trying to lick Naruto's ear again, and succeeding this time. "I just want you. Badly."

Naruto blushed. "Not here," he hissed, well aware that this was a public place.

Sasuke frowned, all his former passion reverting to logic. "Then where? You're house? My house? There are people there. There's nobody here, except for you. . .and me. . ."

To say that both boys got home very, very late would be an understatement.
- - - - - - - - - - -

Naruto slammed the door, announcing he was home, which was probably a stupid thing to do, considering it was well past eleven o'clock. The TV was on, which was strange, because Iruka almost never watched TV on week nights.

He ventured into the living room, to find Konohamaru glued to the television, the lights out, and the bluish glow of the tube filling the room. "That's bad for your eyes you know," Naruto grumbled, switching on the lights.

Konohamaru squealed, dove for the remote, turned the Tv off and whipped around saying, "What the hell! When did you get home!"

Naruto gave him a very dark look. "Don't swear," he growled.

"You do - all the time!" the younger boy argued.

"Don't follow my example," Naruto muttered. "What are you doing up anyway? Where's Iruka?"

The brunet boy shrugged. "Oh, he's at some meeting, or something."

Naruto muttered something under his breath which sounded suspiciously like, "Meeting? More like he's off fucking Kakashi senseless."

He sighed then, and muttered, "I should have known."

He got up and wandered into the kitchen. "Did you have dinner?"

Konohamaru nodded, then, with a sly smirk, said, "Where have you been, Naruto?"

The blond boy froze, and if he had been facing the younger, he would have seen that his face was very, very red. "Never mind!" he snapped and Konohamaru grinned.

"Seen your looooover?" he asked, drawing out the last word, putting emphasis on it.

"No!" Naruto snapped.

"Oooooh, Naruto's got a boyfriend."

Naruto turned around, face as crimson as a tomato and pointed at the stairs. "Go to bed! Now!"

Konohamaru stood still, grinning like an idiot. "Was there lots of kissing?"
"Now!" Naruto screamed.

Konohamaru yipped and ran up the stairs like he was being chased by the hounds of hell, which could have been very plausible, seeing as an enraged Naruto was not a good Naruto.

- - - - - - - - - -

Iruka snuggled into Kakashi's shoulder, resting his socked feet on the coffee table. Absently, Kakashi wrapped an arm about the brunet's shoulders.

On the TV screen, a terrified woman, with rather large breasts, screamed and ran from a grotesque killer. It was a cheesy horror movie, but it gave Iruka a chance to snuggle close to Kakashi and he really didn't mind that the movie was so horrible.

Kakashi was engrossed in the movie, his eyes glued to the screen. Now that Iruka thought about it, Kakashi probably wasn't paying too much attention to the plot of the movie, but more to the woman's bosom, especially now that it was the classic rain-in-the-white-t-shirt scene. Iruka thought he could almost see the silver-haired man drooling.

He rolled his eyes, and wondered what was going through the other's mind at that moment. Probably something stupid like, "Man, I wish Iruka had tits". The brunet shuddered at the thought and the mental image that accompanied it.

Maybe it was better that he couldn't read Kakashi's mind.

"So. . .yeah," he murmured, trying to catch the other man's attention.

Kakashi almost immediately tore his eyes away from the TV to look at him. Iruka felt slightly warm and fuzzy. "Hm? What is it?"

"About the holidays. . ."

Kakashi waited for him to continue, eyes occasionally drifting in the direction of the movie. "What about them?"

Iruka shrugged nonchalantly. "Oh, nothing really. It's just that they're in a week or two and I was wondering what you had planned. . ."

Kakashi smiled. "Nothing really. And I'm glad, because it sounds like you're inviting me to do something."

Iruka batted a wandering hand away. "Well, actually, I was thinking about going up north. I have a cabin up there and -"

Kakashi pushed a slender finger against the brunet's lips in order to silence him. "Say no more," the silver-haired one said, in his most 'valiant' voice. "I shall accompany you to keep you warm and entertained on those cold winter nights."

Iruka hardly had to guess how Kakashi planned to keep him warm and entertained, but refrained from frowning and ploughed on. "The boys are going too."

"Boys?" Kakashi asked. "Didn't you only have one, last time I checked?"

Iruka nodded. "Yes, but my nephew is here, and from what I gather, his mother won't be collecting him any time soon."

The brunet had been in contact with other relatives, and had only heard bad things about how Konohamaru was being raised. He figured he was going to have to enroll the boy in school sooner or later.

Kakashi looked vaguely disappointed. "So, there'll just be the four of us?"

Iruka shook his head. "No, because Naruto will want to bring Sasuke along. . .for. . .uh. . ."

"Sexual companionship," Kakashi concluded.

"No!" Iruka cried, nearly slapping the other. "Er. . .no. . .just so that there's someone his own age there."

Kakashi nodded sagely, as if he understood perfectly. "Sexual companionship," he concluded.

Iruka rolled his eyes and ground his teeth. "No! You old pervert! Get your mind out of the gutter. Yeesh, you're as bad as the students."

"And you're like some prim and proper old lady."

"What!"

Kakashi found himself aggressively attacked by one of the pillows on his sofa. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Mercy! Mercy!"

"Call me an old lady! I'll show you old lady!"

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