Important notes
I re-edited most of this story, most changes are minor and little corrections but chapter 16 got a MAJOR overhaul as in it is about twice as long as it was.
Disclaimer – The people doing the star village arc in the filler episodes have not been taken out back and kicked, thus Naruto is not mine. TV Tokyo, please, I am begging you, let the rumors of only 2 more weeks of filler be true – or at least do the Gaiden as the rest of this season's filler.
Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. I am not sure of the exact chapters and episode numbers, but it is well beyond what Cartoon network is showing. It is also beyond what is released by VIZ in English manga since I believe the events referenced are in volume 14 of the manga. This contains spoilers for the end of the Chuunin Exam arc.
This chapter covers a lot of the 'plot' of the actual story line, so events are summarized. If you want to know in detail the events referenced, a trip to bittorrent might be your best bet
This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading
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Water Runs Red – Chapter 17
Please read the note at the top of this if you skipped it
Iruka was in the mission room, most of the people had cleared out. Evidently, order had been restored to the place and Genma and Iruka had charts spread out on the desk indicating who was in the hospital, who was on light duty, and who was on full duty. The chaos of the day before was replaced with a hectic version of order. Somehow the two men seemed to have taken over.
Genma looked up as Kakashi walked into the room, "Hey." Genma's gentle kick to Iruka's leg was not missed.
"Kakashi…" Iruka said looking up and smiling, "Oh, it is late, shift is over for you."
Kakashi nodded, "I was just seeing if I was needed." The 'or can I go to sleep' was left unspoken.
Genma looked from one to the other, "Ruka, get out of here. Kakashi make sure he goes and rests." He stopped Iruka's protests, "I slept last night, and you didn't. I have control of the mission desk until Izumo and Kotetsu get here."
Iruka nodded and gave in to Genma's demands he get some rest. He let Kakashi lead him off. Kakashi looked at the younger man, "You guys got that place sorted out."
Iruka nodded, "It wasn't too bad. We just had to prioritize things. Ibiki is signing off on almost anything and the council is working on the whole leadership issue."
Kakashi looked over at the chuunin, "I thought the council would have to sign off on a lot of it?"
Iruka shrugged, "Between Ibiki intimidating them and me unleashing the innocent act and the doe eyes on them, we got it pretty well covered."
Kakashi chuckled, realizing they were walking towards Iruka's apartment, "Those doe eyes are lethal you know."
Iruka smiled over at Kakashi, "That's what my father used to say…" he chuckled as he looked back forwards, "Then my mother would use hers and he'd be apologizing before he knew what hit him."
Kakashi smiled, "I missed you."
Iruka reached out and took Kakashi's hand, "I missed you, too." He quickly reached over to kiss Kakashi's cheek through the mask. "I'm too wired to sleep. Are you hungry?"
Kakashi nodded, "Yeah, actually. I think I forgot to eat today."
"I should make you dinner." Iruka started to lead him off without waiting for a reply. It wasn't far to Iruka's apartment and he quickly opened the door. Iruka quickly toed out of his sandals, leaving them by the door as he walked towards the small kitchen.
Kakashi smiled and set his sandals next to Iruka's pair and closed the door behind him. He followed Iruka into the kitchen and walked up behind him, "Maybe just something quick? I'm supposed to make sure you are resting."
Iruka nodded, "Yeah." He popped rice into the rice cooker and turned it on, He pulled out some chicken and some vegetables and started cutting everything up, pretty much without any order to it. "How did the exams go before all hell broke loose?"
Kakashi leaned against the counter, watching Iruka as he threw everything into a pan and started to cook it. "They did good. They did really good. Naruto beat Neji, beat him by using his mind as well as his strength. I was hoping he'd do well, but I thought for him to beat Neji it would be brute force and not out thinking."
Iruka smiled at that, obviously very proud of his loud former student. A look of worry crossed his face before asking, "Sasuke's seal?"
Kakashi nodded, "It stayed under control in the ring. I assume Izumo told you he had to look in on it after they came back from chasing down the sand genin."
Iruka nodded, "Yeah, but it he said it looked a lot better than he thought it would have looked."
Kakashi watched Iruka pour a sauce from the fridge over everything in the pan and start turning it more often, whatever he was making was smelling good. "How have you been?"
Iruka shrugged, "I didn't see the attack coming. We've been out almost non-stop since you left trying to figure out what was going on. I mean I knew something was up, but we thought it was going to be an attack on the Kazekage, not on us. At least that was the information I intercepted."
"That was the information from the mission I was backup for?"
Iruka nodded. "The message was that Orochimaru was going after the Kazekage. I thought the information was reliable, it was hard enough to get. Every instinct I had was saying that information was reliable"
Kakashi nodded, "Maybe something changed between when the information was sent and when the attack was going to happen."
Iruka started to plate the food. "I guess so. I still can't believe they managed to move that many people and we didn't see them coming exactly."
"You guys knew something was up though. When I got back here with Sasuke, I saw all the extra patrols. If it wasn't for that, things could have gone a lot worse."
Iruka smiled as he put down plates on the table, "Thank you."
Kakashi pulled down his mask to eat at a normal pace; it wasn't anything Iruka hadn't already seen after all. "This is good?" he didn't intend to sound as surprised as he did.
"It's easy. Got the recipe from a strip club out in Wave."
Kakashi stopped with food halfway to his mouth and looked over at Iruka, who evidently didn't think anything of what he said since he was just eating.
"A strip club?"
Iruka shrugged, "I've been a lot of places that would surprise some people."
Kakashi shook his head and kept eating, "I don't think anyone has surprised me as much as you have."
"So does that mean you want to try for another date? Even with the horrible luck we have every time we try?" He was smiling as if he already knew the answer.
"I guess it depends. You said you missed me." Kakashi looked across the table to Iruka.
"I did." Iruka was frowning slightly.
"I assume you miss people who mean something to you." Kakashi watched Iruka intently, watching for any sign of what the man was thinking.
"I like you." Iruka tilted his head, "I'm not confessing undying love, but you aren't near as annoying as I originally thought, you're damn comfortable in bed, and you even manage to be fun to be around. Course you're hot as hell, but I don't think that's the response you're asking about?"
Kakashi frowned slightly, "That was more honest than I expected."
Iruka shrugged, "I don't like lying. I do too much of it on missions to allow myself to do it when I don't need to." He smiled, "Since that's in the open, do you want to stay here tonight?"
Kakashi was momentarily taken aback by the forwardness, but he nodded, "Sure. But you need to get some rest."
Iruka smiled as he moved dishes off the table, "That's part of the reason I asked. I never have slept well alone. Let me get you something to sleep in and you can grab a shower while I clean up."
Iruka quickly had some clothes for Kakashi and a towel in the bathroom and was busy getting the kitchen cleaned up after shooing Kakashi off towards the bathroom.
Kakashi took a quick shower and dried himself off before pulling on a pair of black sweatpants that Iruka had found. When he walked out, the kitchen was cleaned up and Iruka was picking up some things from the couch.
Iruka smiled, "I'm going to grab a shower quick, make yourself at home." The chuunin darted into the bedroom and then disappeared into the bathroom and the water could be heard running.
Kakashi walked over to the entertainment center and grabbed the remote, but as he grabbed it, he spotted a photo album on top of the DVD player. Since the water was still running, he opened it up.
The first few pictures showed burns at the side of them as if they were recovered from a fire. The first picture was of Iruka as a small toddler. There was neatly written script on the bottom of the picture 'January 20 – First steps'. The interesting part of it was that Iruka already had his scar. It was a perfectly straight cut in the picture and was already healed and scared over. That was the earliest baby picture in the album, so Kakashi couldn't determine anything else about the scar. There were several more pictures with the burn marks, either pictures of a young Iruka or with one of his two parents. There were a few pictures with all three of them, but he didn't see any other family pictured in any of them.
Once he reached a point in the album that showed pictures of him old enough to be in the academy, there were two familiar faces showing up. Evidently, Izumo and Kotetsu were Iruka's friends going back to school days.
Kakashi almost didn't notice the interesting part of the last slightly burned picture. It was from one of the festivals, it looked like a spring festival. Iruka was dressed up and so were Kotetsu and Izumo. The thing that made the picture interesting was that there was a girl with them. Kakashi had to double check to make sure, but yes. The girl in the light blue Kimono was Anko.
The next picture in the album was of Iruka's Genin team. Kakashi had to laugh. If he thought he had it bad, he could definitely feel bad for the jônin in the picture. The poor guy had gotten Iruka, Izumo AND Kotetsu. Kotetsu had an expression that screamed holy terror. Izumo had a smirk worthy of the Uchiha heir and Iruka was right in the middle of the two.
The water was still running, so Kakashi kept flipping through the album. The pictures after the Genin team picture were all candids of various groupings of the four. At some point the pictures tended more and more towards Iruka with Anko. She was looking more and more like the cocky girl he remembered coming back from Orochimaru. The happy smile on her face was not something he associated with the girl though. Then at some point, the pictures of Iruka with a happy Anko stopped, and things went back to candid snap shots of various groupings of the four of them.
Kakashi had expected to see evidence of a breakup after what he had heard in the sparring match between the two of them, but he hadn't expected it to appear to be when the two of them were about sixteen. There really was a lot about the chuunin and his friends that he didn't know. He put the album back where it was and sat down on the couch with the remote control. He was still debating turning on the TV when the water shut off.
He decided the better option was sitting on the couch and twirling the remote control in circles on one finger. Iruka walked out of the bathroom, towel rying his hair still. He had on a pair of dark green sweatpants. He stopped and smiled when he saw Kakashi sitting on the couch twirling the remote. "Tired?"
Kakashi looked up and nodded, "Yeah."
Iruka smiled and walked up to him, "Want to come to bed?"
Kakashi nodded and stood up, "I don't think I could say no to that."
With that, the chuunin led him off to the bedroom and under the covers of the futon. Suddenly Iruka was softly kissing him. Kakashi returned the gesture and wrapped his arms around Iruka, gently kissing his lips. It wasn't long before Iruka's kisses got sleepier and soon they were just snuggled into each other, Kakashi's arms tight around the younger man. He let himself fall asleep then, not a deep sleep, but much deeper than he normally slept in a strange place with someone else in bed with him
There were definitely worse places to be than in bed with Iruka.