Thanks for everyone who is reading this. I am loving hearing from people about what they think. I know feedback whore and all.

Poor Kakashi, presented with a mystery and he's having such a hard time figuring it out.

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Water Runs Red – Chapter 4

Saturday afternoon and Kakashi had dismissed his team early after spending several hours 'quizzing' them on their academy time. If anyone realized that it was more quizzing on Iruka than the academy, they didn't show it. He started to stalk out other jônin then to see what they knew. Tracking down Gai was easy, and after promising to accept a challenge next time they met, he extracted all the information on Iruka from Gai that he could. Basically, that was worthless since Gai also seemed to only know the same side of Iruka the Genin had known -- the saint like personification of patience and discipline. Not the type of person who Kakashi thought would have a tattoo, a pieced naval, or be at a club like the one he had staked out last night.

Asuma was similarly useless. However, that proved to be the break Kakashi needed. He was sitting with Asuma talking about the 'education' the Genin had received at the academy when Asuma's apartment door opened and Kurenai walked in.

She immediately started to make some excuse for why she was just walking into Asuma's apartment. When Kakashi just shook his head, "Kurenai-san, it is fine. I was about to leave." With that, he stood up and started making his way to the door.

Asuma shrugged, "Yeah, sorry bout that Kakashi, I know nothing about how things at that academy go."

Kurenai looked at the men, "And neither of you remembered I substitute there occasionally?"

Kakashi smiled, "I had a … disagreement with a former teacher for my team."

Kurenai nodded and walked over to the fridge to grab a bottle of water, "I heard. Evidently you violated one of the rules."

"Rules?" Now Kakashi was confused.

"Never point out to Iruka-kun when he looks like hell." She smirked a bit and sat down on the couch.

Asuma simply mouthed 'kun?'

Kakashi scratched at the back of his head idly. "I see, evidently I was not given this rulebook."

"Oh no wonder, it doesn't happen like it used to evidently. Kotetsu and Izumo would be better sources of information. Or he used to hang out with Anko for a while. I think Iwashi got in trouble with those guys a few times too."

"Sources of information about what?"

She shrugged, "I don't exactly know." Now both men knew this had to be good from her tone. "Evidently, Iruka-kun isn't just all adorable innocence. The boy has a temper in him and a surprising tendency for an academy teacher to over indulge in certain things and end up in pain the next day."

She smiled at the two men who were listening to her, "It's well known that group throws the best parties in Konoha." She smiled as the men exchanged glances as if to see if the other knew about these parties. "Anko was telling me I should go to one next weekend, but I was saying I wouldn't really know anyone there. She told me I shouldn't worry; a lot of people would be there."

She smirked as she the men glance at each other, "I assume neither of you were invited?" She laughed a little, "I can extend the invitation to anyone I want, as long as they are too old to have been one of Iruka-kun's students." Quickly plans were made that the three of them would meet at Asuma's the next Friday and go to the party together.

After that, Kakashi made his way into the administrative building. It was an early Saturday afternoon -- before the daylong missions would be handing in reports and after the morning rush to hand out missions. He was not surprised to see the mission room mostly empty. The only person in the room was Iruka, looking very bored staring intently at a potted plant. Possibly the man was asleep with his eyes open.

Kakashi kept walking past the room. This was a perfect opportunity. With no one that could relieve him from the desk, the Chuunin was in a known location for at least the next hour, assuming someone showed to relieve him then. With a quick summons, Kakashi left Pakkun (who was getting a little irritated at being summoned so often for nothing that appeared life threatening) and had him agree to alert him if Iruka left the building.

With that, Kakashi ran off to Iruka's apartment. This was his chance to go through the place and see if he could find any more clues. The door was well sealed, as were the windows. The weakest part of the security, and it was definitely better than anything a chuunin should have, was the bathroom window. After undoing a few traps and being careful of a few others, Kakashi managed to make his way into the chuunin's apartment. Since he was in the bathroom, first he started there.

It was a small bathroom, but still large enough for a tub. As he started to go through the room, he made a startling discovery – Iruka owned more stuff for hair care than anyone else that Kakashi knew of. He had been in ANBU for years and had patched himself up in many people's bathrooms, many of them female even, so this was no small accomplishment. The man had several shampoos, conditioners, treatments, oils, and at least 12 different types of hair color that were stashed under the sink in colors from black to blond. There was also an impressive array of medical supplies, especially anti-toxins.

It was definitely getting interesting. He made his way out into the living room. The red and brown room reminded him of Iruka's outfit the other night, right down to the brown leather of the couch. Come to think of it, Kakashi didn't know anyone else, well except Anko, who had a leather couch. He flipped through the CDs on the entertainment center and noticed the TV was little used if the dust on the remote and screen was any indication. The CD's and CD player on the other hand were spotless. Half the CDs appeared to be amateur and the other half were mostly bands he had never heard of. Nearly all the CDs had numbers after all the songs that Kakashi quickly figured out from some of the professionally produced ones stood for beats per minute, but all the numbers seemed high for that.

Tearing himself away from the music, he looked at the stack of magazines on the couch. Teaching supplies, weapons magazines, nothing of any interest. Same for the kitchen, unless you counted left over take out ramen that looked like it was about ready to demand admittance to the academy. The last place he looked was in the cabinet over the fridge. Most people don't keep that cabin ate locked, but Kakashi quickly had it opened. A small liquor store of bottles, most half empty was shoved in there to the point of almost pressing the doors open from their weight. Interesting, but after the hangover situation, Kakashi already knew the man drank, so while the quantity was surprising, it wasn't information he was looking for.

That only left the bedroom. As Kakashi pushed open the door, this is not what he expected in a teacher's bedroom. The wood floor was empty except for a futon in the corner and a chest of drawers. For some reason it seemed like this was a room no one else ever saw. The living room was decorated, stylish, and comfortable. This room was bare white walls with one wall covered in mirror squares. Kakashi flipped up his forehead protector to study the wear marks on the floor. He was right; they exactly matched wear from repeated practice of the katas the academy teacher would be teaching to his students.

The bed was covered in deep red blankets but nothing of interest was there. The chest of drawers yielded more interesting items. In addition to everything a person would expect to find. There was another drawer full of traditional clothing. Kimono, Yukata, hakama and several types and colors of sashes. The bottom drawer was full of very non-traditional clothing. Just as he was thumbing through leather pants, and mesh shirts various leather collars and accessories, Pakkun appeared in a puff of chakra smoke next to him.

Without a word, he grabbed the pug and evaporated in a cloud of chakra smoke to materialize in his precious hiding spot with a view of Iruka's living room. Soon he saw the teacher enter the apartment and throw a bag with take out on the floor in front of the couch. The figure disappeared for a few minutes to reappear wearing only a pair of faded grey sweatpants. Kakashi watched the chuunin sit in front of the couch and fiddle with the remote for the stereo for a few seconds before eating the yakatori had had in the take out bag.

After two hours of watching the chuunin do nothing except listen to music, or meditate, or possibly sleep, regardless, the man didn't move for the next two hours from in front of the couch. Kakashi raised up his headband to see if there was anything that he was missing. The jônin's dark eye widened as he took in the scene in the living room, he was watching a clone. "Pakkun? Is he still in there?"

The pug just nodded, "Yeah." He smelt the air, "I can't tell exactly where, but he's still in the apartment someplace." They stayed like that, now ignoring the napping clone form in the living room. Kakashi wasn't sure when he had been fooled, but all he could do was wait for the chuunin to appear.

Eventually Kakashi had to leave, he had a mission to do the next morning with his team, but he'd be back soon. When he came back into town three days later, how his team managed to turn that simple retrieval mission into a three-day event, he had no idea, but when he came back he quickly changed and made his way back to the empty unit to see if he could catch sight of Iruka.

It was late in the evening and there was a good chance the teacher would be in his apartment. When Kakashi reached the empty unit, he noticed something odd. There was a wrapped present sitting by the window. Instantly the Sharingan eye was exposed and he was inspecting the item for anything suspicious. Not seeing anything, he summoned Pakkun.

The pug took one look at where he was – again and sighed, "Are you still on about this?" Then he sniffed the air and looked towards the package. "Then again this could be worse."

"What's in there?" Kakashi was eyeing the package suspiciously.

"Smells like biscuits, liver and chicken unless I am mistaken" Pakkun was never mistaken when it came to food. "Not poisoned and smells like that man you've been following."

Kakashi opened the package, carefully, finding exactly what Pakkun said would be in there. A nicely packaged bag of gourmet dog biscuits. He handed them over Pakkun and frowned. The lights were on in Iruka's apartment, but he couldn't see anyone in the living room and everything looked exactly as it had.

He couldn't keep using this spot obviously if he had been discovered, so he left for his apartment to regroup his thoughts. Maybe the best bet would be just to ask around a bit and wait to see what happened at the party.

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Thanks to Damien Courtes, CuriousDreamWeaver, Snow887, and everyone else who has reviewed – special thanks to DC for the outfit ideas